So we have some great, great readers.
And let's just get into it right now.
All right.
First we have-- first up is Christopher Diaz.
He is a CHamoru writer, performer, and photographer.
He's been featured by NBC News, Poets & Writers.org, and more.
Please welcome Christopher.
[APPLAUSE]
Håfa adai, mañe'lu-hu.
Guåhu si Christopher Sablan Diaz.
CHamoru [?sen?] taotao Guahån yu.
Greetings, friends and relatives.
My name is Christopher Sablan Diaz.
I'm a CHamoru from the Pacific island of Guåhan.
And I extend my sincerest gratitude
from the deepest parts of my heart.
To all of the faculty and the fellows at In-Na-Po,
I thank you not only for being here with me this week,
but for continuing to be with me in spirit
as we depart here soon because all of the wisdom
and generosity that each and every one of you
has poured into me, I know will continue
to teach me, and guide me in my work on and off the page.
So I have two poems to offer this evening,
and in choosing these poems, I tried
to give myself permission to share
what feels most resonant in my body, in this moment,
and at this place in my journey.
So this first poem is titled things I
sound, like and the breath I take before I tell you
I was in the military.
A tea bag slumped in the shadow of dirty dishes,
a load of laundry sinking to the bottom of a to do list.
A light switch writing letters to a burned out bulb.
Propellers on the rows and rows of planes that can't be buried.
Graveyard skin, two unfound avocados.
Cheek to cheek.
Praying the search party hasn't stopped.
An earthworm's eyelids dreaming in drought.
A deer's limp tongue held by palms of the asphalt.
Leaves the breath of burgundy looking down
October lawns littered with islands of its coffee
colored siblings.
Insulation in the attic.
Garden hose in the winter.
The doorknob detached and sitting on the counter.
Forehead resting against its own reflection.
The savior of its new screws crawling I-5.
Rush hour molasses running on fumes.
The roof and the bones it has to pick with the sky.
A cloud only born to release all its become.
[APPLAUSE]