WEBVTT

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Last reading I got to
do, I got to sit down

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and it felt really nice.

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So I'm going to try that to
not be hovering over you.

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It's really wonderful and
terrifying to be seen.

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So thank you, Mathias,
for scaring the shit out

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of me with that introduction.

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I just want to say, I
think, quickly, it's

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really cool to get old.

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I could not have guessed
when I was in my 20s,

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starting to write poetry, how
grateful I would be to grow

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older alongside poets of
my generation and to get

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to celebrate the amazing
work that they do.

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So it's really,
really special for me

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to read with Mathias, and
for Mathias, and for Raquel,

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and, of course, for Susan.

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And if you'll allow me to
gush just for a second.

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When I was 27, I walked into
Susan Briante's grad school

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apartment and saw
a bunch of pages

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taped onto the wall, pages that
would become her first book.

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And I just didn't know
how one made a book.

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So it was the first
time when I got

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to say, oh, that's
how you do that,

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from something that Susan did,
and I've been saying it ever

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since.

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It was that, and
the first time she

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slapped me hard across my face,
that I knew I was in love.

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[SCATTERED CHUCKLES]

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And thank you to
the Poetry Center.

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Thank you to Ander for
making the broadsides.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you.