WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.390 align:middle line:90% I will do this. 00:00:01.390 --> 00:00:01.890 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:01.890 --> 00:00:02.920 align:middle line:90% I will kill the time. 00:00:02.920 --> 00:00:04.310 align:middle line:90% I will take all the time. 00:00:04.310 --> 00:00:05.010 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:05.010 --> 00:00:07.410 align:middle line:84% Since I've been working on something here, 00:00:07.410 --> 00:00:10.770 align:middle line:90% I will read something. 00:00:10.770 --> 00:00:15.280 align:middle line:84% It should not take me too long, but it is on the longer side. 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:20.220 align:middle line:84% This is called "Face: To the Million Plus." 00:00:20.220 --> 00:00:24.030 align:middle line:84% And here, maybe the thing that I really 00:00:24.030 --> 00:00:27.780 align:middle line:84% sort of kept this poem in place is the idea of face. 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:31.020 align:middle line:84% So sometimes, I mean, in The Iliad, 00:00:31.020 --> 00:00:33.540 align:middle line:84% you have lines like the wine dark sea 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:35.970 align:middle line:84% and you have this very long story. 00:00:35.970 --> 00:00:39.120 align:middle line:84% But even in a long story with a continuous narrative, 00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:42.090 align:middle line:84% you find that Homer felt like-- he 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:45.690 align:middle line:84% has to bring some sort of recurring images. 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:47.670 align:middle line:84% Something has to make us feel like we're 00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:49.060 align:middle line:90% all in the same text. 00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:55.080 align:middle line:84% So with modern poetics, the way we, if you will, 00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:57.600 align:middle line:84% people have abused this idea of how 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:02.040 align:middle line:84% to maintain interest, how to keep intensity, 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:03.750 align:middle line:90% is to actually-- 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:09.080 align:middle line:84% it's almost like you put these thumbtacks in a Google map. 00:01:09.080 --> 00:01:12.030 align:middle line:84% So you put these sort of familiar images. 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:16.740 align:middle line:84% It's almost like a McDonald's in the middle of a highway. 00:01:16.740 --> 00:01:17.580 align:middle line:90% Oh, I know that. 00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:18.663 align:middle line:90% I don't need to eat there. 00:01:18.663 --> 00:01:20.970 align:middle line:84% But I'm glad this familiar thing exists. 00:01:20.970 --> 00:01:22.240 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:84% So it's in a way, the long poem is 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:29.520 align:middle line:84% filled with these moments of familiarity, 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:33.360 align:middle line:84% just so that you have a sense of where you are. 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:35.370 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:01:35.370 --> 00:01:41.040 align:middle line:84% So but this is-- so for visual, for the oral effect, 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:42.330 align:middle line:90% the word face appears. 00:01:42.330 --> 00:01:45.690 align:middle line:84% But the poem is really about the idea of face. 00:01:45.690 --> 00:01:48.180 align:middle line:84% And it's also about the faceless people. 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:51.240 align:middle line:84% Because we're talking about many American wars-- 00:01:51.240 --> 00:01:56.590 align:middle line:84% we are very keen on counting our dead, knowing who they are. 00:01:56.590 --> 00:02:00.690 align:middle line:84% But we're also very clear about the fact 00:02:00.690 --> 00:02:02.490 align:middle line:84% that we're maintaining the facelessness 00:02:02.490 --> 00:02:07.230 align:middle line:84% and the non-human nature of the people we fight 00:02:07.230 --> 00:02:10.820 align:middle line:84% and we end up killing in huge numbers. 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:15.380 align:middle line:90% "Face: To the One Million Plus." 00:02:15.380 --> 00:02:19.580 align:middle line:84% It's true, we've gotten used to your absent faces. 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:23.210 align:middle line:84% While the soldiers are enumerated name, age, sex, 00:02:23.210 --> 00:02:26.000 align:middle line:84% branch of service, cause of death. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:27.590 align:middle line:90% How did you die? 00:02:27.590 --> 00:02:29.900 align:middle line:90% Who buried you and how? 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:33.890 align:middle line:84% Are you in heaven now, are you still waiting? 00:02:33.890 --> 00:02:36.470 align:middle line:84% Do your relatives still remember you? 00:02:36.470 --> 00:02:39.650 align:middle line:84% Does the dirt know you, the water drink you? 00:02:39.650 --> 00:02:43.820 align:middle line:84% Do lavender and clematis still shoot out of your remains? 00:02:43.820 --> 00:02:47.350 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.350 --> 00:02:51.400 align:middle line:84% The other day, I saw a photo of a bride and groom. 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.260 align:middle line:90% He is a veteran Marine. 00:02:53.260 --> 00:02:56.230 align:middle line:84% His face is unlike anything I'd ever seen, 00:02:56.230 --> 00:03:00.250 align:middle line:84% and that's after the dozens of surgeries to repair him. 00:03:00.250 --> 00:03:03.670 align:middle line:84% His nose is flattened into two holes 00:03:03.670 --> 00:03:05.800 align:middle line:90% in the middle of his face. 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:07.150 align:middle line:90% There are no ears. 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:09.280 align:middle line:90% He has no hair on his head. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.520 align:middle line:84% Skin covers the whole of his skull. 00:03:12.520 --> 00:03:16.540 align:middle line:84% His eyes peer at her through two slits-- 00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:19.360 align:middle line:90% no eyelashes, no eyebrows. 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.710 align:middle line:84% Some of the lips had been recovered. 00:03:23.710 --> 00:03:26.860 align:middle line:84% She must have looked at him this way numerous times, 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:29.200 align:middle line:90% and looked away in horror. 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:31.600 align:middle line:90% But she can't do that now. 00:03:31.600 --> 00:03:33.610 align:middle line:90% The picture must be taken. 00:03:33.610 --> 00:03:35.980 align:middle line:90% And it measures her grief. 00:03:35.980 --> 00:03:40.060 align:middle line:84% And horror is what it is when he moves to kiss her 00:03:40.060 --> 00:03:42.970 align:middle line:84% with his non-existent lips, when he 00:03:42.970 --> 00:03:48.160 align:middle line:84% leans into her bosom gratified for the safety he finds there. 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:50.620 align:middle line:84% Why did she have to keep her promise 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:55.480 align:middle line:84% for richer and poorer, through sickness and in health, 00:03:55.480 --> 00:03:58.300 align:middle line:90% until death do them apart? 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:01.100 align:middle line:90% Hasn't death done them apart? 00:04:01.100 --> 00:04:03.010 align:middle line:90% And isn't this worse than death? 00:04:03.010 --> 00:04:06.430 align:middle line:84% Why can't she give up this man, who perhaps was once 00:04:06.430 --> 00:04:07.930 align:middle line:90% handsome and kind? 00:04:07.930 --> 00:04:11.710 align:middle line:84% Give him back to those who sent him to war and say, 00:04:11.710 --> 00:04:13.600 align:middle line:90% you love him. 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:15.820 align:middle line:90% I was his girlfriend. 00:04:15.820 --> 00:04:19.060 align:middle line:90% His girlfriend-- not his nation. 00:04:19.060 --> 00:04:23.200 align:middle line:84% And why must she keep looking at his maimed face, when it is not 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:27.760 align:middle line:84% a veil, not a distortion of recovery, 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:34.810 align:middle line:84% but a truth screaming out its hideous and wordless pain? 00:04:34.810 --> 00:04:40.240 align:middle line:84% And now you, oh million plus, how many of you were burned-- 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:41.740 align:middle line:90% still burning? 00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:43.840 align:middle line:90% This place is now yours. 00:04:43.840 --> 00:04:45.880 align:middle line:90% And you are so many. 00:04:45.880 --> 00:04:47.170 align:middle line:90% What shall it be? 00:04:47.170 --> 00:04:52.060 align:middle line:84% A country, a state, a territory, an authority? 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:53.560 align:middle line:90% And what shall you be? 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:59.500 align:middle line:84% A nation, a people, a faith, a sect, helpless like children, 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:02.530 align:middle line:84% countless like dust, so tenuous that we 00:05:02.530 --> 00:05:04.180 align:middle line:90% have to give you a symbol? 00:05:04.180 --> 00:05:07.630 align:middle line:84% Something like you, scarred and disfigured. 00:05:07.630 --> 00:05:10.810 align:middle line:84% A mother who has no arms for all the arms 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:13.630 align:middle line:84% that you, oh million plus, have lost, 00:05:13.630 --> 00:05:17.380 align:middle line:84% unhoused for all the houses that fell on your heads? 00:05:17.380 --> 00:05:21.020 align:middle line:90% 00:05:21.020 --> 00:05:24.350 align:middle line:90% Yes, we are her children. 00:05:24.350 --> 00:05:27.500 align:middle line:90% We are her already dead parents. 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:31.490 align:middle line:84% But we know so little about her, this lady, our symbol, 00:05:31.490 --> 00:05:33.080 align:middle line:90% our nation. 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:37.580 align:middle line:84% How do we symbolize the sectarian violence that ensued, 00:05:37.580 --> 00:05:40.130 align:middle line:84% the run-down hospitals, the electricity that 00:05:40.130 --> 00:05:41.210 align:middle line:90% never comes on? 00:05:41.210 --> 00:05:43.640 align:middle line:84% How to describe the wealth stolen, 00:05:43.640 --> 00:05:46.670 align:middle line:84% the wealth made by those who came to liberate us, 00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:50.300 align:middle line:84% the uranium in the water and in the dirt? 00:05:50.300 --> 00:05:54.920 align:middle line:84% How do we, her children, we the million plus, 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:57.620 align:middle line:90% fit her in the stories we know-- 00:05:57.620 --> 00:06:01.730 align:middle line:84% this woman, our mother sheltering us 00:06:01.730 --> 00:06:03.590 align:middle line:90% in the tent of her meaning? 00:06:03.590 --> 00:06:07.520 align:middle line:90% 00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:10.580 align:middle line:90% Every second, a face. 00:06:10.580 --> 00:06:16.340 align:middle line:84% The 60 in a minute, the 3,600 in the hour, the 2 and 1/2 billion 00:06:16.340 --> 00:06:18.110 align:middle line:90% in my projected life. 00:06:18.110 --> 00:06:22.640 align:middle line:84% Each one a face, the apparition of these faces, 00:06:22.640 --> 00:06:26.300 align:middle line:84% the ones born every eight seconds, the ones that 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:28.220 align:middle line:90% die every 12. 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:34.610 align:middle line:84% The ones living and the we living and streaming between, 00:06:34.610 --> 00:06:36.110 align:middle line:90% each a face. 00:06:36.110 --> 00:06:40.970 align:middle line:84% And I look at hers, my daughter's, held in my hands. 00:06:40.970 --> 00:06:44.120 align:middle line:84% And how when sleeping beside me, she'd take my hand 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:45.770 align:middle line:90% and put it on her face. 00:06:45.770 --> 00:06:48.110 align:middle line:90% And she is that face-- 00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:50.480 align:middle line:84% the face that adds them all together. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:54.050 align:middle line:84% And she is what the human race, the human face 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:56.210 align:middle line:90% stands for in me-- 00:06:56.210 --> 00:07:01.070 align:middle line:84% a drop, a clot, and its infinitesimal divisions, seconds, 00:07:01.070 --> 00:07:06.290 align:middle line:84% and faces of human time here on Earth, past and future 00:07:06.290 --> 00:07:10.670 align:middle line:84% intertwined, redeemable, held by my hands, 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:15.380 align:middle line:84% asking what we'll do next together this afternoon, 00:07:15.380 --> 00:07:19.730 align:middle line:84% as if time can bind us forever, as if I have not already 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:23.360 align:middle line:84% done my time and use, as if I can still 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:28.265 align:middle line:84% bear to look this world I'm leaving in the face. 00:07:28.265 --> 00:07:31.630 align:middle line:90% 00:07:31.630 --> 00:07:35.770 align:middle line:84% No aggressor, no victim, you say. 00:07:35.770 --> 00:07:40.570 align:middle line:84% We have become one, the same, you and I, you say. 00:07:40.570 --> 00:07:43.790 align:middle line:84% You had no choice being here, you say. 00:07:43.790 --> 00:07:45.890 align:middle line:84% I must give the other cheek, because you're 00:07:45.890 --> 00:07:48.470 align:middle line:90% obliged to take it, you say. 00:07:48.470 --> 00:07:51.290 align:middle line:84% But you have torn me to pieces, remember? 00:07:51.290 --> 00:07:54.110 align:middle line:84% You have blown me to bits, remember? 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:57.050 align:middle line:84% You have destroyed my house and village. 00:07:57.050 --> 00:08:01.190 align:middle line:84% Can't you see that all is burned and charred around us? 00:08:01.190 --> 00:08:04.670 align:middle line:84% Why do you keep coming to me, oh brother aggressor? 00:08:04.670 --> 00:08:06.800 align:middle line:90% Haven't you had enough revenge? 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:08.960 align:middle line:84% Haven't you satisfied your desire 00:08:08.960 --> 00:08:12.650 align:middle line:90% to save, and free, and liberate? 00:08:12.650 --> 00:08:16.640 align:middle line:84% Why do you keep looking at my face when I have none? 00:08:16.640 --> 00:08:20.980 align:middle line:90% 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:22.810 align:middle line:90% No ideas. 00:08:22.810 --> 00:08:24.760 align:middle line:90% No concepts. 00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:27.970 align:middle line:84% Only the weight of things, the fate of things, 00:08:27.970 --> 00:08:31.420 align:middle line:84% the card you carry that has no face. 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:34.809 align:middle line:84% Something must be in my bones that 00:08:34.809 --> 00:08:39.070 align:middle line:84% makes them brittle, blowing in the wind like ash, something 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:42.039 align:middle line:84% in my blood that makes it seep out of me 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:45.460 align:middle line:84% and dry out like leather in the sun. 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:49.000 align:middle line:84% Or in my flesh, some mistaken fuse 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.850 align:middle line:84% that makes it want to explode into a million 00:08:51.850 --> 00:08:56.830 align:middle line:84% faces in multiplicities of fire and loss. 00:08:56.830 --> 00:09:00.970 align:middle line:84% I see my body shaped in shadow, feel 00:09:00.970 --> 00:09:04.210 align:middle line:84% it struck down against the ground, how it's 00:09:04.210 --> 00:09:08.350 align:middle line:84% whole and enduring, woman like other women, 00:09:08.350 --> 00:09:12.730 align:middle line:84% man like other men, clinging to its breath. 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:21.328 align:middle line:84% Seeking to see its own face reflected in the changing sky. 00:09:21.328 --> 00:09:26.180 align:middle line:90% This is two more sections. 00:09:26.180 --> 00:09:34.070 align:middle line:84% So what happened to our brother, the soldier with the lost face? 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:36.080 align:middle line:84% The one whose wedding was attended 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.720 align:middle line:90% by senators and governors? 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.000 align:middle line:84% The one whose disfigurement was supposed 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.780 align:middle line:84% to become an essence of courage and beauty? 00:09:44.780 --> 00:09:46.760 align:middle line:90% Where is he now? 00:09:46.760 --> 00:09:49.630 align:middle line:90% And what happened to him? 00:09:49.630 --> 00:09:52.350 align:middle line:90% What did we expect to happen? 00:09:52.350 --> 00:09:54.930 align:middle line:84% Did we expect the marriage to last? 00:09:54.930 --> 00:09:58.780 align:middle line:84% That he would prosper, and she would stay? 00:09:58.780 --> 00:10:04.210 align:middle line:84% Were we really surprised when we found him one January night 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:10.000 align:middle line:84% lying face-down on hard snow, dead from smack and booze? 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:17.730 align:middle line:90% 00:10:17.730 --> 00:10:22.830 align:middle line:84% Love, when are you coming to rescue me? 00:10:22.830 --> 00:10:25.080 align:middle line:90% How long must I wait? 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:28.560 align:middle line:84% And the million plus, my selves, my others, 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:33.030 align:middle line:84% are they the pores on my skin, the hair on my head, 00:10:33.030 --> 00:10:38.940 align:middle line:84% my eyelashes, my eyebrows, the signature of God on my face? 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:42.870 align:middle line:84% Are you, Love, always an essence? 00:10:42.870 --> 00:10:45.960 align:middle line:84% Must I find you like a path through a minefield, 00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:49.200 align:middle line:84% a ghostly shadow on a smudged shroud? 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:52.980 align:middle line:84% Or are you everywhere, and I simply can't see you? 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:55.170 align:middle line:90% Can I insert you into me? 00:10:55.170 --> 00:10:59.070 align:middle line:84% My body, my mind, my dream-- are they refusing you? 00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:01.200 align:middle line:90% And how do I reach this essence? 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.720 align:middle line:84% How much must I forgive and accept? 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:07.440 align:middle line:84% What must I untouch, unuse, unbelieve? 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.850 align:middle line:84% Is there a summit that this acquiescence will lead to? 00:11:11.850 --> 00:11:15.870 align:middle line:84% Will the sinking redeem itself like water turning to ice 00:11:15.870 --> 00:11:18.180 align:middle line:90% and rising to meet the sky? 00:11:18.180 --> 00:11:20.370 align:middle line:84% Will you be a current of blessing 00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:23.130 align:middle line:84% that runs through my body, binding me 00:11:23.130 --> 00:11:26.340 align:middle line:90% to others in a fire of joy? 00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:29.280 align:middle line:90% Can I thrust into you, oh Love? 00:11:29.280 --> 00:11:30.900 align:middle line:90% Will you penetrate me? 00:11:30.900 --> 00:11:31.710 align:middle line:90% Touch me? 00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:32.430 align:middle line:90% Hold me? 00:11:32.430 --> 00:11:33.000 align:middle line:90% Empty me? 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:33.540 align:middle line:90% Mold me? 00:11:33.540 --> 00:11:35.070 align:middle line:90% Scatter me? 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:38.640 align:middle line:90% When is our arrival, oh Love? 00:11:38.640 --> 00:11:40.650 align:middle line:90% Where will we land? 00:11:40.650 --> 00:11:44.940 align:middle line:84% What will you be so we can find you, oh Love? 00:11:44.940 --> 00:11:50.850 align:middle line:84% Will you know us when you see us, we the million plus, 00:11:50.850 --> 00:11:52.860 align:middle line:90% oh Love? 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:54.280 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:11:54.280 --> 00:11:54.780 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:11:54.780 --> 00:11:55.350 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:11:55.350 --> 00:11:57.260 align:middle line:90% Thank you.