WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.570 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:05.580 align:middle line:84%
First of all, I'd like to find
out if my voice is coming over

00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:07.200 align:middle line:90%
at this level.

00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:09.780 align:middle line:84%
Could you hold your
hand up, Keith?

00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:11.152 align:middle line:90%
It's OK.

00:00:11.152 --> 00:00:12.300 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:18.480 align:middle line:84%
Now I'd like to start my reading
the way I start all my readings

00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:24.120 align:middle line:84%
and that is to read a poem not
by me, but by Lionel Kearns who

00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:27.420 align:middle line:84%
I think is the
best poet in Canada

00:00:27.420 --> 00:00:31.620 align:middle line:84%
and who has been
peculiarly connected

00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:37.050 align:middle line:84%
with me poetry wise for
the last five years or so.

00:00:37.050 --> 00:00:39.960 align:middle line:90%


00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:42.570 align:middle line:84%
And I thought it might make
a good introduction too

00:00:42.570 --> 00:00:47.700 align:middle line:84%
because Lionel lived for
quite a while in Mexico

00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:52.740 align:middle line:84%
and this poem has to do
with his leaving Mexico.

00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:55.830 align:middle line:84%
Is this thing making
a humming noise?

00:00:55.830 --> 00:01:00.030 align:middle line:84%
Can I correct that by turning
the volume down just a little?

00:01:00.030 --> 00:01:02.220 align:middle line:90%
You can still hear me, I hope.

00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:03.630 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:01:03.630 --> 00:01:07.530 align:middle line:84%
This is Lionel Kearns' poem
then called "Situation".

00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:10.050 align:middle line:90%


00:01:10.050 --> 00:01:15.060 align:middle line:84%
Coffee beans in the morning
sun, a giant hog asleep

00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:16.920 align:middle line:90%
between the trays.

00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:23.640 align:middle line:84%
And once Alfonso climbed the
hill and talked and stayed.

00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:28.140 align:middle line:84%
And in the afternoon, we sat
in the finca sipping cocoa nuts

00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:32.790 align:middle line:84%
and rum with faint huapango
rhythms drifting up

00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:36.450 align:middle line:84%
from some marimba band
down in the village.

00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:40.500 align:middle line:84%
Music on the wind,
that was enough.

00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:44.160 align:middle line:84%
Small talk at the
stall of Mama Lupita.

00:01:44.160 --> 00:01:47.160 align:middle line:84%
Funny stories over
at the cantina.

00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:52.140 align:middle line:84%
A ride to KaTomoko
reflections on the lake.

00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:55.470 align:middle line:84%
And because it was Sunday
night, the big band

00:01:55.470 --> 00:01:59.850 align:middle line:84%
had already set up in the
platform and everybody

00:01:59.850 --> 00:02:04.140 align:middle line:84%
was there jumping up to
mambos and Cha Cha Cha.

00:02:04.140 --> 00:02:06.420 align:middle line:84%
The trumpets bouncing
off the cathedral

00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:09.490 align:middle line:90%
wall crackling into the night.

00:02:09.490 --> 00:02:12.030 align:middle line:90%
It was part of the good life.

00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:14.430 align:middle line:84%
Friends and their
families, all you

00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:16.950 align:middle line:90%
could eat and drink every day.

00:02:16.950 --> 00:02:20.520 align:middle line:84%
And there was love
in that town too,

00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:25.320 align:middle line:84%
but that was largely a
matter of brothers and guns

00:02:25.320 --> 00:02:30.290 align:middle line:84%
of dying young among
fists and curling lips.

00:02:30.290 --> 00:02:31.000 align:middle line:90%