You've probably known, if you've read my book,
that I really like sestinas.
Sestina is a poem that uses six words in a particular order
and it's six stanzas, and it's just really beautiful.
Last semester I had my students write a sestina for which they
didn't tell me until afterwards that they didn't enjoy it
as much as I did.
[LAUGHTER]
So this is the six words we chose as a class.
And there's a word, a Finnish word
called "kieli" which is a contribution Mark Botti, who's
a PhD student, brought to the class.
So "kieli" means word or language or wisdom or voice,
so this is a sestina called "Back Off."
"My fortune cookie said, 'any day above ground is a good
day,' everyone else's cookie foretold caring kieli that was
inspiring as is expected it's hard to brush grim sentiment
aside, especially for Navajo who was driven away from what is
known as 'Bahaahsiid.' That ditch of dark thought is best
not acknowledged, not even lightly as in the sweet
deceitful cookie
'how lightly this cookie takes my future,' I thought,
'why should such words land in my palm after such a delicious
meal?
Why do such aversions from happiness even exist?
Oh, but such voices are easily overcome
by the lucky Chinese' the mere mention drives me
across Park Avenue to savor, oh, such succulent dishes
and brush aside any consequences of sugar brushed cookies
then I remembered that in the 1990s,
two white slivers from fortune cookies at one meal drove me
into a hushed dismay 'they were invented in America,' my friend
Jim Lee said, 'it's not even Chinese tradition,
just throw it away' but it was hard to drop those sudden
jarring notes, the unwritten is hard to ditch
but it was his restaurant and he was the chef
so I tried to brush it all aside with a little laugh I knew
his kieli was of highest value he then shared that the light,
good luck cookies were factory made
and not fresh like the meal he had just served us reassured,
I was compelled to file this event in the no worries file
the years since then have driven this dossier
to fill a whole cabinet but the recounting of such dark ditches
is hardly necessary perhaps this is where the continents of fear
and loss merge and are recreated then
swept forth with gossamer words, the spoken and unwritten
slivers, the light field and the dreaded
just think our wisdom, our kieli can be shaken by mere words
those empty little papers rested in the kieli
of damp grass, thick air, and old oak trees
in Kansas heretofore written over by much more than trivia
so when another fortune intruded on recent afternoon,
conveying an even a worse dilemma, that unspeakable ditch
of river, I must admit this invented unChinese omen once
again swept over me, testing me
this time I studied the weak blue ink and did not unearth
that file, another attempt to distract me from the kieli
of my only country I am again enlightened having recognized
the word ditches, the diversions,
the English ploys that follow me about. 'Ka'dii,' I said,
'that's enough, back off.'
[LAUGHTER]