WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.140 --> 00:00:07.650 align:middle line:84% This is a poem for Diana Delgado, who 00:00:07.650 --> 00:00:11.010 align:middle line:84% is a very important person here, if you don't know already, 00:00:11.010 --> 00:00:14.010 align:middle line:84% at the Poetry Center, and who was a student of mine 00:00:14.010 --> 00:00:15.420 align:middle line:90% some years ago. 00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:17.940 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you know that, but in the back of this book, 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:20.640 align:middle line:90% it says for Diana Marie Delgado. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:21.330 align:middle line:90% This poem. 00:00:21.330 --> 00:00:22.580 align:middle line:90% I don't know if you know that. 00:00:22.580 --> 00:00:24.120 align:middle line:84% This is dedicated to you in my book. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:25.725 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:25.725 --> 00:00:26.615 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:26.615 --> 00:00:27.510 align:middle line:90% I'm so embarrassed. 00:00:27.510 --> 00:00:28.440 align:middle line:90% No, I'm sorry. 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:29.160 align:middle line:90% No, no. 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:30.150 align:middle line:90% Don't be embarrassed. 00:00:30.150 --> 00:00:31.830 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:31.830 --> 00:00:32.800 align:middle line:90% I did know that. 00:00:32.800 --> 00:00:33.300 align:middle line:90% Oh, you did. 00:00:33.300 --> 00:00:33.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.820 --> 00:00:35.580 align:middle line:84% Thank you for sort of sharing that. 00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:36.580 align:middle line:90% Just, thank you. 00:00:36.580 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:42.660 align:middle line:84% Well, I only bring it up because Diana is a phenomenal poet. 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:45.120 align:middle line:84% You know, when you're a teacher, you only 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:48.960 align:middle line:84% get a handful of students in your lifetime who are brilliant 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.440 align:middle line:84% and who just knock your socks off, and Diana was one of them. 00:00:53.440 --> 00:00:57.600 align:middle line:84% And so it was an honor to be your teacher, 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.300 align:middle line:84% and it's an honor to know your work now. 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:05.004 align:middle line:84% When her book comes out, which is happening in September? 00:01:05.004 --> 00:01:05.504 align:middle line:90% September. 00:01:05.504 --> 00:01:06.004 align:middle line:90% September. 00:01:06.004 --> 00:01:09.850 align:middle line:84% You must rush and buy it, because it's so good. 00:01:09.850 --> 00:01:10.350 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:10.350 --> 00:01:11.800 align:middle line:90% See, I just did a whole little-- 00:01:11.800 --> 00:01:12.780 align:middle line:90% I should be. 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:14.970 align:middle line:90% I should, but here I am. 00:01:14.970 --> 00:01:17.400 align:middle line:90% All right, so, enough fanfare. 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:18.390 align:middle line:90% Enough. 00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:20.360 align:middle line:90% This is "El Dia de Los Muertos." 00:01:20.360 --> 00:01:22.980 align:middle line:90% 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:27.540 align:middle line:84% "10 candied skulls are lined up ghoulishly 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:31.860 align:middle line:84% upon the shelves of La Bocanegra Bakery. 00:01:31.860 --> 00:01:35.880 align:middle line:84% Though some stare gleefully at passersby, 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:39.090 align:middle line:84% others glare vacantly, this All Saints Day, 00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:42.540 align:middle line:84% into the hot blasts of yeasty steam 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:48.540 align:middle line:84% that waft out like dreams from fiery ovens in the back. 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:52.560 align:middle line:84% "Three whitened bakers exercise strong hands 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:57.450 align:middle line:84% to work doughy miracles in a careful dance with time. 00:01:57.450 --> 00:02:01.350 align:middle line:84% The dead are all around us here and everywhere, 00:02:01.350 --> 00:02:05.100 align:middle line:84% though we are blind as air and only feel their gaze 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:11.460 align:middle line:84% when knives of loss peel back the stupor of our lives. 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:15.840 align:middle line:84% Hunger barely masks the longing in their eyes, 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:19.290 align:middle line:84% for the dead dying emptily upon our sighs, 00:02:19.290 --> 00:02:22.800 align:middle line:84% yet hope to harvest sweetness from our breath. 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:28.020 align:middle line:84% The dead love us with tacit tenderness. 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:31.200 align:middle line:84% "Behind the bakery, the Sunday mourners picnic 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:35.490 align:middle line:84% on the graves of family members, shivering in the cold, 00:02:35.490 --> 00:02:38.790 align:middle line:84% sucking the sugary bones of their ancestors. 00:02:38.790 --> 00:02:45.570 align:middle line:84% Expectant mothers entomb the names of their unborn lives 00:02:45.570 --> 00:02:50.400 align:middle line:84% that are swelling like bread, leavened in the invisible arms 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:51.030 align:middle line:90% of the dead." 00:02:51.030 --> 00:02:54.350 align:middle line:90% 00:02:54.350 --> 00:02:57.140 align:middle line:84% Here I said I was going to read poems about women and about 00:02:57.140 --> 00:02:58.320 align:middle line:90% death, but OK. 00:02:58.320 --> 00:02:58.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:58.820 --> 00:03:00.980 align:middle line:84% I don't know what the connection is there. 00:03:00.980 --> 00:03:03.900 align:middle line:84% Should be-- I don't know how that happened. 00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:05.150 align:middle line:90% OK.