WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.670 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a little old, a little new. 00:00:02.670 --> 00:00:05.490 align:middle line:84% And I thought I had to start with a poem 00:00:05.490 --> 00:00:11.670 align:middle line:84% that I wrote in Iowa while surrounded 00:00:11.670 --> 00:00:17.970 align:middle line:84% by a lot of negativity but a few positive forces, many of whom 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:20.010 align:middle line:90% are in this room right now-- 00:00:20.010 --> 00:00:25.740 align:middle line:90% my colleagues, my compadres. 00:00:25.740 --> 00:00:32.880 align:middle line:84% Joy, Sandra, Mary Jane, and Jeff-- 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.850 align:middle line:90% thank you for being who you are. 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:39.750 align:middle line:84% And I thank all of you for believing 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:42.340 align:middle line:84% that poetry can change the world because it can, 00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:44.010 align:middle line:90% but only if you believe it. 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:45.240 align:middle line:90% Only if you believe it. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:48.720 align:middle line:90% This poem was written at Iowa. 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:53.640 align:middle line:84% It was one of the first ones that I wrote that I finally saw 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.130 align:middle line:90% the path that I wanted to take. 00:00:56.130 --> 00:01:00.780 align:middle line:84% And I remember when I read it in workshop-- 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:02.280 align:middle line:90% an early version of it-- 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:06.150 align:middle line:90% 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:10.590 align:middle line:84% one of my classmates said "I'd rather have an apple, 00:01:10.590 --> 00:01:13.260 align:middle line:90% and you've given me castor oil." 00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:13.980 align:middle line:90% That was Iowa. 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:17.090 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.090 --> 00:01:19.550 align:middle line:90% How did we survive that sucker? 00:01:19.550 --> 00:01:20.850 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:01:20.850 --> 00:01:24.010 align:middle line:90% I really don't know. 00:01:24.010 --> 00:01:27.310 align:middle line:90% "The House Slave". 00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:31.030 align:middle line:84% "The first horn lifts its arm over the dew-lit grass. 00:01:31.030 --> 00:01:34.900 align:middle line:84% And in the slave quarters there is a rustling. 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.240 align:middle line:84% Children are bundled into aprons. 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:40.210 align:middle line:84% Cornbread and water gourds grabbed. 00:01:40.210 --> 00:01:43.450 align:middle line:90% A salt pork breakfast taken. 00:01:43.450 --> 00:01:46.780 align:middle line:84% I watched them driven into the vague before dawn, 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:49.270 align:middle line:84% while their mistress sleeps like an ivory 00:01:49.270 --> 00:01:55.450 align:middle line:84% toothpick, and Massa dreams of asses, rum, and slave funk. 00:01:55.450 --> 00:01:58.090 align:middle line:90% I cannot fall asleep again. 00:01:58.090 --> 00:02:01.180 align:middle line:84% At the second horn, the whip curls across the backs 00:02:01.180 --> 00:02:02.230 align:middle line:90% of the laggards. 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:07.420 align:middle line:84% Sometimes my sister's voice, unmistaken, among them. 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:09.789 align:middle line:90% 'Oh pray,' she cries. 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:15.640 align:middle line:84% 'Oh pray.' Those days, I lie on my cot shivering in the early 00:02:15.640 --> 00:02:16.300 align:middle line:90% heat. 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:19.180 align:middle line:84% And as the fields unfold to whiteness, 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:25.490 align:middle line:84% and they spill like bees among the fat flowers, I weep. 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:28.320 align:middle line:90% It is not yet daylight."