WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.420 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:12.340 align:middle line:84%
Thank you so much for
being here tonight

00:00:12.340 --> 00:00:15.690 align:middle line:84%
and thank you Poetry
Center, University

00:00:15.690 --> 00:00:19.390 align:middle line:90%
of Arizona for having me here.

00:00:19.390 --> 00:00:21.270 align:middle line:84%
I'm absolutely
thrilled and delighted.

00:00:21.270 --> 00:00:25.530 align:middle line:84%
I want to let you guys
know that I understand

00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:27.090 align:middle line:90%
what Ander is going through.

00:00:27.090 --> 00:00:30.690 align:middle line:84%
I myself have two small
children at home and this

00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:34.050 align:middle line:84%
is the first time that
I am away from them.

00:00:34.050 --> 00:00:37.590 align:middle line:84%
This should tell you how
much I wanted to be here.

00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:39.010 align:middle line:90%
I made this happen.

00:00:39.010 --> 00:00:42.280 align:middle line:84%
I said yes, yes, yes,
yes, I will be here.

00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:44.940 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:00:44.940 --> 00:00:46.900 align:middle line:84%
So I'm absolutely
thrilled to be here.

00:00:46.900 --> 00:00:51.000 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read from
a mixture of work today.

00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.790 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read a little
bit from Of the Mismatched Tea

00:00:53.790 --> 00:00:55.440 align:middle line:84%
Cups, of the Single
Serving Spoon

00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:58.740 align:middle line:84%
and then I'll go into
my Peter and Wendy book,

00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:00.240 align:middle line:84%
Not Merely Because
of the Unknown

00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:01.907 align:middle line:84%
that was Stalking
Towards Them, and then

00:01:01.907 --> 00:01:05.340 align:middle line:84%
I'll end with some
new work that I

00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:07.125 align:middle line:90%
believe is a hybrid in nature.

00:01:07.125 --> 00:01:14.910 align:middle line:90%


00:01:14.910 --> 00:01:20.490 align:middle line:84%
So I'm actually going to start
with a lineated poem that

00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:24.240 align:middle line:84%
is actually going to be in
a anthology for high school

00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:28.405 align:middle line:84%
students called Poems Your
Parents Don't Want You to Read.

00:01:28.405 --> 00:01:31.260 align:middle line:90%


00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:35.400 align:middle line:84%
I guess it's naughty,
I don't know.

00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:39.660 align:middle line:84%
How many of you guys
know Craigslist?

00:01:39.660 --> 00:01:42.270 align:middle line:84%
So confession number
one, I'll confess to you

00:01:42.270 --> 00:01:44.730 align:middle line:84%
many things tonight, but
confession number one when

00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:47.640 align:middle line:84%
I was supposed to be working
as an editorial assistant

00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.520 align:middle line:84%
at Oxford University Press
in New York, New York,

00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:54.030 align:middle line:90%
I would just read Craigslist.

00:01:54.030 --> 00:01:55.680 align:middle line:90%
It was endlessly entertaining.

00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.670 align:middle line:84%
And I loved the Missed
Connections section.

00:01:59.670 --> 00:02:00.850 align:middle line:90%
This is being recorded.

00:02:00.850 --> 00:02:02.660 align:middle line:84%
I hope my former
employer doesn't--

00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:06.420 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHING]

00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:08.639 align:middle line:84%
So there's that Missed
Connection section

00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:11.520 align:middle line:84%
where maybe you see someone on
the train you're like oh man, I

00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:15.300 align:middle line:84%
should have got in with
her and you didn't, so you

00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:17.220 align:middle line:84%
hope that she reads
the Missed Connection

00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:18.210 align:middle line:90%
and reaches out to you.

00:02:18.210 --> 00:02:21.330 align:middle line:90%
"Sestina of Missed Connections."

00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:26.160 align:middle line:84%
I'm sorry to say that again
today we did not meet.

00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:84%
The trees against the winter
sky slowly lose their aim.

00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:34.320 align:middle line:84%
There are too many shallow
things, distance of airplanes,

00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:36.960 align:middle line:84%
the comma splice,
the solicitation

00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.890 align:middle line:84%
more urgent than need, the
mailbox lacking evidence.

00:02:40.890 --> 00:02:43.440 align:middle line:84%
Looks as if again
today no one has

00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:47.220 align:middle line:84%
attempted to touch
strangers on sidewalks.

00:02:47.220 --> 00:02:51.570 align:middle line:84%
I'm sure that you touched
me quite purposefully when

00:02:51.570 --> 00:02:53.610 align:middle line:90%
handing over my change.

00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.010 align:middle line:84%
When we meet next I will
give you such a wink,

00:02:56.010 --> 00:02:58.380 align:middle line:84%
such a stare as to
knock you off your feet,

00:02:58.380 --> 00:03:01.740 align:middle line:84%
but you will, as you
must, lose me again

00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:05.310 align:middle line:84%
to the next order, the next
cup, the next urgent customer's

00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:06.270 align:middle line:90%
request.

00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:09.840 align:middle line:84%
There exists such a
distance between emptiness

00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:11.490 align:middle line:90%
and the first sip.

00:03:11.490 --> 00:03:15.210 align:middle line:84%
It is the distance between
a missed train and love,

00:03:15.210 --> 00:03:20.790 align:middle line:84%
the allowances for touch
being owned by angels alone.

00:03:20.790 --> 00:03:23.760 align:middle line:90%
Night is urgent.

00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:26.610 align:middle line:84%
Night never waits
for companionship.

00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:28.950 align:middle line:84%
It meets you bare
on your bedspread.

00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:30.340 align:middle line:90%
Do not think twice.

00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:33.930 align:middle line:84%
You will lose that phone number
in the sky, the black clouds,

00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.470 align:middle line:84%
and I espy another
version of loneliness.

00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:41.460 align:middle line:84%
The man in the fedora
never looks this way.

00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:47.250 align:middle line:84%
He exists only in the movies in
black and white distant pasts

00:03:47.250 --> 00:03:50.400 align:middle line:84%
where love used to
happen with diamonds.

00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.700 align:middle line:90%
Maybe you lost your nerve.

00:03:53.700 --> 00:03:56.970 align:middle line:84%
Maybe in a dream I
allowed for the omission,

00:03:56.970 --> 00:03:59.850 align:middle line:84%
having touched the
pomegranates, mistaking them

00:03:59.850 --> 00:04:04.170 align:middle line:84%
for strange persimmons, met
and dappled with oppositions,

00:04:04.170 --> 00:04:08.520 align:middle line:84%
the posted placards so pressing
among a mass of personal

00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:11.730 align:middle line:90%
want ads urgently expressing.

00:04:11.730 --> 00:04:15.720 align:middle line:84%
In the event of an emergency,
look to coincidences.

00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:21.750 align:middle line:84%
The old woman in the woods,
contact your local soothsayer.

00:04:21.750 --> 00:04:26.580 align:middle line:84%
The old woman in the woods,
contact your local soothsayer,

00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:31.170 align:middle line:84%
dowager zodiac's afar, I
was wearing a pink scarf.

00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:33.600 align:middle line:84%
If you dare to lay
hands on the sleeper

00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.210 align:middle line:84%
the dream will become
lost on other mornings.

00:04:36.210 --> 00:04:39.960 align:middle line:84%
The blackbirds will shake loose
the eyes of nesting birds.

00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:43.140 align:middle line:84%
The garments to the sky
pressed like ancestral ghosts

00:04:43.140 --> 00:04:46.830 align:middle line:84%
hang between heaven and dirt,
touching a day that is already

00:04:46.830 --> 00:04:49.080 align:middle line:90%
dressed and departing.

00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:53.280 align:middle line:84%
Sight, too, grows dim
and optical instruments

00:04:53.280 --> 00:04:56.730 align:middle line:84%
scan distances where the
minute hand and the hour hand

00:04:56.730 --> 00:05:00.750 align:middle line:84%
do indeed meet, but
only touch briefly

00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:04.400 align:middle line:90%
before moving apart again.

00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:09.290 align:middle line:84%
Toss out then the
agenda badly planned.

00:05:09.290 --> 00:05:12.920 align:middle line:84%
An insane plane is
eager for takeoff.

00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:17.010 align:middle line:84%
Keep the life vest
close to your chest.

00:05:17.010 --> 00:05:19.520 align:middle line:90%
Look in the distance.

00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:21.850 align:middle line:90%
Distress flares.

00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:23.000 align:middle line:90%