WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.780 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.780 --> 00:00:04.710 align:middle line:84%
This last poem that I'm going to
read is called "The Ice Eagle."

00:00:04.710 --> 00:00:07.650 align:middle line:90%


00:00:07.650 --> 00:00:12.420 align:middle line:84%
The title is a reference
to that kind of ice carving

00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:14.505 align:middle line:84%
that's done for very,
very expensive parties.

00:00:14.505 --> 00:00:17.410 align:middle line:90%


00:00:17.410 --> 00:00:20.615 align:middle line:90%
It's always fascinating.

00:00:20.615 --> 00:00:22.490 align:middle line:84%
They carve the ice into
very beautiful shapes

00:00:22.490 --> 00:00:23.270 align:middle line:90%
and then it melts.

00:00:23.270 --> 00:00:27.210 align:middle line:90%


00:00:27.210 --> 00:00:33.360 align:middle line:84%
I write a lot of poems about
the culture that we live in,

00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:38.580 align:middle line:84%
and it's bravado masculinity,
which is almost always

00:00:38.580 --> 00:00:41.540 align:middle line:90%
a very pseudo masculine.

00:00:41.540 --> 00:00:47.270 align:middle line:84%
And which is what, trying
to constantly reinforce it

00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:50.250 align:middle line:84%
makes a lot of problems
in our culture.

00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:52.980 align:middle line:84%
And in a funny way,
women suffer from it

00:00:52.980 --> 00:00:55.980 align:middle line:84%
as much as men do
because we are constantly

00:00:55.980 --> 00:01:02.270 align:middle line:84%
at the mercy of strong
facades with very weak things

00:01:02.270 --> 00:01:03.570 align:middle line:90%
to master.

00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:07.160 align:middle line:84%
And I am talking
about the ice eagle

00:01:07.160 --> 00:01:10.710 align:middle line:84%
because I was thinking of the
fact that the totem for America

00:01:10.710 --> 00:01:13.550 align:middle line:84%
is the eagle is a
very fierce bird.

00:01:13.550 --> 00:01:16.830 align:middle line:90%


00:01:16.830 --> 00:01:17.760 align:middle line:90%
"The Ice Eagle."

00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:20.840 align:middle line:90%


00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:24.380 align:middle line:84%
It was with resolution that she
gave up the powerful teardrops

00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:25.730 align:middle line:90%
in her eyes.

00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:29.720 align:middle line:84%
That crystal, the Venus
soft, lizard-eyed creature

00:01:29.720 --> 00:01:34.550 align:middle line:84%
called woman gazes through
her philosopher's stone.

00:01:34.550 --> 00:01:40.370 align:middle line:84%
The sweet glass that drops from
the sky, ancient in sacrifice,

00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:44.730 align:middle line:90%
cut off tears with knives.

00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:47.260 align:middle line:84%
The 50-pound eagle
carved out of ice

00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:51.390 align:middle line:84%
sitting in the silver
punchbowl turned her attention

00:01:51.390 --> 00:01:52.425 align:middle line:90%
to physical detail.

00:01:52.425 --> 00:01:54.960 align:middle line:90%


00:01:54.960 --> 00:01:57.660 align:middle line:90%
Why am I saying her?

00:01:57.660 --> 00:02:04.080 align:middle line:84%
It is I. Undoubtedly, I,
the life, a dream work.

00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:06.180 align:middle line:84%
Undoubtedly, the life
has been confused

00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:09.180 align:middle line:84%
with the movies, and,
I, Gloria Swanson,

00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:13.590 align:middle line:84%
walking discontented for all
parties become that to me.

00:02:13.590 --> 00:02:17.730 align:middle line:84%
I cannot walk through the
rituals without my golden mask.

00:02:17.730 --> 00:02:18.240 align:middle line:90%
Alas!

00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.970 align:middle line:84%
Three dozen of them
hang on my wall.

00:02:20.970 --> 00:02:24.240 align:middle line:84%
The thick lips reminding
me of what has been eaten,

00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:26.730 align:middle line:90%
and has not nourished.

00:02:26.730 --> 00:02:30.210 align:middle line:84%
Physical detail: The
lawn that sloped down

00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:32.670 align:middle line:84%
to the sea cliffs,
the swallows building

00:02:32.670 --> 00:02:34.590 align:middle line:90%
their nests in rafters.

00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:37.950 align:middle line:84%
The stone house punctured
with courts and patios,

00:02:37.950 --> 00:02:40.710 align:middle line:84%
bougainvillea
winding up its sides,

00:02:40.710 --> 00:02:44.010 align:middle line:84%
raw, old Spanish wood
composing chests,

00:02:44.010 --> 00:02:46.950 align:middle line:84%
and high steel chairs
moved and touched

00:02:46.950 --> 00:02:49.170 align:middle line:90%
in the water-like smoothness.

00:02:49.170 --> 00:02:52.000 align:middle line:84%
The gravel driveway
balancing the cutaway heels

00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:53.670 align:middle line:90%
of beautiful women.

00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:84%
The men swimming through
the night in dinner jackets,

00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.800 align:middle line:84%
like paper cups
floating on the ocean.

00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:02.900 align:middle line:90%
Yes, her eyes.

00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:06.350 align:middle line:90%
Again, why do I say her?

00:03:06.350 --> 00:03:10.460 align:middle line:84%
I must insist it
is I. My eyes are

00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:14.210 align:middle line:84%
informed of silk and the
obsidian mines of the rich.

00:03:14.210 --> 00:03:18.320 align:middle line:84%
Here is a thick black,
glossy black, smooth idea--

00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:20.570 align:middle line:90%
sex, and nothing else.

00:03:20.570 --> 00:03:23.480 align:middle line:84%
The rich are born bored
and look for purposes,

00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:26.690 align:middle line:84%
causes, projects
to keep them busy.

00:03:26.690 --> 00:03:29.210 align:middle line:84%
The women make up
wild malachite eyes,

00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:32.330 align:middle line:84%
green with beautiful sleep,
and restless knowledge

00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:37.040 align:middle line:84%
of new plays, new dancers,
new books, new jazz.

00:03:37.040 --> 00:03:39.610 align:middle line:84%
They can ring their
Egyptian eyes with kohl

00:03:39.610 --> 00:03:40.670 align:middle line:90%
and be aesthetes.

00:03:40.670 --> 00:03:44.330 align:middle line:84%
And in veils walk down
the rocky path to the sea,

00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:49.100 align:middle line:84%
riding black tigers of
Sartre and Camus and Ionesco.

00:03:49.100 --> 00:03:51.800 align:middle line:84%
Yards of chiffon
trailing their heels,

00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.260 align:middle line:90%
and they despair the men.

00:03:54.260 --> 00:04:01.070 align:middle line:84%
They, I, we, all women, when
it gets past social class,

00:04:01.070 --> 00:04:03.440 align:middle line:84%
despair the men who
have only the moon

00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:06.690 align:middle line:90%
in their milky fluid fingers.

00:04:06.690 --> 00:04:09.150 align:middle line:90%
Yes, they wait.

00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:13.590 align:middle line:84%
For the sun God, we wait to find
him naked in a blaze of fire

00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:17.070 align:middle line:84%
and we are stuck with
vulgar substitutes.

00:04:17.070 --> 00:04:21.000 align:middle line:84%
The fashionable avant-garde
dancer, the sensational beat

00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:25.350 align:middle line:84%
poet, the jazz trumpeter, the
Negro novelist, and Amen-ra,

00:04:25.350 --> 00:04:29.520 align:middle line:84%
Amen-ra, Our Father, they
are all glorious sun,

00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:33.360 align:middle line:84%
brilliant artists, but
homosexuals fucking each other,

00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.060 align:middle line:84%
riding on their
own black panthers

00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:38.790 align:middle line:90%
wading into the iron waters.

00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:42.660 align:middle line:84%
Again, the women must rest
their bodies against each other

00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:43.950 align:middle line:90%
and moan.

00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:46.980 align:middle line:84%
It is not the mysteries
that draw the men,

00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.370 align:middle line:84%
but the fear of that great
mystery, the veiled woman,

00:04:50.370 --> 00:04:55.420 align:middle line:84%
Isis, mother, whom they fear
to be greater than all else.

00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:57.000 align:middle line:90%
And I am sick unto death.

00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:58.080 align:middle line:90%
Sick, I say.

00:04:58.080 --> 00:05:01.620 align:middle line:84%
We live in a world where men
have forgotten their offices,

00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:05.040 align:middle line:84%
only taking the woman like
good debaters assigned

00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:09.120 align:middle line:84%
to the positive side on whom
rest the burden of proof.

00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.720 align:middle line:90%
Only taking her on the surface.

00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:15.890 align:middle line:84%
She, I, we can peel
off layer after layer

00:05:15.890 --> 00:05:17.810 align:middle line:90%
where you have taken her.

00:05:17.810 --> 00:05:22.280 align:middle line:84%
And yet, find the bottom deep
and tight, and untouched,

00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:25.520 align:middle line:84%
and longing for the
greater measure.

00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:31.130 align:middle line:84%
She, no it was I, walked
to the moon in Pisces,

00:05:31.130 --> 00:05:34.310 align:middle line:84%
and felt the trout slipping
down into the ocean.

00:05:34.310 --> 00:05:36.170 align:middle line:84%
The carved ice
eagle of that party

00:05:36.170 --> 00:05:39.020 align:middle line:84%
was melting into the
gin and strawberries.

00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:42.860 align:middle line:84%
In its beak, someone had
placed an American flag.

00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:45.140 align:middle line:84%
I found it hard
to believe myself

00:05:45.140 --> 00:05:49.190 align:middle line:84%
in this slippery,
unreal, man-made country.

00:05:49.190 --> 00:05:50.150 align:middle line:90%
Look!

00:05:50.150 --> 00:05:51.080 align:middle line:90%
Look!

00:05:51.080 --> 00:05:54.290 align:middle line:84%
Look, I want to say the
eagle is a powerful bird.

00:05:54.290 --> 00:05:57.950 align:middle line:84%
In your fear, all you can
do is carve him out of ice.

00:05:57.950 --> 00:06:00.290 align:middle line:84%
And that leaves
only one alternative

00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:02.270 align:middle line:90%
in this temperate climate.

00:06:02.270 --> 00:06:07.190 align:middle line:84%
The ice eagle can
do nothing but melt.

00:06:07.190 --> 00:06:10.540 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:29.000 align:middle line:90%