WEBVTT

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I am so honored to be back
here in Phoenix, Arizona

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to be back in the Southwest.

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I'm from Oklahoma, a member
of the Muskogee Creek Nation,

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but my travels have taken me--

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I wound up at Indian boarding
school in Santa Fe, New Mexico

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and lived in New Mexico
and was here for a time.

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And my poetry has come
from all of these places.

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And then, I returned home.

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I'm going to start with
and then to be here,

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with Sandra and Rita.

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To come to this place,
this place in our lives

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after all of these stories,
it's an amazing journey.

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It's an amazing journey we've
been on, and we're continuing.

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It's an amazing journey
our generation has been on,

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this country, and how
this country came about.

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It all makes sense.

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Poetry makes sense of it all.

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"This morning, I
pray for my enemies,

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and whom do I call my enemy?

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An enemy must be
worthy of engagement.

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I turn in the direction of
the sun and keep walking.

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It's the heart that asks the
question, not my furious mind.

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The heart is the smaller
cousin of the sun.

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It sees and knows everything.

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It hears the gnashing, even
as it hears the blessing.

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The door to the mind should
only open from the heart.

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An enemy who gets in, risks the
danger of becoming a friend."

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