WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:03.630 align:middle line:84%
I want to end with three
poems-- short poems.

00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:05.640 align:middle line:84%
One of-- another
foundational figure for me

00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:08.520 align:middle line:90%
is the poet Robert Hayden.

00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:11.478 align:middle line:84%
And there's a poem of
his called "Bone Flower

00:00:11.478 --> 00:00:13.020 align:middle line:84%
Elegy," that he kept
from publication

00:00:13.020 --> 00:00:14.790 align:middle line:90%
until after his death.

00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:18.030 align:middle line:84%
And in my reading of it,
it's a homoerotic lyric.

00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:19.470 align:middle line:84%
And near the end
of this lyric, he

00:00:19.470 --> 00:00:21.780 align:middle line:84%
invokes two characters--
the beastangel

00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:23.700 align:middle line:84%
and the angelbeast,
which have always

00:00:23.700 --> 00:00:26.230 align:middle line:90%
fascinated me as a reader.

00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:29.100 align:middle line:84%
So I decided to write poems
addressed to each character,

00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:33.330 align:middle line:90%
each figure, each mythic beast.

00:00:33.330 --> 00:00:37.200 align:middle line:84%
And I always get in trouble when
I mention the words homoerotic

00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:39.330 align:middle line:84%
and Robert Hayden in
the same sentence,

00:00:39.330 --> 00:00:41.650 align:middle line:90%
but I'm sticking to my guns.

00:00:41.650 --> 00:00:42.660 align:middle line:90%
It's in the work.

00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:46.660 align:middle line:84%
There's a queer
gaze in the work.

00:00:46.660 --> 00:00:49.630 align:middle line:84%
Write letters for the Poetry
Center in care of Tyler.

00:00:49.630 --> 00:00:53.710 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:57.160 align:middle line:90%
"To the Angelbeast."

00:00:57.160 --> 00:01:00.100 align:middle line:90%
"All that glitters isn't music.

00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:04.629 align:middle line:84%
Once, hidden in tall grass,
I tossed fistfuls of dirt

00:01:04.629 --> 00:01:05.770 align:middle line:90%
into the air--

00:01:05.770 --> 00:01:08.380 align:middle line:90%
doe after doe of leaping.

00:01:08.380 --> 00:01:11.530 align:middle line:84%
You said it was nothing
but a trick of the light.

00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:12.820 align:middle line:90%
Gold curves.

00:01:12.820 --> 00:01:15.040 align:middle line:90%
Gold scarves.

00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.710 align:middle line:90%
Am I not your animal?

00:01:17.710 --> 00:01:19.780 align:middle line:84%
You'd wait in the
orchard for hours

00:01:19.780 --> 00:01:22.690 align:middle line:84%
to watch a deer break
from the shadows.

00:01:22.690 --> 00:01:27.960 align:middle line:84%
You said it was like lifting a
cello out of its black case."

00:01:27.960 --> 00:01:29.000 align:middle line:90%