WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 align:middle line:90% Do you write poetry in Arabic? 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:05.700 align:middle line:84% No, I've been translating to Arabic. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:07.680 align:middle line:90% But lately, I've switched. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:09.130 align:middle line:90% I've turned coat. 00:00:09.130 --> 00:00:10.740 align:middle line:84% I don't translate so much to English. 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:90% I translate more to Arabic. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.130 align:middle line:90% But I don't write in Arabic. 00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:18.113 align:middle line:84% Maybe in the next 30 years, I don't know. 00:00:18.113 --> 00:00:19.280 align:middle line:90% No, I don't write in Arabic. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:21.210 align:middle line:84% I've never really written in Arabic, as such. 00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:23.910 align:middle line:84% But since I've been traveling to Libya 00:00:23.910 --> 00:00:28.110 align:middle line:90% and spending time in the-- 00:00:28.110 --> 00:00:32.490 align:middle line:84% I've begun to write more prose and commentary and so on, 00:00:32.490 --> 00:00:33.690 align:middle line:90% but not poetry. 00:00:33.690 --> 00:00:35.780 align:middle line:90% Poetry is still in English. 00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:36.280 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:41.020 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:42.145 align:middle line:90% Was there another question? 00:00:42.145 --> 00:00:47.400 align:middle line:90% 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:47.900 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:49.370 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much for that reading. 00:00:49.370 --> 00:00:50.840 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:57.110 align:middle line:84% I'm exhilarated and devastated by the endings of your poems. 00:00:57.110 --> 00:00:59.810 align:middle line:84% They do everything that I love in poetry, 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:02.872 align:middle line:84% where it feels like you're dragging me along 00:01:02.872 --> 00:01:03.830 align:middle line:90% on the edge of a cliff. 00:01:03.830 --> 00:01:05.150 align:middle line:84% And we're going very fast, and you 00:01:05.150 --> 00:01:07.567 align:middle line:84% bring it right to the edge of the cliff, and then we stop. 00:01:07.567 --> 00:01:08.340 align:middle line:90% I don't push you? 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:10.007 align:middle line:84% No, no, you're-- no, you're carrying me. 00:01:10.007 --> 00:01:11.090 align:middle line:90% You're carrying me. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:11.640 align:middle line:90% Ah, failure. 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:14.072 align:middle line:90% You're carrying me. 00:01:14.072 --> 00:01:17.660 align:middle line:84% No, no because it feels like it's ended, 00:01:17.660 --> 00:01:20.493 align:middle line:84% the poem has ended, but like a door has opened. 00:01:20.493 --> 00:01:21.660 align:middle line:90% So, that's a very weird way. 00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:22.770 align:middle line:84% So, can you tell me about your endings? 00:01:22.770 --> 00:01:24.440 align:middle line:84% Can you just talk about the endings of your work? 00:01:24.440 --> 00:01:25.640 align:middle line:90% You know, I learned-- 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:27.230 align:middle line:84% not everything I know about endings, 00:01:27.230 --> 00:01:30.980 align:middle line:84% but I used to have very Wagnerian endings. 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:34.510 align:middle line:90% 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:41.532 align:middle line:84% And who taught me to sort of circumcise the poems? 00:01:41.532 --> 00:01:45.230 align:middle line:90% It was Yusef Komunyakaa. 00:01:45.230 --> 00:01:46.520 align:middle line:90% He knows what to say. 00:01:46.520 --> 00:01:48.960 align:middle line:84% Because if you're repeating, if you feel like you're-- 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:50.480 align:middle line:84% I think I'm embellishing in some. 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:52.160 align:middle line:90% I need to circumcise poem. 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:56.835 align:middle line:84% But if you feel like you will just agree, 00:01:56.835 --> 00:02:00.920 align:middle line:84% if you're reiterating or reinforcing anything, 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:04.710 align:middle line:84% then OK, maybe you didn't do it well enough to begin with. 00:02:04.710 --> 00:02:07.850 align:middle line:84% So go back and fix that, and then take the excess. 00:02:07.850 --> 00:02:11.379 align:middle line:84% So then, at least I have that feeling. 00:02:11.379 --> 00:02:15.200 align:middle line:84% When you're a reader of poetry, or at least a beginning reader 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:21.320 align:middle line:84% of poetry, you're waiting for that conclusive paragraph, 00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:24.170 align:middle line:84% as in an essay, that brings it all together. 00:02:24.170 --> 00:02:26.840 align:middle line:84% And some poems do that and some poems don't. 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:33.140 align:middle line:84% But it took me a while but at least 00:02:33.140 --> 00:02:36.980 align:middle line:84% I've learned to trust that the poem, in order 00:02:36.980 --> 00:02:41.900 align:middle line:84% for it to be on a loop, it needs to not conclude. 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:45.080 align:middle line:84% It needs to just sort of give what it has. 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:50.270 align:middle line:84% And it's the reader's effort to create that conclusion, 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:52.460 align:middle line:84% but it's through the revisitation. 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:55.310 align:middle line:84% So I don't-- I mean, I thank you. 00:02:55.310 --> 00:02:57.650 align:middle line:84% I'm glad that I'm doing this because my thought is 00:02:57.650 --> 00:03:03.230 align:middle line:84% that I'm probably saying too much at the end. 00:03:03.230 --> 00:03:07.160 align:middle line:84% But no, I think the idea is, when is enough? 00:03:07.160 --> 00:03:09.960 align:middle line:90% When have you said enough? 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:13.190 align:middle line:84% When are you reinforcing an idea, 00:03:13.190 --> 00:03:15.620 align:middle line:84% and you don't need to reinforce because your images 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:20.990 align:middle line:84% and your word use, the good work you've done before, 00:03:20.990 --> 00:03:24.110 align:middle line:90% should have all of that in it. 00:03:24.110 --> 00:03:25.770 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:27.483 align:middle line:84% I think I'm going to let it end there. 00:03:27.483 --> 00:03:28.650 align:middle line:90% Do you still have questions? 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:29.690 align:middle line:90% Did I read through too much? 00:03:29.690 --> 00:03:31.398 align:middle line:84% Did I rob my audience of their questions? 00:03:31.398 --> 00:03:33.320 align:middle line:84% No, I want all of these burning questions, 00:03:33.320 --> 00:03:34.850 align:middle line:90% for them to come back next week. 00:03:34.850 --> 00:03:35.690 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:35.690 --> 00:03:37.310 align:middle line:84% And, in case you haven't noticed, 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:39.920 align:middle line:84% there are books for sale, so please buy them. 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:41.746 align:middle line:90% Khaled will be up here signing. 00:03:41.746 --> 00:03:42.496 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I'd like to. 00:03:42.496 --> 00:03:42.870 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:43.670 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much. 00:03:43.670 --> 00:03:46.180 align:middle line:90% I'm really honored to be here.