WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:00.850 --> 00:00:01.350 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:01.350 --> 00:00:05.130 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.130 --> 00:00:07.560 align:middle line:84% My first book of poetry, Calendar Of Dust, 00:00:07.560 --> 00:00:17.400 align:middle line:84% is very much kind of working out my obsession with history. 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:20.340 align:middle line:84% Because history, after all, is nothing more 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:28.110 align:middle line:84% than representations, and constructed, and deconstructed 00:00:28.110 --> 00:00:31.050 align:middle line:90% and reconstructed. 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:33.670 align:middle line:90% So all of my poems have dates. 00:00:33.670 --> 00:00:36.150 align:middle line:84% So it becomes very much a literal calendar, 00:00:36.150 --> 00:00:42.420 align:middle line:84% but it's also very much a way of using 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:44.310 align:middle line:84% the idea of journal keeping as well, 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:48.120 align:middle line:84% and a kind of a conflation of both. 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:52.140 align:middle line:84% Because anybody who's ever written history should-- 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:53.640 align:middle line:90% at least, ought to be-- 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.430 align:middle line:84% aware enough that he or she is also 00:00:56.430 --> 00:00:58.920 align:middle line:90% writing herself or himself. 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:01.980 align:middle line:90% 00:01:01.980 --> 00:01:07.860 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to read you the first poem, "Creation." 00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:09.930 align:middle line:84% You know, I grew up in southern New Mexico, 00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:14.580 align:middle line:84% where they exploded the bomb, and I have always hated that. 00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:17.310 align:middle line:84% I have always hated the fact that, somehow, 00:01:17.310 --> 00:01:20.040 align:middle line:84% before I was born, they had already 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:26.880 align:middle line:84% changed the desert, in a way, irrevocably. 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:28.830 align:middle line:84% And though the Cold War is over, we 00:01:28.830 --> 00:01:32.160 align:middle line:84% are always going to have to live with the fact 00:01:32.160 --> 00:01:33.900 align:middle line:90% that we created the bomb. 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:37.515 align:middle line:90% 00:01:37.515 --> 00:01:39.390 align:middle line:84% Because someone's always going to want to get 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:41.010 align:middle line:90% their hands on it. 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:45.570 align:middle line:84% Anyway, this is a kind of a fictional reconstruction 00:01:45.570 --> 00:01:48.180 align:middle line:90% of being there. 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:52.080 align:middle line:90% And it's entitled, "Creation." 00:01:52.080 --> 00:02:00.420 align:middle line:84% Trinity Site, New Mexico, 5:30 AM, July 16, 1945. 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:02.490 align:middle line:90% Let there be light. 00:02:02.490 --> 00:02:05.950 align:middle line:90% And there was light. 00:02:05.950 --> 00:02:10.500 align:middle line:84% The sun was slow in arriving that morning, though it was no 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:13.380 align:middle line:90% longer dark, was light enough. 00:02:13.380 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84% And having been born with good eyes, we could see. 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:23.940 align:middle line:84% We stood on the cool cactus sand, which was once an ocean, 00:02:23.940 --> 00:02:27.720 align:middle line:84% with a patience we rarely practiced. 00:02:27.720 --> 00:02:31.710 align:middle line:84% It was hard to imagine so much water in this place 00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:34.350 align:middle line:90% of permanent thirst. 00:02:34.350 --> 00:02:39.000 align:middle line:84% Motionless, we stood, just as we once waited for our sons 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.250 align:middle line:90% to struggle out of our wives. 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:44.640 align:middle line:84% The labor wasn't long, but the longest ten seconds 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:45.840 align:middle line:90% of our lives. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:48.720 align:middle line:90% Ten seconds, that was all. 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:52.530 align:middle line:84% And then the man-made flash, twice as large as the sun, 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:56.340 align:middle line:84% photographed the moment in fire, flames burning the sands, 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:58.470 align:middle line:90% slashing the face of the calm. 00:02:58.470 --> 00:03:00.690 align:middle line:84% The ball of thunder strangled the sky, 00:03:00.690 --> 00:03:02.880 align:middle line:84% reached, blasted, bounced on rocks, 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:06.330 align:middle line:84% became a perfect tower, taller, wider, whiter, 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:08.760 align:middle line:84% than the Aztecs ever dreamed of or desired. 00:03:08.760 --> 00:03:11.130 align:middle line:84% All the gilded temples where we crossed ourselves 00:03:11.130 --> 00:03:14.190 align:middle line:84% and worshipped perished in the smoke, everything 00:03:14.190 --> 00:03:16.650 align:middle line:90% surpassed in the new incense. 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:20.610 align:middle line:84% Falling on our knees, it seemed to reach for us. 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:23.550 align:middle line:84% We prayed for it to stop, yet urged it on. 00:03:23.550 --> 00:03:26.340 align:middle line:84% The air exploded hot, grew cold, and hot again, 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:29.400 align:middle line:84% invoking Indian winds to rise, to blow, 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.910 align:middle line:90% to break the Earth in half. 00:03:32.910 --> 00:03:35.970 align:middle line:90% Then it was silent. 00:03:35.970 --> 00:03:40.860 align:middle line:84% Motionless we stood, the air throwing us back. 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:47.790 align:middle line:84% And we remembered ourselves, our past, the boyhood houses filled 00:03:47.790 --> 00:03:49.710 align:middle line:90% with women singing. 00:03:49.710 --> 00:03:56.550 align:middle line:84% We rose, surveyed the aftermath of our great experiment. 00:03:56.550 --> 00:03:59.280 align:middle line:90% There was not much damage. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:06.090 align:middle line:84% Rearranged sand, uprooted bushes, a few dead rabbits. 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:10.380 align:middle line:84% This was, after all, already a desert. 00:04:10.380 --> 00:04:13.560 align:middle line:84% Already named Jornada del Muerto, 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:17.310 align:middle line:90% plane of the no-personed God. 00:04:17.310 --> 00:04:21.750 align:middle line:90% We had seen and lived. 00:04:21.750 --> 00:04:26.490 align:middle line:84% We blessed ourselves, smelling the victory. 00:04:26.490 --> 00:04:32.820 align:middle line:84% We put on jubilant smiles in the face of the outcome. 00:04:32.820 --> 00:04:40.710 align:middle line:84% But the smiles fell off, unable to withstand the great success. 00:04:40.710 --> 00:04:46.380 align:middle line:84% The sun was slow in arriving that morning. 00:04:46.380 --> 00:04:50.910 align:middle line:84% Those of us who bore witness saw it rise 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:55.140 align:middle line:90% in the new sky, motionless. 00:04:55.140 --> 00:04:59.800 align:middle line:84% But it no longer gave enough light. 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:04.990 align:middle line:84% Now, after many years, our eyes have 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:07.570 align:middle line:90% grown accustomed to the dark. 00:05:07.570 --> 00:05:10.270 align:middle line:90% 00:05:10.270 --> 00:05:12.120 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE]