WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90% Well, no. 00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:02.730 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:02.730 --> 00:00:06.540 align:middle line:84% The answer is, yes, but I'm from PG County. 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:08.550 align:middle line:84% And so anybody can actually from DC, everybody 00:00:08.550 --> 00:00:11.023 align:middle line:84% know you actually aren't from DC, you're from [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:11.023 --> 00:00:11.940 align:middle line:90% I'm actually from DC-- 00:00:11.940 --> 00:00:13.530 align:middle line:90% Say that louder. 00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:15.778 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] also from DC. 00:00:15.778 --> 00:00:16.320 align:middle line:90% I'll take it. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:17.790 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:17.790 --> 00:00:20.520 align:middle line:84% Reason I asked are references, but it 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:24.770 align:middle line:84% felt like that one came from the inside of DC. 00:00:24.770 --> 00:00:29.040 align:middle line:84% And no one who isn't from DC familiar with [INAUDIBLE].. 00:00:29.040 --> 00:00:29.540 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:29.540 --> 00:00:32.748 align:middle line:84% So I believe we shouldn't have all [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:32.748 --> 00:00:33.732 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:33.732 --> 00:00:39.636 align:middle line:90% 00:00:39.636 --> 00:00:41.327 align:middle line:90% I'm also from the [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:41.327 --> 00:00:41.827 align:middle line:90% [COUGH] 00:00:41.827 --> 00:00:43.234 align:middle line:90% [GIGGLE] 00:00:43.234 --> 00:00:49.660 align:middle line:90% I'm from [INAUDIBLE] 00:00:49.660 --> 00:00:53.717 align:middle line:84% And so did you just do poetry, or do you like hip hop as well? 00:00:53.717 --> 00:00:55.300 align:middle line:84% You've got a good voice for it, you're 00:00:55.300 --> 00:00:57.190 align:middle line:90% good at [INAUDIBLE] stuff? 00:00:57.190 --> 00:00:58.425 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:58.425 --> 00:00:59.800 align:middle line:84% I'm one of those people that come 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:01.300 align:middle line:90% from a world of failed MCs. 00:01:01.300 --> 00:01:02.470 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:02.470 --> 00:01:05.115 align:middle line:84% And it's really strange too, because young rapping 00:01:05.115 --> 00:01:07.630 align:middle line:84% and freestyle and stuff like that, you've actually 00:01:07.630 --> 00:01:10.390 align:middle line:84% got to have a kind of audacity, a willingness to fail. 00:01:10.390 --> 00:01:13.940 align:middle line:84% And it's strange that now the public all the time 00:01:13.940 --> 00:01:16.420 align:middle line:84% [? we fry our voices ?] But I do think it's 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:17.790 align:middle line:90% a different skill set, though. 00:01:17.790 --> 00:01:20.518 align:middle line:84% And I just haven't fixed my mind on figuring out 00:01:20.518 --> 00:01:21.310 align:middle line:90% how to change that. 00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:23.440 align:middle line:84% I recorded poetry to music before. 00:01:23.440 --> 00:01:28.540 align:middle line:84% But honestly, like as artistic genre, 00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:30.820 align:middle line:84% I think there is more possibility for me 00:01:30.820 --> 00:01:36.820 align:middle line:84% and poetry, and nonfiction, and play writing, than ever 00:01:36.820 --> 00:01:37.990 align:middle line:90% could be really in music. 00:01:37.990 --> 00:01:40.685 align:middle line:90% Because I was just [INAUDIBLE] 00:01:40.685 --> 00:01:43.660 align:middle line:84% If I was you, I'd give it another try, man. 00:01:43.660 --> 00:01:44.860 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:44.860 --> 00:01:48.520 align:middle line:84% I appreciate that I might, then I've got to get your cut. 00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:51.333 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:51.333 --> 00:01:53.500 align:middle line:84% Now I don't want to press you guys to ask questions, 00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:56.853 align:middle line:84% but that time it was only two people who came to the ring. 00:01:56.853 --> 00:01:58.645 align:middle line:84% We literally had a three-hour conversation. 00:01:58.645 --> 00:02:00.892 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:00.892 --> 00:02:02.596 align:middle line:90% That's not a bad option. 00:02:02.596 --> 00:02:05.110 align:middle line:84% So you write wonderful long poems, 00:02:05.110 --> 00:02:07.420 align:middle line:84% and so what keeps you going through a really long poem? 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:09.745 align:middle line:84% Like how do you keep that thought moving forward? 00:02:09.745 --> 00:02:12.250 align:middle line:90% 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:14.830 align:middle line:84% So I want to say two things, one is obnoxious 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:17.050 align:middle line:84% and I shouldn't say but I'm saying for the writers 00:02:17.050 --> 00:02:18.130 align:middle line:90% in our audience. 00:02:18.130 --> 00:02:19.210 align:middle line:90% And other is true-- 00:02:19.210 --> 00:02:19.990 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.090 align:middle line:90% And it's even useful. 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:25.070 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to say three things. 00:02:25.070 --> 00:02:25.570 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:25.570 --> 00:02:29.050 align:middle line:84% So one, I think we always have to have models for the work 00:02:29.050 --> 00:02:29.770 align:middle line:90% that we do. 00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:32.920 align:middle line:84% And in a good way that his is so good, 00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:35.540 align:middle line:90% that his model is very in work. 00:02:35.540 --> 00:02:36.730 align:middle line:90% And it even disappears. 00:02:36.730 --> 00:02:38.350 align:middle line:84% But I think going into it, we should 00:02:38.350 --> 00:02:41.250 align:middle line:84% have a sense of the scope, and pacing, 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:43.000 align:middle line:90% and what it is that we envision. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:44.740 align:middle line:84% So my model with some of the stuff 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:47.260 align:middle line:84% is [INAUDIBLE] and the Odyssey, but some of it 00:02:47.260 --> 00:02:48.970 align:middle line:90% was Robert Hayden. 00:02:48.970 --> 00:02:52.750 align:middle line:84% And the title poem started out as a poem in rhymed couplets, 00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:54.760 align:middle line:90% and then it was just bad. 00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:56.498 align:middle line:84% I liked it a lot but it was just bad. 00:02:56.498 --> 00:02:57.956 align:middle line:84% Somebody was like, "Well, why don't 00:02:57.956 --> 00:02:59.081 align:middle line:90% you you make a free verse?" 00:02:59.081 --> 00:03:01.660 align:middle line:84% And I was just like, that seems like a cop out. 00:03:01.660 --> 00:03:04.630 align:middle line:84% But the rhyming couplets weren't giving me the flexibility 00:03:04.630 --> 00:03:08.170 align:middle line:84% to do what I wanted to do, and so I made it into blank verse. 00:03:08.170 --> 00:03:12.650 align:middle line:84% And and I fundamentally believe that form is a freedom. 00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:14.980 align:middle line:84% And so the poem is like 300 or so lines, 00:03:14.980 --> 00:03:16.270 align:middle line:90% and it's all in blank verse. 00:03:16.270 --> 00:03:19.580 align:middle line:84% And that was one of the things that propelled me. 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:21.220 align:middle line:84% And then the last thing I would say 00:03:21.220 --> 00:03:23.778 align:middle line:84% is, also I think you could be more playful with a poem. 00:03:23.778 --> 00:03:25.570 align:middle line:84% So like I read that first poem, and I said, 00:03:25.570 --> 00:03:29.048 align:middle line:84% I rarely read in public, and I improvised like 20% of it. 00:03:29.048 --> 00:03:31.090 align:middle line:84% And I was just, like, straight up making shit up. 00:03:31.090 --> 00:03:33.480 align:middle line:90% Like that last-- some words. 00:03:33.480 --> 00:03:34.810 align:middle line:90% I just straight up made it up. 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:36.060 align:middle line:84% And I thought, what I'm saying is, 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:37.852 align:middle line:84% like you know, it would be really cool if I 00:03:37.852 --> 00:03:40.660 align:middle line:84% had parentheticals here, where like the speaker was commenting 00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:42.520 align:middle line:90% on the text from the Senator. 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:45.070 align:middle line:84% And I was like, well, fuck it, why don't you just do it? 00:03:45.070 --> 00:03:48.390 align:middle line:84% That's the kind of thing that you do. 00:03:48.390 --> 00:03:49.378 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:03:49.378 --> 00:03:51.920 align:middle line:84% But it's the kind of thing that you could do with a long poem 00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:54.050 align:middle line:84% that you just can't do with a short poem, 00:03:54.050 --> 00:03:55.550 align:middle line:84% and it's the kind of way for me to-- 00:03:55.550 --> 00:03:57.592 align:middle line:84% and I knew it was recording, so I was like, well, 00:03:57.592 --> 00:03:59.210 align:middle line:84% if it works even a little bit, then 00:03:59.210 --> 00:04:01.670 align:middle line:84% I could probably go back and see some of the things that I did. 00:04:01.670 --> 00:04:02.990 align:middle line:84% And I actually wrote something that, 00:04:02.990 --> 00:04:05.450 align:middle line:84% you could think of a long poem as a living piece of art 00:04:05.450 --> 00:04:07.250 align:middle line:84% in a way that a short poem isn't. 00:04:07.250 --> 00:04:09.110 align:middle line:84% If you change a short poem, you've 00:04:09.110 --> 00:04:10.970 align:middle line:84% changed it so drastically that it's 00:04:10.970 --> 00:04:13.610 align:middle line:84% a completely different kind of beast, right? 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:15.650 align:middle line:84% And it's hard to do it in a coherent way, 00:04:15.650 --> 00:04:19.399 align:middle line:84% because you can kind of slip up on improvisation but then 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:22.053 align:middle line:84% finally back on course when you go back to the actual text, 00:04:22.053 --> 00:04:23.720 align:middle line:84% but you can't do that with a short poem. 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:25.430 align:middle line:84% So those are sort of the three things 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:28.347 align:middle line:84% I think about, how to sustain my work in a long poem. 00:04:28.347 --> 00:04:30.680 align:middle line:84% And of course, the last thing I said about improvisation 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:33.013 align:middle line:84% is more about when you're reading a statement in public. 00:04:33.013 --> 00:04:38.370 align:middle line:84% But it's the way in which one of my teachers 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:40.310 align:middle line:84% want to say that the poem should be like, 00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:42.877 align:middle line:84% and we should write the way that you live. 00:04:42.877 --> 00:04:45.210 align:middle line:84% And so a lot of times you write standing up, sitting up, 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:47.630 align:middle line:84% sitting down, and we write in these quiet places, 00:04:47.630 --> 00:04:49.367 align:middle line:84% but we don't live in quiet places. 00:04:49.367 --> 00:04:51.200 align:middle line:84% So it was just, like, every once in a while, 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:53.730 align:middle line:84% you should kind of get up and try to do to your poem 00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:55.430 align:middle line:90% what you do to yourself. 00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:57.525 align:middle line:84% So write when you're walking around. 00:04:57.525 --> 00:04:59.900 align:middle line:84% You could read it, and you could improvise it in the end, 00:04:59.900 --> 00:05:00.950 align:middle line:90% even if nobody's there. 00:05:00.950 --> 00:05:02.960 align:middle line:84% So I would say that those three things helped 00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:04.640 align:middle line:84% me prepare moving forward, and that's 00:05:04.640 --> 00:05:07.070 align:middle line:84% what I would give people advice to if they wanted to. 00:05:07.070 --> 00:05:11.230 align:middle line:90% 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:12.020 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:05:12.020 --> 00:05:13.822 align:middle line:84% We've got time for two more questions. 00:05:13.822 --> 00:05:14.530 align:middle line:90% Right behind you. 00:05:14.530 --> 00:05:15.113 align:middle line:90% So here's one. 00:05:15.113 --> 00:05:19.060 align:middle line:90% 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:25.390 align:middle line:84% So I'm interested in the dichotomy between rhetoric 00:05:25.390 --> 00:05:27.820 align:middle line:84% and speaking that way, and then like the creative side 00:05:27.820 --> 00:05:28.970 align:middle line:90% of poetry. 00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:30.790 align:middle line:84% So I guess I kind of have a two part 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:36.400 align:middle line:84% question of if there was a style that you kind of like developed 00:05:36.400 --> 00:05:39.370 align:middle line:84% first, and then also how the differences 00:05:39.370 --> 00:05:43.570 align:middle line:84% between those styles of speaking influence each other in what 00:05:43.570 --> 00:05:46.990 align:middle line:84% you do, in both your writing and when you're speaking? 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:47.790 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:47.790 --> 00:05:49.890 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:05:49.890 --> 00:05:54.450 align:middle line:84% One, I would like to think that they aren't that different. 00:05:54.450 --> 00:05:55.950 align:middle line:84% I was really happy today when people 00:05:55.950 --> 00:05:59.190 align:middle line:84% laughed at lines in a poem, because people always 00:05:59.190 --> 00:06:00.600 align:middle line:90% laugh when I speak, right? 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:03.710 align:middle line:90% Because I just, whatever. 00:06:03.710 --> 00:06:05.460 align:middle line:84% But sometimes I find it difficult to write 00:06:05.460 --> 00:06:06.850 align:middle line:90% poetry that is funny. 00:06:06.850 --> 00:06:08.522 align:middle line:84% So I was kind of pleased that I was 00:06:08.522 --> 00:06:10.230 align:middle line:84% able to pull that off, at least one time, 00:06:10.230 --> 00:06:13.120 align:middle line:84% to say something that was funny, and then the audience hears 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:14.010 align:middle line:90% it as funny. 00:06:14.010 --> 00:06:17.502 align:middle line:84% But I don't necessarily think that-- 00:06:17.502 --> 00:06:18.960 align:middle line:84% it's a better question for somebody 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:21.120 align:middle line:84% who saw me speak publicly over the past couple of days, 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:22.703 align:middle line:84% because I would like to think that I'm 00:06:22.703 --> 00:06:25.890 align:middle line:84% the same person in both contexts. 00:06:25.890 --> 00:06:27.540 align:middle line:90% And I know it's a very, very-- 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:29.340 align:middle line:84% but I would actually like to think 00:06:29.340 --> 00:06:31.040 align:middle line:84% I'm the same person in both contexts. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:32.760 align:middle line:84% And the main reason is like, I think 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:35.515 align:middle line:84% I'm pushing for honesty in either form. 00:06:35.515 --> 00:06:37.140 align:middle line:84% And so the poem is trying to be honest, 00:06:37.140 --> 00:06:39.992 align:middle line:84% and the poem is trying to admit that there are no easy answers 00:06:39.992 --> 00:06:41.700 align:middle line:84% and I don't really have the easy answers. 00:06:41.700 --> 00:06:43.867 align:middle line:84% And that's one of the messages behind the long poem, 00:06:43.867 --> 00:06:45.570 align:middle line:84% is like what we choose to criticize 00:06:45.570 --> 00:06:47.280 align:middle line:90% and how we frame the issue. 00:06:47.280 --> 00:06:49.470 align:middle line:84% I think those are the same kinds of things 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:51.790 align:middle line:84% that I do when I'm just speaking more generally 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:53.520 align:middle line:90% on any given topic publicly. 00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:55.860 align:middle line:84% So I don't know, but my head is, the closer I 00:06:55.860 --> 00:06:59.820 align:middle line:84% am in being the podium in both venues, 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:02.105 align:middle line:84% the closer I am in having something meaningful to say 00:07:02.105 --> 00:07:02.730 align:middle line:90% in both venues. 00:07:02.730 --> 00:07:05.430 align:middle line:90% 00:07:05.430 --> 00:07:05.930 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:08.870 align:middle line:90% Last question. 00:07:08.870 --> 00:07:12.640 align:middle line:84% Thank you for your part tonight I 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:16.870 align:middle line:84% wonder it seems sort of awkward to have a Q and A after poetry 00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:20.680 align:middle line:84% for me, because there's so much mystery to it. 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:23.350 align:middle line:84% To me, it seems like you should just let it wash over, 00:07:23.350 --> 00:07:26.470 align:middle line:84% and it takes me a while, and just for all the things 00:07:26.470 --> 00:07:28.080 align:middle line:90% you said. 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:30.580 align:middle line:84% So I wonder when you're writing, do you ever come to a place 00:07:30.580 --> 00:07:34.512 align:middle line:84% where you're like, what did I just write, like, 00:07:34.512 --> 00:07:35.720 align:middle line:90% that doesn't even make sense? 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.555 align:middle line:84% Or you get the sense where you put it down, 00:07:40.555 --> 00:07:43.210 align:middle line:84% and you look at it later, and you're like, 00:07:43.210 --> 00:07:46.480 align:middle line:84% yeah, I quite don't know what that was, 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:50.800 align:middle line:84% and maybe it's a mystery to you at the same time, 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.410 align:middle line:84% and you have to sort of digest what 00:07:53.410 --> 00:07:55.690 align:middle line:90% words came out of your head? 00:07:55.690 --> 00:07:56.590 align:middle line:90% Do you have that? 00:07:56.590 --> 00:07:58.750 align:middle line:84% Yeah, so I can speak specifically, really, 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:00.350 align:middle line:90% to that poem, "Motherhood." 00:08:00.350 --> 00:08:02.570 align:middle line:84% So that started out as a poem in my first book. 00:08:02.570 --> 00:08:06.220 align:middle line:84% It was called "The Sound of your Mother Crying." 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:08.650 align:middle line:84% And I literally rewrote the entire poem, 00:08:08.650 --> 00:08:11.757 align:middle line:84% but I didn't re-write it whole cloth, right? 00:08:11.757 --> 00:08:13.965 align:middle line:84% I thought of something, added it, and I was like, ah, 00:08:13.965 --> 00:08:15.790 align:middle line:84% it would be cool if I added this revision. 00:08:15.790 --> 00:08:17.560 align:middle line:84% Then I thought of something, added it. 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:19.940 align:middle line:84% Then like three or four months later, 00:08:19.940 --> 00:08:22.000 align:middle line:84% I was thinking about using it in a project, 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.680 align:middle line:90% and I changed the first line. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:25.840 align:middle line:84% I was like, damn, I don't like this either. 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:27.740 align:middle line:84% What was I thinking about when I said that? 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:29.448 align:middle line:84% And in this case, it was like, this thing 00:08:29.448 --> 00:08:31.010 align:middle line:90% doesn't even make sense anymore. 00:08:31.010 --> 00:08:32.362 align:middle line:84% And then I talked to my homeboy, and I 00:08:32.362 --> 00:08:33.520 align:middle line:84% was like, you know I already published this 00:08:33.520 --> 00:08:34.937 align:middle line:84% during my first book, but I'd like 00:08:34.937 --> 00:08:37.620 align:middle line:84% to think I'm going to publish it again in my new book. 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:40.760 align:middle line:84% Oh, X that part out about the poem being previously published 00:08:40.760 --> 00:08:44.018 align:middle line:84% so nobody reads this or hears this. 00:08:44.018 --> 00:08:46.310 align:middle line:84% No, but then he was like, you can publish the same poem 00:08:46.310 --> 00:08:46.810 align:middle line:90% twice. 00:08:46.810 --> 00:08:48.250 align:middle line:90% And I was, you know, it's funny. 00:08:48.250 --> 00:08:49.120 align:middle line:90% Let me look at it. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:51.520 align:middle line:84% And I looked at the two poems side by side, 00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:53.850 align:middle line:84% and they are literally completely different. 00:08:53.850 --> 00:08:55.900 align:middle line:84% Like, every word has been changed. 00:08:55.900 --> 00:08:58.360 align:middle line:84% And so I definitely go back in poems 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.630 align:middle line:84% and change them, and change them all the time. 00:09:00.630 --> 00:09:04.660 align:middle line:84% I got one, that I'm not saying it's-- 00:09:04.660 --> 00:09:07.960 align:middle line:84% I won three Pushcart Prizes, right? 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.810 align:middle line:84% Each time the poem that won the Pushcart 00:09:10.810 --> 00:09:14.470 align:middle line:84% was changed drastically before it appeared in the book. 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:16.960 align:middle line:84% Like, every single time, it was changed drastically 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:18.260 align:middle line:90% before it ended up in a book. 00:09:18.260 --> 00:09:21.460 align:middle line:84% And so I say that to say that for me the writing part, 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:22.930 align:middle line:90% it's about thinking. 00:09:22.930 --> 00:09:24.570 align:middle line:90% I'm writing something. 00:09:24.570 --> 00:09:27.050 align:middle line:90% I'm thinking as I'm writing. 00:09:27.050 --> 00:09:29.770 align:middle line:84% And then when I go back to work it, I get to, like, 00:09:29.770 --> 00:09:32.683 align:middle line:84% reflect on what my thoughts look like. 00:09:32.683 --> 00:09:34.600 align:middle line:84% And sometimes those-- I have to be clear, too, 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:36.190 align:middle line:84% because like the one thing about the poem is when 00:09:36.190 --> 00:09:38.050 align:middle line:84% you use I all the time people think 00:09:38.050 --> 00:09:40.150 align:middle line:84% that every "I" in the book is you. 00:09:40.150 --> 00:09:42.820 align:middle line:84% And that's not the case, but I think that's the poet's burden. 00:09:42.820 --> 00:09:45.650 align:middle line:84% I think that, like, one of the things that challenges writers 00:09:45.650 --> 00:09:47.700 align:middle line:84% is that they become heroes in their own work. 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:49.270 align:middle line:84% It's a challenge with memoir, because it's obviously 00:09:49.270 --> 00:09:50.080 align:middle line:90% about you. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:51.830 align:middle line:84% And it's easy to write a memoir and make 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:53.453 align:middle line:90% yourself the hero in the book. 00:09:53.453 --> 00:09:55.120 align:middle line:84% But it's also a challenge amongst poets, 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:57.940 align:middle line:84% because we all recognize that when we say "I" in public, 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.730 align:middle line:84% or when we say "I" in a book, the contemporary people will 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:02.840 align:middle line:90% think that "I" is you. 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:06.040 align:middle line:84% 30 years from now, when I'm dead, they won't care. 00:10:06.040 --> 00:10:08.050 align:middle line:84% But right now, they would think that "I" is me. 00:10:08.050 --> 00:10:09.425 align:middle line:84% So I think some writers, I think, 00:10:09.425 --> 00:10:11.800 align:middle line:84% block ourselves from saying certain things 00:10:11.800 --> 00:10:13.433 align:middle line:84% because we don't want to be associated 00:10:13.433 --> 00:10:14.600 align:middle line:90% with certain kind of things. 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.360 align:middle line:84% I had a reviewer say Betts's Bastards of the Reagan Era 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:21.550 align:middle line:90% is a searingly powerful work. 00:10:21.550 --> 00:10:24.220 align:middle line:84% In it, he admits to selling crack to pregnant women. 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:26.610 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:10:26.610 --> 00:10:30.010 align:middle line:84% I was like, I don't even like drugs. 00:10:30.010 --> 00:10:33.830 align:middle line:84% I didn't admit to selling crack to pregnant women. 00:10:33.830 --> 00:10:35.660 align:middle line:84% And like, and this woman clearly didn't 00:10:35.660 --> 00:10:38.330 align:middle line:84% read every "I" in the book as me, 00:10:38.330 --> 00:10:41.810 align:middle line:84% but that "I" she chose to read as me, 00:10:41.810 --> 00:10:45.290 align:middle line:84% decide it's me in her review, so that my mom could read it 00:10:45.290 --> 00:10:46.880 align:middle line:90% and be like-- 00:10:46.880 --> 00:10:51.528 align:middle line:84% but I don't have any control over that, though. 00:10:51.528 --> 00:10:53.820 align:middle line:84% So then the question becomes, in the next book I write, 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:56.430 align:middle line:90% am I afraid to write that line? 00:10:56.430 --> 00:10:58.510 align:middle line:84% And you can't be afraid to write that line. 00:10:58.510 --> 00:11:01.080 align:middle line:84% So some of that going back and rereading a poem 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:05.280 align:middle line:84% too is checking for the way my biases creep into how 00:11:05.280 --> 00:11:08.040 align:middle line:84% I write narratives, to how I write lyrics, 00:11:08.040 --> 00:11:11.670 align:middle line:84% to check into the way my fear of how the world will 00:11:11.670 --> 00:11:16.278 align:middle line:84% perceive me creeps in to how I sing a particular song. 00:11:16.278 --> 00:11:18.820 align:middle line:84% And then the whole thing about-- and the last thing I'll say, 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:20.445 align:middle line:84% since I got to run to the airport, one, 00:11:20.445 --> 00:11:23.930 align:middle line:84% I apologize for leaving in a hurry. 00:11:23.930 --> 00:11:26.040 align:middle line:84% I work in a public defender's office, 00:11:26.040 --> 00:11:28.025 align:middle line:84% and I got to go to court tomorrow morning, 00:11:28.025 --> 00:11:29.400 align:middle line:84% and so the only flight that I can 00:11:29.400 --> 00:11:33.120 align:middle line:84% get on that will get me home in time to be at court by 10:00 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.470 align:middle line:84% is a red-eye that unfortunately isn't leaving from Tuscon, 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:39.990 align:middle line:90% it's leaving from Phoenix. 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:47.460 align:middle line:84% But the last thing that I want to say about this whole project 00:11:47.460 --> 00:11:52.470 align:middle line:84% of writing is that the challenge for me 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:59.620 align:middle line:84% is always how to imagine a space where 00:11:59.620 --> 00:12:02.410 align:middle line:84% I could be as authentic on a page 00:12:02.410 --> 00:12:06.130 align:middle line:84% as I am when I'm talking to my folks in a bar. 00:12:06.130 --> 00:12:06.850 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:12:06.850 --> 00:12:10.270 align:middle line:84% And so what I say to all these is, when they listen to poetry, 00:12:10.270 --> 00:12:11.350 align:middle line:90% that Caesar line. 00:12:11.350 --> 00:12:12.550 align:middle line:84% You know, you weren't supposed to catch that, 00:12:12.550 --> 00:12:14.620 align:middle line:84% but it was about this part in "Julius Caesar" 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:16.745 align:middle line:84% where Brutus and Cassius are talking about the fact 00:12:16.745 --> 00:12:18.453 align:middle line:84% that they done killed Caesar, and they're 00:12:18.453 --> 00:12:19.540 align:middle line:90% trying to rationalize it. 00:12:19.540 --> 00:12:23.140 align:middle line:84% And what I'm saying, well, isn't life just 00:12:23.140 --> 00:12:25.440 align:middle line:90% years of fear and death? 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:25.940 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:28.510 align:middle line:84% And so I put that in a poem, and it was just a small nod 00:12:28.510 --> 00:12:29.658 align:middle line:90% to myself. 00:12:29.658 --> 00:12:32.200 align:middle line:84% There's no way that you could hear that, necessarily, and get 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:33.783 align:middle line:90% it on the first listen. 00:12:33.783 --> 00:12:35.200 align:middle line:84% But we have been trained to listen 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:36.640 align:middle line:84% to poetry in a way that is different from how 00:12:36.640 --> 00:12:37.690 align:middle line:90% we listen to music. 00:12:37.690 --> 00:12:39.760 align:middle line:84% You listen to a song on a radio, and you 00:12:39.760 --> 00:12:41.440 align:middle line:90% good with just catching a hook. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:42.550 align:middle line:90% You just hear four words. 00:12:42.550 --> 00:12:44.110 align:middle line:84% You're like, I love those four words. 00:12:44.110 --> 00:12:45.415 align:middle line:84% But when we listen to poetry, you 00:12:45.415 --> 00:12:48.040 align:middle line:84% tell yourself, if I didn't hear the whole poem, I hate it, man. 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:49.660 align:middle line:84% That was way too complicated for me. 00:12:49.660 --> 00:12:52.460 align:middle line:84% But if I read you a poem-- that last poem I read 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:53.840 align:middle line:90% was, like, six sections long. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:54.340 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:12:54.340 --> 00:12:56.800 align:middle line:84% I hope that what you did was hear a few things, 00:12:56.800 --> 00:12:58.570 align:middle line:84% and like the one thing stuck with you, 00:12:58.570 --> 00:13:01.840 align:middle line:84% and one the line resonates with you, and then you go back 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:02.843 align:middle line:90% and you read it again. 00:13:02.843 --> 00:13:04.510 align:middle line:84% And that is why you should buy the book. 00:13:04.510 --> 00:13:05.860 align:middle line:84% I mean, you should buy, like, three or four copies 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:06.400 align:middle line:90% of the book. 00:13:06.400 --> 00:13:08.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:13:08.180 --> 00:13:10.300 align:middle line:84% Anyway, thank you guys for coming. 00:13:10.300 --> 00:13:12.150 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE]