WEBVTT

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I'm going to make sure I leave
some time for the new pieces.

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This one, too, is a water.

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Definitely a water one.

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This to me-- this is
very biographical,

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which is something--
which is a question that

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comes up from students.

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How much of you is in the poem.

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And how much is not.

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And that you shouldn't just
assume that the writer--

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it is the writer's life.

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This one is my life.

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It is my water life.

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It is a chronology of
my water experience.

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And Liz and Alberta know
that, where we grew up,

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it's pretty dry.

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And Liz's first essay in
our seminars, of course,

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she had to make reference
to the irrigation ditches.

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And that was the swimming
hole, I guess, for all of us

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back then.

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All my brothers
and sisters really

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like to swim in the
ditch and at the pump--

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where the pump is, the
water can be pretty deep.

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And I, for some reason, was
always afraid of water--

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that kind of water.

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And so I was not so adventurous.

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But as an adult, when our
daughter was fairly young,

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both her and her
dad were swimmers.

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They swam in some of the
great pools that Tucson has.

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And my daughter was an age
group swimmer into high school.

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And Tony also was an
adult level swimmer.

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And so I sat on the sidelines
and cheered them on.

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But in my early
30s, I was diagnosed

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with rheumatoid arthritis.

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And my doctor said to
me, swimming is very good

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because it doesn't put pressure
on your joints and so forth.

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And I just knew if I
told that to my family

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they would force me
to learn how to swim.

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So I didn't tell them.

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Instead, what I did was I
enrolled in a swimming class

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here on campus.

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Those of you who have been here
long enough to know that there

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used to be a swimming
pool over there

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where it used to be the women's
PE building-- the Ina Gittings

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building.

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It's no longer there.

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In fact, most of those swimming
pools that were here then

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are no longer.

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There used to be a swimming pool
up on the Student Union also,

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right?

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N. Scott Momaday used
to do his laps there.

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I used to watch him do his laps.

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But anyway, I learned
to swim there.

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And went to learn to swim.

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It snowballed.

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Not because I wanted to,
but because my daughter

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and my husband wanted
things to happen--

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water things.

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And so this is a chronology
of my water events.

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And it's called "Traces."

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Sitting in the desert
on a summer morning,

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I make minor observations.

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Resting my ankle on the opposite
knee, I noticed the skin there.

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Fine lines running
like minor tributaries,

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like pattern cuts
in a jigsaw puzzle.

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The white, dry lines are
clear against Brown skin.

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Flakes begin to peel away
making space for new.

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With each movement,
more flakes fall.

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A cycle that is a part of
me and all that claims skin.

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I think back and find
myself in a swimming pool

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where I learned to swim at 35.

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I moved in the water
with reluctant grace.

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On a backstroke, I see the space
shuttle riding back to Florida.

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Flakes of my skin in the
water cleansed by chlorine.

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Pieces of skin now a part
of rubble and new cement.

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I stand up and with
each step of the skin--

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with each step, pieces of
skin fluttered downward,

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caught momentarily on the
inside of my pant leg.

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I continue to walk.

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Flakes fall onto the
cuff of my sock resting

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on what must seem like an
eternity for such a migration.

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It falls and comes to a longer
rest on the top of my shoe.

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It rides.

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It rides the muddy current
of the Colorado River.

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Finding places where the
water is clear, green.

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Part of me finds
its way to sediment

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at the bottom of that river.

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I will be part of
the disturbance

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when rocks move again
reshaping a canyon.

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It rides the water and mud to
the empty point of the ocean.

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To the entry point at the ocean.

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I move gracefully
in weightlessness

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among ocean life.

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My skin floats to the
bottom of the sea floor.

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I touch just enough seashells.

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I continue walking
in a dry wash.

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I step on a hill of sand.

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The piece of skin
riding on my shoe falls.

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At dusk, a coyote
wanders through the wash.

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He picks up my scent.

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It leads nowhere.

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But once I learned to swim,
that's what we ended up doing.

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We rode the Rapids
of the Colorado

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and we learned to scuba dive.

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And so I've been below
the ocean several times.

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