and at first, you know, i just did it for sheer pleasure and love of the art, sheer creative curiosity. and i think i still do, but i had no expectations when i first started writing. and look what's happened. >> can you make a living as a poet? >> i can now. i do now actually. but mostly through readings and lectures and whatnot. so yes, that's been a wonderful result of having such exposure from the inauguration, from reading of the inaugural poem. i think most poets, in general, probably a good 90%, and usually it's a way to be in the field so to speak. and make a living while teaching and stubbing involved in your craft. that's been a wonderful sort of, that's a wonderful path as well. but teaching is its own career,

too. it makes its own demands and it's a whole other set of qualities. you could be a great writer, a great poet and be a horrible teacher. you could be a great teacher and a horrible poet. but yeah, that's about the one way that poets earn a living. >> you still practice in giving? >> i was until about a year and a half ago, ever since the explosion of the inauguration. i'm traveling about 80% of my time because of the magnitude and the exposure that the inauguration gives me, and gives poetry. people are calling from the most unexpected places. next week i have to read at the federal reserve. i'm reading at engineering firms. i'm reading at -- so all this has kept me quite busy, and happily so. i also feel a sense of purpose and mission in the sense of just exposing people to poetry that are not the usual suspects, and to watch the eyes light up and

people realize that poetry isn't what they thought it was, that poetry is still a vibrant, relevant art, that it's not something stuck in a high school english books that they didn't understand. so that's part of what keeps me going. but i have been practicing engineering all my life. i've taken hiatuses here and there to teach. but yeah, i've always carried both and i'm kind of all a bit apprehensive because of always -- [inaudible] in a way of what might happen if i left brain -- i've got to give my left brain busy, and when i don't, we're getting start to happen like, you know, creating spreadsheets to the gut multiple ways to change the cat litter. it gets crazy. busy hands are happy hands. that applies to my left brain at a don't want it to start taking it out on my work and then i start, i my poetry, i start approaching my writing with this sort of analytical mind which helps in editing not necessarily

in the initial creative phases of work. but i've got to face it. there's been a fork in the road drawn for me. i don't become going back to engineering at this point in my life. there's a lot of signs that say keep going this way. >> how long, how many drafts did it take to get one today before you read at the inaugural? >> well, i have at home a stack about this thick. again, with poetry, drafts take on a different meaning. that might mean you changed your words and your throat in the draft file. but i only had a week. i had to write three poems in three weeks, as the story goes. so there wasn't room come in some ways there was incredible pressure. in some ways i'm kind of glad i did not six months to write that poem because god knows what would've happened to me. i would've ended up locked up somewhere i think. so the something to be said about the time to exercise and

about giving yourself a time limit on writing. so yeah, i mean, it took address and drafts and drafts. but there was a big turnover right about, right in the middle. part of that have to do with my own creative process. finally, i headed the authority to speak the way i was speaking in the poem, the connection to america that i finally had to sort of dig deep inside and really, you know, as a poet you can't, you know, you can't fake honesty in a poem. so part of the writing process is to connect with what that moment was what about and what it meant to meet, and once i connected with that emotionally i was able to go back to the poem and really speak into the poem in a very, very different way. so the first draft was a little winded. it was talking of pilgrims and all of us. it was the process of really personalizing the poem but also sort of connecting in a way that was generally, that would let people into the poem.

>> why does "the prince of los cocuyos" and when you about 16 and a half years old? >> i think i want to take the book -- i did want it to be a quite coming out story. i didn't want it, i wanted to be sort of a cultural coming of age story to a certain degree, and it seemed like a natural pause. 16, 16 and have. there's a big, big break in one's life and after that i hold a set of experiences and emotional growth happens. if i turned that page into that phase, i would've been another 300 pages. so there was a practical reason for it. the book is sort of a dawning, and awakening come at i think the cover will reflect that. taking you right from that moment forward you can't infer what's going to happen to little ricky, so to speak. plus is set up for my second part to be but really it just seemed like a natural pause. at first as of the many authors,

a first i thought i was going to write up to my first trip to cuba. then when moved to connecticut, and moved back to miami. and by the time i was eight hours had about 70,000 words and i thought, this is not going to happen. there's got to be -- and it makes sense to me now. i'm so happy with that ending. it sort of is symbolically launching myself into this world. we know what's -- we can infer what's going to happen. right at that edge that i thought was really a very poetic moment actually to end on. >> richard blanco's "the prince of los cocuyos" comes ou out ine fall of 2014. you're watching booktv on c-span2. television were serious readers. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can also shoot anything you see on booktv.org easily by

clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 40 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> spent on "the communicators" tonight, two members of congress talk about their technology legislation. >> we crafted an amendment that said really this. under 702 of the act, you can collect data and you now know from the snowden disclosures that it's a lot of data. that may also include the information of americans can't even do that can't be the presence of the clutch of the data. a minute simply says was that if you want to search that lawfully acquired database for americans, you should get a warrant. not that you can't get the information, get a warrant. spent the basic premise of the dot com act is to make sure that

when the nation releases the last control oversight over the des moines -- the domain name system that we know what we're getting ourselves into. >> democratic representative from california zoe lofgren and illinois represent john shimkus tonight on the kin containers on c-span2. >> booktv asks what are you reading this summer? >> well, i'm a pretty compulsive reader. i'll be reading a lot. i read most of the work for relaxation. it's all daily reading. "wall street journal," "new york times," "washington post," et cetera. that's kind of compulsory. indigo from the two books that are on topics that are interesting and of concern to me. the heaviest readers will be going to be the thomas piketty

book, "capital" which seems to justify most of the concerns. i've raised about income inequality in some of the reasons for the concentration of wealth. but having studied economics of going to try to which the that. someone just sent me a book which wasn't on my list but now is on my list called "the predator paradox" because i've been leading the fight on saving the walls and continue with the obama admits session at a lot of other folks on that. elizabeth ward, i want to read her book. i compare her a breath of fresh and innocent and -- in the senate. kind of a logical successor to my good friend paul wellstone and a lot of good ways to want to get to know her better. i have met with a number of times. i want to read her book. you know, "flash boys," haven't had a chance to get all the way through "flash boys" yet again

my long-standing and concern about the manipulation to market, manipulation of wall street. so that's kind of a heavy-duty stuff. the superintendent of the everglades national park in a book called "the swamp" to read which i can be because now i'm feeling more and more with park issues. another book on the grand canyon is recommended call polishing the jewel. so that's on the list. then when i'm done with work reading i relax. i know there's a couple of craig johnson books that haven't read. those are great. lee child, i'm still working my way through all the lee child books. jack reach her book. and james lee burke is also a favorite of mine.

>> what are you reading this summer? tell us what's on your summer reading list. tweet us at the booktv. posted to our facebook page or send us an e-mail, booktv@c-span.org. spirit this week booktv takes a look at some of barnes and nobles best selling nonfiction books.

>> booktv, television for serious readers. >> next, "the communicators" with california representatives zoe lofgren and congressman john shimkus of illinois. then a house hearing with astronauts testifying from aboard the international space station. after that, a conversation with dan pfeiffer, senior adviser to president obama. >> c-span, created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. >> host: and this week on "the communicators" we talk with two members of congress about