WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.430 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.430 --> 00:00:07.930 align:middle line:84% I'm going to sort of skip around in sequence 00:00:07.930 --> 00:00:10.315 align:middle line:84% and read some poems from the up country book. 00:00:10.315 --> 00:00:12.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:17.830 align:middle line:84% This book opens with a series of hermit poems. 00:00:17.830 --> 00:00:21.310 align:middle line:84% And they're all written to a male persona. 00:00:21.310 --> 00:00:27.280 align:middle line:84% And I feel as I kind of-- as I go around and read these poems, 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.190 align:middle line:84% I feel as though I owe some sort of explanation 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:33.730 align:middle line:84% to my sisters in the audience for having written them 00:00:33.730 --> 00:00:35.410 align:middle line:90% in a male voice. 00:00:35.410 --> 00:00:42.040 align:middle line:84% And about the only thing I can find to say to redeem this fact 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:44.590 align:middle line:84% is that I guess at the time that I wrote them, 00:00:44.590 --> 00:00:46.420 align:middle line:84% I really didn't think the world was 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:49.810 align:middle line:84% ready to take a female hermit seriously. 00:00:49.810 --> 00:00:52.390 align:middle line:84% And so that's why they're all kind of couched 00:00:52.390 --> 00:00:56.470 align:middle line:90% in this particular voice. 00:00:56.470 --> 00:00:59.980 align:middle line:84% I hope I've reversed the situation somewhat 00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:02.080 align:middle line:90% in the forthcoming book. 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:06.940 align:middle line:84% There are eight poems written to an old horse called the Amanda 00:01:06.940 --> 00:01:08.020 align:middle line:90% poems. 00:01:08.020 --> 00:01:10.630 align:middle line:84% And the speaker, as well as the mayor, 00:01:10.630 --> 00:01:13.420 align:middle line:90% are very obviously female. 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:17.890 align:middle line:84% So maybe I have redressed a small grievance. 00:01:17.890 --> 00:01:21.040 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read a couple of the hermit poems 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:23.860 align:middle line:84% and perhaps begin with this first one called "The Hermit 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:27.370 align:middle line:90% Wakes to Bird Sounds". 00:01:27.370 --> 00:01:29.290 align:middle line:90% "He startles awake. 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:32.230 align:middle line:84% His eyes are full of white light. 00:01:32.230 --> 00:01:36.220 align:middle line:84% In a minute, the sun will ooze into the sky. 00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:40.990 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, all the machines of morning start up. 00:01:40.990 --> 00:01:43.750 align:middle line:84% The typewriter bird is at it again. 00:01:43.750 --> 00:01:47.980 align:middle line:84% Her style is full of endearing hesitations. 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:52.510 align:middle line:84% The words, when they come, do so in the staccato rush 00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:55.510 align:middle line:90% of a deceitful love letter. 00:01:55.510 --> 00:02:00.070 align:middle line:84% The sewing machine bird returns to the doddering elm. 00:02:00.070 --> 00:02:04.210 align:middle line:84% Like Penelope, she rips out yesterday's stitches, 00:02:04.210 --> 00:02:09.430 align:middle line:84% only to glide up and down, front and back, reentering 00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:12.220 align:middle line:90% the same needle holes. 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:16.360 align:middle line:84% The bird who presides at the well house primes the pump. 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:21.370 align:middle line:84% Two gurgles applause, for squeaks of the handle, and time 00:02:21.370 --> 00:02:24.250 align:middle line:84% after time, a promise of water can 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:28.480 align:middle line:84% be heard falling back in the pipes throat. 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:32.260 align:middle line:84% Far off the logging birds saw into heartwood 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:35.920 align:middle line:84% with rusty blades, and the grouse cranks up 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:41.650 align:middle line:84% his eternally unstoppable model, and the oil can bird 00:02:41.650 --> 00:02:47.080 align:middle line:84% comes with his liquid puck puck to attend to the flinty clanks 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.360 align:middle line:90% of the disparate parts. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:54.040 align:middle line:84% And as the old bleached sun slips into position, 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:58.960 align:middle line:84% slowly, the teasing inept malfunctioning one 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:02.065 align:middle line:90% of a kind machines fall silent." 00:03:02.065 --> 00:03:06.590 align:middle line:90% 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:09.068 align:middle line:90% And this one-- 00:03:09.068 --> 00:03:12.920 align:middle line:84% I guess you don't have skunks in Arizona, do you? 00:03:12.920 --> 00:03:14.600 align:middle line:84% Oh, you do have skunks in Arizona. 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:16.850 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:16.850 --> 00:03:21.650 align:middle line:84% And this doesn't require any further explication. 00:03:21.650 --> 00:03:23.600 align:middle line:84% It's called "The Hermit Meets the Skunk". 00:03:23.600 --> 00:03:26.440 align:middle line:90% 00:03:26.440 --> 00:03:28.120 align:middle line:84% Do you want to come and sit down or-- 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:29.620 align:middle line:84% I mean, I want to give you a chance. 00:03:29.620 --> 00:03:30.120 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:32.680 align:middle line:90% 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.560 align:middle line:90% "The Hermit Meets the Skunk". 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:40.510 align:middle line:84% "The hermit's dog skitters home, drunk with it once every fall. 00:03:40.510 --> 00:03:43.990 align:middle line:84% The whites of his eyes marbled from the spray, 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:47.980 align:middle line:84% and his tail tucked tighter than a clamshell. 00:03:47.980 --> 00:03:53.440 align:middle line:84% He contracts himself to a mouse under the hermits bed. 00:03:53.440 --> 00:03:56.530 align:middle line:84% The hermit unsticks him with a broom 00:03:56.530 --> 00:03:59.560 align:middle line:90% and ties him outside to a tree. 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:03.850 align:middle line:84% He is a spotted dog, black rampant on white. 00:04:03.850 --> 00:04:06.280 align:middle line:84% And as the hermit scrubs, the white 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.920 align:middle line:90% goes satiny with love of soap. 00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:13.000 align:middle line:84% The black brightens to a boot black shine. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.649 align:middle line:84% Next, a dose of tomato juice stains the white like a razor 00:04:17.649 --> 00:04:21.250 align:middle line:84% cut under water and purples the black. 00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:25.480 align:middle line:84% And after that, the whole dog bleaches moon colored 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.780 align:middle line:90% under a drench of corn starch. 00:04:28.780 --> 00:04:30.700 align:middle line:90% The hermit sniffs him. 00:04:30.700 --> 00:04:35.860 align:middle line:84% Skunk is still plain as a train announcement. 00:04:35.860 --> 00:04:40.780 align:middle line:84% So he is to be washed again, rinsed again, powdered again, 00:04:40.780 --> 00:04:45.370 align:middle line:84% until the spots wink out again under the neutral white. 00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:48.940 align:middle line:84% Inside his mouth, the hermit knows and knows 00:04:48.940 --> 00:04:51.760 align:middle line:84% from what is visible under the tail. 00:04:51.760 --> 00:04:54.280 align:middle line:90% Dog is equally spotted. 00:04:54.280 --> 00:04:58.600 align:middle line:84% But in the interior, gray on a pink field. 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:02.350 align:middle line:84% If he were to be pinned down, his four legs 00:05:02.350 --> 00:05:07.420 align:middle line:84% held at four corners and slit open by the enthusiast. 00:05:07.420 --> 00:05:10.690 align:middle line:84% The hermit knows the true nature of dog-- 00:05:10.690 --> 00:05:15.610 align:middle line:84% spotted layer by layer would be laid bare. 00:05:15.610 --> 00:05:20.320 align:middle line:84% Afterward, all night, skunk sleepwalks the house. 00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:26.290 align:middle line:84% Skunk is a pot of copper pennies scorched dry on a high flame. 00:05:26.290 --> 00:05:32.290 align:middle line:84% Skunk is a porridge of dead shrews stewed down to gelatin. 00:05:32.290 --> 00:05:35.530 align:middle line:84% Skunk is the bloat of chicken gut left 00:05:35.530 --> 00:05:39.130 align:middle line:90% 10 days to sweeten in the sun. 00:05:39.130 --> 00:05:43.300 align:middle line:84% Skunk gives the mother bed the ripe taste 00:05:43.300 --> 00:05:47.430 align:middle line:90% of Carrion, the green kiss." 00:05:47.430 --> 00:05:49.284 align:middle line:90%