WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 align:middle line:84% So this next one is a poem called, 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.250 align:middle line:84% "Everyone's an Expert About Something." 00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:06.350 align:middle line:90% Great. 00:00:06.350 --> 00:00:08.970 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:11.010 align:middle line:84% The more I learn, the more I learn 00:00:11.010 --> 00:00:13.830 align:middle line:84% I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:16.920 align:middle line:84% To someone who doesn't care a fig for poetry, 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:18.840 align:middle line:84% they'd likely think I knew a lot. 00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.600 align:middle line:90% Yet in most bookshops, I'm lost. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:25.170 align:middle line:84% Shelves heavy with the bodies of forgotten writers. 00:00:25.170 --> 00:00:26.790 align:middle line:90% It's relative. 00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:31.050 align:middle line:84% A president can say audacity, or a president can say sad, 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% and both eat the same cured meat of empire. 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.380 align:middle line:84% When I say I carry my people inside me, 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:41.180 align:middle line:90% I don't mean a country. 00:00:41.180 --> 00:00:43.730 align:middle line:84% The star that hangs from my neck is simply 00:00:43.730 --> 00:00:47.130 align:middle line:84% a way of saying Israel is not a physical place, 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:50.600 align:middle line:84% but can be written down and carried anywhere-- says 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.300 align:middle line:84% my people are most beautiful when moving, 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:56.000 align:middle line:84% when movement, when our only state is 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.930 align:middle line:84% the liquid state of water is adapting to our container. 00:00:59.930 --> 00:01:03.560 align:middle line:84% Homeland sometimes just means what books you've read, 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:05.960 align:middle line:84% what stories you've spread with your sneakers. 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:08.060 align:middle line:84% My people, any place you've lived 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:11.900 align:middle line:84% long enough to build bombs is a place you've lived too long. 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:13.100 align:middle line:90% It's relative. 00:01:13.100 --> 00:01:15.530 align:middle line:84% My friends, the only thing I know for sure 00:01:15.530 --> 00:01:19.010 align:middle line:84% is the missiles on television are only beautiful if you've 00:01:19.010 --> 00:01:20.390 align:middle line:90% never known suffering. 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:24.170 align:middle line:84% My friends, the only country I will ever pledge my allegiance 00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:30.800 align:middle line:84% to is your music, is under investigation for treason. 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:34.040 align:middle line:84% So that poem was in the JVP Haggadah, 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:36.180 align:middle line:90% which was very exciting to me. 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.450 align:middle line:84% It was like my ideal publication. 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:39.900 align:middle line:90% So I've arrived. 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:40.640 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:42.280 align:middle line:84% Because Jewish Voices for Peace is 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:46.600 align:middle line:84% an anti-Zionist Jewish leftist organization.