WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:10.050 align:middle line:84% You've probably known, if you've read my book, 00:00:10.050 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:90% that I really like sestinas. 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:19.350 align:middle line:84% Sestina is a poem that uses six words in a particular order 00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:26.610 align:middle line:84% and it's six stanzas, and it's just really beautiful. 00:00:26.610 --> 00:00:32.580 align:middle line:84% Last semester I had my students write a sestina for which they 00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:36.000 align:middle line:84% didn't tell me until afterwards that they didn't enjoy it 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:90% as much as I did. 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:39.120 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:43.860 align:middle line:84% So this is the six words we chose as a class. 00:00:43.860 --> 00:00:49.050 align:middle line:84% And there's a word, a Finnish word 00:00:49.050 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:84% called "kieli" which is a contribution Mark Botti, who's 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:59.700 align:middle line:84% a PhD student, brought to the class. 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:09.780 align:middle line:84% So "kieli" means word or language or wisdom or voice, 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:13.100 align:middle line:84% so this is a sestina called "Back Off." 00:01:13.100 --> 00:01:15.650 align:middle line:90% 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:20.780 align:middle line:84% "My fortune cookie said, 'any day above ground is a good 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:28.940 align:middle line:84% day,' everyone else's cookie foretold caring kieli that was 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:36.140 align:middle line:84% inspiring as is expected it's hard to brush grim sentiment 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:42.350 align:middle line:84% aside, especially for Navajo who was driven away from what is 00:01:42.350 --> 00:01:47.720 align:middle line:84% known as 'Bahaahsiid.' That ditch of dark thought is best 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:52.400 align:middle line:84% not acknowledged, not even lightly as in the sweet 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.740 align:middle line:90% deceitful cookie 00:01:54.740 --> 00:01:59.510 align:middle line:84% 'how lightly this cookie takes my future,' I thought, 00:01:59.510 --> 00:02:04.430 align:middle line:84% 'why should such words land in my palm after such a delicious 00:02:04.430 --> 00:02:06.170 align:middle line:90% meal? 00:02:06.170 --> 00:02:11.570 align:middle line:84% Why do such aversions from happiness even exist? 00:02:11.570 --> 00:02:15.350 align:middle line:84% Oh, but such voices are easily overcome 00:02:15.350 --> 00:02:20.780 align:middle line:84% by the lucky Chinese' the mere mention drives me 00:02:20.780 --> 00:02:26.060 align:middle line:84% across Park Avenue to savor, oh, such succulent dishes 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:32.870 align:middle line:84% and brush aside any consequences of sugar brushed cookies 00:02:32.870 --> 00:02:35.930 align:middle line:84% then I remembered that in the 1990s, 00:02:35.930 --> 00:02:41.930 align:middle line:84% two white slivers from fortune cookies at one meal drove me 00:02:41.930 --> 00:02:49.100 align:middle line:84% into a hushed dismay 'they were invented in America,' my friend 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:53.810 align:middle line:84% Jim Lee said, 'it's not even Chinese tradition, 00:02:53.810 --> 00:03:00.230 align:middle line:84% just throw it away' but it was hard to drop those sudden 00:03:00.230 --> 00:03:07.010 align:middle line:84% jarring notes, the unwritten is hard to ditch 00:03:07.010 --> 00:03:10.460 align:middle line:84% but it was his restaurant and he was the chef 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:16.430 align:middle line:84% so I tried to brush it all aside with a little laugh I knew 00:03:16.430 --> 00:03:22.850 align:middle line:84% his kieli was of highest value he then shared that the light, 00:03:22.850 --> 00:03:26.150 align:middle line:84% good luck cookies were factory made 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:32.390 align:middle line:84% and not fresh like the meal he had just served us reassured, 00:03:32.390 --> 00:03:39.890 align:middle line:84% I was compelled to file this event in the no worries file 00:03:39.890 --> 00:03:43.520 align:middle line:84% the years since then have driven this dossier 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:50.420 align:middle line:84% to fill a whole cabinet but the recounting of such dark ditches 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:56.150 align:middle line:84% is hardly necessary perhaps this is where the continents of fear 00:03:56.150 --> 00:04:00.770 align:middle line:84% and loss merge and are recreated then 00:04:00.770 --> 00:04:06.290 align:middle line:84% swept forth with gossamer words, the spoken and unwritten 00:04:06.290 --> 00:04:11.330 align:middle line:84% slivers, the light field and the dreaded 00:04:11.330 --> 00:04:19.610 align:middle line:84% just think our wisdom, our kieli can be shaken by mere words 00:04:19.610 --> 00:04:23.480 align:middle line:84% those empty little papers rested in the kieli 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:27.740 align:middle line:84% of damp grass, thick air, and old oak trees 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:35.960 align:middle line:84% in Kansas heretofore written over by much more than trivia 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:40.550 align:middle line:84% so when another fortune intruded on recent afternoon, 00:04:40.550 --> 00:04:45.800 align:middle line:84% conveying an even a worse dilemma, that unspeakable ditch 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:53.960 align:middle line:84% of river, I must admit this invented unChinese omen once 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:58.310 align:middle line:90% again swept over me, testing me 00:04:58.310 --> 00:05:04.130 align:middle line:84% this time I studied the weak blue ink and did not unearth 00:05:04.130 --> 00:05:11.060 align:middle line:84% that file, another attempt to distract me from the kieli 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:17.510 align:middle line:84% of my only country I am again enlightened having recognized 00:05:17.510 --> 00:05:20.780 align:middle line:84% the word ditches, the diversions, 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:28.220 align:middle line:84% the English ploys that follow me about. 'Ka'dii,' I said, 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:31.820 align:middle line:90% 'that's enough, back off.' 00:05:31.820 --> 00:05:34.870 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:34.870 --> 00:05:36.448 align:middle line:90%