WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.370 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.370 --> 00:00:14.210 align:middle line:84%
I don't think-- these are two
sort of bookend poems in that--

00:00:14.210 --> 00:00:18.400 align:middle line:90%


00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:21.070 align:middle line:84%
which are dramatic
monologues and the voice

00:00:21.070 --> 00:00:22.750 align:middle line:90%
of two real poets.

00:00:22.750 --> 00:00:25.810 align:middle line:84%
One of whom is the
Palestinian poet Fadwa

00:00:25.810 --> 00:00:32.409 align:middle line:84%
Tuqan, who died in her
late 80s about 10 years--

00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:34.550 align:middle line:90%
10, 15 years ago.

00:00:34.550 --> 00:00:39.400 align:middle line:84%
And the other was the Israeli
poet Dahlia Ravikovitch,

00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:45.130 align:middle line:84%
and who died only in her
60s, very suddenly, also not

00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:48.130 align:middle line:90%
terribly long ago.

00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:52.450 align:middle line:84%
And who was an Israeli
political dissident.

00:00:52.450 --> 00:00:55.300 align:middle line:84%
And these two women
poets were friends

00:00:55.300 --> 00:00:56.680 align:middle line:90%
for much of their lives.

00:00:56.680 --> 00:01:00.260 align:middle line:90%


00:01:00.260 --> 00:01:04.069 align:middle line:84%
And I took the liberty
of writing poems

00:01:04.069 --> 00:01:06.320 align:middle line:84%
in the voice of other
poets, which is--

00:01:06.320 --> 00:01:12.320 align:middle line:84%
the story about Fadwa Tuqan
is that she, the narrator,

00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:16.400 align:middle line:84%
relates in the first poem
is in fact a true one.

00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.380 align:middle line:84%
That her parents pulled
her out of school

00:01:18.380 --> 00:01:23.060 align:middle line:84%
when she was 12 because a boy
from another class in school

00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:26.430 align:middle line:84%
sent her a flower via
her little brother

00:01:26.430 --> 00:01:30.740 align:middle line:84%
and this was
considered dangerous.

00:01:30.740 --> 00:01:34.880 align:middle line:84%
And then another-- her older
brother, who was also a poet,

00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:38.930 align:middle line:84%
took her education in
hand and thanks to him

00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:40.160 align:middle line:90%
she, too, became a writer.

00:01:40.160 --> 00:01:44.230 align:middle line:90%


00:01:44.230 --> 00:01:47.860 align:middle line:84%
"When I was made a prisoner
in my father's house

00:01:47.860 --> 00:01:52.270 align:middle line:84%
my mother turned away,
swallowing her words.

00:01:52.270 --> 00:01:55.060 align:middle line:84%
The potholed path
to school became

00:01:55.060 --> 00:01:58.000 align:middle line:90%
a vision of my lost future.

00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.460 align:middle line:84%
It was not even
because of a letter.

00:02:00.460 --> 00:02:03.430 align:middle line:84%
A boy from the boy's
school entrusted

00:02:03.430 --> 00:02:06.640 align:middle line:84%
a flower, an almond
sprig, for me

00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:09.789 align:middle line:84%
to my little brother
that was intercepted

00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:12.440 align:middle line:90%
by our middle brother.

00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:16.760 align:middle line:84%
I was 12, I was no longer
to leave the house.

00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:21.260 align:middle line:84%
If that twig in blossom
sullied an imagined flower,

00:02:21.260 --> 00:02:24.350 align:middle line:90%
the metaphor wasn't mine.

00:02:24.350 --> 00:02:28.640 align:middle line:84%
I had no words for my
ignorance or innocence.

00:02:28.640 --> 00:02:34.010 align:middle line:84%
I copied letter after wobbly
letter on my school slate.

00:02:34.010 --> 00:02:37.670 align:middle line:84%
My vision was
astigmatic, strained.

00:02:37.670 --> 00:02:39.440 align:middle line:90%
Was there double vision?

00:02:39.440 --> 00:02:42.010 align:middle line:90%
God's eyes?

00:02:42.010 --> 00:02:44.680 align:middle line:84%
Six months later,
my eldest brother

00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.380 align:middle line:90%
came back, his studies done.

00:02:47.380 --> 00:02:49.930 align:middle line:90%
Doctor of letters.

00:02:49.930 --> 00:02:53.140 align:middle line:84%
He shelved his books
in the attic room

00:02:53.140 --> 00:02:57.490 align:middle line:84%
of the house that became a hive,
crawling and buzzing with words

00:02:57.490 --> 00:03:02.890 align:middle line:84%
and dripping the honey of
words on a carpet of flowers.

00:03:02.890 --> 00:03:08.740 align:middle line:84%
My days were dust and water,
starch and flour, chores,

00:03:08.740 --> 00:03:11.420 align:middle line:90%
silence, shame.

00:03:11.420 --> 00:03:14.900 align:middle line:84%
I could not envision the
school child I'd been

00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:16.970 align:middle line:90%
or what I would be.

00:03:16.970 --> 00:03:18.290 align:middle line:90%
Words receded.

00:03:18.290 --> 00:03:20.660 align:middle line:90%
I spoke so little.

00:03:20.660 --> 00:03:24.230 align:middle line:84%
I brought my brother his
coffee and shaving water.

00:03:24.230 --> 00:03:27.930 align:middle line:84%
The rest of the house
was dawn silent.

00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:33.050 align:middle line:84%
He was writing a letter, no,
something else, carefully.

00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:36.770 align:middle line:84%
Hearing each letter
that rounded or plunged

00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:39.560 align:middle line:84%
like the bud or the
root of a flower.

00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:42.590 align:middle line:84%
And the vowels' perfume
pervaded the house

00:03:42.590 --> 00:03:47.720 align:middle line:84%
as he weighed the choices
that shaped his revision.

00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:49.820 align:middle line:84%
'Do you still care
about poetry?'

00:03:49.820 --> 00:03:53.060 align:middle line:84%
asked my brother,
and began to recite

00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:57.470 align:middle line:90%
a mellifluous ladder of words.

00:03:57.470 --> 00:03:58.940 align:middle line:90%
'Take this book.

00:03:58.940 --> 00:04:00.650 align:middle line:90%
Copy this poem.

00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.620 align:middle line:84%
Make a list of the
words you don't know.

00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:07.310 align:middle line:84%
Mark the small vowel
for each letter.

00:04:07.310 --> 00:04:12.110 align:middle line:84%
Learn it and recite it
to me,' said my brother.

00:04:12.110 --> 00:04:16.760 align:middle line:84%
We are dust and ash and
beauty is brief as a flower,

00:04:16.760 --> 00:04:19.220 align:middle line:90%
but a stanza's a room.

00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:23.840 align:middle line:84%
A single line is the
house you can build.

00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:28.430 align:middle line:84%
Throw open the doors
to your vision.

00:04:28.430 --> 00:04:31.070 align:middle line:90%
I live in my own house now.

00:04:31.070 --> 00:04:34.910 align:middle line:84%
In my line of vision
an almond tree flowers.

00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.940 align:middle line:84%
I live by words
and on each page I

00:04:37.940 --> 00:04:40.926 align:middle line:90%
write a letter to my brothers."

00:04:40.926 --> 00:04:41.426 align:middle line:90%