WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.340 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.340 --> 00:00:08.725 align:middle line:84%
It's wonderful to
be here in Tucson.

00:00:08.725 --> 00:00:12.940 align:middle line:90%


00:00:12.940 --> 00:00:18.970 align:middle line:84%
I want to thank the festival
organizers for inviting me.

00:00:18.970 --> 00:00:22.600 align:middle line:84%
My voice is a little
hoarse, I've been traveling.

00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:26.670 align:middle line:90%
But I will do my best.

00:00:26.670 --> 00:00:30.620 align:middle line:90%


00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:34.070 align:middle line:84%
This poem is called
California Poppy.

00:00:34.070 --> 00:00:38.600 align:middle line:90%


00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:43.280 align:middle line:84%
Shuddering back to this
coastline, craggy old goat

00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:51.650 align:middle line:84%
rock, or the sweep of dune where
Judah meets squid ink Pacific.

00:00:51.650 --> 00:00:58.480 align:middle line:84%
No more the nomad, for now,
or stubbornly everywhere,

00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:03.370 align:middle line:84%
as each exotic dancer filling
the cracks, the cracked

00:01:03.370 --> 00:01:05.890 align:middle line:90%
sidewalks of North Beach.

00:01:05.890 --> 00:01:10.960 align:middle line:84%
As the indigent, waving his
tattered placard on the island,

00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:14.740 align:middle line:84%
what we call this meridian
near Church and Dolores

00:01:14.740 --> 00:01:17.560 align:middle line:84%
where the fronds
of palm trees are

00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:23.560 align:middle line:84%
stippled with shrill, green
or yellow lorikeets saying,

00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:30.110 align:middle line:84%
come to my island, live cast
off cargo on this desolate reef.

00:01:30.110 --> 00:01:35.660 align:middle line:84%
As the transmissible fruit fly
larvae, ravaging local oranges,

00:01:35.660 --> 00:01:40.340 align:middle line:84%
as a fragile head upon a
thinning stalk that somehow

00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:43.640 align:middle line:84%
manages to clasp
hands at evening

00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:47.930 align:middle line:84%
and send up its muttering
entreaty, so small

00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:49.680 align:middle line:90%
you might not notice.

00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:56.000 align:middle line:84%
So ubiquitous, you see so many
ugly little flapping faces

00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.260 align:middle line:84%
parking city car lots,
the freeway on ramps,

00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:03.290 align:middle line:90%
the piss scented flower pots.

00:02:03.290 --> 00:02:08.750 align:middle line:84%
The unclaimed and untended
plots, so few, and yet they

00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:12.290 align:middle line:84%
are dense with the
wispy strands of hair

00:02:12.290 --> 00:02:17.540 align:middle line:84%
and the folds of sallow
tents, that you've your right

00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:21.230 align:middle line:84%
to ignore them, to ignore
the grasping fingers

00:02:21.230 --> 00:02:26.780 align:middle line:84%
and bloated waxy face of the
wildly surviving thing that

00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:32.450 align:middle line:84%
once was somebody's boutonniere,
somebody flash of light.

00:02:32.450 --> 00:02:36.530 align:middle line:84%
Trail of phosphorescent
street lamps

00:02:36.530 --> 00:02:39.610 align:middle line:90%
punctuating the homeless night.

00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:41.000 align:middle line:90%