WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.460 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.460 --> 00:00:05.300 align:middle line:84% And I'll just close with two more poems. 00:00:05.300 --> 00:00:07.710 align:middle line:84% You just went on a journey with me. 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:08.750 align:middle line:90% [CHEERING] 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:10.359 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:13.782 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:13.782 --> 00:00:15.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:19.820 align:middle line:84% It's been such a beautiful gift to be here, 00:00:19.820 --> 00:00:23.930 align:middle line:84% to celebrate this project, and to work with the Saguaro 00:00:23.930 --> 00:00:31.010 align:middle line:84% National Park, and be able to put one of Ofelia Zepeda's 00:00:31.010 --> 00:00:33.200 align:middle line:84% poems, or an excerpt from her poem, 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:36.090 align:middle line:90% in the Saguaro National Park. 00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:38.340 align:middle line:84% And I hope you can all go and see it. 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:40.340 align:middle line:84% And I just wanted to give my love 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:43.760 align:middle line:84% to Shauna Potocky in the back, who 00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:47.400 align:middle line:84% was really one of the people that made this all come true. 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:50.610 align:middle line:84% And this is our sixth park we've put a poem in. 00:00:50.610 --> 00:00:54.440 align:middle line:84% And it's been really, truly amazing 00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:57.590 align:middle line:84% to combine federal agencies like the Library of Congress 00:00:57.590 --> 00:01:01.160 align:middle line:84% and the National Park to do work that's simply about paying 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:05.400 align:middle line:90% attention is really incredible. 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.820 align:middle line:90% So I just thank you, Shauna. 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:12.320 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:16.820 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.820 --> 00:01:21.360 align:middle line:84% This is a poem I wrote for the National Climate Assessment. 00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:26.600 align:middle line:84% I was asked to write a poem for the front matter of one 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:30.080 align:middle line:84% of the very, very, very large report that is congressionally 00:01:30.080 --> 00:01:33.230 align:middle line:84% mandated to tell us where we are as a country in terms 00:01:33.230 --> 00:01:35.420 align:middle line:90% of the climate crisis. 00:01:35.420 --> 00:01:37.280 align:middle line:90% They asked for a poem. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.700 align:middle line:84% And I met with all the scientists. 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:43.980 align:middle line:84% And one of the young women followed me outside. 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:46.170 align:middle line:90% And she was in tears. 00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:48.540 align:middle line:84% And she said, I know you have to write this poem, 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:53.630 align:middle line:84% but do me a favor, don't make it nostalgic. 00:01:53.630 --> 00:01:56.240 align:middle line:90% And I really took it to heart. 00:01:56.240 --> 00:02:00.350 align:middle line:90% So this is a poem for her. 00:02:00.350 --> 00:02:02.690 align:middle line:90% Startlement. 00:02:02.690 --> 00:02:06.260 align:middle line:84% It is a forgotten pleasure, the pleasure 00:02:06.260 --> 00:02:10.400 align:middle line:84% of the unexpected blue-bellied lizard skittering off 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:16.440 align:middle line:84% his sunspot rock, the flicker of an unknown bird by the bus stop. 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:20.580 align:middle line:84% To think perhaps we are not distinguishable, 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:24.390 align:middle line:84% and therefore, no loneliness can exist here. 00:02:24.390 --> 00:02:27.910 align:middle line:84% Species to species in the same blue air. 00:02:27.910 --> 00:02:32.470 align:middle line:84% Smoke, wing flutter buzzing, a car horn coming. 00:02:32.470 --> 00:02:34.410 align:middle line:90% So many unknown languages. 00:02:34.410 --> 00:02:38.790 align:middle line:84% To think we have only honored this strange human tongue. 00:02:38.790 --> 00:02:43.050 align:middle line:84% If you sit by the riverside, you see a culmination 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:45.960 align:middle line:90% of all things upstream. 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:50.590 align:middle line:84% We know now we were never at the circle centre. 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:55.450 align:middle line:84% Instead, all around us something is living or trying to live. 00:02:55.450 --> 00:02:58.090 align:middle line:84% The world says what we are becoming, 00:02:58.090 --> 00:03:01.170 align:middle line:90% we are becoming together. 00:03:01.170 --> 00:03:04.320 align:middle line:84% The world says one type of dream has ended, 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:07.650 align:middle line:90% and another has just begun. 00:03:07.650 --> 00:03:11.730 align:middle line:84% The world says once we were separate, 00:03:11.730 --> 00:03:14.400 align:middle line:90% and now we must move in unison. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.100 align:middle line:90% 00:03:17.100 --> 00:03:20.450 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:20.450 --> 00:03:25.000 align:middle line:90%