WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.300 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.300 --> 00:00:04.290 align:middle line:84%
OK, and this is
a new poem that's

00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:07.091 align:middle line:90%
forthcoming in Poetry Northwest.

00:00:07.091 --> 00:00:09.680 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.680 --> 00:00:13.320 align:middle line:84%
It's called "Of the Unsolved
Problem of the Origin

00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.340 align:middle line:90%
of the Angiosperms--

00:00:15.340 --> 00:00:19.050 align:middle line:90%
the Chicago Cultural Center."

00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:23.700 align:middle line:84%
"This hallway is as hush and
marble as the room behind

00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:28.380 align:middle line:84%
the eyes of Brancusi's
'Sleeping Muse.'

00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:31.680 align:middle line:84%
Art deco lamps seep
their boudoiresque

00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:36.060 align:middle line:84%
glow in slim trapezoids
of frosted glass.

00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:39.450 align:middle line:84%
Scallops gilded,
shackled to the ceiling,

00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:43.380 align:middle line:84%
where green veins of
marble drip like moss.

00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:47.010 align:middle line:84%
Outside, the acid of
a February morning

00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:50.640 align:middle line:90%
with its costume a brutal cold.

00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:54.450 align:middle line:84%
You remember how when you
woke you couldn't breathe,

00:00:54.450 --> 00:00:57.210 align:middle line:84%
surrounded in the
bed by books whose

00:00:57.210 --> 00:01:02.250 align:middle line:84%
pages were turning quietly
but resolutely into powder.

00:01:02.250 --> 00:01:04.080 align:middle line:90%
You couldn't stop it.

00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:07.800 align:middle line:84%
Now you see the dust motes
stammering in the cliff of air

00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:10.500 align:middle line:84%
beneath the Tiffany
dome have taken

00:01:10.500 --> 00:01:13.110 align:middle line:84%
on the character of
light to which you

00:01:13.110 --> 00:01:15.360 align:middle line:90%
thought they were immune.

00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:19.020 align:middle line:84%
The past's great
vault, sheer as breath,

00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:84%
the casualties for just
a moment manifest the way

00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:26.100 align:middle line:84%
your hand and water might
slip across the glass

00:01:26.100 --> 00:01:28.280 align:middle line:90%
of a diving bell.

00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:32.700 align:middle line:84%
Synapomorphies of the
flowering plants, soft parts

00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:37.530 align:middle line:84%
erased from the fossil record,
the radiant mute space that is

00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.290 align:middle line:90%
the body of the sleeping muse.

00:01:40.290 --> 00:01:43.230 align:middle line:84%
When your eyes close,
you see the slush

00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:47.460 align:middle line:84%
of constellations above
the first flowers opening

00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:51.350 align:middle line:90%
140 million years ago."

00:01:51.350 --> 00:01:52.000 align:middle line:90%