I want to thank the Tucson community for having me.
The Poetry Center-- I just think that this is like one
of the most amazing--
this is a poet's heaven.
I came here and I was like, oh my god.
And then they have a little place for you
to sleep when you get tired of reading.
This is so beautiful.
Tucson is really amazing.
I lost my wallet and yet found it.
So we're doing well Tucson.
I want to thank Tyler, who has been
an absolute wonderful host; Paola, who's
been a wonderful host; Aria.
The class we had last night it just-- this
is such a beautiful space.
And I heard someone when I first got
here, someone said oh, Tucson really a lot like Austin.
And I totally agree.
I can see this as a type of city where you could,
go out one night, meet some folks
and become friends for them, with them immediately
and be having a barbecue with them by that weekend.
It feels like that type of city.
I feel like I'm meeting people who are just great folks.
What I want to do tonight is toggle between new and old work,
if you don't mind.
And maybe if y'all let me know because this is--
I'm here to be in service of y'all.
I might read from some one of my essays.
Is that OK?
That's all right.
Cause we going to be up here for 40 minutes.
And it's cold.
So we got to warm each other in different ways.
Y'all might be like, these poems are getting a little chilly.
Then we move to the essays.
This next poem I'm going to read is called "Night Knowledge."
And there's this-- so sometimes I give myself challenges.
And the challenge was to use a word that I don't normally use.
And I don't normally think of as poetic.
And so I think it's useful to do these things right to bring.
And so the word was zombie.
And of course, as I was thinking about this,
I was also learning about this disease that was--
made its way to Texas that was happening in deer, turning deer
into zombie.
Basically into zombie, they would attack their brain.
And they would just become like zombies.
And it's sort of like mad cow disease, if you remember that.
So that's the only thing you need to know.
"Night Knowledge."
Deer turning zombie circle after circle in a blue field
Bluebonnets mashed to the-- mashed, matted
to the deer's blooming heels.
This the manna and unleavened miracle
Of a deer that less than four or more--
Excuse me, let me start again.
Like I said, it's a new poem.
"Night Knowledge."
Deer turning zombie circle after circle in a blue field
Bluebonnets mashed, matted to the deer's bluing heels
This the manna and unleavened miracle
Of a deer that less than four full moons before
Obeying the turn and compass of its mind
Nosed through the drying Timothy
And moon to find a company of deer
Splashed and wet with light
Eating from a field and cried to them,
Not out of misery, not yet, at least
But cried nevertheless out of recognition
Perhaps, to say, here am I
Maybe in the crying the company of deer heard
Smelled the unclean thing nesting in him
So said nothing back just kept on eating
But the night echoed, answered, here am I
A lantern holding the dark
Night is a lantern that holds the dark
And see it says that which is the wideness of your life
The snow that sweeps the white flowers
underground and the white flowers underground
Is this the knowledge of the night?
That are merely a gate of God
A swinging curtain miming the air passing through it
But is not the air itself
Only its echo.
So when the wind no longer cares to lean
Discarded, we tremble above the ground.
Zombie in a field
Gored by darkness
And humbly the night bows to us, in us
Genuflects to our gutted tabernacle.
Here am I.
[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]