WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.280 align:middle line:90%
So the last one I'll read.

00:00:02.280 --> 00:00:08.500 align:middle line:84%
I presented a poetry
show for BBC Radio 4

00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:15.130 align:middle line:84%
and went to New Mexico
with my producer

00:00:15.130 --> 00:00:17.710 align:middle line:84%
to see a land art installation
called The Lightning Field.

00:00:17.710 --> 00:00:21.550 align:middle line:84%
I don't know if any of you
guys know Walter de Maria.

00:00:21.550 --> 00:00:24.100 align:middle line:84%
And I hadn't been able to
write for quite a while.

00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:27.460 align:middle line:84%
And the desert is
just always a place

00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:30.700 align:middle line:84%
that somehow feels like my
spiritual home and renews me.

00:00:30.700 --> 00:00:34.797 align:middle line:84%
And I came back from that trip
and ended up writing this poem.

00:00:34.797 --> 00:00:36.880 align:middle line:84%
I thought would be fitting
to end with this called

00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:40.540 align:middle line:90%
"High Desert, New Mexico."

00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:45.340 align:middle line:84%
Temple of the rattlesnake's
religion, deluge and heat

00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:49.720 align:middle line:84%
surge, crush of
the atom's rupture.

00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:53.590 align:middle line:84%
Night blackens like a
violin and bright flower

00:00:53.590 --> 00:00:56.810 align:middle line:84%
falls from the
kitchens of heaven.

00:00:56.810 --> 00:00:59.860 align:middle line:84%
This is where the
seams begin to loosen,

00:00:59.860 --> 00:01:03.310 align:middle line:84%
where you can walk for
miles in any direction--

00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:07.720 align:middle line:84%
rabbit, lizard,
raven, insect, drone--

00:01:07.720 --> 00:01:11.410 align:middle line:84%
and almost forget the
shame of being human.

00:01:11.410 --> 00:01:16.390 align:middle line:84%
Sagebrush, elk, not
everything is broken.

00:01:16.390 --> 00:01:19.060 align:middle line:84%
Horses appear at
this remote cabin

00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:21.490 align:middle line:84%
to stand outside
and wait for you

00:01:21.490 --> 00:01:24.250 align:middle line:90%
to come with a single apple.

00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:26.170 align:middle line:90%
Abandon your despair.

00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:29.170 align:middle line:90%
You who enter here forsaken.

00:01:29.170 --> 00:01:31.330 align:middle line:90%
The wind is saying something.

00:01:31.330 --> 00:01:33.240 align:middle line:90%
Listen.

00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:35.180 align:middle line:90%
Thank you guys.

00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:38.000 align:middle line:90%