WEBVTT

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Thank you, Farid.

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Thank you.

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And thank you the University
of Arizona Poetry Center

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for this generous invitation.

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I was telling Becka that I
don't really do many residencies

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partly because I--

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I don't get a chance to,
I'm always traveling,

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I want to be out of
the country and so on.

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And then I'm afraid
to get bored.

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And I also will miss
my wife and daughter.

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We're like a threesome.

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And we just don't
like being apart.

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But I'm having an
affair with this book.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And I will cheat
them of my presence

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to get more of it done.

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So thank you for this.

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It's always amazing--
it amazes me

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when people tell you to
come and do your work.

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And it's poetry, and so--

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so-- and thank you, Farid,
for the kind introduction.

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I want to read from
this new manuscript.

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And I guess I'll--

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we were talking about
Chomsky being here

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and how people talked
about pesoptimism.

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And it's pessimistic, but it's
exhilarating and ecstatic.

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It's pessimism that makes you
ecstatic at the end, which

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is a good way to think
about the next few years.

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It's just like, keep
being pessimistic

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until you hit ecstasy.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So I'll-- and mentioning the--

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I'll begin with-- I'll read
something that's not really

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light, but it maybe just touches
on something that Farid had

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mentioned, which is the--

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which is the Muslim population.

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I am a Muslim by identity.

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I've had no reason to
not be one or to be one.

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I just stuck in.

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[? For ?] maybe to spite other
people or to spite myself,

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I've remained a Muslim.

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But also there are many,
many good things about that.

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But being a part of the
post-Arab Spring world,

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I've written this poem,
if I can only find it.

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So this is called the
"Moderate Muslim Blues."

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It has disappeared.

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The moderate Muslims,
where are they?

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They keep trying to
find them, right?

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Where are the moderate Muslims?

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They have a villanelle to
present to the civilized world,

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and they can't find it.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Yeah.

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OK, we'll come to
it if I find it.

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OK.

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I can't find it.

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So let's read something else.