WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:03.600 align:middle line:84%
I have a dear friend
who's a photographer.

00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:08.070 align:middle line:84%
And, one summer, she had an
underwater photography project.

00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:11.370 align:middle line:84%
And she's very scared
of going underwater.

00:00:11.370 --> 00:00:13.140 align:middle line:90%
So this is for her.

00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:16.440 align:middle line:84%
The camera she uses as a
waterproof Nikon camera

00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.750 align:middle line:84%
called "The Nikonus," which,
of course, is a take off

00:00:18.750 --> 00:00:21.190 align:middle line:90%
of Greek island of Mykonos.

00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:24.480 align:middle line:90%
I'm giving the poem away here.

00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:26.010 align:middle line:90%
"Nikonus."

00:00:26.010 --> 00:00:29.880 align:middle line:84%
"Mid bay, the camera, a
pun on the bright island

00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:31.830 align:middle line:90%
of my childhood sinks.

00:00:31.830 --> 00:00:36.300 align:middle line:84%
Its waterproof housing
guided by hand not I

00:00:36.300 --> 00:00:39.630 align:middle line:84%
to the burly and the slight
blonde figures casting

00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:45.510 align:middle line:84%
through the wide-brimmed net of
light against the bobbing boat.

00:00:45.510 --> 00:00:48.240 align:middle line:84%
The frightened
photographer is brave.

00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:53.370 align:middle line:84%
Shut tight her eyes, relinquish
to the skin their grasp.

00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:55.440 align:middle line:90%
They surface all three.

00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:58.260 align:middle line:84%
Explosions of lung
made light and drop

00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:02.400 align:middle line:84%
again to fly, arms wide,
two dancers and a feeling

00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:05.370 align:middle line:84%
into the dolphin
liquid dark that

00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:08.520 align:middle line:90%
holds them as a bird in sky.

00:01:08.520 --> 00:01:12.480 align:middle line:84%
More, more than we
believe gives light--

00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:17.370 align:middle line:84%
the hair, the beard, the nimbus
on the glance, the sheath

00:01:17.370 --> 00:01:20.880 align:middle line:84%
around the plummeting,
the seaweed and small fish

00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:24.090 align:middle line:84%
are stars against
the lapis night.

00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:28.800 align:middle line:84%
Stretched out across the screen,
the slides force us like ocean

00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:31.830 align:middle line:90%
to hold breath on land.

00:01:31.830 --> 00:01:35.940 align:middle line:84%
We hold the slight-built
German and the large blond man

00:01:35.940 --> 00:01:39.750 align:middle line:84%
who rowed the boat, the
artist and her girl, and I,

00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:45.020 align:middle line:84%
illumined by the tangible
dream of the flesh made kite."

00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:46.000 align:middle line:90%