Well, I don't usually get nervous before I read.
But I was telling people, I was a little nervous tonight.
In part, in coming here, for several reasons.
I'm a great admirer of Jane Miller.
And we had a chance to meet this evening.
And then, I heard that actually one of my other favorite poets
in the world, Adelia Prado, was supposed to be here last week.
But her translator was here.
She's a wonderful-- I know you know--
Brazilian poet.
And then, I visited the Poetry Center, which
I had heard about for years.
And that put me in a fairly high state of anxiety.
And then, we decided to up the ante,
so that Pete and I would not give each other brain death
or other damages, and change our readings every night.
So I've just thrown something together
in the last couple of hours.
So I will be perhaps hopefully not tripping over this.
But I've kind of assembled a daybook of 12 poems.
Four of them from A Fish to Feed All Hunger,
which is coming out at the end of this month.
And it is a, compared to the broadsides which are,
as she noted, very expensive.
The new edition that's coming out,
when it comes out from Ahsahta is
about the price of a greeting card is $5 [LAUGHS]
or something, which I'm very happy about, actually.
And I'll be reading eight poems from the new manuscript, which
I hope to finish this summer.
So I open with a poem, an invitation to all of you,
to part of the heart of Montana from the new manuscript, "What
Makes the Grizzlies Dance."
"June, and finally snow peas sweeten in the Mission Valley.
High behind the numinous meadows, ladybugs
swarm like huge lacquered fans from Hong Kong.
Like the serrated skirts of blown poppies,
whole mountains turn red.
And in the blue penstemon, grizzly bears swirl.
As they bat snags of color against their ragged mouths.
Have you never wanted to spin like that?
On hairy, leathered feet, amid the swelling berries,
as you tasted a language of early summer?
Shaping the lazy operatic vowels,
cracking the hard-shelled consonants,
like speckled insects between your teeth?
Have you never wanted to waltz the hills like a beast?"