[APPLAUSE]
Can't waste plastic.
Is everyone warm enough?
Because I brought-- from my poetry cottage,
I brought a couple of extra garments.
So is anybody totally freezing?
Because really, don't be shy.
I'm a mom, and I want to make sure you're comfortable.
And a grandmother, too.
Thank you so much, Jane.
That was amazingly beautiful.
Thank you.
That was so-- like every sentence.
Wow.
My heart is so full.
And every time I come here, I just--
I think of just the richness and the fantastic
thing that has been built here.
And my parents, Helen and Jimmye,
were really a part of the Poetry Center.
But in high school, this was--
not this place, but that Ruth Stephan Poetry Center
was the Mecca for us.
Mark Doty and I were at Rincon.
And some of my Rincon buddies and beloveds are here tonight.
So it's so great to see people and friends
and loved ones from that time.
But the Poetry Center really was the place
where we learned what it meant to have literary life.
And it was just very cool.
Lois and Dick and Steve Orlen and later Jon
and then Jane and now Susan and Farid and Tyler
being the director of this particular part of it.
So thanks to everyone.
Thanks to Paola and to Aria and to Julie and to Sarah and all
the teachers today, to Claire and the students
who were reading my work.