WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:03.510 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Alice. 00:00:03.510 --> 00:00:08.042 align:middle line:90% 00:00:08.042 --> 00:00:09.375 align:middle line:90% Thank you, everyone, for coming. 00:00:09.375 --> 00:00:12.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.170 --> 00:00:17.430 align:middle line:84% Oh, OK, we're reading out in the open. 00:00:17.430 --> 00:00:19.080 align:middle line:90% Is that right? 00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:27.480 align:middle line:84% OK, thank you, the Poetry Center and everyone 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:90% involved bringing me here. 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:33.900 align:middle line:90% I met so many people to thank. 00:00:33.900 --> 00:00:35.085 align:middle line:90% Patrick-- 00:00:35.085 --> 00:00:37.290 align:middle line:90% Can you turn it up? 00:00:37.290 --> 00:00:37.790 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:00:37.790 --> 00:00:39.040 align:middle line:90% Can you speak a little closer? 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:40.250 align:middle line:90% OK, how about that? 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:41.645 align:middle line:90% We're really intimate. 00:00:41.645 --> 00:00:42.145 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:42.145 --> 00:00:45.000 align:middle line:90% You got it. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:45.720 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:45.720 --> 00:00:48.650 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.650 --> 00:00:51.350 align:middle line:84% I thought I knew what I was going to read, 00:00:51.350 --> 00:00:53.480 align:middle line:90% but I keep changing my mind. 00:00:53.480 --> 00:00:56.660 align:middle line:84% I'm going to just work my way and try 00:00:56.660 --> 00:01:00.080 align:middle line:90% to feel my way through this. 00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:01.715 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read some new poems. 00:01:01.715 --> 00:01:04.819 align:middle line:90% 00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:08.690 align:middle line:90% I'm still revising these. 00:01:08.690 --> 00:01:13.760 align:middle line:84% I think these were meant to be, maybe, whispered. 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:15.620 align:middle line:84% I don't know if I can pull that off. 00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:19.250 align:middle line:90% 00:01:19.250 --> 00:01:22.645 align:middle line:90% Can you hear this? 00:01:22.645 --> 00:01:23.145 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:01:23.145 --> 00:01:29.620 align:middle line:90% 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:32.380 align:middle line:90% "Why are you crying? 00:01:32.380 --> 00:01:40.000 align:middle line:84% My father asked, lifting me out of my small bed 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:46.390 align:middle line:84% and that recurring dream that began when I started speaking 00:01:46.390 --> 00:01:51.320 align:middle line:90% sentences in a second language. 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:55.830 align:middle line:84% There were two languages in that house. 00:01:55.830 --> 00:02:03.195 align:middle line:84% Three, if you count the unspoken between a father and a son. 00:02:03.195 --> 00:02:05.980 align:middle line:90% 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:12.460 align:middle line:84% If you loved me, you'd never die, I answered him. 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:18.520 align:middle line:84% And he laughed and kissed me all over my face and neck. 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:22.360 align:middle line:84% And I didn't know what I'd said or done 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:26.850 align:middle line:90% to bring him so much pleasure. 00:02:26.850 --> 00:02:33.050 align:middle line:84% Oh, sweetness, he said, have you already forgotten 00:02:33.050 --> 00:02:36.350 align:middle line:90% everything I told you? 00:02:36.350 --> 00:02:43.470 align:middle line:84% And I stopped my sobbing and listened to his breathing come 00:02:43.470 --> 00:02:49.560 align:middle line:84% to me in whispers, and fell asleep on his shoulder, 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:55.680 align:middle line:84% uncomprehending, and wake now a man, 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.840 align:middle line:84% still listening, my sleep sometimes still 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:08.640 align:middle line:84% infringed upon, not by dreams of loved ones disappearing, 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:14.505 align:middle line:84% but dead ones come back strong, loved, and loving. 00:03:14.505 --> 00:03:17.180 align:middle line:90% 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:24.710 align:middle line:84% Each year, I understand better what was ministered to me. 00:03:24.710 --> 00:03:32.780 align:middle line:84% First, by him over and over each night before sleep, 00:03:32.780 --> 00:03:37.400 align:middle line:84% that man whose own sleep was so often 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:42.770 align:middle line:84% broken by a child's growing wise to death 00:03:42.770 --> 00:03:49.940 align:middle line:84% in the middle of the night, and later, self-administered, 00:03:49.940 --> 00:03:53.630 align:middle line:84% after my father stopped speaking, forever. 00:03:53.630 --> 00:03:56.570 align:middle line:90% 00:03:56.570 --> 00:03:58.760 align:middle line:90% Why are you crying? 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:02.870 align:middle line:90% He asks now, lifting me. 00:04:02.870 --> 00:04:10.900 align:middle line:84% And, in our third language, he speaks, all breath. 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:12.960 align:middle line:90% Have you forgotten? 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:21.120 align:middle line:84% Time is your true body, and the years are your limbs. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:23.310 align:middle line:90% Have you forgotten? 00:04:23.310 --> 00:04:29.280 align:middle line:84% Death is an employee whose trade is trick sleeves 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:32.970 align:middle line:90% and fake interiors. 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:39.930 align:middle line:84% That assistant you pay each day misdirects you, 00:04:39.930 --> 00:04:44.550 align:middle line:84% repeating those powerful spells of here 00:04:44.550 --> 00:04:52.030 align:middle line:84% and there, this and that, before and after. 00:04:52.030 --> 00:05:01.000 align:middle line:84% You must have utterly forgotten fire, water, earth, and air 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.810 align:middle line:90% are your true ancestors. 00:05:04.810 --> 00:05:12.370 align:middle line:84% In their likeness, mind and body consume and shine, 00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:18.400 align:middle line:84% heart and soul refract, and all compass points 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:24.580 align:middle line:84% are imprinted in you, who empty and fill, 00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:29.500 align:middle line:90% holding all and keeping nothing. 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:34.960 align:middle line:84% Desire is fire's longing for the wood. 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:41.530 align:middle line:84% Joy is water's seeking its own plumb. 00:05:41.530 --> 00:05:47.920 align:middle line:84% Grief is earth's remembering its true weight. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:53.020 align:middle line:90% Freedom is air's omnipresence. 00:05:53.020 --> 00:05:55.450 align:middle line:90% Remember? 00:05:55.450 --> 00:06:00.040 align:middle line:84% When these joined, you were born. 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:04.450 align:middle line:84% When these separate, you'll be restored 00:06:04.450 --> 00:06:13.220 align:middle line:84% to burning, quickening, brooding, and true breathing. 00:06:13.220 --> 00:06:19.130 align:middle line:84% My love for you is the ancestors convening. 00:06:19.130 --> 00:06:24.680 align:middle line:84% Your love for me is the ancestors adjourning 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:27.890 align:middle line:90% to seek their source. 00:06:27.890 --> 00:06:33.500 align:middle line:84% My love for you, your love for me. 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:37.730 align:middle line:90% My love, your love. 00:06:37.730 --> 00:06:43.940 align:middle line:84% What can only be received as a gift cannot be possessed. 00:06:43.940 --> 00:06:47.750 align:middle line:90% But you must have forgotten. 00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:53.810 align:middle line:84% Why else would you stand at this fork in your life, 00:06:53.810 --> 00:06:57.790 align:middle line:84% weeping like a heartbroken child?" 00:06:57.790 --> 00:07:00.000 align:middle line:90%