WEBVTT

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I'll read a few poems
from my new book.

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This book was extremely
difficult to write.

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I don't usually do this.

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But for two years, I decided
not to write any poetry.

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It was an experiment.

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I thought, well, what if I don't
write poetry for two years,

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will it all come gushing out?

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At once or did I just
lose those two years.

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And so the thing was that I
found my inspiration somehow.

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And it was in the year.

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You see trying to remember that.

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I always get this date from
something to look it up.

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It was a year of Ferguson.

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It was a year of the Ayotzinapa.

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What year is it--

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and it was 2014.

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2014 was the year.

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Ferguson was a
year of Ayotzinapa

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with the 31 students
died in Southern Mexico.

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And it was also the
100th anniversary

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of the Ludlow Massacre.

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And the Ludlow massacres
that leave you,

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I mean, familiar with that
and in Ludlow Colorado.

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It was 1914, where this
community of copper miners.

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They were Greek, Italian,
Mexican primarily

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went on strike.

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And the-- I believe it
was a Rockefeller mine.

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And they sent in
the troops and--

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to intimidate them
to get back to work

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and to give up these
aspirations to unionize.

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They lit the company on fire.

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And a number of people
died in that fire.

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Unfortunately, mostly
women and children.

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And I went out.

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And so I thought 2014, this
year, this the world around me,

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the world around us is
giving us this message

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if we don't listen to it.

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That's it.

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I think we deserve
what's coming to us.

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And so that became the impetus
to work on this book, which

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is about the end of the world.

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This is the end of our world.

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But I look at the end of
the world in very Amerindian

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indigenous terms.

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The end of the world does not
mean that then there's nothing.

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It just means that
there's an opportunity

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for rebirth, opportunity
to reawaken, to reimagine.

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Those of us who are not
part in that process

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will only encounter darkness.

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And that's it.

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So we all have to
make a decision.

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Are we going to be part of the
reimagining of this new world?

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Or are we just going
to close our eyes?

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And I mean, that
very metaphorically

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and very literally.

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You close your eyes, that's it.

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Nothing else.

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So I explore that.

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So in this book, it's
actually mostly persona poems.

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And most of my poetry
I write about people.

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And this one, the elements,
which are very, very new,

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very different for me began
to speak the ocean, the land,

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the air, the smoke.

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And so it's again is not me.

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So this poem is called Tsunami.

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There's a man who
sits on the shore

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every morning
staring at the sea.

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He doesn't have any sons left.

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They dispersed
like a pool of fish

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when the sinker strikes
the surface of the water.

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The eldest took the family boat.

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The middle son, the net.

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The youngest claimed the
rods, the lines, and hooks.

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Stripping their father
of his fishermen's estate

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though he wasn't dead yet.

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His burden was a stroke that
left him trapped inside a body.

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A tackle box that lost its key.

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A mermaid chewed on
the tips of her hair

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like seaweed before
crawling up the sand just

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to fling a mussel shell
against his skull.

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He didn't move.

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But inside, he felt elated
that for once an object came

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towards him instead of
floating away like everything

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his wife had brought him.

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Kisses, kitchen,
signs, the scent

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of jasmine on her
hands and feet.

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She dragged into
the tide their home.

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No.

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The entire street, the
village, uprooting lampposts

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and eucalyptus trees now
obscene with earthworms.

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Their moistness desperate at
the separation from the soil.

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His fingers had twitched just
so as he reached for his beloved

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who sank into the sea.

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The landscape, the
train of a gown

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that swirled down after her.

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Everybody drowned.

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Oh figurehead of tragedy.

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Oh ravenous water that snatches
the air out of every long.

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After centuries of villagers
taking from your belly,

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you had to claim it all back.

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Each hard won catch.

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Each gasp from a
child whose first fish

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changes color in the bucket.

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Each bone stuck in the throat,
and every story that followed.

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But your wrath hungered
for more than that.

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Each blessing over the soup.

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Each time a man touched
his bride beneath the table

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during prayer.

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Each time a man caressed
another man in the dark.

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Every blush born of such
affection, and every encounter

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with pleasure that
ended with the mouth

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savoring its secret
into daylight.

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Give it to me, said the sea.

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Every glimpse of
your woman's nipple

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as she fed each of your sons.

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Every bristle of your lover's
beard found on the pillow

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and which you fondled while the
dawn peeked through the blinds.

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Every ray of light.

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Every time you heard the
coffee boiling on the stove

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and thought what a lucky man.

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And I have everything.

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I have it all.

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No you arrogant
fool I have it all.

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Your yesterday, the days
before, the days ahead.

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I swallow every
minute you sit there

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begging to get something back.

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I pick my teeth with
your disappointment.

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Some might think it cruel
that I let you live.

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You're the one without a voice.

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But what use is a voice for
no one heeds the warnings.

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Your kind gave me such taste for
waste that it became addiction.

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And like any dog or snake,
I gave in to my rage

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when you weren't praying
or paying attention,

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when you stood above me like a
master and gazed at the horizon

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as if you owned as far
as your eyes could reach.

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And I barked, and I hissed,
and told you that I too

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could play that game.

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But you wouldn't listen.

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What is that a tear I see?

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Is it plump with
shame or regret?

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I'll savor it just the same.

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You sunk into the
ruins is the story.

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You unheard is your fate.

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And mine.

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Now you know what
it's like to be me.

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You can whisper,
scream, it's pointless.

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Nobody gives a fucking shit.

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