WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.590 align:middle line:84%
It's nice when the microphone
is right at the right height.

00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:05.860 align:middle line:90%
Thank you for having me here.

00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:07.600 align:middle line:90%
It's great to be here.

00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:10.140 align:middle line:84%
It's my first time in Arizona,
and I saw prairie dogs today

00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:11.870 align:middle line:90%
so, I am satisfied.

00:00:11.870 --> 00:00:14.580 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:16.200 align:middle line:84%
The first poem I'm
going to read is

00:00:16.200 --> 00:00:22.110 align:middle line:84%
about a world in which
beauty has been outlawed.

00:00:22.110 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:90%
"The Gem" is on Page 64.

00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:28.800 align:middle line:84%
"Ahem, said the guards, when
anyone lingered too long

00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.690 align:middle line:90%
with their nose in a posy.

00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:34.020 align:middle line:84%
And then came the stuttered,
explanation was required,

00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:35.850 align:middle line:90%
if one seemed to be admiring.

00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:37.920 align:middle line:90%
Anything could provoke a ticket.

00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.350 align:middle line:84%
Even a certain
glazing of the eye

00:00:40.350 --> 00:00:43.620 align:middle line:84%
that seemed to signify
some secret rapture.

00:00:43.620 --> 00:00:47.070 align:middle line:84%
How the rupture between looking
and looking had happened

00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:48.310 align:middle line:90%
was a mystery.

00:00:48.310 --> 00:00:50.940 align:middle line:84%
Perhaps there had once
been a sallow queen.

00:00:50.940 --> 00:00:53.280 align:middle line:84%
But it was best to
wear dark glasses,

00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:55.620 align:middle line:84%
and mutter, what a
waste of marble, when

00:00:55.620 --> 00:00:57.420 align:middle line:90%
in the proximity of beauty.

00:00:57.420 --> 00:01:00.630 align:middle line:84%
Even when it was, necessary
acts of loveliness

00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:02.910 align:middle line:84%
such as trimming
the olive trees were

00:01:02.910 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:90%
scheduled for non-moon nights.

00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:08.070 align:middle line:84%
So the silvery branches and
piles around the ladders

00:01:08.070 --> 00:01:09.840 align:middle line:90%
wouldn't have any added.

00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.150 align:middle line:84%
Attraction between
young men and women

00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:14.700 align:middle line:84%
was now a case of
smuggled petticoats

00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:19.200 align:middle line:84%
and plain brown cakes that
had icing on the inside.

00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.260 align:middle line:84%
And in the schoolyard,
children traded beauty cards,

00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:25.380 align:middle line:84%
listing what page and book
to look in for something.

00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:28.890 align:middle line:84%
Scandalous things had
happened in a town up North.

00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:32.220 align:middle line:84%
It was rumored that all the
pretty girls had pranced down

00:01:32.220 --> 00:01:34.530 align:middle line:84%
a cobbled hill
holding gold picture

00:01:34.530 --> 00:01:36.360 align:middle line:90%
frames around their faces.

00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:40.080 align:middle line:84%
And a man with a cane began
surreptitiously tracing where

00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:41.940 align:middle line:90%
the sun was hitting the stones.

00:01:41.940 --> 00:01:44.850 align:middle line:84%
And then the mayor whispered
that line of Shakespeare

00:01:44.850 --> 00:01:46.320 align:middle line:90%
into his wife's ear.

00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:47.970 align:middle line:90%
And she looked momentarily.

00:01:47.970 --> 00:01:50.640 align:middle line:84%
Sentimental outbreaks
were not uncommon,

00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:53.310 align:middle line:84%
and there were crews
trained in containment.

00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:56.370 align:middle line:84%
But they could never predict
the next one day they'd

00:01:56.370 --> 00:01:57.900 align:middle line:90%
come upon a soda fountain.

00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:00.690 align:middle line:84%
Each customer looking
at his or her fizzy

00:02:00.690 --> 00:02:03.870 align:middle line:84%
drink with an expression
of absolute bliss.

00:02:03.870 --> 00:02:06.750 align:middle line:84%
Or two boys in a
basement, in ecstasy

00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:10.410 align:middle line:84%
over something imaginary,
which couldn't be taken away

00:02:10.410 --> 00:02:12.800 align:middle line:90%
and poured down the sink."

00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:15.000 align:middle line:90%