WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:02.950 align:middle line:90% OK, I have a question for staff. 00:00:02.950 --> 00:00:07.530 align:middle line:84% So, some of my personal favorite poems of yours, 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:10.260 align:middle line:84% are the poems that contain the story. 00:00:10.260 --> 00:00:12.150 align:middle line:84% Maybe it's just the hint of a story, 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:14.100 align:middle line:84% but there might be characters or sense 00:00:14.100 --> 00:00:16.710 align:middle line:90% of place, a significant change. 00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:18.870 align:middle line:84% I love your poem that you read when 00:00:18.870 --> 00:00:21.960 align:middle line:84% there were ghosts about reading, watching 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:25.350 align:middle line:84% films in smoky theaters in the Dallas-- 00:00:25.350 --> 00:00:27.780 align:middle line:90% beautiful poem. 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:31.830 align:middle line:84% And I know that you write prose, as well as poetry. 00:00:31.830 --> 00:00:34.110 align:middle line:84% So I think you can answer this question, which 00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:39.150 align:middle line:84% is, how does a poem tell a story in its own unique way? 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:41.970 align:middle line:90% What does it do with to a story. 00:00:41.970 --> 00:00:45.630 align:middle line:84% That for example, a novel, or a television drama, 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:47.840 align:middle line:90% or a Hollywood blockbuster. 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:48.792 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:00:48.792 --> 00:00:50.500 align:middle line:84% I think in some-- that's a good question. 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:54.330 align:middle line:84% It's a great question, because I do work in a variety of genres. 00:00:54.330 --> 00:00:56.130 align:middle line:84% I think they all have different gifts 00:00:56.130 --> 00:01:00.810 align:middle line:84% for the author, and different trials, and tribulations. 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:07.170 align:middle line:84% Because you're trying to decide how to best clothe your ideas. 00:01:07.170 --> 00:01:09.690 align:middle line:84% For me poems, are about intensity. 00:01:09.690 --> 00:01:17.790 align:middle line:84% They're about moment, and story is longer it goes from A to Z. 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:21.180 align:middle line:84% A poem goes from A to R, to M, It need not 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:25.650 align:middle line:84% follow the same sense of plot, but it can add up to a story, 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:32.160 align:middle line:84% and I think it does it by finding 00:01:32.160 --> 00:01:40.280 align:middle line:84% strong, electric, sensibility, in the immediate moment 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:41.240 align:middle line:90% that you're reading it. 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:43.822 align:middle line:84% When my students asked me, "Professor Ríos, 00:01:43.822 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:84% where should the best line in a poem be?" 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:48.470 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.470 --> 00:01:50.750 align:middle line:84% Science fiction writers say, "it should be at the end: 00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:52.100 align:middle line:90% I woke up as if from a dream." 00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:54.698 align:middle line:84% Journalists say, "it should be the first line, the hook line." 00:01:54.698 --> 00:01:57.365 align:middle line:84% My answer is always the same, It better be the line I'm reading. 00:01:57.365 --> 00:02:00.080 align:middle line:90% 00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:03.770 align:middle line:84% I don't think I ask that of prose. 00:02:03.770 --> 00:02:07.370 align:middle line:84% Prose leads one line to the next in poem, 00:02:07.370 --> 00:02:09.740 align:middle line:90% a line takes care of itself. 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:11.640 align:middle line:90% It may play well with others. 00:02:11.640 --> 00:02:13.580 align:middle line:84% I want it to play well with others, 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:15.500 align:middle line:84% but if my poem falls on the ground, 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.210 align:middle line:90% and breaks into its lines. 00:02:17.210 --> 00:02:20.330 align:middle line:84% I want each of those lines to be tough, 00:02:20.330 --> 00:02:22.685 align:middle line:84% and be able to take care of itself-- 00:02:22.685 --> 00:02:23.810 align:middle line:90% go hunting with the wolves. 00:02:23.810 --> 00:02:26.415 align:middle line:90% 00:02:26.415 --> 00:02:28.790 align:middle line:84% My line should be able to get a good job in another poem. 00:02:28.790 --> 00:02:34.050 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:37.590 align:middle line:84% And prose doesn't work that way, prose is more plot based. 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:40.090 align:middle line:90% One thing, builds on another. 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:41.890 align:middle line:90% They're not all equal players. 00:02:41.890 --> 00:02:44.640 align:middle line:84% So I think a poem is structured differently it. 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:46.470 align:middle line:84% It asks something of me, the writer, 00:02:46.470 --> 00:02:48.750 align:middle line:90% differently in the moment. 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:51.432 align:middle line:90% And I have to be there for it. 00:02:51.432 --> 00:02:52.890 align:middle line:84% Thank you, that was a great answer. 00:02:52.890 --> 00:02:58.440 align:middle line:84% It was like a poem meets a comedy routine. 00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:01.660 align:middle line:90% Often how I feel. 00:03:01.660 --> 00:03:03.810 align:middle line:90% OK here's an audience question. 00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:05.940 align:middle line:84% Has your bilingual language helped 00:03:05.940 --> 00:03:09.420 align:middle line:84% challenge, or pave the road towards your poetry success? 00:03:09.420 --> 00:03:11.430 align:middle line:84% And P.S. Thank you for your hard work. 00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:14.700 align:middle line:90% Oh that's very kind. 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:17.850 align:middle line:84% I grew up in a household of cultures, of languages, 00:03:17.850 --> 00:03:18.570 align:middle line:90% of foods. 00:03:18.570 --> 00:03:20.850 align:middle line:84% My father was born in Tapachula in Chiapas, 00:03:20.850 --> 00:03:21.870 align:middle line:90% in the border of Mexico. 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:25.440 align:middle line:84% And my father's sister is here tonight, my aunt Lily, 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:26.670 align:middle line:90% and uncle John. 00:03:26.670 --> 00:03:28.740 align:middle line:84% I was the ring bearer at their wedding. 00:03:28.740 --> 00:03:32.010 align:middle line:90% 00:03:32.010 --> 00:03:35.370 align:middle line:84% And they were the oldest members at my son's wedding 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:35.895 align:middle line:90% this summer. 00:03:35.895 --> 00:03:39.330 align:middle line:90% 00:03:39.330 --> 00:03:40.770 align:middle line:84% My mother was born in Warrington, 00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:41.810 align:middle line:90% Lancashire, England. 00:03:41.810 --> 00:03:43.185 align:middle line:84% I look a lot more like my mother. 00:03:43.185 --> 00:03:45.720 align:middle line:90% 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:47.820 align:middle line:84% But we grew up on the border in Nogales, 00:03:47.820 --> 00:03:50.190 align:middle line:90% in between geographies. 00:03:50.190 --> 00:03:52.920 align:middle line:84% The border is a very special place. 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:54.720 align:middle line:84% We grew up in between languages-- 00:03:54.720 --> 00:03:56.715 align:middle line:84% we want to say English, and Spanish, 00:03:56.715 --> 00:03:57.840 align:middle line:90% but there is no such thing. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:03:59.430 align:middle line:90% Languages don't work that way. 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:01.410 align:middle line:90% They're much more complex. 00:04:01.410 --> 00:04:05.760 align:middle line:84% One word does not corral a whole culture's ideas. 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:08.460 align:middle line:90% 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:12.150 align:middle line:84% What I learned though, and how my sense of languages 00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:15.540 align:middle line:84% has helped me understand how writing might work, 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:18.810 align:middle line:84% and how possibility, and imagination might work, 00:04:18.810 --> 00:04:23.100 align:middle line:90% is very simple ultimately. 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:27.400 align:middle line:84% Different languages see the world in different ways. 00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:30.900 align:middle line:84% And that's easy to say, but profound to understand, 00:04:30.900 --> 00:04:32.850 align:middle line:84% and difficult to believe if you don't 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:34.500 align:middle line:90% speak more than one language. 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:37.240 align:middle line:84% I'm going to give you just a simple example. 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:40.590 align:middle line:90% If I go like this. 00:04:40.590 --> 00:04:43.440 align:middle line:84% In English, I'd say I dropped the bottle. 00:04:43.440 --> 00:04:46.470 align:middle line:84% I, capitalized front of the sentence. 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:49.950 align:middle line:84% Rugged individualism, and its smallest incarnation. 00:04:49.950 --> 00:04:51.480 align:middle line:90% "I dropped!" 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:53.490 align:middle line:84% What was it this time?-- end of the sentence. 00:04:53.490 --> 00:04:54.810 align:middle line:90% "Ah the bottle!" 00:04:54.810 --> 00:04:56.745 align:middle line:84% Could have been the pen, what do I care? 00:04:56.745 --> 00:04:59.790 align:middle line:90% 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.010 align:middle line:84% Rugged individualism, encoded into language. 00:05:03.010 --> 00:05:04.980 align:middle line:90% I did it. 00:05:04.980 --> 00:05:08.395 align:middle line:84% That same moment, in a romance language and in Spanish, 00:05:08.395 --> 00:05:08.895 align:middle line:90% for example. 00:05:08.895 --> 00:05:13.250 align:middle line:90% 00:05:13.250 --> 00:05:15.480 align:middle line:84% Would be rendered completely differently. 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:20.150 align:middle line:84% I would say something like: "Don't look at me, 00:05:20.150 --> 00:05:21.920 align:middle line:84% look at the bottle, we were both there. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:23.720 align:middle line:90% The bottle-- it fell from me." 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:28.580 align:middle line:84% I don't-- maybe I did it, maybe the bottle did it? 00:05:28.580 --> 00:05:34.010 align:middle line:90% It's rugged pluralism. 00:05:34.010 --> 00:05:36.110 align:middle line:84% A sense that we're all in this together, 00:05:36.110 --> 00:05:37.790 align:middle line:84% but what's more exciting about that 00:05:37.790 --> 00:05:39.560 align:middle line:84% is that it suggests the possibility 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.770 align:middle line:90% of an inherent life in things. 00:05:42.770 --> 00:05:47.490 align:middle line:84% I don't know if I am a agent of all action. 00:05:47.490 --> 00:05:50.270 align:middle line:84% And so when I write, I think it's 00:05:50.270 --> 00:05:56.150 align:middle line:84% that sensibility that infuses, how I go about telling a story. 00:05:56.150 --> 00:06:02.300 align:middle line:84% With possibility, not with a sort of Romanesque, "I did it." 00:06:02.300 --> 00:06:02.960 align:middle line:90% approach. 00:06:02.960 --> 00:06:04.580 align:middle line:84% Which I think would be a little bit 00:06:04.580 --> 00:06:07.110 align:middle line:84% damaging to my particular kind of work. 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:10.460 align:middle line:84% I'm excited to think that language can work that way. 00:06:10.460 --> 00:06:13.250 align:middle line:84% If you've ever tried to learn a romance language, 00:06:13.250 --> 00:06:14.750 align:middle line:84% the hardest thing is not the words, 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:19.250 align:middle line:90% it's those articles, la or el-- 00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:21.080 align:middle line:90% which is it? 00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:24.050 align:middle line:84% And it doesn't matter, it's a little strange today 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:26.600 align:middle line:84% that we can talk-- that we don't talk about this very well, 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.060 align:middle line:84% but it's genderizing language, right? 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:30.230 align:middle line:90% Male and female-- 00:06:30.230 --> 00:06:32.780 align:middle line:84% But that's language alive with itself it. 00:06:32.780 --> 00:06:35.420 align:middle line:84% Suggests that the world is fooling around 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:36.830 align:middle line:90% whether you like it or not. 00:06:36.830 --> 00:06:41.000 align:middle line:90% 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.825 align:middle line:84% They might be talking, and I don't even know it. 00:06:43.825 --> 00:06:44.450 align:middle line:90% What do I know? 00:06:44.450 --> 00:06:48.050 align:middle line:90% Making a date for later. 00:06:48.050 --> 00:06:51.080 align:middle line:84% In English we emasculate language right? 00:06:51.080 --> 00:06:56.390 align:middle line:84% It's the book, the bottle, and we are somehow 00:06:56.390 --> 00:06:58.730 align:middle line:90% in charge of all things. 00:06:58.730 --> 00:07:00.890 align:middle line:84% And I think that distinction for me, 00:07:00.890 --> 00:07:02.570 align:middle line:90% growing up with both of those. 00:07:02.570 --> 00:07:04.920 align:middle line:84% I'm not saying one is better than the other. 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:06.350 align:middle line:90% I'm not saying that at all. 00:07:06.350 --> 00:07:10.640 align:middle line:84% But I am also saying that it doesn't have to be either, or. 00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:12.860 align:middle line:84% And that's where we missed the boat. 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:15.050 align:middle line:90% It can be also end. 00:07:15.050 --> 00:07:17.990 align:middle line:84% And for me to have both those language, 00:07:17.990 --> 00:07:20.900 align:middle line:84% both those languages, triangulating me 00:07:20.900 --> 00:07:25.130 align:middle line:84% toward a third place that joins them all, 00:07:25.130 --> 00:07:29.180 align:middle line:84% has been very important to my work. 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:29.680 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:32.200 align:middle line:90% OK here's the next question. 00:07:32.200 --> 00:07:36.100 align:middle line:84% Besides Nogales, are there other special geographical locations 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:36.880 align:middle line:90% you've read about? 00:07:36.880 --> 00:07:41.820 align:middle line:90% 00:07:41.820 --> 00:07:44.760 align:middle line:84% That's a difficult question because I think they are-- 00:07:44.760 --> 00:07:47.520 align:middle line:84% I've used many other names, but the truth of it 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:52.750 align:middle line:84% is, that's the home of my imagination. 00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:54.310 align:middle line:90% You know, where I grew up. 00:07:54.310 --> 00:07:58.150 align:middle line:84% And the adventures that I had, the places that I went-- 00:07:58.150 --> 00:08:01.030 align:middle line:84% Coronado elementary school-- the Arroyo, the places 00:08:01.030 --> 00:08:03.490 align:middle line:90% I wasn't supposed to go. 00:08:03.490 --> 00:08:05.680 align:middle line:84% I can try to write them under other names, 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.170 align:middle line:84% but I think the truth of it-- and I have-- 00:08:08.170 --> 00:08:10.480 align:middle line:84% I worked Indianapolis into a poem once. 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.360 align:middle line:90% 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.540 align:middle line:90% But it kind of wasn't true. 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:19.180 align:middle line:84% So there's an inherent regionalism, 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:20.950 align:middle line:90% but I think it's something else. 00:08:20.950 --> 00:08:25.270 align:middle line:84% It's the person speaking who must speak 00:08:25.270 --> 00:08:26.590 align:middle line:90% from what that person knows. 00:08:26.590 --> 00:08:27.460 align:middle line:90% It's that simple. 00:08:27.460 --> 00:08:30.660 align:middle line:90% 00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:33.690 align:middle line:84% You have so many awards and accomplishments. 00:08:33.690 --> 00:08:36.470 align:middle line:84% But what do you want to be remembered for? 00:08:36.470 --> 00:08:38.404 align:middle line:84% Well the awards and accomplishments of course. 00:08:38.404 --> 00:08:44.152 align:middle line:90% 00:08:44.152 --> 00:08:45.360 align:middle line:90% I don't think it's a mystery. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.360 align:middle line:84% I have a great teacher-ly instinct, 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:54.520 align:middle line:84% and for whatever it is that I may have written, and done. 00:08:54.520 --> 00:08:58.260 align:middle line:84% I don't ever want it to have been simply performative. 00:08:58.260 --> 00:09:00.480 align:middle line:84% I want it to have been meaningful, 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.390 align:middle line:84% and that somebody should carry something away from my work, 00:09:03.390 --> 00:09:06.240 align:middle line:84% or something I've said, is what I want. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.070 align:middle line:90% 00:09:09.070 --> 00:09:12.700 align:middle line:84% What is your earliest remembered interaction with poetry? 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:14.530 align:middle line:90% Oh that's easy, that's easy. 00:09:14.530 --> 00:09:17.620 align:middle line:84% My earliest memory-- I got in trouble in second grade, 00:09:17.620 --> 00:09:18.700 align:middle line:90% are you kidding? 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:21.460 align:middle line:84% I know right when the moment happened. 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:24.580 align:middle line:84% Poetry and writing, has so very little 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:26.950 align:middle line:90% to do with, pencil and paper. 00:09:26.950 --> 00:09:28.730 align:middle line:90% It's an act of the imagination. 00:09:28.730 --> 00:09:31.630 align:middle line:84% And we forget that, that's simply 00:09:31.630 --> 00:09:35.260 align:middle line:90% its product, its daily guise. 00:09:35.260 --> 00:09:37.480 align:middle line:84% When I was in second grade, I went 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:41.860 align:middle line:84% to Coronado elementary school, and I loved being in school. 00:09:41.860 --> 00:09:43.750 align:middle line:90% So many kids we forget-- 00:09:43.750 --> 00:09:44.638 align:middle line:90% love being in school. 00:09:44.638 --> 00:09:46.180 align:middle line:84% We're so busy talking about everybody 00:09:46.180 --> 00:09:47.650 align:middle line:84% who doesn't like being in school, 00:09:47.650 --> 00:09:51.880 align:middle line:84% and that they're bouncing-- when we got told about explorers 00:09:51.880 --> 00:09:54.023 align:middle line:84% for example, I went to Coronado elementary school. 00:09:54.023 --> 00:09:56.440 align:middle line:84% I know we've learned a lot of stuff since about explorers. 00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:59.830 align:middle line:84% But at the time, it was still a broad brush. 00:09:59.830 --> 00:10:01.385 align:middle line:90% I loved hearing that stuff. 00:10:01.385 --> 00:10:03.760 align:middle line:84% And if you're a kid, and you hear about an explorer, what 00:10:03.760 --> 00:10:05.830 align:middle line:90% do you think you want to do? 00:10:05.830 --> 00:10:08.475 align:middle line:84% You want to explore, but you can't even 00:10:08.475 --> 00:10:10.850 align:middle line:84% walk across the street without someone holding your hand. 00:10:10.850 --> 00:10:17.140 align:middle line:84% So that kind of puts a crimp in your explorerly style. 00:10:17.140 --> 00:10:19.660 align:middle line:84% But I remember listening to things in second grade, 00:10:19.660 --> 00:10:22.700 align:middle line:90% and getting excited. 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:24.770 align:middle line:84% And we think about kids not behaving, 00:10:24.770 --> 00:10:27.800 align:middle line:84% or you they're bouncing off the walls, 00:10:27.800 --> 00:10:31.370 align:middle line:84% we want to blame it on sugar, and all these things. 00:10:31.370 --> 00:10:34.680 align:middle line:90% Maybe it's knowledge. 00:10:34.680 --> 00:10:37.240 align:middle line:90% That's an intriguing idea. 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:40.100 align:middle line:84% Kids don't know how else to react, 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:42.020 align:middle line:84% and to be told about an explorer, 00:10:42.020 --> 00:10:44.120 align:middle line:84% and then be told that it's nap time. 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:48.650 align:middle line:90% 00:10:48.650 --> 00:10:49.980 align:middle line:90% Well I was a good student. 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:53.150 align:middle line:84% And because of my mother's language, to be honest, 00:10:53.150 --> 00:10:56.590 align:middle line:90% in my particular sphere. 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:58.750 align:middle line:90% I got to be a good student. 00:10:58.750 --> 00:11:02.290 align:middle line:84% It wasn't necessarily true, I could just speak English better 00:11:02.290 --> 00:11:03.970 align:middle line:90% than a lot of my friends. 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:08.910 align:middle line:84% So I got done with homework faster in class. 00:11:08.910 --> 00:11:14.520 align:middle line:84% But my class had large windows, and swear to God, 00:11:14.520 --> 00:11:16.680 align:middle line:84% I would do all my homework, I was doing good. 00:11:16.680 --> 00:11:21.810 align:middle line:84% But my teacher busted me, and called my parents into school. 00:11:21.810 --> 00:11:25.840 align:middle line:84% For the egregious crime of daydreaming. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:29.060 align:middle line:90% 00:11:29.060 --> 00:11:32.030 align:middle line:84% My parents-- this is mortifying in a Latino family. 00:11:32.030 --> 00:11:33.737 align:middle line:84% The term maestro is a term of respect. 00:11:33.737 --> 00:11:35.570 align:middle line:84% It has nothing to do with a school building, 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:37.680 align:middle line:84% it's anybody who teaches you anything. 00:11:37.680 --> 00:11:41.913 align:middle line:84% And then a teacher at a school, that's like double. 00:11:41.913 --> 00:11:43.580 align:middle line:84% So when my parents got called to school, 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:48.830 align:middle line:84% they went they sat down in the little second-grader chairs. 00:11:48.830 --> 00:11:54.000 align:middle line:84% And Miss Lee, who I actually loved, 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.580 align:middle line:84% told my parents, she was glad they were there, 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:58.098 align:middle line:90% and my parents were worried. 00:11:58.098 --> 00:11:59.640 align:middle line:84% They said, "well is something wrong?" 00:11:59.640 --> 00:12:02.580 align:middle line:84% and she says, "Oh no, nothing's wrong." 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:04.230 align:middle line:90% "Has he not done something?" 00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:06.690 align:middle line:84% I said, "no he's done everything." 00:12:06.690 --> 00:12:09.170 align:middle line:90% "What's the problem?" 00:12:09.170 --> 00:12:10.850 align:middle line:90% And Miss Lee said, "well..." 00:12:10.850 --> 00:12:16.540 align:middle line:84% and then the big sigh, "he's been daydreaming." 00:12:16.540 --> 00:12:19.510 align:middle line:90% 00:12:19.510 --> 00:12:21.460 align:middle line:84% My parents looked at her, and I was sitting 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:23.410 align:middle line:90% there I was hearing all this. 00:12:23.410 --> 00:12:25.840 align:middle line:90% And they said "daydreaming?" 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:29.260 align:middle line:84% and she said, "yes, daydreaming." 00:12:29.260 --> 00:12:31.490 align:middle line:84% and they said, "ah, daydreaming." 00:12:31.490 --> 00:12:33.910 align:middle line:90% 00:12:33.910 --> 00:12:39.850 align:middle line:84% "OK, we'll take care of it. " And my parents went on to give 00:12:39.850 --> 00:12:41.665 align:middle line:84% me one of the great gifts of my life. 00:12:41.665 --> 00:12:44.220 align:middle line:90% 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:45.690 align:middle line:84% I didn't know it at the moment, I 00:12:45.690 --> 00:12:49.020 align:middle line:90% thought I was in total trouble. 00:12:49.020 --> 00:12:52.530 align:middle line:84% We go outside, we get into the car, which in the 1950s-- 00:12:52.530 --> 00:12:53.520 align:middle line:90% do you remember cars-- 00:12:53.520 --> 00:12:54.600 align:middle line:90% remember the back seats? 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:57.753 align:middle line:84% Practically like a whole lounge back there. 00:12:57.753 --> 00:12:59.670 align:middle line:84% And I had no seat belts either, you could just 00:12:59.670 --> 00:13:01.793 align:middle line:90% like run back and forth. 00:13:01.793 --> 00:13:03.210 align:middle line:84% With that knowledge, you acquired. 00:13:03.210 --> 00:13:05.965 align:middle line:90% 00:13:05.965 --> 00:13:08.010 align:middle line:84% I was sitting there-- my brother wasn't with me, 00:13:08.010 --> 00:13:09.700 align:middle line:84% because this was a special circumstance. 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:13.140 align:middle line:84% So I was there, and my parents didn't say a thing. 00:13:13.140 --> 00:13:15.660 align:middle line:84% I thought they were just fuming, that I was going to get it 00:13:15.660 --> 00:13:18.390 align:middle line:84% when I got home, and I was in so much trouble-- 00:13:18.390 --> 00:13:19.800 align:middle line:90% no dinner for me. 00:13:19.800 --> 00:13:23.910 align:middle line:84% We get home, my mother cooks dinner, I get to have dinner. 00:13:23.910 --> 00:13:27.630 align:middle line:84% We had a television set, which was a rarity back then, 00:13:27.630 --> 00:13:34.080 align:middle line:84% it was a blond tin television set. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.315 align:middle line:90% Who makes TV out of blond tin? 00:13:36.315 --> 00:13:39.410 align:middle line:90% 00:13:39.410 --> 00:13:42.260 align:middle line:84% Nogales didn't have any television stations though, 00:13:42.260 --> 00:13:46.460 align:middle line:84% so they only played Laurel and Hardy on a local translator. 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:48.168 align:middle line:84% So I thought, no Laurel and Hardy for me, 00:13:48.168 --> 00:13:49.835 align:middle line:84% and the whole neighborhood used to come, 00:13:49.835 --> 00:13:51.740 align:middle line:84% and gather in our house, when the TV came on. 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:54.980 align:middle line:84% But my mother let me have television watching time. 00:13:54.980 --> 00:13:58.430 align:middle line:84% I thought, OK I'm going to get a talking to before bed, 00:13:58.430 --> 00:14:00.440 align:middle line:90% I'll have bad dreams. 00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:00.965 align:middle line:90% And nothing. 00:14:00.965 --> 00:14:03.490 align:middle line:90% 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:08.750 align:middle line:84% My parents never said a thing about it 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:11.420 align:middle line:84% Now they trusted that I would figure out that there 00:14:11.420 --> 00:14:13.490 align:middle line:90% was nothing to be said. 00:14:13.490 --> 00:14:14.420 align:middle line:90% Daydreaming. 00:14:14.420 --> 00:14:16.790 align:middle line:90% 00:14:16.790 --> 00:14:19.170 align:middle line:90% This was their gift to me. 00:14:19.170 --> 00:14:21.210 align:middle line:84% Now it took me 30 years to figure it out. 00:14:21.210 --> 00:14:24.220 align:middle line:90% 00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:28.770 align:middle line:84% But I was not in trouble, but they needed me-- 00:14:28.770 --> 00:14:32.290 align:middle line:90% me to figure that out. 00:14:32.290 --> 00:14:35.940 align:middle line:90% And that's how we did it, 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:36.820 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:38.820 align:middle line:84% And by the way, the tied to the question 00:14:38.820 --> 00:14:42.540 align:middle line:84% was, that was the beginning of my writing. 00:14:42.540 --> 00:14:47.500 align:middle line:84% Is to know that an act of the imagination is not wrong. 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:48.540 align:middle line:90% And I could live there-- 00:14:48.540 --> 00:14:51.090 align:middle line:90% I could be an explorer there. 00:14:51.090 --> 00:14:53.190 align:middle line:84% That's where I could go, that's where 00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:54.900 align:middle line:84% I could take everything I was learning, 00:14:54.900 --> 00:14:56.710 align:middle line:90% and do something with it. 00:14:56.710 --> 00:15:00.670 align:middle line:84% And that was the beginning of my writing. 00:15:00.670 --> 00:15:02.350 align:middle line:90% OK one more question. 00:15:02.350 --> 00:15:06.100 align:middle line:84% I made a promise to both Tyler, and an audience member 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:09.040 align:middle line:90% to end sort of on time. 00:15:09.040 --> 00:15:14.590 align:middle line:84% When you wore your dangerous shirt, where did you go? 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:16.750 align:middle line:84% So I have a poem called, The Dangerous Shirt, 00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:19.690 align:middle line:84% and it's the title of the last book of poems. 00:15:19.690 --> 00:15:21.880 align:middle line:84% And it's just about having ironed a shirt, 00:15:21.880 --> 00:15:24.550 align:middle line:84% and how dangerous that is, because If you iron your shirt, 00:15:24.550 --> 00:15:25.400 align:middle line:90% you got to wear it. 00:15:25.400 --> 00:15:27.500 align:middle line:84% And if you wear it, you're going to go out. 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:31.630 align:middle line:84% And if you go out, you're going to get in trouble. 00:15:31.630 --> 00:15:34.162 align:middle line:90% Good thing is, I don't iron. 00:15:34.162 --> 00:15:35.620 align:middle line:84% I didn't go anywhere, I made it up. 00:15:35.620 --> 00:15:39.538 align:middle line:90% 00:15:39.538 --> 00:15:41.080 align:middle line:84% That's my way of getting out of that. 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:45.350 align:middle line:90% 00:15:45.350 --> 00:15:47.470 align:middle line:84% So I don't know, I'm not myself familiar 00:15:47.470 --> 00:15:50.710 align:middle line:84% with all the poet laureates of all the states in the union, 00:15:50.710 --> 00:15:52.240 align:middle line:84% but I think you will probably all 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:53.740 align:middle line:90% agree with me after tonight. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:56.670 align:middle line:90% We must have the best one. 00:15:56.670 --> 00:16:15.000 align:middle line:90%