WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:06.530 align:middle line:84% This is the father, by the way, my husband Orlando. 00:00:06.530 --> 00:00:08.168 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:08.168 --> 00:00:10.910 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:10.910 --> 00:00:12.510 align:middle line:90% And that was actually true. 00:00:12.510 --> 00:00:15.860 align:middle line:84% The first thing she did when she arrived was, 00:00:15.860 --> 00:00:19.910 align:middle line:84% they put her on my chest, and she scrunched her brow, 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:21.890 align:middle line:90% and she looked up to her dad. 00:00:21.890 --> 00:00:24.270 align:middle line:90% So it was so beautiful. 00:00:24.270 --> 00:00:26.190 align:middle line:84% And the other thing I always have to say 00:00:26.190 --> 00:00:30.050 align:middle line:84% is, she was really quiet when she was born, 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:33.290 align:middle line:90% and it was like a quiet lake. 00:00:33.290 --> 00:00:35.630 align:middle line:84% You know, like, in the movies you always 00:00:35.630 --> 00:00:38.420 align:middle line:84% see the babies are like, waah, but I 00:00:38.420 --> 00:00:42.350 align:middle line:84% thought she would be like that and she was quiet. 00:00:42.350 --> 00:00:48.550 align:middle line:90% So it was a nice experience. 00:00:48.550 --> 00:00:52.540 align:middle line:84% OK, so I'm going to read just one more piece. 00:00:52.540 --> 00:00:57.820 align:middle line:84% And the second piece is, actually, a poem 00:00:57.820 --> 00:01:01.120 align:middle line:90% I wrote for Mark Turcotte. 00:01:01.120 --> 00:01:03.070 align:middle line:84% He's an Ojibwe poet, I don't know 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:90% if you're familiar with him. 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:10.210 align:middle line:84% But I wrote it because, after all these motherhood poems, 00:01:10.210 --> 00:01:16.690 align:middle line:84% I wanted to consider, just for a moment, fatherhood. 00:01:16.690 --> 00:01:20.830 align:middle line:84% And I went to one of his readings, and he wrote-- 00:01:20.830 --> 00:01:24.820 align:middle line:84% excuse me, he read a piece called "A Blur of Echoes." 00:01:24.820 --> 00:01:28.150 align:middle line:84% And in that piece, he talks about a child 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:33.670 align:middle line:84% that he lost in birth, and his own response to that, 00:01:33.670 --> 00:01:35.410 align:middle line:90% and it was very moving. 00:01:35.410 --> 00:01:39.160 align:middle line:84% So this is a response to his work, 00:01:39.160 --> 00:01:44.020 align:middle line:84% and my own attempt at considering the connection 00:01:44.020 --> 00:01:46.180 align:middle line:90% between father and baby. 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:49.900 align:middle line:90% 00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:51.100 align:middle line:90% It's titled "Burial Flight." 00:01:51.100 --> 00:01:56.870 align:middle line:90% 00:01:56.870 --> 00:02:03.230 align:middle line:84% Stillborn rocked on Father's chest. 00:02:03.230 --> 00:02:13.320 align:middle line:84% A house-- wood slats, unborn the un-lips, like blue cracks. 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:18.470 align:middle line:90% Cord, bed, flesh, room wet-- 00:02:18.470 --> 00:02:20.000 align:middle line:90% good God. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.280 align:middle line:90% The father, the pull-- 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:25.850 align:middle line:90% his head a window. 00:02:25.850 --> 00:02:34.670 align:middle line:84% Water streaks how birds, he thinks, circle him in approach. 00:02:34.670 --> 00:02:43.010 align:middle line:84% Retreat, a thousand count, blood wings yank. 00:02:43.010 --> 00:02:49.610 align:middle line:90% An un-lung song, loadstone call. 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:50.360 align:middle line:90% Daddy. 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:51.350 align:middle line:90% Dad. 00:02:51.350 --> 00:02:52.220 align:middle line:90% Father. 00:02:52.220 --> 00:02:54.470 align:middle line:90% Pa. 00:02:54.470 --> 00:02:58.190 align:middle line:90% Snow face, sunken roof. 00:02:58.190 --> 00:03:08.570 align:middle line:84% The red white lights in corners, the walls blink, spin. 00:03:08.570 --> 00:03:13.490 align:middle line:84% Father to mother, one to un-other. 00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:16.130 align:middle line:90% 00:03:16.130 --> 00:03:24.920 align:middle line:84% Paper piles, wind house now, a drip, leak, God. 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:34.360 align:middle line:84% Each drop a head, like the unforeseen, like a boy's hand. 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:39.710 align:middle line:84% The could-bes, the, look Daddy look. 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:45.470 align:middle line:84% His crayon tips could draw, press, 00:03:45.470 --> 00:03:52.340 align:middle line:84% could each sharp V, two down stroke wings. 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:54.320 align:middle line:90% Could child, a boy. 00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:56.330 align:middle line:90% Could scrap, paper. 00:03:56.330 --> 00:03:59.300 align:middle line:90% Could black, and black could. 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:05.090 align:middle line:84% Those birds again-- this man, stomach, his gut. 00:04:05.090 --> 00:04:11.300 align:middle line:84% Like you, Mama feels every kick, jab-- 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:14.330 align:middle line:90% a buckshot blow. 00:04:14.330 --> 00:04:19.970 align:middle line:84% There, the middle, center, and parts scatter. 00:04:19.970 --> 00:04:29.420 align:middle line:84% Mad flying or sometimes smaller, a bird feet curled bent branch. 00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:35.960 align:middle line:84% Twig, lift, quick flight, the rush. 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:38.860 align:middle line:90% One to the greater-- 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:50.260 align:middle line:84% a speck flock how the whole body rises, dives, shifts, 00:04:50.260 --> 00:04:53.590 align:middle line:90% in cradle sky. 00:04:53.590 --> 00:04:58.150 align:middle line:84% This man-- his chest sways and rocks. 00:04:58.150 --> 00:05:00.550 align:middle line:90% It's in him. 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:04.070 align:middle line:90% It's what does not happen. 00:05:04.070 --> 00:05:08.570 align:middle line:90% 00:05:08.570 --> 00:05:11.920 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.118 align:middle line:90%