WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.385 align:middle line:90%
[CLAPPING]

00:00:02.385 --> 00:00:04.770 align:middle line:90%


00:00:04.770 --> 00:00:06.750 align:middle line:84%
I just wanted to thank
you all for coming.

00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:11.580 align:middle line:84%
It's such a pleasure to be back
home here in the Old Pueblo.

00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:13.580 align:middle line:84%
I'm only going to read a
few poems from the book

00:00:13.580 --> 00:00:17.030 align:middle line:84%
tonight and share with you some
new work of the next collection

00:00:17.030 --> 00:00:18.740 align:middle line:84%
that's in progress
right now, that I hope

00:00:18.740 --> 00:00:21.380 align:middle line:90%
to have finished by the spring.

00:00:21.380 --> 00:00:24.720 align:middle line:84%
Let's start out with a couple
of poems from the book,

00:00:24.720 --> 00:00:26.340 align:middle line:90%
poems I haven't read here.

00:00:26.340 --> 00:00:32.250 align:middle line:90%


00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:35.150 align:middle line:90%
"Caw and Crow."

00:00:35.150 --> 00:00:41.450 align:middle line:84%
"I am a crow of a man, Hamlet's
last best interpretation,

00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:44.570 align:middle line:84%
preferring my body
the color of absence--

00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:50.480 align:middle line:84%
dark and disconnected as a
phone line, as a blank shack,

00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:53.990 align:middle line:84%
attracted by the sharp,
the shiny, chrome,

00:00:53.990 --> 00:00:58.130 align:middle line:84%
and chrome's likeness, the
dark reflection of self

00:00:58.130 --> 00:01:00.560 align:middle line:90%
in small things.

00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.170 align:middle line:84%
Listen, the finish
of this lighter

00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:06.680 align:middle line:84%
doesn't show much else
besides the truth.

00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:12.500 align:middle line:84%
It's a luminous machine and
burns at a simple, exact task.

00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:14.840 align:middle line:84%
I've taken to
skipping Sunday mass,

00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:17.900 align:middle line:84%
and the buckles on
my shoes, the straps

00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:22.130 align:middle line:84%
remind me of the vows
I've vowed against.

00:01:22.130 --> 00:01:25.460 align:middle line:84%
When I write about a
man smoking a cigarette,

00:01:25.460 --> 00:01:30.500 align:middle line:84%
I mean my grandfather's
gray wool suit, I mean me--

00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:34.040 align:middle line:84%
too distracted by the
glittered cleavage of stones,

00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:38.360 align:middle line:84%
by what's been revealed,
how it's accrued.

00:01:38.360 --> 00:01:42.020 align:middle line:84%
Listen, a crow will
land in December snow

00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:84%
to leave an angel's
print, clear and cold

00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:48.560 align:middle line:90%
as the light between pines.

00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:54.170 align:middle line:84%
Throaty calls break the air
like flint, strike, and spark.

00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:56.570 align:middle line:84%
In the cryptic wood
cutter's cottage,

00:01:56.570 --> 00:01:59.900 align:middle line:84%
grandfather serves his
penance, splitting wood

00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:03.310 align:middle line:90%
for fires that will not burn."

00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:05.000 align:middle line:90%