WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.120 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:04.370 align:middle line:84% Now, we're going to move on because we 00:00:04.370 --> 00:00:05.990 align:middle line:90% don't have the 45 minutes. 00:00:05.990 --> 00:00:08.420 align:middle line:90% I'm very aware of time. 00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:10.280 align:middle line:90% Time is so important. 00:00:10.280 --> 00:00:12.690 align:middle line:90% Can't do that. 00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:13.740 align:middle line:90% So I'm looking at this. 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:14.865 align:middle line:90% I'll read this little poem. 00:00:14.865 --> 00:00:18.040 align:middle line:84% It's only the poem I ever remembered, the only one. 00:00:18.040 --> 00:00:19.180 align:middle line:90% I don't know why. 00:00:19.180 --> 00:00:22.200 align:middle line:84% But it goes like, "The other brandy-sweet night, 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:24.570 align:middle line:84% I dreamed we was kissing so hard and good. 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:27.390 align:middle line:84% You sucked my tongue right on out my trembling mouth. 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:29.350 align:middle line:84% And I had to sew it back in, baby, 00:00:29.350 --> 00:00:30.886 align:middle line:90% in order to tell you about it." 00:00:30.886 --> 00:00:34.358 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:34.358 --> 00:00:36.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:39.420 align:middle line:84% I don't know why I remembered that poem. 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:41.530 align:middle line:84% My wife tells me, you ran up through more women 00:00:41.530 --> 00:00:44.280 align:middle line:84% than [INAUDIBLE] but talk to them [INAUDIBLE]. 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:45.600 align:middle line:90% I say, it ain't what it is. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:49.380 align:middle line:84% I don't know why I remember that poem. 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:51.510 align:middle line:84% I tried to do it a little bit different. 00:00:51.510 --> 00:00:55.116 align:middle line:84% I tried to make it different, but I can never do it. 00:00:55.116 --> 00:00:56.949 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read these Point Loma poems. -- 00:00:56.949 --> 00:00:58.824 align:middle line:84% I saw this earring, I don't know whose it is. 00:00:58.824 --> 00:01:03.311 align:middle line:90% 00:01:03.311 --> 00:01:04.769 align:middle line:84% I've been trying not to step on it. 00:01:04.769 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:90% Is it yours? 00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:06.797 align:middle line:90% I've got mine on. 00:01:06.797 --> 00:01:07.380 align:middle line:90% Is this yours? 00:01:07.380 --> 00:01:07.800 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:10.383 align:middle line:84% I've been trying the whole time I'm up here not to step on it. 00:01:10.383 --> 00:01:11.512 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:11.512 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:90% I did do a dance [INAUDIBLE]. 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:17.970 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.970 --> 00:01:19.770 align:middle line:90% Terrible. 00:01:19.770 --> 00:01:20.880 align:middle line:90% This Point Loma Poem-- 00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:90% I just say a few words about it. 00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:25.050 align:middle line:84% I'm doing another one now in San Francisco 00:01:25.050 --> 00:01:28.053 align:middle line:84% with another great artist, Her name is-- 00:01:28.053 --> 00:01:29.220 align:middle line:90% I like working with artists. 00:01:29.220 --> 00:01:31.680 align:middle line:84% I like working with visual artists 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:34.950 align:middle line:84% because visual artists have other ways of looking at stuff. 00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:38.070 align:middle line:84% I hang out with most of the time of visual artists too. 00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:40.740 align:middle line:84% I hang out with visual artists and musicians 00:01:40.740 --> 00:01:43.222 align:middle line:84% more than I hang out with writers because writers always 00:01:43.222 --> 00:01:44.430 align:middle line:90% say, what are you working on? 00:01:44.430 --> 00:01:45.794 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:45.794 --> 00:01:46.294 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.294 --> 00:01:48.624 align:middle line:90% You know, like what? 00:01:48.624 --> 00:01:51.115 align:middle line:84% I don't want to talk about what I'm working on. 00:01:51.115 --> 00:01:52.240 align:middle line:90% I don't want talk about it. 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:54.510 align:middle line:84% I want to go to that basketball game. 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:57.400 align:middle line:84% Let's go to the museum, you know? 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:01.240 align:middle line:84% Anyway, Mathieu Gregoire he was an interesting guy, a friend 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:03.010 align:middle line:90% of mine, and is a sculptor. 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:05.260 align:middle line:84% And he asked me to do this project with him. 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:08.710 align:middle line:84% And it's called the Wastewater Management Project 00:02:08.710 --> 00:02:10.378 align:middle line:90% and on Point Loma. 00:02:10.378 --> 00:02:11.920 align:middle line:84% And the problem with this whole thing 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:14.170 align:middle line:84% is right by the ocean at the end of Point Loma-- looks 00:02:14.170 --> 00:02:17.650 align:middle line:84% out at the ocean but at the same time, is this very weird place. 00:02:17.650 --> 00:02:20.080 align:middle line:84% And you have to write some poems that are underground 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:23.680 align:middle line:84% and some that are overground that look out of the ocean. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.040 align:middle line:84% And one particularly really difficult 00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:28.480 align:middle line:90% and challenging problem-- 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:30.820 align:middle line:90% there is this wall. 00:02:30.820 --> 00:02:32.680 align:middle line:90% And it caused me nightmares. 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.530 align:middle line:84% And you had-- there was a parking lot over here. 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:37.330 align:middle line:84% And there was a parking lot over there. 00:02:37.330 --> 00:02:39.760 align:middle line:84% And people could come and park, and they 00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:41.030 align:middle line:90% would walk past this wall. 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:43.630 align:middle line:84% So the poem had to read coming this way. 00:02:43.630 --> 00:02:46.332 align:middle line:84% And then the people that came in over there and park. 00:02:46.332 --> 00:02:48.040 align:middle line:84% And the poem had to read coming this way. 00:02:48.040 --> 00:02:50.920 align:middle line:84% So it had to read two different ways. 00:02:50.920 --> 00:02:52.883 align:middle line:84% So this line had to go this way like that. 00:02:52.883 --> 00:02:54.550 align:middle line:84% And then this one have to come this way. 00:02:54.550 --> 00:02:56.530 align:middle line:90% But it had to work as a poem. 00:02:56.530 --> 00:03:01.422 align:middle line:84% And so this caused me all kind of problems. 00:03:01.422 --> 00:03:03.130 align:middle line:84% But I'm going to read you a few of these, 00:03:03.130 --> 00:03:04.797 align:middle line:84% and I'll read you the first three pages. 00:03:04.797 --> 00:03:06.940 align:middle line:84% And then I'll read you the haikus. 00:03:06.940 --> 00:03:09.530 align:middle line:90% And I'll end with-- 00:03:09.530 --> 00:03:11.620 align:middle line:90% I don't know what yet. 00:03:11.620 --> 00:03:13.392 align:middle line:84% I never know what I'm going to read. 00:03:13.392 --> 00:03:14.350 align:middle line:90% We got a lot of pieces. 00:03:14.350 --> 00:03:15.205 align:middle line:90% You just don't know it. 00:03:15.205 --> 00:03:15.913 align:middle line:90% Isn't that right? 00:03:15.913 --> 00:03:17.560 align:middle line:84% But you know, you don't read, right? 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:18.393 align:middle line:90% You just don't know. 00:03:18.393 --> 00:03:21.370 align:middle line:84% You get them to go like, what am I going to read? 00:03:21.370 --> 00:03:24.580 align:middle line:90% I don't know all these people. 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:26.050 align:middle line:84% When I go to St Louis, I know I got 00:03:26.050 --> 00:03:29.140 align:middle line:84% to read new stuff because I read old stuff. 00:03:29.140 --> 00:03:30.390 align:middle line:90% They be like booing. 00:03:30.390 --> 00:03:33.650 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:34.150 align:middle line:90% 00:03:34.150 --> 00:03:36.280 align:middle line:84% OK, so this is "The Point Loma Poems." 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:40.850 align:middle line:84% And this whole poem is around this whole place and just 00:03:40.850 --> 00:03:43.340 align:middle line:90% kind of interesting. 00:03:43.340 --> 00:03:45.170 align:middle line:90% "1. 00:03:45.170 --> 00:03:49.160 align:middle line:84% Reader let your painterly imagination run true 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:52.460 align:middle line:84% as a brushstroke straight out to sea. 00:03:52.460 --> 00:03:55.580 align:middle line:84% Let your eyes zoom along a single line, 00:03:55.580 --> 00:03:59.300 align:middle line:84% curving away from this artificial walkway and barrier, 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:02.360 align:middle line:84% this cliff of sand, clumps of grass, 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:04.310 align:middle line:90% large and small boulders. 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:06.960 align:middle line:84% Look out toward the horizon where 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:11.210 align:middle line:84% blue meets blue on a clear day, where a bar of mist 00:04:11.210 --> 00:04:15.770 align:middle line:84% separates the two, the view expansive everywhere from here. 00:04:15.770 --> 00:04:18.709 align:middle line:84% The blue skies spreading soft lips of air 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:22.340 align:middle line:84% to kiss the many feverish miles of fish opening 00:04:22.340 --> 00:04:26.750 align:middle line:84% and closing out in the Pacific, where desire is a need 00:04:26.750 --> 00:04:30.680 align:middle line:84% to hold all this power in check, where that straight line 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:34.580 align:middle line:84% you pull yourself out by now holds true on course. 00:04:34.580 --> 00:04:37.490 align:middle line:84% Your eyes drinking in everything your mind 00:04:37.490 --> 00:04:40.340 align:middle line:84% can swallow there, where the mouth that 00:04:40.340 --> 00:04:44.330 align:middle line:84% holds the tongue that speaks in breaking syllables with foaming 00:04:44.330 --> 00:04:48.890 align:middle line:84% articulation, roaring in one curling wave after another, 00:04:48.890 --> 00:04:51.650 align:middle line:90% suds at the point of apogee. 00:04:51.650 --> 00:04:55.160 align:middle line:84% Like a madman stunned by a miracle when he looks out. 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:58.790 align:middle line:84% Sees a single color between green and violet. 00:04:58.790 --> 00:05:02.390 align:middle line:84% Meet each other as lovers fuse at the point 00:05:02.390 --> 00:05:05.600 align:middle line:84% where the sun touches their flesh at each place 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:08.150 align:middle line:90% along their line of connection. 00:05:08.150 --> 00:05:12.200 align:middle line:84% We are fascinated by it all when light fades toward alchemy, 00:05:12.200 --> 00:05:14.840 align:middle line:90% the power deeply magical here. 00:05:14.840 --> 00:05:17.480 align:middle line:84% Mysterious as touch when it seduces 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:21.980 align:middle line:84% flesh, where true colors fade into gradual gradations. 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.380 align:middle line:84% The palette swelling with cool heat 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:27.350 align:middle line:84% of blues, where your vision leaps out now, 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:29.810 align:middle line:84% reader, to embrace the glow that holds 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:33.170 align:middle line:84% the line true from this point forward now. 00:05:33.170 --> 00:05:37.340 align:middle line:84% Now, reach out your ears and senses toward titillation. 00:05:37.340 --> 00:05:40.520 align:middle line:84% Stretch them out, listen to, feel the music 00:05:40.520 --> 00:05:44.060 align:middle line:84% recreating itself out there, where the sun refracts 00:05:44.060 --> 00:05:48.500 align:middle line:84% its lancing rays that multiplied into a billion slivers of light 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:51.080 align:middle line:84% that cut and sparkle like diamonds. 00:05:51.080 --> 00:05:54.240 align:middle line:84% On the back of this blue ocean, a miracle 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:57.260 align:middle line:84% spread out like an endless azure veranda 00:05:57.260 --> 00:06:00.830 align:middle line:84% table toward in which pelicans and seagulls dive, 00:06:00.830 --> 00:06:03.920 align:middle line:84% swoop over, and feed on, squawking 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.440 align:middle line:84% and barking like hungry sea lions 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:08.870 align:middle line:90% everywhere on wet black rocks. 00:06:08.870 --> 00:06:13.100 align:middle line:84% The language of a poem that suddenly grows wings takes off 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:15.560 align:middle line:84% in flight, reaches this place here 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:20.660 align:middle line:84% where sea, land, and sky meet light at the end of Point Loma 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:24.200 align:middle line:84% beneath the slope of scrub brush, bright magenta ice 00:06:24.200 --> 00:06:25.610 align:middle line:90% plant and pickle. 00:06:25.610 --> 00:06:29.150 align:middle line:84% Now, let your mind rest here, space traveler, 00:06:29.150 --> 00:06:31.340 align:middle line:84% where weeds climb these hillsides 00:06:31.340 --> 00:06:33.980 align:middle line:90% of green and rough brown rocks. 00:06:33.980 --> 00:06:38.000 align:middle line:84% Now, a grave for where four dooky flames used to shoot, 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:40.400 align:middle line:84% orange lizard tongues rippling skyward, 00:06:40.400 --> 00:06:42.230 align:middle line:90% barraging air with heat. 00:06:42.230 --> 00:06:45.080 align:middle line:84% Waves that whales used to navigate themselves 00:06:45.080 --> 00:06:47.195 align:middle line:84% in by after crossing the Pacific, 00:06:47.195 --> 00:06:50.510 align:middle line:84% geysering up spray foam jets from holes 00:06:50.510 --> 00:06:54.300 align:middle line:84% in their backs drenched with salt water, where waves curl, 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:57.770 align:middle line:84% form patterns way out in the humping mad waves, 00:06:57.770 --> 00:06:59.120 align:middle line:90% locked like lovers. 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:02.390 align:middle line:84% Waves moving up and down like a chain of U's 00:07:02.390 --> 00:07:05.750 align:middle line:84% curving question marks way up above Poseidon, 00:07:05.750 --> 00:07:08.120 align:middle line:84% holding his three-pronged fork, who 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:11.690 align:middle line:84% can cause earthquakes to lift the towering water higher 00:07:11.690 --> 00:07:15.530 align:middle line:84% until it breaks and dives down, smashing against the surface 00:07:15.530 --> 00:07:16.340 align:middle line:90% skin. 00:07:16.340 --> 00:07:19.130 align:middle line:84% It becomes a boiling cauldron there. 00:07:19.130 --> 00:07:22.070 align:middle line:84% Imagine yourself in that boiling cauldron 00:07:22.070 --> 00:07:26.420 align:middle line:84% of curling power, reader, a whale or surfer or eyes 00:07:26.420 --> 00:07:29.030 align:middle line:84% from a boat looking back at this stunning land, 00:07:29.030 --> 00:07:32.510 align:middle line:84% rising as if it were the outer walls of a bowl seen 00:07:32.510 --> 00:07:34.340 align:middle line:90% from here as a backdrop. 00:07:34.340 --> 00:07:37.880 align:middle line:84% The sea floor curving up to meet it form the highest rim. 00:07:37.880 --> 00:07:39.860 align:middle line:90% Imagine, stunned reader. 00:07:39.860 --> 00:07:42.530 align:middle line:84% It is the golden hour seven in the evening. 00:07:42.530 --> 00:07:44.720 align:middle line:90% You're riding a wave in. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.000 align:middle line:84% It's summer, and a bar of sunlight 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.880 align:middle line:84% wrinkles and ripples across the surface of waves 00:07:49.880 --> 00:07:53.030 align:middle line:84% as they wash in before disintegrating as foam 00:07:53.030 --> 00:07:54.770 align:middle line:90% on the shining black rocks. 00:07:54.770 --> 00:07:58.130 align:middle line:84% Now, imagine this-- you're a surfer, 00:07:58.130 --> 00:08:01.040 align:middle line:84% and the same ray of sunlight behind your head 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:04.970 align:middle line:84% casts a light that reflects off your surfboard onto the wave. 00:08:04.970 --> 00:08:06.950 align:middle line:84% You think you're looking into a mirror, 00:08:06.950 --> 00:08:09.500 align:middle line:84% then a halo circles around your body 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:13.700 align:middle line:84% as you ride the imploding power cruising toward extinction. 00:08:13.700 --> 00:08:18.650 align:middle line:84% Look now and see the vortex, reader, swimming around rocks 00:08:18.650 --> 00:08:23.120 align:middle line:84% before you like rings around Jupiter, where brown kelp swims 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.690 align:middle line:84% tangled as nests of snakes inside tide pools, 00:08:26.690 --> 00:08:29.630 align:middle line:84% swirling inside the mouths of yawning caves 00:08:29.630 --> 00:08:33.679 align:middle line:84% next to wet black rock islands, holding shimmering seals, 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.860 align:middle line:84% white washed bright as Black babies' shiny bottoms 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:38.299 align:middle line:90% wet with pee. 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:42.870 align:middle line:84% The air here smelling of salt, waves, and carry - crashing in, 00:08:42.870 --> 00:08:45.630 align:middle line:84% carrying the power and language of tornadoes 00:08:45.630 --> 00:08:48.390 align:middle line:90% howling like runaway trains. 00:08:48.390 --> 00:08:51.060 align:middle line:84% Still, there is a feeling of calmness, 00:08:51.060 --> 00:08:55.200 align:middle line:84% where you stand looking out through pelting mist, waves 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:55.950 align:middle line:90% slobbering. 00:08:55.950 --> 00:08:58.500 align:middle line:84% Fringes of lace exhaust themselves 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:01.980 align:middle line:84% like madmen in any swirling shapes. 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:05.970 align:middle line:84% In this tide pool where you stand just now, reader, 00:09:05.970 --> 00:09:09.420 align:middle line:84% you are following these words to the land's end 00:09:09.420 --> 00:09:14.100 align:middle line:84% to watch them disappear, only to appear somewhere else, perhaps 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:17.730 align:middle line:84% right around the corner like waves and currents 00:09:17.730 --> 00:09:21.600 align:middle line:90% at the end of another journey." 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:22.955 align:middle line:90% That's all I'm going to read. 00:09:22.955 --> 00:09:26.350 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:32.535 align:middle line:90% 00:09:32.535 --> 00:09:33.160 align:middle line:90% What do we got? 00:09:33.160 --> 00:09:35.278 align:middle line:90% Like five minutes? 00:09:35.278 --> 00:09:36.320 align:middle line:90% As much time as you want. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:36.680 align:middle line:90% What? 00:09:36.680 --> 00:09:37.370 align:middle line:90% We got all night. 00:09:37.370 --> 00:09:38.745 align:middle line:84% You got as much time as you want. 00:09:38.745 --> 00:09:40.630 align:middle line:90% I don't want to do that.