WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90% Thank you guys so much. 00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:03.310 align:middle line:84% You're both such excellent readers of your work. 00:00:03.310 --> 00:00:05.040 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.696 align:middle line:90% What is a poetry reading for? 00:00:07.696 --> 00:00:08.700 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:10.850 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.850 --> 00:00:14.070 align:middle line:90% We both went, you're ahead. 00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:16.395 align:middle line:84% I mean, I think, I love hearing Jane read. 00:00:16.395 --> 00:00:18.520 align:middle line:84% It's been quite a while since I've heard Jane read, 00:00:18.520 --> 00:00:22.590 align:middle line:84% and I love to hear the poem in the body 00:00:22.590 --> 00:00:24.750 align:middle line:84% and the voice and the throat and everything. 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:90% I love hearing it. 00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:28.020 align:middle line:84% I've read Thunderbird, I've read it a couple of times, 00:00:28.020 --> 00:00:30.510 align:middle line:84% but I haven't heard her read from it yet, 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:34.748 align:middle line:84% and to me it's like you get to kind of revel in the-- 00:00:34.748 --> 00:00:35.290 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:35.290 --> 00:00:38.736 align:middle line:84% In the bodily kind of nest or something. 00:00:38.736 --> 00:00:41.508 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.508 --> 00:00:42.630 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:42.630 --> 00:00:43.380 align:middle line:90% Thanks for coming. 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:44.693 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:44.693 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84% You all know what a poetry reading 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:48.068 align:middle line:84% is for because you're here and you came for it. 00:00:48.068 --> 00:00:49.246 align:middle line:90% I hope you got it. 00:00:49.246 --> 00:00:50.734 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:50.734 --> 00:00:53.214 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:53.214 --> 00:00:57.453 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.453 --> 00:00:58.620 align:middle line:90% Anyone else have a question? 00:00:58.620 --> 00:01:00.460 align:middle line:90% [PLANE ENGINE OVERHEAD] 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:01.815 align:middle line:90% 00:01:01.815 --> 00:01:03.190 align:middle line:84% The planes have something to say, 00:01:03.190 --> 00:01:06.290 align:middle line:84% but they're not speaking our language. 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:10.560 align:middle line:84% You hit the church bells really nicely. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:12.250 align:middle line:90% You planned that, I know. 00:01:12.250 --> 00:01:13.230 align:middle line:90% Worked on that. 00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:16.170 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:17.150 align:middle line:90% Don't be shy. 00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:22.560 align:middle line:90% 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.773 align:middle line:84% They've been stunned into silence. 00:01:24.773 --> 00:01:25.440 align:middle line:90% Oh, there we go. 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:28.668 align:middle line:90% 00:01:28.668 --> 00:01:29.710 align:middle line:90% This guy's a good leader. 00:01:29.710 --> 00:01:33.640 align:middle line:84% We've seen him before, so there's-- 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:34.240 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:37.360 align:middle line:90% This is actually for Jane. 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:40.900 align:middle line:84% So throughout Thunderbird, I picked up 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:43.270 align:middle line:90% some themes about religion. 00:01:43.270 --> 00:01:46.840 align:middle line:84% Could you elaborate more on what you wanted to-- 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:52.150 align:middle line:84% I guess the key point you wanted to make by referencing God 00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:55.050 align:middle line:90% a few times throughout the-- 00:01:55.050 --> 00:01:58.980 align:middle line:84% sorry for the very broad question. 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:02.550 align:middle line:84% Well, everybody's got a spiritual life, 00:02:02.550 --> 00:02:06.510 align:middle line:84% and I am not a religious person per se, 00:02:06.510 --> 00:02:09.539 align:middle line:84% but I am trying to develop my spiritual life, 00:02:09.539 --> 00:02:12.940 align:middle line:84% and I just wanted to communicate that to everyone 00:02:12.940 --> 00:02:16.170 align:middle line:84% and try to connect with people on that level, 00:02:16.170 --> 00:02:18.180 align:middle line:90% that we're all terrified. 00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:20.700 align:middle line:90% We wake up feeling dread. 00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:22.620 align:middle line:84% Sometimes we have a few wonderful things 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:25.350 align:middle line:84% that happen to us during the day, and then it's dread again. 00:02:25.350 --> 00:02:27.340 align:middle line:90% And so I think-- 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:27.840 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:33.660 align:middle line:84% I mean, quite seriously, I mean, your question is huge 00:02:33.660 --> 00:02:36.210 align:middle line:84% and I'm not a theologian or anything like that, 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:39.060 align:middle line:84% but I do feel that it's important to speak 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:41.760 align:middle line:84% of large things that we don't understand, 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:44.040 align:middle line:84% and God is just one of many things 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:46.665 align:middle line:84% that I speak about that I don't understand. 00:02:46.665 --> 00:02:53.600 align:middle line:90% 00:02:53.600 --> 00:02:56.870 align:middle line:84% Speaking of which, I have a sense 00:02:56.870 --> 00:03:03.050 align:middle line:84% of a test of a roller coaster, because I 00:03:03.050 --> 00:03:08.970 align:middle line:84% have the ups and downs, as of truths and [INAUDIBLE] 00:03:08.970 --> 00:03:11.630 align:middle line:84% of some kind of vague form, because you 00:03:11.630 --> 00:03:17.900 align:middle line:84% talked about the Mediterranean, all the figs and pigs. 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:21.290 align:middle line:84% You talked about the salad and all people who 00:03:21.290 --> 00:03:23.990 align:middle line:84% can categorize as figs, and then you 00:03:23.990 --> 00:03:27.780 align:middle line:84% talked about the beautiful imagery of figs 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:30.220 align:middle line:90% and all the [INAUDIBLE]. 00:03:30.220 --> 00:03:34.350 align:middle line:84% How do you combine those two antagonistic ends 00:03:34.350 --> 00:03:36.970 align:middle line:90% in such a pleasing way? 00:03:36.970 --> 00:03:37.630 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:37.630 --> 00:03:38.713 align:middle line:90% Can you hear his question? 00:03:38.713 --> 00:03:41.650 align:middle line:84% He's talking about the antagonistic elements 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:43.600 align:middle line:90% that he hears in my work. 00:03:43.600 --> 00:03:45.460 align:middle line:90% Figs and fugs, for example. 00:03:45.460 --> 00:03:48.520 align:middle line:84% And Josh and I were working this morning 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:50.800 align:middle line:84% in two wonderful classes of honor students, 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:52.840 align:middle line:84% where we were discussing just that. 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:53.860 align:middle line:90% Josh was quite eloquent. 00:03:53.860 --> 00:03:56.410 align:middle line:84% I'm going to let him pick up on this. 00:03:56.410 --> 00:03:59.380 align:middle line:84% But I do think that it's in poetry in general, 00:03:59.380 --> 00:04:03.130 align:middle line:84% that poetry is by nature paradoxical and deals 00:04:03.130 --> 00:04:08.080 align:middle line:84% with opposites that to some people 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.000 align:middle line:90% might seem inappropriate. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.680 align:middle line:84% But I think that, in fact, all of it 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.700 align:middle line:90% is contained in our world. 00:04:13.700 --> 00:04:15.700 align:middle line:84% But could you say a few words, because you were 00:04:15.700 --> 00:04:17.660 align:middle line:90% quite beautiful this morning? 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:19.681 align:middle line:90% That was this morning. 00:04:19.681 --> 00:04:21.260 align:middle line:90% That was so long ago. 00:04:21.260 --> 00:04:23.740 align:middle line:90% It's been a long day. 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:25.512 align:middle line:84% Well, yeah, I do think that there-- 00:04:25.512 --> 00:04:27.220 align:middle line:84% we were talking a little bit this morning 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:30.280 align:middle line:84% about how the way that in Jane's poems and I 00:04:30.280 --> 00:04:32.140 align:middle line:84% think also a little bit in my poems 00:04:32.140 --> 00:04:35.227 align:middle line:84% there is a kind of-- there's a little doom and gloom, 00:04:35.227 --> 00:04:37.060 align:middle line:84% and then it always is sort of, I don't know, 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:40.400 align:middle line:84% carried forth by some pleasure or some joy, 00:04:40.400 --> 00:04:45.280 align:middle line:84% some wish to prolong something positive or good 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:48.250 align:middle line:84% or glorious or surprising or amazing, 00:04:48.250 --> 00:04:52.960 align:middle line:84% and it's undergirded again by that same counterforce 00:04:52.960 --> 00:04:54.040 align:middle line:90% or something too. 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:57.250 align:middle line:84% And so it's like always one is sort of, 00:04:57.250 --> 00:05:01.540 align:middle line:84% I don't know, acting on or pulling or working 00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:05.168 align:middle line:90% on the other in some-- 00:05:05.168 --> 00:05:06.460 align:middle line:90% it was way better this morning. 00:05:06.460 --> 00:05:07.810 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:07.810 --> 00:05:09.080 align:middle line:90% 00:05:09.080 --> 00:05:09.580 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:05:09.580 --> 00:05:12.960 align:middle line:90% We're getting there. 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:15.450 align:middle line:90% Hi, this is a question for Jane. 00:05:15.450 --> 00:05:17.220 align:middle line:84% I'm from the Northwest, and I just 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:21.950 align:middle line:84% wondered why you chose the title Thunderbird? 00:05:21.950 --> 00:05:24.750 align:middle line:84% Well, Thunderbird has a number of meanings to me. 00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:27.500 align:middle line:84% My mother had a Ford Thunderbird when we were growing up. 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:29.750 align:middle line:90% That was how it started. 00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:30.890 align:middle line:90% And I often go hiking. 00:05:30.890 --> 00:05:32.765 align:middle line:84% Those of you who know the west side of Tucson 00:05:32.765 --> 00:05:35.120 align:middle line:84% will know there's a Thunderbird Trail out there. 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.630 align:middle line:84% But more to your question, the question is about the title 00:05:38.630 --> 00:05:42.830 align:middle line:84% and how it is indeed a Pacific Northwest reference. 00:05:42.830 --> 00:05:46.950 align:middle line:84% The storms here got me looking up what was going on, 00:05:46.950 --> 00:05:51.950 align:middle line:84% and they seemed so human in a gigantic way. 00:05:51.950 --> 00:05:56.330 align:middle line:84% I began to anthropomorphize, if you will, about the storms, 00:05:56.330 --> 00:05:59.270 align:middle line:84% and eventually end up doing some research. 00:05:59.270 --> 00:06:03.050 align:middle line:84% And I found out that the giant Thunderbird, while it 00:06:03.050 --> 00:06:06.440 align:middle line:84% is a Pacific Northwest reference, 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:09.110 align:middle line:84% was seen here in the Southwest right 00:06:09.110 --> 00:06:12.470 align:middle line:84% around Tucson, supposedly photographed, 00:06:12.470 --> 00:06:15.890 align:middle line:84% and there was some contention about this. 00:06:15.890 --> 00:06:18.710 align:middle line:84% And I just got simply fascinated one monsoon season 00:06:18.710 --> 00:06:21.510 align:middle line:84% with what was going on above me, the sound of the lightning 00:06:21.510 --> 00:06:22.010 align:middle line:90% and so on. 00:06:22.010 --> 00:06:23.780 align:middle line:84% And so the metaphor grew and grew. 00:06:23.780 --> 00:06:26.480 align:middle line:84% Also, just as a postscript to that, 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:30.800 align:middle line:84% when the Air Force showcases its Jets, 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:32.930 align:middle line:84% that is known as the Thunderbird Show. 00:06:32.930 --> 00:06:36.830 align:middle line:84% So the whole thing kind of began to cluster for me. 00:06:36.830 --> 00:06:38.000 align:middle line:90%