WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.020 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:00:01.020 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90% Sure, thank you 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84% I think Carl has sort of cast a spell on us. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:06.300 align:middle line:84% But in order to have this Q&A, we're 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:08.400 align:middle line:84% going to have to break the spell. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:84% So if you have someone who could kiss you, 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:11.995 align:middle line:90% maybe they could do that. 00:00:11.995 --> 00:00:14.370 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, you're on your own, so you can shake yourself. 00:00:14.370 --> 00:00:17.970 align:middle line:84% Maybe they've been thrown into a catatonic state, or something. 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:21.240 align:middle line:84% Do what you can, and let me know if you have a question. 00:00:21.240 --> 00:00:23.280 align:middle line:84% I'm going to be bringing you the mic. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:25.530 align:middle line:84% Or if you're far away, we'll be repeating the question 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:27.005 align:middle line:84% into the mic so that we can get it 00:00:27.005 --> 00:00:28.380 align:middle line:84% on the recording We are recording 00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:32.610 align:middle line:84% this reading for Voca, and Valentina has a question. 00:00:32.610 --> 00:00:36.960 align:middle line:84% There's such a beautiful rhythm to your poems. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:42.250 align:middle line:84% And I wonder if that is a consideration when 00:00:42.250 --> 00:00:49.560 align:middle line:84% you're generating the language, post language, line breakage. 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:51.048 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:00:51.048 --> 00:00:52.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:52.540 --> 00:00:54.370 align:middle line:90% Oh, thank you. 00:00:54.370 --> 00:00:56.380 align:middle line:84% I didn't know if that was the end. 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:57.940 align:middle line:90% No, I mean, it is. 00:00:57.940 --> 00:00:59.410 align:middle line:84% I mean, in the sense of when I'm-- 00:00:59.410 --> 00:01:02.050 align:middle line:90% 00:01:02.050 --> 00:01:04.810 align:middle line:84% I guess, when I'm revising, I read the poems out loud a lot 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:10.750 align:middle line:84% and wonder if there's too much sameness to the rhythm 00:01:10.750 --> 00:01:11.800 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 00:01:11.800 --> 00:01:13.960 align:middle line:84% But I don't think of myself as a formal poet. 00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:15.940 align:middle line:84% Someone was saying recently they thought I was. 00:01:15.940 --> 00:01:17.440 align:middle line:90% And I don't feel that way. 00:01:17.440 --> 00:01:21.700 align:middle line:84% But I listen to music a lot more than I read poetry, actually. 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:27.580 align:middle line:90% And I don't know. 00:01:27.580 --> 00:01:31.720 align:middle line:84% I would like poems to have muscularity to them 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:34.900 align:middle line:84% and to sound muscular that in the reading of them 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.750 align:middle line:84% it would feel like something, not like a workout exactly, 00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:42.250 align:middle line:84% but almost like a little bit of a sexual experience perhaps. 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:47.230 align:middle line:90% 00:01:47.230 --> 00:01:49.150 align:middle line:84% And then I try to delineate in that way. 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:50.530 align:middle line:84% But I know that it doesn't matter 00:01:50.530 --> 00:01:52.180 align:middle line:84% what you do with lineation, because then people just 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:53.763 align:middle line:84% read the poems however they read them. 00:01:53.763 --> 00:01:57.070 align:middle line:90% But at least for me, I know. 00:01:57.070 --> 00:01:58.990 align:middle line:84% It's always been kind of sad to me 00:01:58.990 --> 00:02:01.930 align:middle line:84% there's nothing in poetry that's like a musical score 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:05.080 align:middle line:84% system with half notes and quarter notes. 00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:07.650 align:middle line:84% And then you can kind of guarantee that your music will 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:08.900 align:middle line:90% be played the way you want it. 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:12.750 align:middle line:90% But anyway. 00:02:12.750 --> 00:02:14.010 align:middle line:90% That was the answer. 00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:16.290 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:16.290 --> 00:02:17.561 align:middle line:90% Howdy, ask more. 00:02:17.561 --> 00:02:18.854 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] 00:02:18.854 --> 00:02:19.920 align:middle line:90% 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:20.420 align:middle line:90% Hey. 00:02:20.420 --> 00:02:24.140 align:middle line:90% 00:02:24.140 --> 00:02:26.450 align:middle line:84% In your last question, you just mentioned 00:02:26.450 --> 00:02:28.760 align:middle line:84% that you listen to a lot of music, 00:02:28.760 --> 00:02:32.840 align:middle line:84% and that inspires you in writing your poems. 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:35.990 align:middle line:90% Are you a musician yourself? 00:02:35.990 --> 00:02:40.070 align:middle line:84% Well, only in a very wannabe kind of way. 00:02:40.070 --> 00:02:43.760 align:middle line:90% 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:49.370 align:middle line:84% From fourth grade into college, I played the accordion. 00:02:49.370 --> 00:02:51.290 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:51.290 --> 00:02:52.570 align:middle line:90% I didn't to. 00:02:52.570 --> 00:02:55.670 align:middle line:90% I wanted to play the saxophone. 00:02:55.670 --> 00:02:59.210 align:middle line:84% And my father found a used accordion 00:02:59.210 --> 00:03:02.420 align:middle line:84% so that's what I was going to play. 00:03:02.420 --> 00:03:05.990 align:middle line:84% And at that time it had its limitations, 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:09.020 align:middle line:84% you know, "Turkey in the Straw", things like that, the Volga 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:10.160 align:middle line:90% Boatman song. 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:13.070 align:middle line:84% And since it's become kind of hip 00:03:13.070 --> 00:03:17.330 align:middle line:84% to have an accordion in the background of your hip hop 00:03:17.330 --> 00:03:18.570 align:middle line:90% music or something. 00:03:18.570 --> 00:03:22.310 align:middle line:90% But so there's that. 00:03:22.310 --> 00:03:25.340 align:middle line:84% But the thing I actually most wanted 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:28.310 align:middle line:84% to be tied with wanting to be a veterinarian 00:03:28.310 --> 00:03:31.670 align:middle line:90% was a lead singer in a band. 00:03:31.670 --> 00:03:36.410 align:middle line:84% And in my mind I still think it's possible. 00:03:36.410 --> 00:03:37.760 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:40.350 align:middle line:84% But I doubt it's going to happen. 00:03:40.350 --> 00:03:42.470 align:middle line:90% So I have an affinity for it. 00:03:42.470 --> 00:03:46.976 align:middle line:84% And have I spent a lot of time singing. 00:03:46.976 --> 00:03:48.470 align:middle line:90% Are you good? 00:03:48.470 --> 00:03:49.250 align:middle line:90% Well-- 00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:49.850 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:49.850 --> 00:03:51.290 align:middle line:90% --I think so. 00:03:51.290 --> 00:03:52.940 align:middle line:90% I think I am. 00:03:52.940 --> 00:03:56.450 align:middle line:84% I think in that limited way and yet inimitable way 00:03:56.450 --> 00:04:01.820 align:middle line:84% that Sade or Billie Holiday might be, 00:04:01.820 --> 00:04:05.270 align:middle line:84% I think that that's what I would aspire to. 00:04:05.270 --> 00:04:07.370 align:middle line:84% I know I could go into any studio 00:04:07.370 --> 00:04:09.980 align:middle line:84% and be like a Justin Bieber and be "Bieberified," 00:04:09.980 --> 00:04:12.070 align:middle line:90% and I could do that. 00:04:12.070 --> 00:04:14.990 align:middle line:84% But the thing where there could be no musical accompaniment 00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:19.000 align:middle line:84% and people would still think, wow, there's music happening. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:26.020 align:middle line:84% So it's part of my sensibility that I can't claim anything. 00:04:26.020 --> 00:04:28.930 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry, last question, I swear. 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:33.990 align:middle line:84% [CHUCKLES] Do you think that musicians and non-musicians 00:04:33.990 --> 00:04:36.726 align:middle line:90% interpret poetry differently? 00:04:36.726 --> 00:04:40.000 align:middle line:84% And do you ever think about that when you're writing? 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:41.800 align:middle line:84% I don't think about it when I'm writing. 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.260 align:middle line:84% But I would imagine they might interpret it differently. 00:04:44.260 --> 00:04:48.580 align:middle line:84% Just because if you're a musician who writes lyrics, 00:04:48.580 --> 00:04:52.060 align:middle line:84% for example, I suppose you pay attention to language of poems. 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:55.870 align:middle line:84% And if you don't, but you write music maybe you'd be sensitive. 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:58.720 align:middle line:84% Maybe you'd hear rhythms that somebody who wasn't 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:02.050 align:middle line:90% sensitive to that would hear. 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:07.878 align:middle line:84% I don't know any musicians so I don't know what they think. 00:05:07.878 --> 00:05:09.628 align:middle line:84% But I would think there'd be a difference. 00:05:09.628 --> 00:05:13.380 align:middle line:90% 00:05:13.380 --> 00:05:15.600 align:middle line:84% Would you tell us a little bit about the role 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:19.380 align:middle line:84% that plants and animals play in your poems. 00:05:19.380 --> 00:05:24.315 align:middle line:84% Plants and animals, well, I can do better with animals. 00:05:24.315 --> 00:05:29.250 align:middle line:90% 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:33.030 align:middle line:84% Well, one, I spent a lot of time with animals and plants 00:05:33.030 --> 00:05:33.750 align:middle line:90% in the world. 00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:35.190 align:middle line:90% I know I live in St. Louis. 00:05:35.190 --> 00:05:37.650 align:middle line:90% But there is actually wildlife. 00:05:37.650 --> 00:05:42.480 align:middle line:84% And everyone thinks it's just an arch and then the airport. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.450 align:middle line:90% But there's a lot. 00:05:45.450 --> 00:05:51.990 align:middle line:84% And I've always been interested in how humans are 00:05:51.990 --> 00:05:56.370 align:middle line:90% burdened by self-consciousness. 00:05:56.370 --> 00:06:02.730 align:middle line:84% And so an animal doesn't wake up in the morning, 00:06:02.730 --> 00:06:06.990 align:middle line:84% I think, and think, oh, how long will I live? 00:06:06.990 --> 00:06:09.060 align:middle line:90% What is the meaning of life? 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:09.930 align:middle line:90% Things like that. 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:10.807 align:middle line:90% But we do. 00:06:10.807 --> 00:06:11.640 align:middle line:90% We think about that. 00:06:11.640 --> 00:06:14.370 align:middle line:84% And we're aware of mortality and limitation. 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:17.065 align:middle line:90% 00:06:17.065 --> 00:06:20.220 align:middle line:84% And I've always been fascinated with how animals just sort of 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:22.290 align:middle line:90% live free of that constraint. 00:06:22.290 --> 00:06:25.470 align:middle line:84% And also how they don't have any, 00:06:25.470 --> 00:06:26.830 align:middle line:90% they just do what they want. 00:06:26.830 --> 00:06:28.410 align:middle line:90% So they kill. 00:06:28.410 --> 00:06:31.170 align:middle line:90% They mate. 00:06:31.170 --> 00:06:34.260 align:middle line:84% And there's no sort of moral valence to it. 00:06:34.260 --> 00:06:37.380 align:middle line:84% And I'm interested in that, because humans are animals. 00:06:37.380 --> 00:06:39.870 align:middle line:84% And yet, we have all these other impositions upon us 00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:42.360 align:middle line:84% that make us so that we're not supposed to be like animals. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.780 align:middle line:84% And it's considered bad to be animalistic. 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:49.170 align:middle line:84% And I think it's the purest form of being. 00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:51.910 align:middle line:84% But obviously, wrong, we can't just go and kill people 00:06:51.910 --> 00:06:54.810 align:middle line:84% left and right, and, you know, mate with them randomly. 00:06:54.810 --> 00:06:58.280 align:middle line:90% 00:06:58.280 --> 00:06:59.790 align:middle line:84% So that's part of the fascination 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:04.470 align:middle line:84% that, in observing them, I think I'm 00:07:04.470 --> 00:07:09.570 align:middle line:84% interested in that intersection between how 00:07:09.570 --> 00:07:11.520 align:middle line:84% what true behavior, animal behavior, is, 00:07:11.520 --> 00:07:14.310 align:middle line:84% but then the socially imposed human behavior, 00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:15.900 align:middle line:90% social, moral codes. 00:07:15.900 --> 00:07:18.028 align:middle line:90% So plants, I don't know. 00:07:18.028 --> 00:07:20.070 align:middle line:84% At the moment, I think they're a pain in the ass, 00:07:20.070 --> 00:07:21.450 align:middle line:84% because I've got a lot of trees in my yard. 00:07:21.450 --> 00:07:22.890 align:middle line:90% And I'm doing all the raking. 00:07:22.890 --> 00:07:26.370 align:middle line:84% So I'm not having a very good relationship with them, 00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:29.570 align:middle line:90% but yeah.