WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:07.020 align:middle line:84% The next one is the last travel poem I'll read. 00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:08.760 align:middle line:84% It's called the "Tattooed Desert," 00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:12.420 align:middle line:84% and it is the title poem in my book, The Tattooed Desert. 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:84% So you can judge by that, that I like it. 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:19.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:19.170 --> 00:00:21.690 align:middle line:84% This is another poem that people have accused me 00:00:21.690 --> 00:00:25.360 align:middle line:84% of messing around with when I wrote it. 00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:26.970 align:middle line:90% And there again I didn't. 00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:35.280 align:middle line:84% In biblical times, you had to be accused of adultery 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:36.660 align:middle line:90% in order to get stoned. 00:00:36.660 --> 00:00:39.510 align:middle line:84% And we have made enormous social progress since and now 00:00:39.510 --> 00:00:43.090 align:middle line:84% you don't fool with the adultery anymore. 00:00:43.090 --> 00:00:45.180 align:middle line:90% However, that is not the case. 00:00:45.180 --> 00:00:47.610 align:middle line:90% I deny it again in this case. 00:00:47.610 --> 00:00:50.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.830 --> 00:00:52.500 align:middle line:84% This is just a surrealistic poem, 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:55.650 align:middle line:84% and perhaps the element of surrealism 00:00:55.650 --> 00:00:58.810 align:middle line:90% might be a little confusing. 00:00:58.810 --> 00:01:00.580 align:middle line:84% This could be interpreted in many ways. 00:01:00.580 --> 00:01:03.120 align:middle line:84% It has been interpreted as a flight from organized 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:06.730 align:middle line:84% religion, which I think is fine if you see it that way. 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:11.010 align:middle line:84% I see it more nearly as a struggle 00:01:11.010 --> 00:01:12.458 align:middle line:90% in the creative process. 00:01:12.458 --> 00:01:15.000 align:middle line:84% This was written at a time when I was kind of at a crossroads 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.070 align:middle line:90% and had two roads to follow. 00:01:17.070 --> 00:01:20.550 align:middle line:84% I could choose between the two, and neither one was very easy. 00:01:20.550 --> 00:01:23.510 align:middle line:84% So I chose one, and I've been happy with it. 00:01:23.510 --> 00:01:24.510 align:middle line:90% I've never regretted it. 00:01:24.510 --> 00:01:30.000 align:middle line:84% But I think it reflects that struggle more than anything. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:31.245 align:middle line:90% The "Tattooed Desert." 00:01:31.245 --> 00:01:34.230 align:middle line:90% 00:01:34.230 --> 00:01:36.360 align:middle line:84% At whatever page the book fell open, 00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:40.320 align:middle line:84% I read it and knelt beside every bed. 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:42.690 align:middle line:84% They could have baptized me in any tub 00:01:42.690 --> 00:01:45.480 align:middle line:84% and fitted me with second hand wings at the auction, 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:47.640 align:middle line:90% I wouldn't have minded. 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.850 align:middle line:84% But the gods turned out to be grotesques. 00:01:50.850 --> 00:01:54.300 align:middle line:84% They paraded before me as if for inspection 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:57.240 align:middle line:84% with dirty gauze over their eyes. 00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:00.630 align:middle line:84% When the road forked, they took both ways. 00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:03.510 align:middle line:84% They disguised themselves as places I couldn't find. 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:05.190 align:middle line:84% Their feathers turned into ferns. 00:02:05.190 --> 00:02:07.410 align:middle line:84% And when I reached out to them, they 00:02:07.410 --> 00:02:10.949 align:middle line:84% were distant landscapes moving through my fingers 00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:16.410 align:middle line:84% and leaving a strange smell on my hands. 00:02:16.410 --> 00:02:18.030 align:middle line:84% While the old hat under the tower 00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:21.780 align:middle line:84% was telling the same story and a toothless mouth 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:25.530 align:middle line:84% was getting ready to grin, the one with a face like a pig 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:29.970 align:middle line:84% began to eat his own fingers and I ran away. 00:02:29.970 --> 00:02:33.030 align:middle line:84% They initialed the space I left, but they found me 00:02:33.030 --> 00:02:36.780 align:middle line:84% again upstairs in the back bedroom of another house 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.690 align:middle line:84% with whiskey hitting my tongue like a hammer, 00:02:39.690 --> 00:02:42.300 align:middle line:84% and again, I climbed out the window 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:46.590 align:middle line:84% and slid down the tree and the Gothic reign. 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:51.450 align:middle line:84% I must have been almost crazy to start out alone like that. 00:02:51.450 --> 00:02:54.240 align:middle line:84% On my bicycle pedaling into the tropics, 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.140 align:middle line:84% carrying a medicine for which no one had found the disease 00:02:58.140 --> 00:03:00.390 align:middle line:84% and hoping I would make it in time. 00:03:00.390 --> 00:03:03.210 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:06.330 align:middle line:84% I passed through a paper village under glass 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:10.380 align:middle line:84% where the explorers first found silence and taught it to speak, 00:03:10.380 --> 00:03:13.020 align:middle line:84% where old men were sitting in front of their houses 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:16.740 align:middle line:90% killing sand without mercy. 00:03:16.740 --> 00:03:21.330 align:middle line:84% Brothers, I shouted to them, tell me who moved the river, 00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:25.350 align:middle line:84% where can I find a good place to drown? 00:03:25.350 --> 00:03:28.900 align:middle line:90% Slowly, they raised their heads. 00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:30.960 align:middle line:84% This is the tattooed desert, they 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:33.990 align:middle line:84% told me, all that will survive of it 00:03:33.990 --> 00:03:37.140 align:middle line:90% will be what you remember. 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:39.450 align:middle line:84% Then they went into their flaming houses 00:03:39.450 --> 00:03:42.060 align:middle line:90% and closed the doors. 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.610 align:middle line:84% And I rode on through the disappointed night 00:03:44.610 --> 00:03:47.070 align:middle line:84% with my pulse beating like a ticket about 00:03:47.070 --> 00:03:51.690 align:middle line:84% to be torn while the mountains tried every possible position 00:03:51.690 --> 00:03:56.740 align:middle line:84% and finally slept with their backs to one another. 00:03:56.740 --> 00:03:59.940 align:middle line:84% When I found the river, it was what I expected, 00:03:59.940 --> 00:04:04.440 align:middle line:84% just an old wall lying down covered with pictures. 00:04:04.440 --> 00:04:09.120 align:middle line:84% Dead mystics were buried on its banks, each with his telephone 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:10.200 align:middle line:90% beside him. 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:13.120 align:middle line:90% I recognized the place. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.510 align:middle line:84% I knew all the secret passages it must 00:04:15.510 --> 00:04:18.690 align:middle line:90% have been where I was born. 00:04:18.690 --> 00:04:22.079 align:middle line:84% The gentle eyes of the river looked up at me 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:27.240 align:middle line:84% without reproach and those floating past spoke, 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:31.140 align:middle line:84% this is cremation by water, they said. 00:04:31.140 --> 00:04:37.110 align:middle line:84% We who are burned here rise up without ashes. 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:39.750 align:middle line:84% We are repeated in the sound of wax bells 00:04:39.750 --> 00:04:45.660 align:middle line:84% ringing and the testimony of mouthless trees. 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:48.000 align:middle line:84% While they spoke, the sky arrived, 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.790 align:middle line:84% and I saw the perfect complexion of light. 00:04:50.790 --> 00:04:53.160 align:middle line:84% The wind was blowing the mountains away 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.020 align:middle line:90% at an incredible speed. 00:04:55.020 --> 00:04:59.700 align:middle line:84% And suddenly, it was the morning after nothing. 00:04:59.700 --> 00:05:03.690 align:middle line:84% My faithful servant, Payne, who had followed me 00:05:03.690 --> 00:05:10.470 align:middle line:84% all this way approached holding out a gift and I took it-- 00:05:10.470 --> 00:05:15.000 align:middle line:84% a sleeping bat gorged with blood. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.900 align:middle line:84% All day I will carry it with me as a reminder to those 00:05:18.900 --> 00:05:20.850 align:middle line:90% who would take me back. 00:05:20.850 --> 00:05:25.440 align:middle line:84% See, I will say holding it up to them, 00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:27.375 align:middle line:90% we have survived another night. 00:05:27.375 --> 00:05:34.108 align:middle line:90% 00:05:34.108 --> 00:05:37.084 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:37.084 --> 00:05:42.822 align:middle line:90% 00:05:42.822 --> 00:05:45.030 align:middle line:84% I think you think every time I take a drink of water, 00:05:45.030 --> 00:05:46.620 align:middle line:90% you have to applaud, is that it? 00:05:46.620 --> 00:05:50.330 align:middle line:84% I think there's some relationship here to me.