WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.830 align:middle line:84%
The last poem I want
to read is a companion

00:00:07.830 --> 00:00:09.990 align:middle line:84%
to that one, and
some ways and it's

00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:15.060 align:middle line:84%
the first of a
series of poems which

00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:22.470 align:middle line:84%
have got their own developing
form, which I won't

00:00:22.470 --> 00:00:26.700 align:middle line:84%
go into a description now, but
it's one version of it at least

00:00:26.700 --> 00:00:30.990 align:middle line:84%
will be quite
apparent in the poem.

00:00:30.990 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84%
And all of these poems have
got some variant of that form.

00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:38.940 align:middle line:84%
I think nothing more needed,
but they're all called "Psalms."

00:00:38.940 --> 00:00:41.295 align:middle line:84%
This is the first psalm, and
it's called "Our Fathers.'

00:00:41.295 --> 00:00:46.650 align:middle line:90%


00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:50.130 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of joy,
but does he know me?

00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:53.910 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of hope but
he ascends into heaven.

00:00:53.910 --> 00:00:57.840 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of peace but
I was put out to nurse.

00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:00.150 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of grief after
the brother was lost,

00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:05.069 align:middle line:84%
but I have opened an eye in the
life where it was he who lived.

00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:08.640 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of a shadow and I
draw my blinds out of respect,

00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:12.900 align:middle line:84%
but I cleave uneasily
to the light.

00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:14.940 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of love
but where is my home

00:01:14.940 --> 00:01:17.280 align:middle line:84%
and where the black baptismal
cup and the frightened

00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:22.110 align:middle line:84%
eyes that would still come
to the names I gave them.

00:01:22.110 --> 00:01:25.350 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the tribe of
Apher, which set up empty tents

00:01:25.350 --> 00:01:27.090 align:middle line:84%
and camped where it
could defend them

00:01:27.090 --> 00:01:29.190 align:middle line:84%
and was remembered
for them, but I

00:01:29.190 --> 00:01:33.970 align:middle line:84%
have discovered that the
unknowable needs no defense.

00:01:33.970 --> 00:01:35.820 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
temptations of the rocks,

00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:39.030 align:middle line:84%
but there have
been some between.

00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:43.290 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of fear, but
I find out for myself.

00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:45.510 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the first
fish who climbed a shore,

00:01:45.510 --> 00:01:49.740 align:middle line:84%
but the news has not
yet reached my bowels.

00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:51.150 align:middle line:90%
I'm a son of three flowers--

00:01:51.150 --> 00:01:54.330 align:middle line:84%
the pink, the rose, and the
other or its effigy and skin

00:01:54.330 --> 00:01:56.430 align:middle line:84%
for neither of which
was I thought a name

00:01:56.430 --> 00:01:58.500 align:middle line:84%
and I shudder at their
withering all free,

00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:01.740 align:middle line:90%
but they will survive me.

00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:03.720 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
future, but she shows me

00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:06.030 align:middle line:90%
only her mourning veil.

00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:09.198 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the future
but my own father.

00:02:09.198 --> 00:02:10.740 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of the
future, but where

00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.188 align:middle line:84%
is my home and the
black baptismal cup

00:02:13.188 --> 00:02:15.480 align:middle line:84%
and the warning voice from
the bushes under the kitchen

00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:19.650 align:middle line:84%
window saying that they
were not my parents.

00:02:19.650 --> 00:02:23.340 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of a glass tombstone
and a freshly plowed field,

00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:25.440 align:middle line:84%
whose furrows sit
in rows studying

00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:29.910 align:middle line:84%
the inscriptions of dew,
the sole name, life, tears

00:02:29.910 --> 00:02:35.585 align:middle line:84%
as the sun rises, but there are
no more voices on that river.

00:02:35.585 --> 00:02:36.960 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
water thief who

00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:39.570 align:middle line:84%
got away and founded
a barefaced dynasty,

00:02:39.570 --> 00:02:43.140 align:middle line:84%
but the fountains
are still following.

00:02:43.140 --> 00:02:45.390 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of a plaster
bone in the oldest

00:02:45.390 --> 00:02:50.880 align:middle line:84%
reconstruction in Millennial
Hall, but all my age is a one.

00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:52.860 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of a
cymbal of Bethel that

00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:55.980 align:middle line:84%
answered like a cracked bowl
to the instruments of ivory,

00:02:55.980 --> 00:03:03.270 align:middle line:84%
of bone, iron, wood, brass,
hair, gold, gut, glass.

00:03:03.270 --> 00:03:05.700 align:middle line:84%
Through all the generations
of the sacred orchestra

00:03:05.700 --> 00:03:08.190 align:middle line:84%
maimed voice before
the throne was

00:03:08.190 --> 00:03:10.920 align:middle line:84%
waiting as it was for
its like to be found,

00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:14.910 align:middle line:84%
its twin, its other
face, son, socket,

00:03:14.910 --> 00:03:19.200 align:middle line:84%
identical disk, the very
metal, the other half, itself,

00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:23.760 align:middle line:84%
its cymbal so that it could
sound its own true note,

00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:27.240 align:middle line:90%
but only one had been made.

00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:29.740 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of an
unsuspected wealth,

00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:31.740 align:middle line:84%
but I may labor all my
life and leave nothing

00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:35.010 align:middle line:90%
but a grain of mustard seed.

00:03:35.010 --> 00:03:36.960 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of thanksgiving,
but its language

00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.660 align:middle line:90%
is strange in my mouth.

00:03:39.660 --> 00:03:41.820 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
glove of an upper river

00:03:41.820 --> 00:03:45.030 align:middle line:84%
and the glove of a tree, but
there were four rivers all

00:03:45.030 --> 00:03:47.220 align:middle line:84%
told around the garden
and I tasted of salt

00:03:47.220 --> 00:03:50.070 align:middle line:90%
from the beginning.

00:03:50.070 --> 00:03:52.500 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the fourth
son in the right hand jars

00:03:52.500 --> 00:03:55.005 align:middle line:84%
and the second row of the
seventh shelf above the glass

00:03:55.005 --> 00:03:58.500 align:middle line:84%
footwalk on the fifth floor in
the ninth day of the 83rd room

00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:01.560 align:middle line:84%
of the T18 wing of the heart
division of the St Luke's

00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:07.380 align:middle line:84%
Memorial index, but he died in a
strange land before I was born.

00:04:07.380 --> 00:04:09.720 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of Cargarran,
who was an ant in the time

00:04:09.720 --> 00:04:11.940 align:middle line:84%
of the noseless emperors
and was accorded

00:04:11.940 --> 00:04:14.880 align:middle line:84%
great emulation, an
urn of amber and a flag

00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:18.360 align:middle line:84%
to fly his picture on, for he
fought with the plague of crane

00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:21.240 align:middle line:84%
seeds until darkness
came to his rescue,

00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.840 align:middle line:84%
but I have used to be frightened
if I wake, if I remember,

00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:29.050 align:middle line:84%
if a tax is mentioned
or it is Thursday.

00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:31.110 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of seven
promises the last of them

00:04:31.110 --> 00:04:33.090 align:middle line:84%
to live to see it
again, but the womb

00:04:33.090 --> 00:04:35.940 align:middle line:90%
may not have been listening.

00:04:35.940 --> 00:04:38.850 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of the words
"still" after the angels

00:04:38.850 --> 00:04:41.040 align:middle line:84%
came to the door
in her barren age,

00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.260 align:middle line:84%
but on that same day
she lost her memory

00:04:43.260 --> 00:04:47.370 align:middle line:84%
and she gave birth
without understanding.

00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:49.200 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of a drunken
rape at a veterans'

00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:51.240 align:middle line:84%
convention in a
brutal empire bandaged

00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:56.310 align:middle line:84%
with the arguments of empires,
but hallowed be thy name.

00:04:56.310 --> 00:04:58.560 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
starvation of the Utes,

00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:00.900 align:middle line:84%
the tortures and
gassing of the Jews,

00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:04.770 align:middle line:84%
the interrogation of suspects,
the burning of villages,

00:05:04.770 --> 00:05:07.380 align:middle line:84%
the throat of the
antelope, the amputations

00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:10.440 align:middle line:84%
of the domesticated,
the cries of the extinct

00:05:10.440 --> 00:05:14.190 align:middle line:84%
and I plead ignorance, ignorance
but it would be no better

00:05:14.190 --> 00:05:16.830 align:middle line:90%
to be an orphan.

00:05:16.830 --> 00:05:18.780 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the ark
that was carried empty

00:05:18.780 --> 00:05:20.430 align:middle line:84%
before the tribes
in the wilderness,

00:05:20.430 --> 00:05:23.220 align:middle line:84%
but I walk because
the times have changed

00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:26.460 align:middle line:90%
and there is no one behind.

00:05:26.460 --> 00:05:29.190 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of a statue of
Hamalid the Great, the Weight

00:05:29.190 --> 00:05:33.540 align:middle line:84%
of God that was renamed
Vengeance in a different tongue

00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:36.750 align:middle line:84%
and that with raised knife still
shouts its incomprehensible

00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:40.320 align:middle line:84%
syllable to the dark
square with one foot

00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:45.250 align:middle line:84%
on the illegible date of death,
had no apparent sex any longer,

00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:49.120 align:middle line:84%
but it was modeled on
a jailer's dead wife.

00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.880 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of four elements--
fire, darkness, salt,

00:05:51.880 --> 00:05:55.918 align:middle line:84%
and vertigo but I dance as
though they were strangers.

00:05:55.918 --> 00:05:57.460 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of the
cloud Cynian that

00:05:57.460 --> 00:05:59.920 align:middle line:84%
appeared as a torn
white breast above Herod

00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:02.680 align:middle line:84%
and was not recognized,
but I acknowledge

00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:05.500 align:middle line:84%
its vatic suffering are still
visible in the bruised haze

00:06:05.500 --> 00:06:08.020 align:middle line:90%
of the ridges.

00:06:08.020 --> 00:06:10.870 align:middle line:84%
I am of the blood of the ash
shrew whose remains have not

00:06:10.870 --> 00:06:13.240 align:middle line:84%
been found, but whose
characteristics have been

00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.630 align:middle line:84%
deduced from my teeth, my
mistakes, the atrophied

00:06:16.630 --> 00:06:18.580 align:middle line:84%
at the heart of each
of my fingerprints,

00:06:18.580 --> 00:06:21.070 align:middle line:84%
and the size of the door
at the base of the skull

00:06:21.070 --> 00:06:23.140 align:middle line:84%
where now the performers
under each with his eye

00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:26.200 align:middle line:90%
fixed on the waiting instrument.

00:06:26.200 --> 00:06:28.900 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the bird
fire that has no eyes,

00:06:28.900 --> 00:06:32.110 align:middle line:84%
but sings to itself after
waiting alone and silent

00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:34.180 align:middle line:90%
in the alien wood.

00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:37.810 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of fear, but
it means I am never lost.

00:06:37.810 --> 00:06:39.820 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of terrible
labors, but triumph

00:06:39.820 --> 00:06:43.270 align:middle line:84%
comes to the flags
that have done nothing.

00:06:43.270 --> 00:06:44.500 align:middle line:90%
I am a son of pain--

00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:46.810 align:middle line:90%
time nurses me.

00:06:46.810 --> 00:06:51.460 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of nobody, but when
I go the islands turn black.

00:06:51.460 --> 00:06:52.900 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of
the first Sabbath,

00:06:52.900 --> 00:06:56.170 align:middle line:84%
but after me cometh
the eighth day.

00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:59.230 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of hunger, hunger
and hunger in an unbroken line

00:06:59.230 --> 00:07:01.360 align:middle line:84%
back to the mouths
of the coelenterates

00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.210 align:middle line:90%
but even I have been filled.

00:07:04.210 --> 00:07:06.980 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of remorse
in the vein of fossils,

00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:09.640 align:middle line:90%
but I might not have been.

00:07:09.640 --> 00:07:13.180 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of division, but the
nails, the wires, the hasps,

00:07:13.180 --> 00:07:16.240 align:middle line:84%
the bolts, the locks,
the traps, the wrappings

00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:20.260 align:middle line:84%
that hold me together are
part of the inheritance.

00:07:20.260 --> 00:07:22.870 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of indifference,
but neglect is a stage

00:07:22.870 --> 00:07:25.270 align:middle line:90%
in the life of the garden.

00:07:25.270 --> 00:07:27.670 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of no, but
memory bathes its knowledge

00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:29.650 align:middle line:90%
and desire.

00:07:29.650 --> 00:07:32.080 align:middle line:84%
I'm the son of blindness,
but I watch the light stretch

00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:34.510 align:middle line:90%
one wing.

00:07:34.510 --> 00:07:36.700 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
silence in heaven,

00:07:36.700 --> 00:07:41.542 align:middle line:84%
but I cried and the dark
angels went on falling.

00:07:41.542 --> 00:07:43.000 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of
things as they are,

00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:44.375 align:middle line:84%
but I know them
for the most part

00:07:44.375 --> 00:07:46.990 align:middle line:90%
only as they are remembered.

00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:50.110 align:middle line:84%
I'm a son of farewells and one
of them will not come back,

00:07:50.110 --> 00:07:52.870 align:middle line:90%
but one of me never forget.

00:07:52.870 --> 00:07:55.390 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of violence,
the ignorant herald,

00:07:55.390 --> 00:07:58.030 align:middle line:90%
but the seal is royal.

00:07:58.030 --> 00:07:59.920 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of stars
never seen, never

00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.950 align:middle line:84%
to be seen for we will be gone
before their light reaches us,

00:08:02.950 --> 00:08:07.630 align:middle line:84%
but the decisions they
demand are with us now, now.

00:08:07.630 --> 00:08:11.460 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of love, but I
lose you in the palm of my hand.

00:08:11.460 --> 00:08:13.210 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of prisoners,
but I was got out

00:08:13.210 --> 00:08:15.850 align:middle line:84%
in the form of a gold tooth,
a picture of two elders

00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:18.370 align:middle line:84%
and a platinum locket,
a pair of eyeglasses

00:08:18.370 --> 00:08:21.908 align:middle line:84%
with rims of white
metal, one pearl earring,

00:08:21.908 --> 00:08:23.950 align:middle line:84%
a knife with a picture of
Jerusalem on the silver

00:08:23.950 --> 00:08:26.680 align:middle line:84%
handle, and I am
being reassembled,

00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.390 align:middle line:84%
and keep finding myself,
and beginning again

00:08:29.390 --> 00:08:32.559 align:middle line:90%
the process of reunion.

00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:35.350 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of hazard, but
does my prayer reach you,

00:08:35.350 --> 00:08:38.090 align:middle line:90%
oh star of the uncertain?

00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:41.049 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of blindness, but
nothing that we have made

00:08:41.049 --> 00:08:43.240 align:middle line:90%
watches us.

00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:45.430 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of untruth, but
I have seen the children

00:08:45.430 --> 00:08:50.590 align:middle line:84%
in paradise walking in pairs
each hand in hand with himself.

00:08:50.590 --> 00:08:53.500 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the warder, but
he was buried with his keys.

00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:55.000 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of the
light, but does it

00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.610 align:middle line:90%
call me Samuel or Jonah?

00:08:57.610 --> 00:09:01.540 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of a wish older than
water, but I needed till now.

00:09:01.540 --> 00:09:04.000 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of ghosts clutching
the world like roads,

00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.240 align:middle line:84%
but tomorrow I
will go a new way.

00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:09.520 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of ruins
already among us,

00:09:09.520 --> 00:09:13.150 align:middle line:84%
but at moments I have found hope
beyond doubt, beyond desert,

00:09:13.150 --> 00:09:15.730 align:middle line:84%
beyond reason and such
that I have prayed,

00:09:15.730 --> 00:09:19.850 align:middle line:84%
oh wounds come back from
death and be healed.

00:09:19.850 --> 00:09:21.850 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of hazard,
but go on with the story

00:09:21.850 --> 00:09:24.530 align:middle line:90%
you think is yours.

00:09:24.530 --> 00:09:27.790 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of love, but
the hangman are my brothers.

00:09:27.790 --> 00:09:31.300 align:middle line:84%
I am a son of love, but
the islands are black.

00:09:31.300 --> 00:09:32.920 align:middle line:84%
I am the son of love
for which parent

00:09:32.920 --> 00:09:35.860 align:middle line:84%
the blood groups in dread
as though it were naked,

00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:38.980 align:middle line:84%
and for which cause the sun
hangs in a cage of light,

00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:41.680 align:middle line:90%
and we are his pain.

00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:42.220 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:44.970 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:09:44.970 --> 00:09:48.095 align:middle line:90%