WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.550 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.550 --> 00:00:04.410 align:middle line:84%
I won't read the other
parody because it's long

00:00:04.410 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:90%
and it's not that good poem.

00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:09.060 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:13.650 align:middle line:84%
I do want to read two serious
poems and finish up here.

00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:18.080 align:middle line:90%


00:00:18.080 --> 00:00:24.040 align:middle line:84%
One is a new poem that will
be in my book coming out

00:00:24.040 --> 00:00:27.760 align:middle line:84%
next month called
Discovering Mobility.

00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:32.409 align:middle line:84%
And it's for my first
child, my little boy

00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:37.150 align:middle line:90%
who is 14 months this week.

00:00:37.150 --> 00:00:41.890 align:middle line:84%
I wrote this several
months ago for him.

00:00:41.890 --> 00:00:47.440 align:middle line:84%
I guess because I have a fear
like probably lots of us have,

00:00:47.440 --> 00:00:51.490 align:middle line:84%
of never seeing him, a
fear of not seeing him.

00:00:51.490 --> 00:00:55.090 align:middle line:84%
And so I finally
finished this poem

00:00:55.090 --> 00:01:00.587 align:middle line:84%
and it starts with
putting together

00:01:00.587 --> 00:01:02.170 align:middle line:84%
a walker, if you
know what a walker is

00:01:02.170 --> 00:01:05.110 align:middle line:90%
for a baby at six months.

00:01:05.110 --> 00:01:07.970 align:middle line:84%
And he was watching me as
I was putting it together.

00:01:07.970 --> 00:01:10.720 align:middle line:84%
And that's how
this poem started.

00:01:10.720 --> 00:01:13.270 align:middle line:84%
It tries to be a lullaby
but it never quite makes it.

00:01:13.270 --> 00:01:17.020 align:middle line:90%


00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:19.360 align:middle line:84%
Discovering mobility
to my first child.

00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:22.090 align:middle line:90%


00:01:22.090 --> 00:01:26.740 align:middle line:84%
Lying on his stomach, he watches
me assemble the new walker,

00:01:26.740 --> 00:01:29.320 align:middle line:84%
his six months
already behind him

00:01:29.320 --> 00:01:33.100 align:middle line:84%
like some infantile
myth of reason.

00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:37.390 align:middle line:84%
I attach the wheels, the
springs, the padded gripper,

00:01:37.390 --> 00:01:39.190 align:middle line:90%
and his eyes follow.

00:01:39.190 --> 00:01:43.720 align:middle line:84%
These first instructions on
how to extend human capability,

00:01:43.720 --> 00:01:47.290 align:middle line:84%
technological first
steps, after which purpose

00:01:47.290 --> 00:01:52.060 align:middle line:84%
traces its path to the
stars we are born under.

00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:55.300 align:middle line:84%
When I place him in the
seat, his two legs dangling

00:01:55.300 --> 00:01:59.590 align:middle line:84%
through the holes, he pushes
himself up immediately

00:01:59.590 --> 00:02:05.830 align:middle line:84%
as if he wants me to recognize
in him my own clumsy dignity.

00:02:05.830 --> 00:02:08.590 align:middle line:84%
His first steps are
so directionless,

00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:12.220 align:middle line:84%
contentment escapes from
him, and an undecipherable

00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:15.400 align:middle line:84%
sound that I repeat
like a vowel.

00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.430 align:middle line:84%
I watch him maneuver, his
excitement leading him

00:02:18.430 --> 00:02:20.380 align:middle line:84%
to the circular
patterns which form

00:02:20.380 --> 00:02:26.620 align:middle line:84%
the dance we dance unconsciously
in worship of our return.

00:02:26.620 --> 00:02:29.890 align:middle line:84%
I too make my way
across the Earth.

00:02:29.890 --> 00:02:35.320 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes, I'm as unsteady
as you are today, Joseph.

00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:37.630 align:middle line:90%
I'm leaving your mother.

00:02:37.630 --> 00:02:40.780 align:middle line:84%
My legs push hard
against the gravity that

00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:44.290 align:middle line:90%
makes us resentful and strong.

00:02:44.290 --> 00:02:46.510 align:middle line:84%
The trouble you
are having now you

00:02:46.510 --> 00:02:49.510 align:middle line:84%
will have again over
ice, through mud,

00:02:49.510 --> 00:02:51.370 align:middle line:84%
on journeys that
will take you to

00:02:51.370 --> 00:02:57.070 align:middle line:84%
far into interiors that have
no treasures, no exits, only

00:02:57.070 --> 00:02:59.920 align:middle line:90%
new ground to cover.

00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:04.000 align:middle line:90%
So walk Joseph, walk away.

00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.330 align:middle line:84%
I am leaving this
house in a few days.

00:03:07.330 --> 00:03:10.810 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to write a
lullaby and sing it to you,

00:03:10.810 --> 00:03:13.660 align:middle line:84%
hold you up to the
window light, and watch

00:03:13.660 --> 00:03:16.600 align:middle line:84%
the pupils of your
eyes go small.

00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:20.560 align:middle line:84%
My image in them crystallizing
under the constant pressure

00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:23.330 align:middle line:90%
of this game of focus.

00:03:23.330 --> 00:03:26.890 align:middle line:84%
So close your eyes son
and keep me with you.

00:03:26.890 --> 00:03:29.800 align:middle line:90%
I sing the dark to comfort you.

00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:33.220 align:middle line:90%
And walk Joseph, walk away.

00:03:33.220 --> 00:03:36.610 align:middle line:84%
The melody we leave behind
will carry and sleeps

00:03:36.610 --> 00:03:42.550 align:middle line:84%
wind a long, long way, for
now this poem will have to do.

00:03:42.550 --> 00:03:46.040 align:middle line:84%
Five miles as a short lyric
I made in half an hour,

00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:49.990 align:middle line:90%
I walk Joseph, I walk away.

00:03:49.990 --> 00:03:53.110 align:middle line:84%
Measure my love and the
distance between us.

00:03:53.110 --> 00:03:56.350 align:middle line:84%
Every map is a
palm dipped in ink.

00:03:56.350 --> 00:03:59.350 align:middle line:90%
100 miles is a waltz we learn.

00:03:59.350 --> 00:04:04.990 align:middle line:84%
So dance, Joseph, neither of
us can talk, can talk away.

00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:07.930 align:middle line:90%
I sing the dark to comfort you.

00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:11.020 align:middle line:84%
For now this poem
will have to do.

00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:13.810 align:middle line:84%
The uneven staggered
steps you take

00:04:13.810 --> 00:04:16.209 align:middle line:90%
are the steps that I anticipate.

00:04:16.209 --> 00:04:20.230 align:middle line:84%
Someday on a street
when I begin to curse

00:04:20.230 --> 00:04:25.240 align:middle line:84%
the mobility, the freedom,
the loaves, that lead men

00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:28.560 align:middle line:90%
to the strangers they become.

00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:30.000 align:middle line:90%