WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.760 align:middle line:84% I don't think it's been all that long-- 00:00:02.760 --> 00:00:05.070 align:middle line:84% not just in geological time, but just 00:00:05.070 --> 00:00:07.650 align:middle line:84% that long, culturally-- that women 00:00:07.650 --> 00:00:13.230 align:middle line:84% have been invited, or included, at the poetry table. 00:00:13.230 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% And so tonight, I thought, I would 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% read a lot of poems that have to do with women 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:22.440 align:middle line:84% to honor the fact that women have been writing 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:25.200 align:middle line:90% poems for an awfully long time. 00:00:25.200 --> 00:00:27.810 align:middle line:84% And it's only been in the last 50, 00:00:27.810 --> 00:00:29.370 align:middle line:84% or so, years, I think, that, really, 00:00:29.370 --> 00:00:32.580 align:middle line:84% women poets have been taken as seriously as they should always 00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:34.230 align:middle line:90% have been taken. 00:00:34.230 --> 00:00:38.250 align:middle line:84% So the first poem that I will read 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:41.940 align:middle line:84% is called "Clothes That Wear Me." 00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:45.840 align:middle line:84% And there are metaphorical and real clothing. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:51.540 align:middle line:84% And this is a poem in four short sections. 00:00:51.540 --> 00:00:55.030 align:middle line:90% "One-- Dress. 00:00:55.030 --> 00:01:00.670 align:middle line:84% One day, the voices of 20 women, singing a Gregorian chant, 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:05.170 align:middle line:84% caused a dress to materialize out of thin air. 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:09.340 align:middle line:84% It fit me perfectly and even buttoned itself 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:13.540 align:middle line:84% in front without my having to lift a finger. 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:16.210 align:middle line:84% When I went down the street in this dress, 00:01:16.210 --> 00:01:18.190 align:middle line:90% men fell to their knees. 00:01:18.190 --> 00:01:23.800 align:middle line:84% Sparrows stopped their small talk to follow me. 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:27.250 align:middle line:84% The zipper in the back sang "Ave Maria," 00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:30.820 align:middle line:84% and the pockets were lined with lilies. 00:01:30.820 --> 00:01:35.770 align:middle line:84% Oh, my dress, full of ballads, my dress that accepted me 00:01:35.770 --> 00:01:37.540 align:middle line:90% like a flask. 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:40.180 align:middle line:84% How could I lose you that night when 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:44.155 align:middle line:84% I gambled with those young men and their loaded dice? 00:01:44.155 --> 00:01:46.690 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.690 --> 00:01:48.100 align:middle line:90% Two-- Winter Cloak. 00:01:48.100 --> 00:01:51.340 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:55.060 align:middle line:84% I've taken the selfishness of men and sown 00:01:55.060 --> 00:01:57.820 align:middle line:90% a winter cloak out of it. 00:01:57.820 --> 00:02:04.090 align:middle line:84% Its holes are the size of small towns with storms hovering over 00:02:04.090 --> 00:02:05.320 align:middle line:90% them. 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:07.510 align:middle line:84% I can never iron out its wrinkles. 00:02:07.510 --> 00:02:11.470 align:middle line:84% So I toss it in the furnace where, naturally, it 00:02:11.470 --> 00:02:13.790 align:middle line:90% refuses to burn. 00:02:13.790 --> 00:02:17.590 align:middle line:84% I'm stuck with wringing out its tears. 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:19.000 align:middle line:90% It's true. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.620 align:middle line:90% I'm weak from chin to ankle. 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:25.120 align:middle line:90% I can only say no on odd days. 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.190 align:middle line:84% I weep over the deaths of spiders, those asterisks 00:02:30.190 --> 00:02:32.470 align:middle line:90% on the staircase. 00:02:32.470 --> 00:02:36.760 align:middle line:84% But my mind, my sanitarium of a mind, 00:02:36.760 --> 00:02:41.050 align:middle line:84% has the strength of 3,000 infantrymen planting 00:02:41.050 --> 00:02:44.120 align:middle line:90% geraniums in the desert. 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.360 align:middle line:84% Such strength recedes when I wear 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:51.340 align:middle line:84% my angry coat, my barren coat, my coat that 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:55.390 align:middle line:90% absorbs my life like a sponge. 00:02:55.390 --> 00:02:58.850 align:middle line:90% Three-- Favorite Things. 00:02:58.850 --> 00:03:01.720 align:middle line:90% My favorite bra is bright blue. 00:03:01.720 --> 00:03:06.190 align:middle line:84% One cup is larger than the other so that my heart 00:03:06.190 --> 00:03:08.590 align:middle line:90% has room to expand. 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:11.680 align:middle line:90% This bra speaks now and then. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.790 align:middle line:84% It abhors neo-expressionism, black underwear, 00:03:15.790 --> 00:03:17.740 align:middle line:90% fluorescent lights. 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:21.070 align:middle line:84% Lately, it's been encouraging me to become 00:03:21.070 --> 00:03:24.220 align:middle line:90% a wet nurse to humankind. 00:03:24.220 --> 00:03:30.760 align:middle line:84% My bra argues for divine love, the milk of human kindness. 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:34.651 align:middle line:84% It is quickly falling out of my favor. 00:03:34.651 --> 00:03:37.300 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:37.300 --> 00:03:41.830 align:middle line:84% My favorite shoe is shaped like a book. 00:03:41.830 --> 00:03:44.320 align:middle line:84% When I put my right foot into it, 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:50.110 align:middle line:84% I become a great, golden Buddha pulling gently on my earlobes. 00:03:50.110 --> 00:03:55.420 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, I can read the whole miraculous world in a glance. 00:03:55.420 --> 00:03:58.120 align:middle line:84% When I put my left foot into it, I 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.970 align:middle line:90% shrink down to a water beetle. 00:04:00.970 --> 00:04:05.230 align:middle line:84% Then I scurry, in between the litter of words, 00:04:05.230 --> 00:04:11.860 align:middle line:84% circumventing commas and periods and rowing through the silences 00:04:11.860 --> 00:04:12.760 align:middle line:90% on each page. 00:04:12.760 --> 00:04:15.290 align:middle line:90% 00:04:15.290 --> 00:04:19.370 align:middle line:90% Four-- Veils. 00:04:19.370 --> 00:04:25.190 align:middle line:84% Far away, my dead children are putting on their veils. 00:04:25.190 --> 00:04:29.480 align:middle line:84% First, they press them with tiny irons. 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:32.300 align:middle line:84% Then they hold them up to the light. 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:36.800 align:middle line:84% Taking turns, the three infants tie diaphanous 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.070 align:middle line:90% veils around each other's heads. 00:04:40.070 --> 00:04:43.760 align:middle line:84% When they wear their veils, they see everything 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:47.090 align:middle line:90% that ever was or will be. 00:04:47.090 --> 00:04:50.630 align:middle line:84% When they lift off their veils, they cry. 00:04:50.630 --> 00:04:56.420 align:middle line:84% For them, eternity is inexplicably sad. 00:04:56.420 --> 00:05:00.800 align:middle line:84% As a mother of exiles, I never loved these children, 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:04.880 align:middle line:84% though, I cried when my body turned them out. 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:11.150 align:middle line:84% Now, they gather their flocks of stones as a chandelier of rain 00:05:11.150 --> 00:05:13.730 align:middle line:90% hangs over them. 00:05:13.730 --> 00:05:17.210 align:middle line:84% Their veils are clouded with longing. 00:05:17.210 --> 00:05:19.475 align:middle line:90% Their faces were made to shine." 00:05:19.475 --> 00:05:23.420 align:middle line:90% 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:27.490 align:middle line:84% I don't think I've ever read that poem at a poetry reading.