WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.370 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to finish with a couple of poems 00:00:05.370 --> 00:00:08.070 align:middle line:84% that I think Fay, I know Fay loved. 00:00:08.070 --> 00:00:10.820 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:13.460 align:middle line:90% And then the last one. 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:14.960 align:middle line:90% These are very, very recent. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.060 align:middle line:90% Celia Cruz. 00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:19.380 align:middle line:84% How many people know who Celia Cruz is? 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:20.660 align:middle line:90% All right, thank you. 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:22.790 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:22.790 --> 00:00:23.960 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:27.313 align:middle line:84% "Celia Cruz, Snow Angels" something 00:00:27.313 --> 00:00:28.730 align:middle line:84% you're not going to see in Tucson. 00:00:28.730 --> 00:00:31.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:31.470 --> 00:00:33.630 align:middle line:90% Maybe there are desert angels. 00:00:33.630 --> 00:00:35.490 align:middle line:90% I guess not. 00:00:35.490 --> 00:00:40.500 align:middle line:90% "Celia Cruz, Snow Angels." 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:43.410 align:middle line:84% The Great Gatsby jazz, the sorrows 00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:48.600 align:middle line:84% of summers where the wealthy misspent their wealth, making 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:52.740 align:middle line:84% the novice president an apt arbiter of a future 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.840 align:middle line:90% dulled by greed. 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:58.770 align:middle line:84% Thus the novel's hero dead by his rival's gun 00:00:58.770 --> 00:01:01.200 align:middle line:90% tells this harsh truth. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.180 align:middle line:90% Love does not conquest. 00:01:03.180 --> 00:01:06.720 align:middle line:90% Legs are for icing over. 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:11.430 align:middle line:84% Diversions come as random as this afternoon's mumble of news 00:01:11.430 --> 00:01:14.010 align:middle line:90% and sorrows and ice lakes. 00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:17.760 align:middle line:84% Ah, Celia Cruz's Cuban Spanish brightens. 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:19.170 align:middle line:90% What is she saying? 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:21.780 align:middle line:90% And is it Spanish? 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:26.430 align:middle line:84% Outside children in puffy jackets and Christmas scarves 00:01:26.430 --> 00:01:30.150 align:middle line:84% are lying on their backs in the new snow that 00:01:30.150 --> 00:01:32.460 align:middle line:90% takes their bodies' offering. 00:01:32.460 --> 00:01:35.520 align:middle line:84% There's laughter as moms and dads 00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:41.040 align:middle line:84% and cousins and friends remember their time in snow's embrace. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:46.230 align:middle line:84% Angels, these bodies become angels brought down 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:48.840 align:middle line:90% to Earth imprinted in snow. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:52.170 align:middle line:84% What proof have we of these mythical creatures? 00:01:52.170 --> 00:01:53.580 align:middle line:90% Do angels laugh? 00:01:53.580 --> 00:01:57.150 align:middle line:84% Do they wear puffy jackets and patterned scarves? 00:01:57.150 --> 00:02:01.200 align:middle line:84% Do they, once returned upright, begin to ball snow 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:04.440 align:middle line:84% into projectiles and smash their kin? 00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:07.668 align:middle line:84% Are they cursing this white-ness? 00:02:07.668 --> 00:02:12.930 align:middle line:84% Do they hear Celia Cruz's potent voice singing in Spanish 00:02:12.930 --> 00:02:18.030 align:middle line:84% or maybe it is not Spanish, but another tongue, denser, deeper, 00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:22.290 align:middle line:84% from a haven on this Earth that she hears on blue days 00:02:22.290 --> 00:02:25.950 align:middle line:84% when the snow falls and children stuff themselves 00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:29.220 align:middle line:84% into winter's heaviest fabrics, then 00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:33.540 align:middle line:84% they fall quickly or slowly into crystalline heaven, 00:02:33.540 --> 00:02:36.450 align:middle line:84% their winged arms and leaping feet 00:02:36.450 --> 00:02:43.820 align:middle line:84% caught in a beat between sound and sorrow, mermaid and surf.