WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:04.230 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much, Alison. 00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:84% I wasn't expecting such a large turnout. 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:09.067 align:middle line:84% But I knew Frances would be here, 00:00:09.067 --> 00:00:10.650 align:middle line:84% Frances Sjoberg, some of you may know. 00:00:10.650 --> 00:00:12.780 align:middle line:84% And I would actually like to read mostly 00:00:12.780 --> 00:00:15.360 align:middle line:84% for her because she's putting together a book. 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:20.910 align:middle line:84% And it gave me occasion to think about having two books 00:00:20.910 --> 00:00:25.360 align:middle line:84% now, how one might have led to the other. 00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:29.310 align:middle line:84% So I want to start at the tail end of Red Signature 00:00:29.310 --> 00:00:33.150 align:middle line:90% and see if I can find some seam. 00:00:33.150 --> 00:00:36.270 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.270 --> 00:00:39.300 align:middle line:84% This poem is called "Among Things Held at Arm's Length." 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:43.270 align:middle line:90% 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:45.580 align:middle line:84% "They planted cedars around the farmhouses 00:00:45.580 --> 00:00:48.280 align:middle line:90% in those days, home place. 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:50.260 align:middle line:90% Cedars are fast growers. 00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:51.220 align:middle line:90% And they mass. 00:00:51.220 --> 00:00:52.240 align:middle line:90% They're thick. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:53.770 align:middle line:90% Windbreak. 00:00:53.770 --> 00:00:56.680 align:middle line:84% So when a thunderstorm would rant, and rave, and spew, 00:00:56.680 --> 00:00:58.990 align:middle line:84% the cedars would take it, would wrestle the thing, 00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:01.270 align:middle line:90% stop it at the windows. 00:01:01.270 --> 00:01:04.569 align:middle line:84% The people would be lying there a yard away in nice dry bed 00:01:04.569 --> 00:01:05.620 align:middle line:90% clothes. 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:09.520 align:middle line:84% The dog's eyes would be open, waiting. 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:12.370 align:middle line:84% And in the afternoon, which is the calm, 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:15.070 align:middle line:84% why then the cedars would shift a little in the breeze 00:01:15.070 --> 00:01:18.310 align:middle line:84% and their shadows would move all dapply on the windows, 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:21.130 align:middle line:90% on the white windowsills. 00:01:21.130 --> 00:01:23.980 align:middle line:84% This is a permanent thing, seen from cradles, 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:27.550 align:middle line:90% seen from death beds. 00:01:27.550 --> 00:01:30.850 align:middle line:84% A woman, for example, one of whose names was Muriel, 00:01:30.850 --> 00:01:35.260 align:middle line:84% had her window, her branch, her bird, her hour for the watch, 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:39.760 align:middle line:84% free because she draped the dish towel over the dishes to dry. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:43.210 align:middle line:84% Free because she had a cocker spaniel pup on her lap, 00:01:43.210 --> 00:01:46.510 align:middle line:84% his head silky to stroke free because by then, she 00:01:46.510 --> 00:01:49.120 align:middle line:90% had mostly quit talking. 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:56.260 align:middle line:84% That a name means matters, what the name is doesn't or varies. 00:01:56.260 --> 00:02:00.550 align:middle line:84% Pawnee County, Oklahoma, place shows the difference 00:02:00.550 --> 00:02:04.780 align:middle line:84% between anywhere, which it can be, and arbitrary, which 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:07.960 align:middle line:84% it can't, a time all people find, 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:11.260 align:middle line:84% a joint time, a time certain, not known 00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:16.540 align:middle line:84% ordinarily in advance, a time came and then Muriel died. 00:02:16.540 --> 00:02:19.330 align:middle line:84% And when she was a bride, and even a young wife, 00:02:19.330 --> 00:02:21.550 align:middle line:84% her red-haired husband would come in from the fields, 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:23.890 align:middle line:90% his energy scarcely diminished. 00:02:23.890 --> 00:02:25.990 align:middle line:84% And he would pick her up around the waist 00:02:25.990 --> 00:02:28.030 align:middle line:84% and whirl her around the dusty yard 00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:33.580 align:middle line:84% till her stockings would cowl at the tops of her laced up shoes. 00:02:33.580 --> 00:02:36.130 align:middle line:84% She would laugh and he would smile. 00:02:36.130 --> 00:02:37.870 align:middle line:90% The first child was a daughter. 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:40.090 align:middle line:84% And they named her Armand, a girl 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:44.500 align:middle line:84% more somber than either parent, a girl with auburn hair. 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:48.970 align:middle line:84% Then a boy with clay red hair, Bryce, soon nicknamed Brick, 00:02:48.970 --> 00:02:51.160 align:middle line:84% then a boy with hair the color of new penny, 00:02:51.160 --> 00:02:55.630 align:middle line:84% Joe, then Rex with hair the color of an old penny. 00:02:55.630 --> 00:02:58.330 align:middle line:84% Finally, a dark haired girl, hair dark 00:02:58.330 --> 00:03:02.830 align:middle line:84% as Muriel's own, a joyous child called Claudie Ann. 00:03:02.830 --> 00:03:05.950 align:middle line:84% And the sod buster's name, not to be omitted, 00:03:05.950 --> 00:03:08.950 align:middle line:84% was Arnold, which only Muriel ever voiced. 00:03:08.950 --> 00:03:10.960 align:middle line:90% To everyone else, he was Red. 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.600 align:middle line:84% His brother, whose real name, even I don't know, 00:03:13.600 --> 00:03:16.960 align:middle line:84% was Blue, on account of his cold black hair. 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:20.960 align:middle line:84% The time came and the time came and the time came, 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:24.640 align:middle line:84% the time will come and come, and come and come 00:03:24.640 --> 00:03:28.060 align:middle line:84% for the littlest daughter will come likewise. 00:03:28.060 --> 00:03:30.760 align:middle line:84% With luck, a cedar branch, a wind. 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:33.070 align:middle line:90% With luck, a cardinal bird. 00:03:33.070 --> 00:03:38.350 align:middle line:84% Hazel eyes or blue or brown or gray or green, 00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:41.320 align:middle line:90% the same for one whole lifetime. 00:03:41.320 --> 00:03:43.780 align:middle line:90% The pre-sunrise light is daily. 00:03:43.780 --> 00:03:46.930 align:middle line:84% Today, I just happened to see it. 00:03:46.930 --> 00:03:50.890 align:middle line:84% I aligned my palm with the horizon." 00:03:50.890 --> 00:03:54.640 align:middle line:84% And that is, in one way, where the book ends with this figure, 00:03:54.640 --> 00:04:02.050 align:middle line:84% who has looked back at home and becoming an adult and becoming 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:06.550 align:middle line:84% an artist, and now is situated with this palm aligned with 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:10.490 align:middle line:84% the horizon, the place where the sky and the land, 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:14.210 align:middle line:84% or if you happen to live on an ocean, which I don't. 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:15.640 align:middle line:84% Where those two things meet, it's 00:04:15.640 --> 00:04:18.690 align:middle line:84% hard to tell where one thing becomes the other.