[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Wow, this is something.
I am thrilled to be here as well.
And to be back in Tucson after, three, far too many years.
It's wonderful to see all of you in here.
On the night of the lunar eclipse.
I don't know when the next one's going to come
but it's a long time from now.
I would --- I particularly want to thank the Poetry Center
for having me here.
And I would like to start with a poem
from my new book, American Smooth, that
actually began the book, though I didn't know it at the time.
I don't write poems with the thought in mind
that this will be in this section of this book.
I write from the moment.
So in that sense and truly as Gail said,
a lyric poet, though [INAUDIBLE] stories too.
But this poem-- I'll tell you the backstory of this one.
1998, Labor Day in fact, lightning struck our house.
And the house burned.
And in the days that followed we were-- my husband
and I-- were going through the ashes,
in fact, our neighbors were wonderful
and they were helping us too.
And the neighbors came to us with a gift of two tickets
to a dinner dance.
And they said, enough already, let's--
Rita go buy a dress, we're going dancing.
Fred go buy a suit.
And so we went to this dance.
It was a good thing to do to remind us
there was still beauty in the world.
There was still laughter in the world.
And we saw couples dancing not--
I mean, dancing, not just what we did on Lois and Dick's
living room floor--
[LAUGHTER]
--bobbed around, having a great time
but these dancers were swooping and floating.
And I said, I always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance.
And the most intrepid of our neighbors
said, well then, let's do it.
He signed us all up for ballroom dance lessons.
Little did I know, at that time, that what
I took to be a distraction from the moment at hand
and in the weeks that followed, took to be as--
a hobby.
That it was going to, in fact, be
the seed that would allow this book to come to be.
So this poem is the very first one and rose from that period.
And it is called "Fox Trot Fridays."
"Thank the stars there's a day each week to tuck in the grief,
lift your pearls, and stride brush stride quick, quick
with a heel ball toe.
Smooth as Nat King Cole's slow satin
smile, easy as taking one day at a time.
One man and one woman.
Rib to rib with no heartbreak in sight.
Just the sweep of paradise and the space
of a song to count all the wonders in it."