WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.290 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:02.865 align:middle line:84%
And I'm going to
end on two poems.

00:00:02.865 --> 00:00:07.440 align:middle line:90%


00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:09.063 align:middle line:90%
To New Orleans.

00:00:09.063 --> 00:00:12.450 align:middle line:90%


00:00:12.450 --> 00:00:16.920 align:middle line:90%
These Hands, If Not Gods.

00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:21.000 align:middle line:84%
Haven't they moved like
glory, like rivers,

00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84%
like light over the
seven days of your body?

00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:28.830 align:middle line:84%
And wasn't that good
then at your hips?

00:00:28.830 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84%
Isn't this what God felt
when he pressed together

00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:34.890 align:middle line:90%
the first beloved?

00:00:34.890 --> 00:00:40.800 align:middle line:84%
Everything, fever, vapor,
atman, pulsus, finally,

00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:44.070 align:middle line:84%
a sin worth hurting
for, finally,

00:00:44.070 --> 00:00:47.970 align:middle line:90%
a sweet, a you are mine.

00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:51.060 align:middle line:84%
It is hard not to
have faith in this.

00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:53.580 align:middle line:84%
From the blue,
brown clay of night,

00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:58.020 align:middle line:84%
these two potters crushed
and smoothed you into being,

00:00:58.020 --> 00:00:59.880 align:middle line:90%
built your form up.

00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:04.830 align:middle line:84%
Grind then curve, atlas
of bone, fields of muscle,

00:01:04.830 --> 00:01:06.780 align:middle line:90%
one breast of fig tree.

00:01:06.780 --> 00:01:12.000 align:middle line:84%
The other, a Nightingale,
both morning and evening.

00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:17.910 align:middle line:84%
Oh, the beautiful making they do
of trigger and carve, suffering

00:01:17.910 --> 00:01:19.500 align:middle line:90%
and stars.

00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:22.140 align:middle line:84%
Aren't they too
the dark carpenters

00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:24.000 align:middle line:90%
of your small church?

00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:27.630 align:middle line:84%
Have they not burned on
the altar of your belly,

00:01:27.630 --> 00:01:32.880 align:middle line:84%
eaten the bread of your thighs,
broke you to wine, to ichor,

00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:35.250 align:middle line:90%
to nectareous feast?

00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:37.410 align:middle line:84%
Haven't they
riveted your wrists?

00:01:37.410 --> 00:01:41.170 align:middle line:84%
Haven't they had
you at your knees?

00:01:41.170 --> 00:01:43.890 align:middle line:84%
And when these hands
touched your throat,

00:01:43.890 --> 00:01:47.460 align:middle line:84%
showed you how to take
the apple and the rib,

00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:84%
how to slip a thumb into
your mouth and taste it all?

00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:55.470 align:middle line:84%
Didn't you sing
out their 99 names?

00:01:55.470 --> 00:02:01.320 align:middle line:84%
Zahir, Aleph, hands time seven,
Sphinx, Leonids, locomotura,

00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:04.530 align:middle line:90%
rubidium, August, and Melissa.

00:02:04.530 --> 00:02:07.740 align:middle line:84%
And when you cried
out, oh, Prometheans,

00:02:07.740 --> 00:02:10.080 align:middle line:90%
didn't they bring fire?

00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:14.880 align:middle line:84%
These hands, if not gods, then
why when you have come to me

00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:19.020 align:middle line:84%
and I have returned you to
that from which you came?

00:02:19.020 --> 00:02:22.920 align:middle line:84%
Bright mud, mineral
salt. Why then do you

00:02:22.920 --> 00:02:27.870 align:middle line:84%
whisper, oh, my
Hecatonchire, my Centimani,

00:02:27.870 --> 00:02:30.604 align:middle line:90%
my hundred-handed one.

00:02:30.604 --> 00:02:31.104 align:middle line:90%