WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.495 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE CLAPPING] 00:00:02.495 --> 00:00:04.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.990 --> 00:00:05.988 align:middle line:90% [BELL CLANGING] 00:00:05.988 --> 00:00:07.485 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:00:07.485 --> 00:00:09.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:12.420 align:middle line:90% It was a staring game. 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:14.760 align:middle line:90% I know these people, so. 00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:16.245 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:00:16.245 --> 00:00:17.235 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.235 --> 00:00:23.223 align:middle line:90% The reading's [INAUDIBLE] Wow. 00:00:23.223 --> 00:00:24.390 align:middle line:90% Well, it's great to be here. 00:00:24.390 --> 00:00:27.360 align:middle line:84% And I'm sure most people say that stand here. 00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:29.190 align:middle line:90% But it's great to be here, huh? 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:31.290 align:middle line:90% It's the Poetry Center. 00:00:31.290 --> 00:00:33.090 align:middle line:84% And if nothing else, the poet wants 00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:36.960 align:middle line:84% to be embraced and a part of inside, and outside, and all 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:40.530 align:middle line:90% around the Poetry Center. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:42.090 align:middle line:90% Poetry is elusive. 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:43.800 align:middle line:90% It is not a thing that can be. 00:00:43.800 --> 00:00:45.909 align:middle line:84% And this is just Thomas's opinion. 00:00:45.909 --> 00:00:46.701 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:00:46.701 --> 00:00:50.250 align:middle line:84% It is not a thing that can be held, or owned, or contained 00:00:50.250 --> 00:00:51.790 align:middle line:90% for a very long time. 00:00:51.790 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:84% So even those successful poems, those 00:00:55.170 --> 00:01:00.780 align:middle line:84% that we consider in this moment, are only grasping. 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:04.620 align:middle line:84% So it's an honor, a privilege to share with you my graspings, 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:07.530 align:middle line:84% my attempts to reach something outside of me, 00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:11.540 align:middle line:84% something moving, something whole. 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:14.215 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to begin by reading-- 00:01:14.215 --> 00:01:15.340 align:middle line:90% so thank you for listening. 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:16.920 align:middle line:84% I'm going to begin by reading some poems from The Maverick 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:17.798 align:middle line:90% Room, just a few. 00:01:17.798 --> 00:01:19.590 align:middle line:84% Then I'm going to move into the newer work. 00:01:19.590 --> 00:01:23.220 align:middle line:84% And interrupt me any time in the reading. 00:01:23.220 --> 00:01:24.120 align:middle line:90% I might interrupt me. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.730 align:middle line:90% And we should have a good time. 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:30.930 align:middle line:84% This first thing is called "Marcus Garvey Vitamins." 00:01:30.930 --> 00:01:35.460 align:middle line:84% And when I was a kid, we had a saying that went, 00:01:35.460 --> 00:01:38.210 align:middle line:84% a hero ain't nothing but a sandwich. 00:01:38.210 --> 00:01:40.710 align:middle line:84% And that was a baffling thing to me. 00:01:40.710 --> 00:01:43.890 align:middle line:84% I know what it meant, but I interpreted it, at a young age, 00:01:43.890 --> 00:01:48.855 align:middle line:84% to mean, well, if we could eat the things that inspired us, 00:01:48.855 --> 00:01:51.540 align:middle line:84% what would those nutrients be like? 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:54.060 align:middle line:84% Langston Hughes has a great line for one 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:58.080 align:middle line:84% of his poems called "Of Laws and Crowns." 00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:00.840 align:middle line:84% And he says, I love Ralph Bunche, 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:04.110 align:middle line:90% but I can't eat him for lunch. 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:05.820 align:middle line:90% So if we could. 00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:08.699 align:middle line:84% This poem has four [? five ?] short sections. 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:10.470 align:middle line:84% And it has italicized words in it. 00:02:10.470 --> 00:02:12.300 align:middle line:84% And when I get to an italicized word, 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:14.250 align:middle line:90% I'm going to go like this-- 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:15.690 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:02:15.690 --> 00:02:16.650 align:middle line:90% 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:21.150 align:middle line:84% --just so you can get a sense of the structural integrity of how 00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:22.200 align:middle line:90% modern it is. 00:02:22.200 --> 00:02:23.270 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:02:23.270 --> 00:02:23.672 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.672 --> 00:02:25.380 align:middle line:84% And when I get to an italicized syllable, 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:27.990 align:middle line:90% I'm going to go like that. 00:02:27.990 --> 00:02:31.200 align:middle line:90% "Marcus Garvey Vitamins." 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:37.410 align:middle line:84% All us we folk person community first. 00:02:37.410 --> 00:02:44.850 align:middle line:84% Invent truth, no he didn't, yes he did. 00:02:44.850 --> 00:02:46.080 align:middle line:90% Ain't English. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.720 align:middle line:90% You lyin' to me. 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:54.390 align:middle line:84% Africa disagrees with subject-verb agreement. 00:02:54.390 --> 00:02:59.700 align:middle line:84% Aspect ratio, widescreen whiteache. 00:02:59.700 --> 00:03:04.500 align:middle line:84% Don't like it, don't Pulitzer me. 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:09.020 align:middle line:90% I stress less than landlessness. 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:14.380 align:middle line:84% I break beat, I rhetorical strategy, I escape route. 00:03:14.380 --> 00:03:17.480 align:middle line:90% I, I, I, psych. 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:19.930 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] 00:03:19.930 --> 00:03:31.000 align:middle line:90%