WEBVTT

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I'm going to start by reading
a few poems from this amazingly

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beautiful anthology,
which has artwork

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from the Colombian
artist Daniela Gallego.

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And it's organized into
seven sections, each of which

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speaks to a type of
connection that we

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have with the animal world.

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So praise, lament,
companionship, fear,

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and vulnerability, the
least among us, the sacred,

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and the future of animals.

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I'll just read a few
poems just to invite you

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into this collection.

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And it is called The Gift
of Animals for two reasons.

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Animals are gifts
to our life, and I

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hope you will give
this book as a gift

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because it's very beautiful.

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So I'd like to read a poem
by Ada Limón, of course,

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our current US poet laureate.

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And I'd like to
dedicate this poem

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to the women in the honors
class that Sally and I visited,

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who are all STEM women, and
working on launching their minds

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and intelligence into the world.

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How to Triumph Like a Girl.

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I like the lady horses best,
how they make it all look easy,

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like running 40 miles an hour is
as fun as taking a nap or grass.

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I like their lady horse
swagger after winning.

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Ears up, girls, ears up.

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But mainly, let's be honest,
I like that they're ladies.

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As if this big, dangerous
animal is also a part of me.

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That somewhere inside the
delicate skin of my body,

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there pumps an eight-pound
female horse heart, giant

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with power, heavy with blood.

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Don't you want to believe it?

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Don't you want to lift my shirt
and see the huge beating genius

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machine that thinks--

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No, it knows it's
going to come in first.

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[LAUGHS]

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Thank you, Ada.

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