WEBVTT

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Thank you.

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Thank you all so
much for being here.

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It's really a delight
to look at you

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from this side of the
podium and just to be here

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to celebrate Terrain.

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Thank you so much, Simmons,
for that introduction

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and also just for the work.

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Everyone involved
with Terrain, it's

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really a remarkable magazine.

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And it's a delight to get
to celebrate them with you.

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I'll start tonight with one
poem from my first book,

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which is Pennsylvania Furnace.

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And it's the last
poem in the book,

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titled "Self-Portrait
with Tucson."

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And it opens with
a quote from a poem

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by Ofelia Zepeda, who you can
hear here later this spring

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on April 4th, April 6th.

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April 4th.

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And the quote is, "This is the
way we begin and end things."

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And the final line of the
poem references her as well.

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So this is "Self-Portrait
with Tucson."

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One day, I saw the
mountain of God descending

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across the valley.

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Sunlight alive in the
body of snow stepping

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through the veins of
Ponderosa and granite,

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cracking the air
balanced between.

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Valley in my mouth
when I mean city.

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When I should say brick, tile,
wash with abandoned couch.

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Ocean always just beyond sight.

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Power lines crossing between
that mountain and me.

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You should know I am a woman
who believes in visions,

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uncurtained glass
after sunset, a mirror

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and the cold vast
ceilings it harbors,

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certainty of memory that
wakes me in the salt

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light before daybreak.

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By the road, a
man shapes circles

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that connect mouth and stomach.

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Prophets' unwashed
hair and empty bag.

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We are not coming to a mountain
of fear, but a mountain of joy,

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a place sweet and yellow
as San Javier watermelon.

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I did not know myself
when I returned home

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from my long journey.

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Sometimes, I see the
Lord's mountain electric

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pink and close in the rear view.

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And I know there is still a
little bit of night left in me.

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