Do you think I should read it, or--
- Yeah.
- Really?
- Makes sense.
- OK, well Sherwin's asked me to read a poem, so I will.
And then we'll give the last reader
and we'll have a good Q&A. Our last reader has arrived.
This is "America, I Sing You Back."
It's actually a tribute to Phil Young, a Cherokee artist.
And to my dad, as well as Whitman and Hughes,
who I'm conversing with here.
This is "America, I Sing You Back."
America, I sing you back.
Sing you back what sung you in.
Sing back the moment you cherished breath.
Sing you home into yourself and back to reason.
Oh, before America began to sing, I sung her to sleep,
I held her cradleboard, and wept her into day.
And my song gave her creation, prepared her delivery.
I held her severed cord beautifully beaded.
My song helped her stand, helped her hand
the first steps, nourished her very being, fed her,
placed her three sisters strong.
My song comforted her as she battled my reason
and broke my long-held footing sure, as any child might do.
Lo, she pushed herself away, forced me to remove myself,
and as I cried this country, my song grew roses
into each tear's fall.
My blood-veined rivers and painted pipestone quarries
circled the canyons, while she made herself maiden fine.
Oh, but here I am, here I am here.
I remain high on each and every peak, carefully
rumbling her great underbelly, prepared to pour forth singing.
And sing again I will, as I have always done.
Never silenced unless in the company of strangers, singing
the stoic face, the polite repose,
polite while dancing deep inside,
polite the mother of the world.
And sister of myself.
When my song sings aloud again.
When I call her back to cradle.
Call her to peer into waters, to behold herself
in dark and in light, in day and night,
I call her to sing along, call her to mature, to envision.
Then, she will quake herself all over.
My song will make it so.
When she grows far past her self-considered purpose,
I will sing her back, sing her back.
I will sing.
Oh I will--
I do.
America, I sing you back.
Sing back what sung you in.