WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.936 align:middle line:90%
[CHUCKLING]

00:00:01.936 --> 00:00:03.390 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.390 --> 00:00:06.970 align:middle line:84%
And the last poem,
"This Yearning Season"--

00:00:06.970 --> 00:00:08.340 align:middle line:90%
how long am I supposed to read?

00:00:08.340 --> 00:00:10.320 align:middle line:90%
I'm afraid of overstaying my--

00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:11.160 align:middle line:90%
You're right on.

00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:11.895 align:middle line:90%
I'm right on?

00:00:11.895 --> 00:00:12.600 align:middle line:90%
All right.

00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:13.914 align:middle line:90%
[CHUCKLING]

00:00:13.914 --> 00:00:14.790 align:middle line:90%


00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:16.620 align:middle line:84%
It's called "This
Yearning Season."

00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:18.600 align:middle line:84%
and there are some
terms in here--

00:00:18.600 --> 00:00:23.010 align:middle line:84%
for example, "flyways" and "life
lists," that refer to birding.

00:00:23.010 --> 00:00:27.930 align:middle line:84%
So avid birders, if you're
honest avid birders,

00:00:27.930 --> 00:00:30.555 align:middle line:84%
have an honest list
of all the birds you

00:00:30.555 --> 00:00:32.340 align:middle line:84%
yourself have seen
and identified

00:00:32.340 --> 00:00:35.040 align:middle line:84%
and can add to your life
list during the course

00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:36.420 align:middle line:90%
of your birding life--

00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:39.330 align:middle line:84%
and flyways are those
pathways that birds

00:00:39.330 --> 00:00:41.400 align:middle line:84%
take because they're
the easiest, usually

00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:43.155 align:middle line:84%
between canyons and
along water routes.

00:00:43.155 --> 00:00:46.342 align:middle line:90%


00:00:46.342 --> 00:00:48.050 align:middle line:84%
Is there anything else
I need to explain?

00:00:48.050 --> 00:00:51.366 align:middle line:90%


00:00:51.366 --> 00:00:51.866 align:middle line:90%
Nope.

00:00:51.866 --> 00:00:54.590 align:middle line:90%


00:00:54.590 --> 00:00:57.560 align:middle line:90%
"This Yearning Season"--

00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.470 align:middle line:84%
"Another spring done
up in blue-eyed grass,

00:01:00.470 --> 00:01:05.060 align:middle line:84%
palms studded with orioles,
canyons against premature

00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:06.500 align:middle line:90%
dawns.

00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:09.650 align:middle line:84%
Who can corner this
yearning season,

00:01:09.650 --> 00:01:13.130 align:middle line:90%
flyways lapping endlessly?

00:01:13.130 --> 00:01:15.680 align:middle line:84%
My garbage disposal's
on the blink.

00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:18.050 align:middle line:84%
Perhaps this is
the year I'll build

00:01:18.050 --> 00:01:21.380 align:middle line:84%
a worm farm, red crawlers
chubby as fingers,

00:01:21.380 --> 00:01:23.750 align:middle line:90%
fattened with mango peel.

00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:27.080 align:middle line:84%
The woman who sells me
worms suggests herbal teas,

00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:31.190 align:middle line:84%
tells me sage survives
Colorado red soil.

00:01:31.190 --> 00:01:34.520 align:middle line:84%
Six fingers per hand,
she amends raised beds

00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:37.640 align:middle line:90%
regardless of drought.

00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.610 align:middle line:84%
On their 50th anniversary,
my aunt and uncle

00:01:40.610 --> 00:01:42.380 align:middle line:90%
renewed their wedding vows.

00:01:42.380 --> 00:01:44.900 align:middle line:84%
Encased in white
brocade, the bride

00:01:44.900 --> 00:01:47.150 align:middle line:84%
took the floor for
the opening dance.

00:01:47.150 --> 00:01:48.620 align:middle line:90%
Violence curled.

00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:49.940 align:middle line:90%
Horns erupted.

00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:51.620 align:middle line:90%
Guitars plunked.

00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:57.650 align:middle line:84%
Baritone mariachis quavered.
(SINGING) Maria Bonita.

00:01:57.650 --> 00:02:01.340 align:middle line:84%
Love notes sifted
like incense over all.

00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:02.900 align:middle line:90%
The groom converged.

00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:07.370 align:middle line:84%
Glasses steamed, wrinkled
from life's ceremony.

00:02:07.370 --> 00:02:12.470 align:middle line:84%
What to make of enveloped years
as I joined parents, cousins,

00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:18.170 align:middle line:84%
every one my cousin, spinning
in that dim-lit hall?

00:02:18.170 --> 00:02:20.420 align:middle line:84%
Transformed by the
flickering waltz,

00:02:20.420 --> 00:02:25.070 align:middle line:84%
younger aunts emerged,
high-breasted, lips unlined,

00:02:25.070 --> 00:02:28.040 align:middle line:84%
gardenias pinned
to Marcelled waves.

00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:32.630 align:middle line:84%
And men in pleat-stiffed
pants, hair ungrayed,

00:02:32.630 --> 00:02:35.570 align:middle line:90%
honored all their Marias.

00:02:35.570 --> 00:02:39.710 align:middle line:84%
Sepia-toned, the scene cobbled
memories, photos snapped

00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:44.370 align:middle line:90%
in migrant camps decades ago.

00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:47.900 align:middle line:84%
Some say seasons
never change here.

00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:52.910 align:middle line:84%
Some say air keeps to 60
in the southwest corner.

00:02:52.910 --> 00:02:55.220 align:middle line:84%
But Western and
ring-billed gulls

00:02:55.220 --> 00:02:59.120 align:middle line:84%
endure a first,
then second year.

00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:05.330 align:middle line:84%
Mid-April, impatient tanagers
troll the avocado canopies.

00:03:05.330 --> 00:03:10.160 align:middle line:84%
Turned loose, even
parrots go feral.

00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:13.820 align:middle line:84%
In violet, I survey
oaks beyond my deck

00:03:13.820 --> 00:03:17.540 align:middle line:90%
for other lapsed migrants.

00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:20.180 align:middle line:84%
The night I spied my
first spotted owl,

00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:23.180 align:middle line:84%
a friend turned my head
with the moons of Jupiter.

00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:25.310 align:middle line:90%
One moon sidled by.

00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:30.410 align:middle line:84%
If a bird, I couldn't have
claimed it for my life list.

00:03:30.410 --> 00:03:34.700 align:middle line:84%
But on my life, though no
one sent me a love song,

00:03:34.700 --> 00:03:37.280 align:middle line:90%
air riffed that wedding night.

00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.670 align:middle line:84%
Barely visible, air
waved like window glass

00:03:40.670 --> 00:03:43.430 align:middle line:90%
touched by a vagrant breeze.

00:03:43.430 --> 00:03:47.390 align:middle line:84%
Aunts, uncles, mother,
father claim the floor

00:03:47.390 --> 00:03:51.570 align:middle line:84%
for one more dance and
show me how it's done."

00:03:51.570 --> 00:03:52.580 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:52.580 --> 00:03:55.930 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:55.930 --> 00:03:59.000 align:middle line:90%