WEBVTT

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This is from The
Gathering of My Name.

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And these poems
are again dealing

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with the idea of becoming
more conscious of yourself

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as a Black writer, but also as
the idea of, I think, it more--

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meaning more to
the point might be

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the idea of a question
between your responsibility

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as a poet to your community.

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Or maybe even to another
way of putting it

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is the idea, the responsibility
of the social poet, which

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we don't seem to have
that much of anymore.

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Or maybe if we do
have, it doesn't

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be paid much attention to.

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So this poem, and this
first poem I'm about to read

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is about a lot of stuff.

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It's about the idea of--

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of your idea of identity.

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It's also about-- a deeper way
of, when you get to a certain

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point, being able to look back
and see how other people look

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at you, but you weren't really
paying attention to, luckily,

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because they weren't
expecting much--

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so and also the idea
of saying "thanks."

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Because you have to do that.

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It's necessary.

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This is called "Gratitude."

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"I'm here to tell
you an old story.

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This appears to be my work.

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I live in the world,
walk the streets of New

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York, this dear city.

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I want to tell you
I'm 36 years old.

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I have lived in and
against my blood.

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I want to tell
you I am grateful.

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Because, after all, I am
a Black, American poet.

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I'm 36, and no one has
to tell me about luck.

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I mean, after a reading,
someone asked me once,

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if you weren't doing
this, what, if anything,

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would you be doing?

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And I didn't say what
we both understood.

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I'm a Black, American male.

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I own this particular story
on this particular street

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at this particular moment.

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This appears to be my work.

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I'm 36 years old,
and all I have to do

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is repeat what I
notice over and over.

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All I have to do is remember.

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And to the famous poet
who thinks literature

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holds no small musics, love.

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And to the publishers who
believe in their marrow

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that there is no profit
on the fringes, love.

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And of those who need
the promise of wind,

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the sound of branches stirring
beneath the line, here

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is another environment
poised to open.

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Everyone reminds me
what an amazing odyssey

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I'm undertaking, as
well they should.

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After all, I'm a
Black, American poet,

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and my greatest weakness is
an inability to sustain rage.

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Who knows what will happen next?

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This appears to be
one for the books.

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If you train your
ears for what's

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unstated beneath
the congratulations,

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that silence is my story,
the pure celebration

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and shock of my face defying
its gravity, so to speak.

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I claim this tiny glee
not just for myself

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but for my parents,
who shook their heads.

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I'm older now that my
father was when he had me,

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which is no big
deal, except I have

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personal knowledge of the
wind that tilts the head back.

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And I claim this
loose-seed-in-the-air glee

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on behalf of the social studies
teacher I had in the 10th

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grade, a real bastard who
took me aside after class

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the afternoon he heard I was
leaving for a private school

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just to let me know he
expected me to drown out there,

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that I held the knowledge
of the drowned man,

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the regret of ruined
flesh in my eyes,

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which was fair enough except I
believe I've been teaching far

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longer now than he had that day.

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And I know the blessing
of a narrow escape.

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And I claim this rooster
pull-down-morning glee

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on behalf of anyone who
saw me coming and said yes,

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even when I was loud,
cocky, insecure,

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even when all they could have
seen was the promise of a germ,

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even when it meant
yielding ground.

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I am a bit older than they were
when I walked into that room

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or class or party.

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And I understand the value
of the unstated push.

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A lucky man gets
to sing his name.

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I have survived long enough
to tell a bit of an old story.

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And to those who defend poetry
against all foreign tongues,

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love.

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And to those who
believe a dropped clause

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signifies encroachment, love.

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And to the bullies who need the
musty air of the clubhouse all

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to themselves, I am a
brick in a house that is

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being built around your house.

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I'm 36 years old, a
Black, American poet.

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Nearly all the things that
weren't supposed to occur

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has happened anyway.

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And I have a natural
inability to sustain rage

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despite the evidence.

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I have proof and a job
that comes as simple to me

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as breathing."

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[APPLAUSE]

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