WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.080 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:07.170 align:middle line:84% So I guess, I'll begin by saying what I said a minute ago, which 00:00:07.170 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:84% is mostly what I think about when I'm working, 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:15.300 align:middle line:84% or the last thing I finished, and the thing I'm 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.560 align:middle line:90% trying to finish. 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:20.470 align:middle line:84% So I really don't, I mean, I've never done that. 00:00:20.470 --> 00:00:23.680 align:middle line:84% I've never read from all of my books in a reading. 00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:28.660 align:middle line:84% And so, this one poem that I think is mostly done, 00:00:28.660 --> 00:00:33.750 align:middle line:84% I realized that is connected to you, guys, 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:35.187 align:middle line:90% I'm one of y'all's poets. 00:00:35.187 --> 00:00:37.020 align:middle line:84% So I don't know of how to get to it, though. 00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:38.603 align:middle line:84% I'm like, isn't always nice, it's new. 00:00:38.603 --> 00:00:40.530 align:middle line:84% So I don't know if I want to end with it. 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:43.780 align:middle line:90% So maybe I'll talk about it. 00:00:43.780 --> 00:00:45.450 align:middle line:84% So what I'll tell you is the poem 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:50.040 align:middle line:84% is called "The Poet Ai as Dylann Roof." 00:00:50.040 --> 00:00:53.400 align:middle line:84% So the thing is, I'm from South Carolina. 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:58.350 align:middle line:84% And Dylann Roof went into the church, 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:00.820 align:middle line:90% and he killed the nine folks. 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:04.830 align:middle line:84% And so, usually, when things happen, I just-- 00:01:04.830 --> 00:01:06.450 align:middle line:90% I work on them at my pace. 00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:07.980 align:middle line:84% So I'm always thinking about stuff, 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:12.300 align:middle line:84% but I'm not a poet who goes and writes immediately in response, 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:13.560 align:middle line:90% really to anything. 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:16.050 align:middle line:84% So my poems they take a year sometimes 00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:17.850 align:middle line:90% to make things happen. 00:01:17.850 --> 00:01:20.010 align:middle line:84% But someone in town was like, oh, we 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:22.712 align:middle line:84% want to do this thing about these guys. 00:01:22.712 --> 00:01:24.420 align:middle line:84% And you're from South Carolina, somewhere 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:25.380 align:middle line:90% in Pittsburgh, where I am. 00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:27.090 align:middle line:84% So they were like, will you do something? 00:01:27.090 --> 00:01:28.900 align:middle line:90% So I tried a bunch of poems. 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:33.990 align:middle line:84% The first thing I did was this little song 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:37.500 align:middle line:84% that I just lost a nerve, I could never sing it. 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:39.510 align:middle line:90% So I'm not going to sing it. 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:41.588 align:middle line:90% But it's after this dude-- 00:01:41.588 --> 00:01:43.380 align:middle line:84% I actually have him singing it, but I'm not 00:01:43.380 --> 00:01:45.910 align:middle line:84% going to play him singing it, either, Richard Dawson-- 00:01:45.910 --> 00:01:51.768 align:middle line:84% and so I wrote this thing last summer. 00:01:51.768 --> 00:01:53.560 align:middle line:84% And it only becomes relevant, because it'll 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:54.820 align:middle line:90% explain how we get to Ai. 00:01:54.820 --> 00:01:58.390 align:middle line:84% So this was me trying to write about again a spectacle, like, 00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:00.790 align:middle line:84% their spectacle for you, spectacle of violence, 00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:02.680 align:middle line:84% like, nine people killed in a church. 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:07.040 align:middle line:84% I mean, you can't get more spectacular than that. 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:09.097 align:middle line:84% And so, what I thought was, again, maybe, 00:02:09.097 --> 00:02:10.930 align:middle line:84% we'll have this conversation in the Q and A, 00:02:10.930 --> 00:02:14.560 align:middle line:84% my impulse was not to look at it but to look away from it, 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:16.523 align:middle line:90% to metaphor. 00:02:16.523 --> 00:02:17.440 align:middle line:90% So I wrote this thing. 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:20.660 align:middle line:90% It's called "Carolina Lullaby." 00:02:20.660 --> 00:02:24.350 align:middle line:84% Say hello to the little boy whose poor 00:02:24.350 --> 00:02:26.570 align:middle line:90% head is filled with noise. 00:02:26.570 --> 00:02:30.500 align:middle line:84% For I'm the bird he's fixed to kill for singing 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:32.930 align:middle line:90% this song in the field. 00:02:32.930 --> 00:02:36.440 align:middle line:84% Blue blackbirds, blue blackbirds, 00:02:36.440 --> 00:02:39.710 align:middle line:84% hear what is done to the singing birds. 00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:42.710 align:middle line:84% His hands around my wondrous wings, 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:46.460 align:middle line:84% plucked feathers my mother once stroked. 00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:48.710 align:middle line:84% I held the song within my throat. 00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:51.620 align:middle line:90% I sang until my body broke. 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:55.250 align:middle line:84% Black bluebird, black bluebird, hear 00:02:55.250 --> 00:02:58.430 align:middle line:90% what is done to a singing bird. 00:02:58.430 --> 00:03:01.670 align:middle line:84% And now, to make my music still, he 00:03:01.670 --> 00:03:03.920 align:middle line:90% took a stone up from the field. 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:06.620 align:middle line:84% I sang to the stone like a lover, 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:10.850 align:middle line:84% though, for none could crushed my trembling throat. 00:03:10.850 --> 00:03:15.500 align:middle line:84% Poor small boy, poor small boy, hear 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:18.620 align:middle line:90% what you did to a singing bird. 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:21.540 align:middle line:84% His blows beat down upon my song. 00:03:21.540 --> 00:03:24.230 align:middle line:84% But the song remained when I was gone. 00:03:24.230 --> 00:03:27.150 align:middle line:84% When the boy walked home to a lonely room, 00:03:27.150 --> 00:03:29.450 align:middle line:90% this was the tune he hummed. 00:03:29.450 --> 00:03:32.800 align:middle line:90% [HUMMING] 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:41.000 align:middle line:90%