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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Wow, this is something.

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I am thrilled to
be here as well.

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And to be back in Tucson after,
three, far too many years.

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It's wonderful to see
all of you in here.

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On the night of
the lunar eclipse.

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I don't know when the
next one's going to come

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but it's a long time from now.

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I would --- I particularly
want to thank the Poetry Center

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for having me here.

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And I would like to
start with a poem

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from my new book,
American Smooth, that

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actually began the book, though
I didn't know it at the time.

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I don't write poems
with the thought in mind

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that this will be in this
section of this book.

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I write from the moment.

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So in that sense and
truly as Gail said,

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a lyric poet, though
[INAUDIBLE] stories too.

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But this poem-- I'll tell you
the backstory of this one.

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1998, Labor Day in fact,
lightning struck our house.

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And the house burned.

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And in the days that
followed we were-- my husband

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and I-- were going
through the ashes,

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in fact, our neighbors
were wonderful

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and they were helping us too.

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And the neighbors came to us
with a gift of two tickets

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to a dinner dance.

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And they said, enough
already, let's--

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Rita go buy a dress,
we're going dancing.

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Fred go buy a suit.

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And so we went to this dance.

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It was a good thing
to do to remind us

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there was still
beauty in the world.

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There was still
laughter in the world.

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And we saw couples dancing not--

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I mean, dancing, not just
what we did on Lois and Dick's

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living room floor--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--bobbed around,
having a great time

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but these dancers were
swooping and floating.

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And I said, I always wanted
to learn how to ballroom dance.

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And the most intrepid
of our neighbors

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said, well then, let's do it.

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He signed us all up for
ballroom dance lessons.

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Little did I know, at
that time, that what

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I took to be a distraction
from the moment at hand

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and in the weeks that
followed, took to be as--

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a hobby.

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That it was going
to, in fact, be

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the seed that would allow
this book to come to be.

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So this poem is the very first
one and rose from that period.

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And it is called
"Fox Trot Fridays."

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"Thank the stars there's a day
each week to tuck in the grief,

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lift your pearls, and stride
brush stride quick, quick

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with a heel ball toe.

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Smooth as Nat King
Cole's slow satin

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smile, easy as taking
one day at a time.

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One man and one woman.

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Rib to rib with no
heartbreak in sight.

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Just the sweep of
paradise and the space

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of a song to count all
the wonders in it."

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