WEBVTT

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Hello, thank you all for coming.

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Woah, jeez, technology.

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Yeah, that's OK.

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Anyway thank you all for coming.

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Thank you Allie, for the
very nice introduction.

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And thank you, Naomi, for
sharing your beautiful work.

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It's an honor to share the
podium with you tonight.

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I'd also like to thank the
board, the administration,

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the staff, and the judges of
the Arizona Poetry Center,

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for giving me this opportunity.

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It's really been
tremendous for me.

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Not only have I been able
to do a lot of writing

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and reading and experiencing
your beautiful library,

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I've been able to immerse myself
in a southwestern landscape

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that I'm going to miss.

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As Allie said, I'm getting ready
to shuffle on over to Richmond.

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And this time here has
been something I sorely

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needed a good send off.

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The sun and the heat and
the sand and the bugs.

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All that stuff
I'm going to miss.

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So I really appreciate
the opportunity.

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And I won't forget
it, and thank you.

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So tonight, I would like
to read from my book

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Descanso for My Father, and
as some of you in the room

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may know, descanso in
Spanish, means resting place.

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And in New Mexico,
a descanso is also

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the name for a roadside shrine.

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These kinds of memorials
you might see on your drive

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from Chimayo to Taos, or
Albuquerque to Las Cruces,

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with flowers and rosaries
and votive candles.

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And in New Mexico a descanso
means a couple of things.

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Not only does it mean--

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not only does it mark the
ground of somebody who has died,

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I believe it's also a
testament to the living.

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Descanso was a place where
two spirits come together

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in communion, in healing
and love, I think.

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And that's certainly my
intention with this book here,

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descanso in my book is
a memoir in a series

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of connected shorts.

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And each essay, each prose
poem, and each lyric essay

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is an offering on
the descanso shrine

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to the father I never knew.

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A man who for a lot of
complicated reasons,

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we never talked
about growing up.

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So with this book
it was a gesture

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on my behalf to try
and touch his spirit,

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and to try and
understand a little bit.

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So I would like to read three
short excerpts from my book.

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Three offerings if you will,
and hopefully give you a little

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insight into my strange and
beautiful little family.

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So with that, I would like
to start with an excerpt

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from an essay in the
collection called

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"Among the Broken Angels."

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