WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.210 align:middle line:84%
Again in June, a poem
called "On Cortaro Road."

00:00:05.210 --> 00:00:08.940 align:middle line:90%


00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:12.900 align:middle line:84%
So one of the things I'm
thinking of for-- this

00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:16.020 align:middle line:84%
is a section that leads, like
the keys for a long poem that

00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:17.440 align:middle line:90%
follows.

00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.280 align:middle line:84%
And in my mind is--
the fact, there's

00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:22.260 align:middle line:84%
no such places as Cortaro,
even though that's

00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:24.000 align:middle line:90%
my mailing address.

00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:25.890 align:middle line:84%
So I have an
imaginary city called

00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:31.040 align:middle line:84%
Cortaro, which I'll be using
in the poem that follows this.

00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:33.680 align:middle line:90%


00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:35.440 align:middle line:90%
"This is a lonely place.

00:00:35.440 --> 00:00:38.110 align:middle line:84%
Three mountain ranges
drift into the sky, held

00:00:38.110 --> 00:00:40.300 align:middle line:90%
by telephone and power lines.

00:00:40.300 --> 00:00:44.110 align:middle line:84%
Fields of green alfalfa
and cotton along the roads,

00:00:44.110 --> 00:00:48.640 align:middle line:84%
Silverbell to the old mine,
Pima farms to the guest ranches,

00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.190 align:middle line:90%
and unpaved trails to Cortaro.

00:00:51.190 --> 00:00:54.760 align:middle line:84%
An old man with a stray
dog, his bent saguaro

00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:58.930 align:middle line:84%
ribbed cane bearing a scant
weight the wind bends around.

00:00:58.930 --> 00:01:03.350 align:middle line:84%
I haven't seen a face beneath
his brown hat, not at any hour.

00:01:03.350 --> 00:01:05.620 align:middle line:84%
It's so common to
pass him, I wonder

00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:07.990 align:middle line:84%
if he ever stops winding
out of the washes

00:01:07.990 --> 00:01:09.880 align:middle line:90%
among these barbed hills.

00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:12.700 align:middle line:84%
But then those owls
that swoop up at night,

00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:14.860 align:middle line:90%
I never found their homes.

00:01:14.860 --> 00:01:18.070 align:middle line:84%
I admire his steady
gait, the lean shadow.

00:01:18.070 --> 00:01:21.820 align:middle line:84%
He's taken to waving,
hardly a nod as I pass,

00:01:21.820 --> 00:01:25.080 align:middle line:84%
and I've begun to
wave back at him.