I'm going to start by reading a few poems from this amazingly
beautiful anthology, which has artwork
from the Colombian artist Daniela Gallego.
And it's organized into seven sections, each of which
speaks to a type of connection that we
have with the animal world.
So praise, lament, companionship, fear,
and vulnerability, the least among us, the sacred,
and the future of animals.
I'll just read a few poems just to invite you
into this collection.
And it is called The Gift of Animals for two reasons.
Animals are gifts to our life, and I
hope you will give this book as a gift
because it's very beautiful.
So I'd like to read a poem by Ada Limón, of course,
our current US poet laureate.
And I'd like to dedicate this poem
to the women in the honors class that Sally and I visited,
who are all STEM women, and working on launching their minds
and intelligence into the world.
How to Triumph Like a Girl.
I like the lady horses best, how they make it all look easy,
like running 40 miles an hour is as fun as taking a nap or grass.
I like their lady horse swagger after winning.
Ears up, girls, ears up.
But mainly, let's be honest, I like that they're ladies.
As if this big, dangerous animal is also a part of me.
That somewhere inside the delicate skin of my body,
there pumps an eight-pound female horse heart, giant
with power, heavy with blood.
Don't you want to believe it?
Don't you want to lift my shirt and see the huge beating genius
machine that thinks--
No, it knows it's going to come in first.
[LAUGHS]
Thank you, Ada.