WEBVTT

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Thanks, Matt, that was
really flabbergasting.

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Probably everybody who
teaches at a university

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deserves to have incredibly
smart PhD students,

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if they're teaching in
the literature program.

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But you don't really
get to deserve

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to have one who's also a
terrific and well-published

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poet and a fellow Buddhist.

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So it's just-- we've been
very close for a long time.

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This is great, Matt.

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And Gail was talking about
what a difficult year it was,

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in some respects.

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And I realize she was talking
about the big global picture,

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which is incredibly
difficult. It's

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been a really aggravating and
scary year at the university,

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in some ways, so far, as most
of you are well aware of.

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But it's an incredible
privilege to work

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with just incredibly wonderful
writing and PhD students.

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I've had so many
terrific students

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who've gone on to
do great things

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and whose work I really love.

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And that's one of the
most wonderful of them.

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So thanks very much
to the Poetry Center,

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and Gail and Renee and the whole
crew, for inviting me to read.

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And it's a great privilege and a
lot of fun to read with Manuel.

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I hope he'll come to Tucson.

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I'm going to read
from Ghost Snow Falls

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Through the Void,
a few sections.

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And I'll just say a
couple of things about it

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and then try to get going.

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Oh, one thing to say is that
I'd better finish the book soon.

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It's about 80%, 90% done.

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And, happily, since November
4, some of what follows

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has merely historical interest.

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I was thinking about Cherríe
Moraga's wonderfully titled

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book, Loving in the War Years.

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And so, I could tell you
all about the project,

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there's [? a little ?]
missing, that this

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can be called Sitting
Zazen in the Bush Years.

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It's like I kind of
finish that up, all right.

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I don't think I'll say too much.

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I was working on
the reading today

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and I sort of shuffled
certain sections in and out.

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And I can't remember which
ones are there anymore.

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So I don't think I'll
try and talk about many

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of the references.

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I will say that
some of this stuff

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is sort of engaged
in googling around

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to find out what's going
on in Iraq, and so on.

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And I've included a little
bit of that, this one

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long section toward the end.

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But I thought, you know,
probably for a reading,

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most of you don't
want to hear things

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quoted from the internet.

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So I didn't do too
much with that.

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And then the other
thing I'll say,

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for people who came to my
POG reading last November,

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about half of what I'm going
to read is identical to that

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reading, and then
the other half isn't.

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So some of it should be fresh.

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I hope so.

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I'm going to start
with something

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that's actually from the
middle of the manuscript.

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And I'm going to ask Matt to
come up and read it with me.

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It's one of the things that,
again, is happily most dated.

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And the role Matt
is going to perform

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has been previously played by
Tim Peterson, Leslie Scalapino,

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and Barb Henning.

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So, here we go.

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All right.

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Do you have a copy or are
you going to look at mine?

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No, I'm just going--

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All right, here we go.

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So you're this guy.

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Let me just tell
you one more thing.

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When we get here, we're
going to read this together.

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And this is not part of it.

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That's my note.

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Don't miss it.

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Where do we start--

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We're going to start up right
here, when this guy goes--

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What are you doing over
there in the corner again?

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I'm building a nation in Iraq.

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I call it nation building.

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What is that dead
fork in your hand?

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Nothing again, nothing.

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I said I'm nation
building, dammit.

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Are you a roadside
bombing terrorist?

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No, I am the president.

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I'm leading one nation
and building another.

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Where are you leading it?

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I'm leading it to the
other one to build it.

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And where are you leading
the one you're building?

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I'm leading it to the other one,
that's this one, to lead it.

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And I will make it drink.

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Are you leading it to water?

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Oil.

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Do they mix?

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When the terrorists
mix it, it explodes.

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And you?

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Even as it is said,
as in the beginning,

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so in the end, world
unto world, what

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does it profit a man to
mix oil in his gas tank

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if his axle is evil?

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Who said that?

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Sad man.

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The aye, I told
you, of North Korea.

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What's your favorite book?

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Windows on the
World, for Dummies.

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Is it a dirty book?

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What am I doing over
there in the corner again?

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Why don't you go ask Dick?

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You little slut.

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Aren't you glad
that in America we

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can debate these issues freely?

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Yes.

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Me too.

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Want to join me
in the corner now?

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What are you doing?

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Come in under the
shadow of this red rock

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and I will show you something.

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They called me
the hyacinth girl.

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And I knew nothing,
looking into the heart

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of light, the silence.

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Where's that?

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Iraq, you dummy.

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Hosanna, you're the
rapper, Ice George.

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Get jiggy wit it.

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[SPOKEN TOGETHER]
Exeunt omnes, singing,

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Dada said there'll
be days like this.

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Saddam said there'll
be days like this.

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'Sama said there'll
be days like this.

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But I don't worry 'cause.

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Big enough to include the
name of every drink served

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in every tavern in America?

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You bet.

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Thank you, Matt.

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[LAUGHTER]

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[APPPLAUSE]

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