Last reading I got to do, I got to sit down
and it felt really nice.
So I'm going to try that to not be hovering over you.
It's really wonderful and terrifying to be seen.
So thank you, Mathias, for scaring the shit out
of me with that introduction.
I just want to say, I think, quickly, it's
really cool to get old.
I could not have guessed when I was in my 20s,
starting to write poetry, how grateful I would be to grow
older alongside poets of my generation and to get
to celebrate the amazing work that they do.
So it's really, really special for me
to read with Mathias, and for Mathias, and for Raquel,
and, of course, for Susan.
And if you'll allow me to gush just for a second.
When I was 27, I walked into Susan Briante's grad school
apartment and saw a bunch of pages
taped onto the wall, pages that would become her first book.
And I just didn't know how one made a book.
So it was the first time when I got
to say, oh, that's how you do that,
from something that Susan did, and I've been saying it ever
since.
It was that, and the first time she
slapped me hard across my face, that I knew I was in love.
[SCATTERED CHUCKLES]
And thank you to the Poetry Center.
Thank you to Ander for making the broadsides.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.