WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.940 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.940 --> 00:00:04.570 align:middle line:84% This first poem is "My House is the Red Earth," 00:00:04.570 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:84% and it's from Secrets from the Center of the World, 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:09.910 align:middle line:84% which was a collaboration with-- you guys know him, 00:00:09.910 --> 00:00:11.050 align:middle line:90% is one of your community-- 00:00:11.050 --> 00:00:12.880 align:middle line:90% Stephen Strom. 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:18.160 align:middle line:84% And we wrote this-- we did this book together, 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.980 align:middle line:84% his images of the Southwest and of places 00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:22.330 align:middle line:90% that I love very much. 00:00:22.330 --> 00:00:24.970 align:middle line:84% And when I started writing poetry, 00:00:24.970 --> 00:00:30.460 align:middle line:84% I was kind of an escapee or an immigrant, 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:32.830 align:middle line:84% I was from Oklahoma and my people. 00:00:32.830 --> 00:00:34.090 align:middle line:90% But there were so much-- 00:00:34.090 --> 00:00:38.920 align:middle line:84% Oklahoma is so full of intense memory of leaving and being 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:43.540 align:middle line:84% forced to leave, as well as a great loss, 00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:46.280 align:middle line:90% and yet we found so much there. 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:51.140 align:middle line:84% And so this part of the world took care of me for a while. 00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:54.025 align:middle line:84% And so this poem came out of that. 00:00:54.025 --> 00:00:56.150 align:middle line:84% And a lot of people don't know that when I started, 00:00:56.150 --> 00:00:57.760 align:middle line:84% I wanted to be an artist, a painter, 00:00:57.760 --> 00:00:59.680 align:middle line:90% I wasn't very good at speaking. 00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:04.569 align:middle line:84% And I preferred doing art and drawing, 00:01:04.569 --> 00:01:06.550 align:middle line:84% like some of my relatives, even though I 00:01:06.550 --> 00:01:09.880 align:middle line:84% have many other ancestors and relatives who were speakers, 00:01:09.880 --> 00:01:15.700 align:middle line:84% and I liked feeling the world out in that way. 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.640 align:middle line:84% But when I went to the University of New Mexico 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:21.700 align:middle line:84% and I took Navajo language and I was 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:25.840 align:middle line:84% hanging around mostly Navajos and a lot of Pueblo people, 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:27.790 align:middle line:84% and I started learning that language 00:01:27.790 --> 00:01:30.640 align:middle line:84% and writing poetry at the same time. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:33.200 align:middle line:84% Not because I really wanted to write poetry, 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.570 align:middle line:84% but because the spirit of poetry said OK, you're coming with me. 00:01:37.570 --> 00:01:41.620 align:middle line:90% It's like no! 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:44.020 align:middle line:90% I don't know what to say. 00:01:44.020 --> 00:01:46.900 align:middle line:84% But I feel like the creative spirit 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:50.680 align:middle line:84% is given to us to take care of, and we don't always 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:52.120 align:middle line:90% have a say in it. 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:55.640 align:middle line:84% And when it comes, you have to take care of it. 00:01:55.640 --> 00:02:01.900 align:middle line:84% And so these little series are in gratitude. 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:04.990 align:middle line:84% The earth-- I think about how humans, what we 00:02:04.990 --> 00:02:06.220 align:middle line:90% offer the earth. 00:02:06.220 --> 00:02:08.830 align:middle line:90% What do we give to the earth? 00:02:08.830 --> 00:02:10.150 align:middle line:90% And you look at-- 00:02:10.150 --> 00:02:11.380 align:middle line:90% and it seems-- 00:02:11.380 --> 00:02:14.800 align:middle line:84% I've wondered, what use are human beings here 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.000 align:middle line:90% to this earth? 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.040 align:middle line:84% But one conclusion I've come to is 00:02:18.040 --> 00:02:21.370 align:middle line:90% that the earth likes our songs. 00:02:21.370 --> 00:02:24.920 align:middle line:84% It likes to be acknowledged for the gifts and tremendous gifts, 00:02:24.920 --> 00:02:27.920 align:middle line:84% because we wouldn't be here, nothing here, 00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:29.290 align:middle line:90% nothing would be-- 00:02:29.290 --> 00:02:31.450 align:middle line:90% they're all gifts of the earth. 00:02:31.450 --> 00:02:35.170 align:middle line:84% So this is in honor of these gifts. 00:02:35.170 --> 00:02:37.180 align:middle line:90% My house is the red earth. 00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:39.020 align:middle line:84% It could be the center of the world. 00:02:39.020 --> 00:02:41.440 align:middle line:84% I've heard New York, Paris, Tokyo, called 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:45.400 align:middle line:84% the center of the world, but I say it's magnificently humble. 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:49.360 align:middle line:84% You could drive by and miss it, radio waves can obscure it, 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.990 align:middle line:84% words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left 00:02:52.990 --> 00:02:56.270 align:middle line:90% to sacred, wordless form. 00:02:56.270 --> 00:02:59.420 align:middle line:84% For instance, that fool crow, picking 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:02.570 align:middle line:84% through trash near the corral, understands 00:03:02.570 --> 00:03:06.380 align:middle line:84% the center of the world as greasy scraps of fat. 00:03:06.380 --> 00:03:09.950 align:middle line:84% Just ask him, he doesn't have to say that the earth has turned 00:03:09.950 --> 00:03:12.650 align:middle line:84% scarlet to fierce belief after centuries 00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:14.600 align:middle line:90% of heartbreak and laughter. 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:19.620 align:middle line:84% He perches on the blue ball of the sky and laughs. 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:22.710 align:middle line:84% If you look with the mind of the swirling earth near Shiprock, 00:03:22.710 --> 00:03:25.650 align:middle line:90% you become the land, beautiful. 00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:29.250 align:middle line:84% And understand how three crows at the edge of the highway, 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:33.520 align:middle line:84% laughing, become three crows at the edge of the world, 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:34.020 align:middle line:90% laughing. 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:37.470 align:middle line:90% 00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:40.290 align:middle line:84% Don't bother the earth's spirit who lives here. 00:03:40.290 --> 00:03:42.490 align:middle line:90% She is working on a story. 00:03:42.490 --> 00:03:45.630 align:middle line:84% It is the oldest story in the world, and it is delicate, 00:03:45.630 --> 00:03:46.980 align:middle line:90% changing. 00:03:46.980 --> 00:03:50.580 align:middle line:84% If she sees you watching, she will invite you in for coffee, 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:52.350 align:middle line:84% give you warm bread, and you will be 00:03:52.350 --> 00:03:55.020 align:middle line:90% obligated to stay and listen. 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:58.290 align:middle line:90% But this is no ordinary story. 00:03:58.290 --> 00:04:01.380 align:middle line:84% You will have to endure earthquakes, lightning, 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:05.970 align:middle line:84% the deaths of all those you love, the most blinding beauty. 00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:10.200 align:middle line:84% It's a story so compelling, you may never want to leave. 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:12.900 align:middle line:90% This is how she traps you. 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:15.690 align:middle line:84% See that stone finger over there? 00:04:15.690 --> 00:04:20.150 align:middle line:84% That is the only one who ever escaped. 00:04:20.150 --> 00:04:21.000 align:middle line:90%