WEBVTT

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And now I'm going to
read the "Sonora Series."

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Those of you who are in the
class I read for last night

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will be surprised because I've
changed the program entirely

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since then.

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I had not intended
to read all of this.

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The program I had
outlined I think

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was a show off program, which
was full of pyrotechnics

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and you wouldn't have
enjoyed it at all.

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So after midnight last
night, I changed it entirely

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and threw out all those
things and put in some poems

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I think you might enjoy more.

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So I decided at that point
to include all of the "Sonora

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Series," It's all I will read
from the "Journal of Return."

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It was written over a
long period of time.

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It is, of course, local--

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Sonora, in the sense
of the Sonoran desert,

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not necessarily the
state in Mexico.

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It was my attempt
to come to grips

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with the desert, a
series of 17 poems.

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Their architecture
is very peculiar,

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I think somewhat
like these houses

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that people start building room
at a time and the architecture

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changes from the time they
start to the time they finish.

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It starts out being
neo nothing and winds

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up being classical Navajo, if
you can imagine such a house.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But I was originally
frightened by the desert

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when I came here,
terrified to be more exact.

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And when I moved into it and
became more acquainted with it

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and became more and
more fascinated with it,

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I cast about for ways
to come to grips with it

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and I discovered
Navajo ritual poetry,

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which I instinctively
and immediately felt

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to be very beautiful
and steeped myself in.

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So you will see the
progression in these poems

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from a innocuous beginning
to more and more Navajo

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creeping in--

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Navajo ritual, Navajo symbology.

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I read a good many
books on Navajo,

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including LaVerne
Clark's book, They

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Sang for Horses from which
I learned a great deal more

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than just about horses.

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And there were others
which influenced

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me very much with these.

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It sounds like I'm going
to read an awful lot.

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There are 17 of them, but
most of them are very short

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and they are numbered, but
I won't read the numbers.

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Sonora, what do
these mountains want?

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Why do they rearrange themselves
and move silently closer

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at night?

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They never sleep.

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Sometimes I shout at them
that I am not afraid,

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but they absorb my voice.

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Dawn comes to them from
another country speaking

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of foreign tongue to which
they pay no attention.

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I am feted by the moon
like pale nocturnal stones,

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I come alive in the
soft light of darkness.

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The road extends a thin
white hand to lead me back.

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I cross it quickly and
move on to the desert.

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Tonight, I hear the frightened
oriental voices of coyotes

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as if they have just
learned they were not

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supposed to be born.

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They wail against silence
and these constant stars

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are more than anyone
can bear for very long.

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Just after sunset, bats
lurched through the sky

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as if on broken wings.

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Their faces are
tiny and pitiful,

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their faces are masks of pain.

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It is a ceremony which
causes the moon to rise.

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A tarantula lumbers
down the pale road,

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which he believes was
built for his convenience.

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He loves to travel and
is untroubled by ideas

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of time or destination.

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Skeletons of saguaros stand
in amazement, long after death

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while the moon changes them
into designs of light and shadow

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and their gray ribs hold
the wind in a dark circle

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where it circles and
cries, cries and circles.

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Night in the desert
is a great glass bell.

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I have shouted against its
walls and there was no echo,

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but the gods of Sonora heard me.

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They sleep until
the Earth cools,

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then they walk down
from the mountains

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and shaggy-headed
cholla go to meet them.

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I have never seen the
place where they meet,

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but it is near.

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After years of being
watched and listened to,

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I have learned to
pray dark prayers.

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Now I can anticipate the scream
of a rabbit and night birds fly

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through me as if I
were a shadow thrown

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by the moon over
these faded stones.

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The crow sits on the stump
of a blasted mesquite

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where lightning has been.

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He worships the God of
fire whose color is black.

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He is aware of his sleek
beauty and slender yellow legs.

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In this desert, each
stone has its own name

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and no two have the same name.

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When I stand between
my shadow and the moon,

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I hear their unborn children
pushing up through dry sand.

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I hear the firm
clenching of claws

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on branches for bird sleep.

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And I'm aware of
rabbits listening

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for the shadow of an owl
whose eyes are always

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perfect circles.

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No one knows what
causes lights which

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wander on the mountain nor why
certain shadows have no agents.

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It is more worthwhile to
contemplate the cholla's

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luminous blonde hair or steady
night's great jeweled belly

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for signs of dawn.

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I came to this desert from the
North, where the God of water

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lives in a silent blue house.

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Now I am walking in the morning
and rain hangs from the sky.

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I do not know this trail
nor where I am going.

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But in the East, I see
brightness lying down.

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The voice of these mountains
is above the voice of thunder

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and below the voice
of the grasshopper.

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They sing about a
blue stone whose home

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is in the South and
a black stone whose

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home is in the North.

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They sing about the shell
of many colors in the West

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and the White shell in the East.

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Seven years ago, I found these
stones scattered in the desert

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and built a wall.

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Now they are climbing down,
slowly sorting themselves

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into families and going home--

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neither time nor distance
can discourage them.

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And since I have seen
their subtle movements,

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I would not try to stop them.

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Watching stones for seven
years has taught me little

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but it is enough.

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And I am no longer
afraid of the saguaros.

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They are overgrown children
swinging their arms,

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grinning stupidly.

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In the spring, each wears a
large white flower on his head.

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Their great green hearts are
gentle and tiny owl's nest

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in their eyes.

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What were the lizards
before they shrank?

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Were they huge monsters or
gods with fringed mouths?

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Or were they both?

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I have asked them many
times and they are always

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too sleepy to answer.

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But in that second,
before the film of sleep

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comes over their eyes, I see the
cold memory of an earlier world

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below without sun or moon.

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Their tiny arthritic hands
stretch out on warm stone

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they sleep.

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I will not stand between
them and the sun.

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Tonight when I
wade through rivers

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of cold air and black
arroyos, the coyotes

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will be still and listen.

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The white coyote is good and
the yellow coyote is bad.

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But each owl is the same
owl and all are wholly.

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Now dark cloud and
his younger brother,

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let the rain down as a curtain,
may it be happy behind me.

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The yellow snake will protect
me and be my messenger.

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She will take my prayer
quickly to the gods

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of the Western mountains, may
it be happy in front of me.

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In the early light, saguaros
climb single file to meet me.

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Each carries birds
nests and flowers,

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and each holds securely
in his huge fists

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the fragile lifelines of tiny
spiders who ride the wind,

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may it be happy on
either side of me.

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I walk with a God behind me.

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I walk with a God
in front of me.

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I walk with a God on
either side of me.

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The mountain which
moves is holy.

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As it turns around, it
draws all things to it.

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It draws the clouds
and the birds.

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They circle around it,
soon the rain hides it.

00:10:27.700 --> 00:10:29.950 align:middle line:84%
A handsome man comes
out of the rain wearing

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a necklace of white shells,
the light from his necklace

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flashes over the world.

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His eyes are black
as rain cloud.

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His teeth are white his shells.

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He is silent and draws
the clouds to him.

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In one hand, he carries
a branch of dark spruce.

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With the other, he
sprinkles pollen

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before him over the wet ground.

00:10:54.745 --> 00:10:59.270 align:middle line:90%


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I go to the woman who changes.

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Her sister leads me with
a white shell in her hand.

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In the evening, it will rain.

00:11:09.770 --> 00:11:13.070 align:middle line:90%
All night, it will rain.

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In the morning, I will
smell wild onions.

00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:20.630 align:middle line:84%
My song is short
because I know so much.

00:11:20.630 --> 00:11:27.230 align:middle line:90%


00:11:27.230 --> 00:11:30.580 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:11:30.580 --> 00:11:42.094 align:middle line:90%