WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:02.820 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much, Renee. 00:00:02.820 --> 00:00:05.340 align:middle line:84% That was the most wonderful introduction. 00:00:05.340 --> 00:00:06.602 align:middle line:90% And I really-- 00:00:06.602 --> 00:00:08.310 align:middle line:84% Renee and I talked earlier about how much 00:00:08.310 --> 00:00:10.860 align:middle line:84% I do not like having to introduce people. 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:15.270 align:middle line:84% I find it very difficult. That was beautiful, thank you. 00:00:15.270 --> 00:00:19.030 align:middle line:84% I'm just going to keep track of my time. 00:00:19.030 --> 00:00:22.470 align:middle line:84% It's wonderful to be here and a little bit terrifying, 00:00:22.470 --> 00:00:23.220 align:middle line:90% not right now. 00:00:23.220 --> 00:00:28.920 align:middle line:84% But as Tyler said, I really have to write 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84% this next lecture between now and when I see some of you 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:35.280 align:middle line:90% next. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:90% And prose is hard. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:43.260 align:middle line:84% So either I'm going to give lecture number two, that's 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:46.380 align:middle line:84% my fallback plan, which is about the ethics of writing 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:49.890 align:middle line:84% about real people in poetry and representing 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:51.390 align:middle line:90% real people in art. 00:00:51.390 --> 00:00:55.890 align:middle line:84% Or I will give lecture number 3, which doesn't exist yet, 00:00:55.890 --> 00:00:59.280 align:middle line:84% but hopefully, will be either about the connection 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:03.070 align:middle line:84% between photography and poetry or about confessional poetry. 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:10.050 align:middle line:84% So in-- no matter which of those three comes to pass, 00:01:10.050 --> 00:01:13.020 align:middle line:84% I decided I would read new work tonight. 00:01:13.020 --> 00:01:16.230 align:middle line:84% Most of these poems were written while I was procrastinating 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:20.340 align:middle line:84% from writing lectures one and two, because it 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:22.363 align:middle line:90% was so hard to write them. 00:01:22.363 --> 00:01:24.280 align:middle line:84% I know, I'm sounding a little whiny right now. 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:25.170 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry about that. 00:01:25.170 --> 00:01:26.850 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:26.850 --> 00:01:34.470 align:middle line:84% But the poems started to become more and more lecture-like 00:01:34.470 --> 00:01:38.970 align:middle line:84% and, maybe, the lectures became more poetry-like. 00:01:38.970 --> 00:01:41.430 align:middle line:84% I don't know, but in all the lectures, 00:01:41.430 --> 00:01:46.980 align:middle line:84% I was really grappling with this issue of ethics, and honesty, 00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:50.770 align:middle line:84% and autobiography, and real people. 00:01:50.770 --> 00:01:53.250 align:middle line:90% And so, these poems I was-- 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:55.230 align:middle line:90% oh, I didn't start my time-- 00:01:55.230 --> 00:02:00.120 align:middle line:84% I was at the same time moving maybe away 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:02.010 align:middle line:84% from the confessional in my lectures 00:02:02.010 --> 00:02:07.050 align:middle line:84% or questioning what it meant to be a confessional poet. 00:02:07.050 --> 00:02:10.320 align:middle line:84% I was writing the most confessional poems 00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:12.810 align:middle line:90% that I've ever written. 00:02:12.810 --> 00:02:14.670 align:middle line:84% Which, if you read some of my other poems, 00:02:14.670 --> 00:02:18.720 align:middle line:90% it's a little bit frightening. 00:02:18.720 --> 00:02:21.870 align:middle line:84% So this-- I really was procrastinating 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:84% so much that I basically have almost a new manuscript 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:27.540 align:middle line:84% of poems which is maybe good, or I don't know what. 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:30.670 align:middle line:84% It's tentatively titled "Sound Machine." 00:02:30.670 --> 00:02:32.370 align:middle line:84% And the first poem is probably going 00:02:32.370 --> 00:02:35.790 align:middle line:84% to be the first poem in the book. 00:02:35.790 --> 00:02:36.590 align:middle line:90% "Insurgent." 00:02:36.590 --> 00:02:39.240 align:middle line:90% 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:42.180 align:middle line:90% I did not see the sky today. 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:46.560 align:middle line:90% It does or does not matter why. 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:52.050 align:middle line:84% I sat inside and looked away through my portal of regret 00:02:52.050 --> 00:02:57.960 align:middle line:84% into the north-facing light of what I can't, won't, shouldn't 00:02:57.960 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:90% say. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.980 align:middle line:90% Look away, look away, look away. 00:03:04.980 --> 00:03:08.520 align:middle line:90% A girl I know of wants to die. 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.590 align:middle line:84% I called the school, I called her home. 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:15.700 align:middle line:84% Her father thanked me and hung up. 00:03:15.700 --> 00:03:20.290 align:middle line:84% The school man said the world is hard. 00:03:20.290 --> 00:03:21.790 align:middle line:90% I called out once. 00:03:21.790 --> 00:03:23.830 align:middle line:90% I called out twice. 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:27.560 align:middle line:84% A friend called back, she was so nice. 00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:36.220 align:middle line:84% She said, "Get up, look out, stand up, go out, sit here, sit 00:03:36.220 --> 00:03:40.390 align:middle line:90% down, stay, and drink water." 00:03:40.390 --> 00:03:43.660 align:middle line:84% "What a beautiful day," Dan texts. 00:03:43.660 --> 00:03:47.860 align:middle line:84% "I know nothing about that," I respond. 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:50.540 align:middle line:90% Coming up next, the world. 00:03:50.540 --> 00:03:53.890 align:middle line:90% But first, the takeaway. 00:03:53.890 --> 00:03:57.460 align:middle line:84% The radio in my kitchen keeps itself company. 00:03:57.460 --> 00:04:02.650 align:middle line:84% Muted drilling outside the window, a girl 00:04:02.650 --> 00:04:07.840 align:middle line:84% jumped from her grandmother's roof one block from here. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:10.600 align:middle line:90% But I did not see her. 00:04:10.600 --> 00:04:13.450 align:middle line:84% Her parents papered the building with letters 00:04:13.450 --> 00:04:17.899 align:middle line:90% asking no one to speak of it. 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:21.600 align:middle line:90% And still, I speak of it. 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:25.140 align:middle line:84% "Yes, the United States cares about mankind," 00:04:25.140 --> 00:04:29.730 align:middle line:84% says the retired Brigadier General in my kitchen. 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:32.730 align:middle line:84% The voice in my kitchen says, "It 00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:36.300 align:middle line:84% would have to include hostage negotiation." 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:42.060 align:middle line:84% Says, "Those taking part in the rebellion, our belligerence." 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:46.050 align:middle line:84% Says, "God instructed the man to sell the girls, 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:49.770 align:middle line:90% but I think they are all raped." 00:04:49.770 --> 00:04:55.320 align:middle line:84% Says, "There is a man here named Goodluck Jonathan." 00:04:55.320 --> 00:05:02.220 align:middle line:84% Says, "This is, by God, what an army is for. 00:05:02.220 --> 00:05:05.220 align:middle line:90% Just get the girls back. 00:05:05.220 --> 00:05:07.080 align:middle line:90% Get them back. 00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:09.240 align:middle line:90% Get them back." 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:15.960 align:middle line:84% I sit very still, do nothing, say nothing, am nothing, 00:05:15.960 --> 00:05:19.400 align:middle line:90% and it is still too late. 00:05:19.400 --> 00:05:20.297 align:middle line:90%