Alberto Ríos describes the moment when he learned that the band U2 was sharing one of his poems during their current tour as "thrilling and out of the blue." So out of the blue, in fact, that Arizona's first poet laureate learned of this from his son, whose friend had gone to see the band. The friend recognized Ríos' words on a giant screen — from "The Border: A Double Sonnet" — before the band took the stage. The 28-line poem begins:
The border is a line that birds cannot see.
The border is a beautiful piece of paper folded carelessly in half.
The border is where flint first met steel, starting a century of fires.
The poem is lovely and so is the music of U2. We think it's the perfect mashup, and we're glad Ríos does, too.