WEBVTT

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My first book of poems, Tree
Talks: Southern Arizona,

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will be published in a
few weeks by Delete Press.

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I wrote a book of poems that
is very difficult to read out

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loud.

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If you are holding
one of the broadsides

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that Delete Press created
for tonight's reading,

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and which is pictured
on the screen above me,

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you'll see why that is the case.

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So I took the brief introduction
that I wrote for the book

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and added annotations,
things that come to my mind

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when I look at the introduction
and think about the project.

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I'll share that expanded
introduction with you.

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And I will share images
from the book along the way.

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Tree Talks: Southern Arizona,
an annotated introduction.

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This book contains transcripts
of unstructured interviews

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with eight Southern
Arizona trees.

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In 2009, I was thinking about
questions and questioning.

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I wanted to do creative work
that would take me outdoors

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and that would make me think
about the biases and privileges

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inherent in what I mean to say.

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I decided to conduct a
series of interviews,

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loosely following social
science qualitative research

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methods, with trees in Southern
Arizona, where I live and work,

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and where you live and work.

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As a poet and librarian, I
find that the dominant culture

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places primary emphasis on what
humans know, what we can know,

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and what we can learn.

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This leads to the
interpretation that everything

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our world contains
is up for grabs

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as fodder for human knowledge.

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But there is a deadly
presumption in the assumption

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that the world exists primarily
for human consumption,

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consumption by a small and
homogeneous set of humans

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in power.

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As a student of
poetry, I learned

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from writers who
invoke non-colonialist,

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non-capitalist
knowledge systems,

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such as indigenous
knowledge systems

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and traditional
ecological knowledge.

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Joy Harjo, in the
year 2000, wrote

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a poem titled "Humans Aren't The
Only Makers of Poetry," which

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begins with the lines,
"The young banana

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tree is making poetry.

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I see how it
translates the wind.

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The need to make songs
is inherent in all life."

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The poem ends with the line,
"We aren't the only creatures

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or the most likely to succeed."

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The trees are--

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Fremont cottonwood, on
December 5, 2009, at 5:30 PM,

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in Sabino Canyon
Recreation Area,

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located in riparian habitat,
adjacent to the Sabino Creek

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bed, which drains the Santa
Catalina Mountains, north

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of Tucson, Arizona.

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Ponderosa pine, on June
12, 2010, at 10:55 AM,

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in the Coronado
National Forest, located

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close to Mile 20 of the Catalina
Highway, up Mount Lemmon,

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on a small hill above the
Palisades hiking trail,

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at approximately 8,000
feet of elevation.

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Goodding willow, on July
24, 2010, at 11:50 AM,

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in the Patagonia
Sonoita Creek Preserve,

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established by the
Nature Conservancy,

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growing besides Sonoita Creek,
at an elevation just greater

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than 4,000 feet, and 13 miles
north of the US-Mexico border.

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One-seed juniper, on August
21, 2010, at 6:09 PM,

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in the Chiricahua Mountains,
overlooking Portal Peak,

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on private land, backed by
state land, and national forest,

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a few miles east of the
town of Portal, Arizona,

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and 60 miles from
the US-Mexico border.

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Eucalyptus, on December
3, 2010, at 4:56 PM,

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in Gene C. Reid Park
in Tucson, Arizona,

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growing to the northeast
of a small duck

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pond in Tucson's
largest city park,

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which contains a zoo,
baseball stadium,

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rose garden, outdoor bandshell,
and numerous playgrounds

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and ramadas.

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Velvet mesquite,
on March 18, 2011,

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at 9:10 PM, a quarter mile into
the Cactus Forest hiking trail,

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at the east end of Broadway
Boulevard in Tucson,

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located in classic
Sonoran Desert habitat,

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adjacent to the
Rincon Mountains.

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Blue palo verde,
on April 24, 2011,

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at 7:30 AM, growing on a
quiet street, just north

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of the main University of
Arizona campus in Tucson,

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within view of the
University Medical

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Center and the Biological
Sciences complex,

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and in view of us.

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It's right over there
to our northeast.

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And weeping fig, on June
7, 2011, at 10:08 PM,

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located inside a residential
dwelling in Central Tucson,

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with a southwestern exposure.

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The tree talks were conducted
between December 2009

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and June 2011, turbulent
years in our city, region,

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and the state of Arizona.

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What was most on my mind at
that time, and what I think

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will most be remembered, is the
April 2010 passage of SB 1070,

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which mandated
immigration status checks

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in case of quote, reasonable
suspicion, end quote,

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during law enforcement stops.

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With the help of a research
assistant, Eric Magrane,

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I determine species of interest
and selected eight subjects

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on the basis of such attributes
as age, size, health,

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distinguishing
features, and habitat.

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The word subject
is an outmoded way

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to refer to what is
more commonly, nowadays,

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called a research participant.

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I chose to use the word
subject because I believe

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that questions are
sites for the exercise

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of personal and political
power, in which one party

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questions and another is
subjected to questioning.

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Questions are
sites of aggression

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and risk, as much as curiosity.

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Using the words investigator
and subject, I hope,

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keeps our minds
alive to a dynamic

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that we might otherwise elide.

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While allowing for the
uniqueness of each research

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subject, every effort was made
to select species and subjects,

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including introduced
species, characteristic

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of Southern Arizona.

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Looking at a map of
interview locations,

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it is easy to see that the
project is as much defined

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by what it does not
cover as by what it does.

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Can you imagine how many
trees take up the space

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behind one of the
dots on this map

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and all of the space
unreferenced by this map?

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Each tree talk lasted
approximately 20 to 30 minutes

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and was conducted on site in
the subject's natural habitat.

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I went to the place where
the tree grew, by car,

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by bike, or on foot.

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I spoke my questions out
loud, with enough distance

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from the tree so
that I could see

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the movements of its branches,
but enough closeness so

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that we were in proximity.

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Questions were asked in English.

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Let's note that in
asking a question,

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it doesn't necessarily follow
that the asker understands

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or even hears the answer.

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When someone asks
you a question,

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how do you decide whether or not
they want to hear your answer?

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Or, whether or
not their question

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is even a question,
in the first place.

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Responses and ambient
noise were transcribed

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into a tree-free, one-subject
notebook with pencil.

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Each research subject was
then briefly described

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and photographed with
a digital camera.

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No other recording
devices were used.

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This book contains not
translations, but transcripts.

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I tried to transcribe what
was within my field of sound

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and sight, the movement
of the tree's leaves,

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the sound of its branches,
the birds nearby, wind, cars,

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and human voices using
alphanumeric characters,

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punctuation marks, symbols,
and gestures as approximations.

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Each page was-- excuse me-- each
page was oriented horizontally

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in space and vertically in time.

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I acknowledge my
failure to understand

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the value of the
information I was receiving.

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And I acknowledge my
respect for the value

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of what I received and
did not understand.

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The transcripts, descriptions,
and photographic images

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were transferred to
computer off site.

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My work as a librarian makes
me interested in the ethics

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of documentation
and preservation.

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Not all records of knowledge
are legitimately obtained.

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And not everything
that is meant to occur

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is meant to be
recorded or preserved.

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The tree talks are intended as
a site for ethical ambiguity,

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in which the limitations
of the practitioner,

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enmeshed with an outdated
paradigm, are present.

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And in which something
else is also present.

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Separation and
appropriation are present.

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And relationship
is also present.

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I came to the study as a way to
consider ethics, environment,

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politics, communication,
and failure to communicate.

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In carrying out the
work, I asked myself

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how the underlying privileges
and assumptions of my writing

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are complicit with the
dominant culture's drive

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to dominate through
warfare, science, or art.

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The project was my attempt
to enact that domination,

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while also skewing away from it.

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In a way, that might
teach me something

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about how to resist it in
myself and in the world.

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The poems in Tree
Talks: Southern Arizona

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take those assumptions to what
I hope is a useful extreme.

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I hope and I remain uncertain.

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And so, with ambivalence
and curiosity,

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I share the project with you.

00:11:17.640 --> 00:11:18.540 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:11:18.540 --> 00:11:21.500 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

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