WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.490 --> 00:00:06.170 align:middle line:84% So I think I'm going to read just 00:00:06.170 --> 00:00:09.830 align:middle line:84% a few Cactus Poems and some Warblers, 00:00:09.830 --> 00:00:11.540 align:middle line:90% and then we'll be done. 00:00:11.540 --> 00:00:15.980 align:middle line:84% This book, Political Cactus Poems, is pretty old now, 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:16.610 align:middle line:90% I think. 00:00:16.610 --> 00:00:19.700 align:middle line:84% But I should read some because it really 00:00:19.700 --> 00:00:21.440 align:middle line:90% was born in this landscape. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:25.700 align:middle line:84% I spent quite a lot of time in around the Organ Pipe Cactus 00:00:25.700 --> 00:00:28.902 align:middle line:84% National monument hiking in the desert out there-- 00:00:28.902 --> 00:00:30.860 align:middle line:84% landscape that Gary Nabhan has written about so 00:00:30.860 --> 00:00:36.530 align:middle line:84% beautifully, for example-- and was lucky to witness the spring 00:00:36.530 --> 00:00:39.680 align:middle line:84% bloom, the 20 year-bloom that happened, I think, in the late 00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:42.620 align:middle line:90% like '97 or '98. 00:00:42.620 --> 00:00:45.770 align:middle line:84% And was just overwhelmed with how lush the desert could be. 00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:48.800 align:middle line:84% At the same time we were bombing Kosovo. 00:00:48.800 --> 00:00:52.580 align:middle line:84% And I was feeling bristly about things, 00:00:52.580 --> 00:00:56.880 align:middle line:84% and the cactus became a great ally for me. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.000 align:middle line:84% So I wrote this series of political cactus poems 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.060 align:middle line:84% and really working not from any expertise about cacti 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:10.370 align:middle line:84% so much as from a field guide and my ear and the encounters-- 00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:12.410 align:middle line:84% sometimes uncomfortable encounters-- 00:01:12.410 --> 00:01:16.940 align:middle line:84% that I had with these species out there in the desert. 00:01:16.940 --> 00:01:20.590 align:middle line:84% So each poem begins with a Latin title, the Latinate binomial 00:01:20.590 --> 00:01:22.290 align:middle line:90% of the cactus. 00:01:22.290 --> 00:01:25.700 align:middle line:90% "Aporocactus Flagelliformis." 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:28.880 align:middle line:84% I'm writing these instead of walking in the snow. 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:31.550 align:middle line:90% The pull your call has on me. 00:01:31.550 --> 00:01:34.010 align:middle line:90% Poor old wormy cactus. 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:37.940 align:middle line:84% I pull you out, stem by stem, to whip myself 00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:40.460 align:middle line:90% into a better state of mind. 00:01:40.460 --> 00:01:44.600 align:middle line:84% To salute the spring with open arms, like any poor old cactus. 00:01:44.600 --> 00:01:47.230 align:middle line:90% 00:01:47.230 --> 00:01:47.730 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:47.730 --> 00:01:54.580 align:middle line:84% This one was written after 2001 but before 2008. 00:01:54.580 --> 00:01:57.360 align:middle line:90% "Aporocactus Martianus." 00:01:57.360 --> 00:02:01.800 align:middle line:84% Is the president from Mars, a creeping pendant body 00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:05.850 align:middle line:84% with two eyes narrowly set about the blockade? 00:02:05.850 --> 00:02:08.880 align:middle line:84% No one reminds me anymore, not even the sparrow 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:11.160 align:middle line:90% thrashing in the tire pool. 00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:13.060 align:middle line:90% Our days are long. 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:15.900 align:middle line:84% The Sun disappears behind a fog bank 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:18.255 align:middle line:84% without your flashy crimson flowers. 00:02:18.255 --> 00:02:21.010 align:middle line:90% 00:02:21.010 --> 00:02:24.790 align:middle line:90% "Ariocarpus Fissuratus." 00:02:24.790 --> 00:02:28.840 align:middle line:84% Aryan theories hold that a carp gave birth to Adam, 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:33.070 align:middle line:84% deeply wrinkled on the surface, like a toad with a rough. 00:02:33.070 --> 00:02:35.350 align:middle line:84% His blunted tip rises into the sun 00:02:35.350 --> 00:02:37.450 align:middle line:84% with white gunk between the buds, 00:02:37.450 --> 00:02:42.055 align:middle line:84% a fully bearded urethra, lips cracked, the stamens virgin. 00:02:42.055 --> 00:02:47.550 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.550 --> 00:02:49.280 align:middle line:90% "Arrojadoa Beateae." 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.670 align:middle line:84% An unusual species only discovered in 1987, 00:02:52.670 --> 00:02:57.500 align:middle line:84% more or less erect, bipartisan, votes along party lines, 00:02:57.500 --> 00:02:59.210 align:middle line:84% is not a favorite of progressives 00:02:59.210 --> 00:03:02.600 align:middle line:84% who have absorbed tactics arising from the terminal head, 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:06.440 align:middle line:84% spines and flowers pointed in the same direction. 00:03:06.440 --> 00:03:10.040 align:middle line:84% Read distinguishes these from the woolly grouted 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:12.740 align:middle line:90% Stalin-whipped Bush ideologues. 00:03:12.740 --> 00:03:16.340 align:middle line:90% 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:17.480 align:middle line:90% A couple more of these. 00:03:17.480 --> 00:03:19.790 align:middle line:90% "Austrocactus Hibernus." 00:03:19.790 --> 00:03:23.480 align:middle line:84% The pesky third party politics, bringing this nose head 00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:27.440 align:middle line:84% to such a pass, are short, erect, and greenish. 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:30.830 align:middle line:84% Realizing the fake plastic grass grandpa had labored 00:03:30.830 --> 00:03:34.250 align:middle line:84% over all a summer's day in miniature golf 00:03:34.250 --> 00:03:37.160 align:middle line:84% was no substitute for our cosmos, 00:03:37.160 --> 00:03:40.010 align:middle line:84% appealing to a painful sense of estrangement 00:03:40.010 --> 00:03:44.180 align:middle line:84% up in Michigan, water, water everywhere, and not a drop 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:46.130 align:middle line:90% to sell. 00:03:46.130 --> 00:03:49.587 align:middle line:84% I think that was my Ralph Nader poem. 00:03:49.587 --> 00:03:50.420 align:middle line:90% Here's the last one. 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:54.320 align:middle line:90% 00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:56.210 align:middle line:90% "Aztekium Ritteri." 00:03:56.210 --> 00:03:59.810 align:middle line:84% Denizen of the stony slate slopes, often 00:03:59.810 --> 00:04:02.540 align:middle line:84% spouting from the base with glandular revisions 00:04:02.540 --> 00:04:04.520 align:middle line:90% of national priorities. 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:08.240 align:middle line:84% Its paper spines soon fall out, presenting 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:11.480 align:middle line:90% a wrinkled sphincter-like head. 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:15.350 align:middle line:84% When kept in the limelight, delicate white and pink flowers 00:04:15.350 --> 00:04:17.209 align:middle line:90% swoon in the flattery. 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:20.269 align:middle line:84% A rose-shaped talk show host slathers 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:22.500 align:middle line:90% on the expectant bulbs. 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:23.000 align:middle line:90%