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In Richard Siken's
collection, "Crush,"

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which former Poet Laureate
Louise Glück selected

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for the Yale Series of
Younger Poets prize in 2004,

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objects and events take on the
weight of multiple meanings

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and continue their
plummeting course.

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Demands weigh urgently on the
speaker and the addressee.

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Emotions arise both from the
experiences being rendered

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and from the repeated
act of telling them.

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In the forays of
Siken's long lines

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that stretch across and
split down the page,

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the staging of relationships
becomes a crucial subject

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as poems are engaged in the work
of filming actions over them.

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Through all this,
a given atmosphere

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pervades Siken's work.

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That atmosphere seems both
warm and wry, inclusive

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of courthouse lawns, motel
bougainvillea, waxed floors,

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and greasy windows.

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"Crush" is filled with light
that streams, and splinters,

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and possesses, astronomical
light pummeling

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you in a stream of fists.

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Holding things up to the light--

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a bullet, a bar soap.

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The images negotiate
intimacy and a sense

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of resting distance, as in
the long poem, "You Are Jeff."

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The poet renders the wrench that
once thrown catches the light

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and hangs in the air,
offering the notion that God

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is the space between
two men, and the devil

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is the space between two men.

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In addition to receiving
the Yale award,

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"Crush" was also a finalist
for the National Book Critics

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Circle Award, the LAMBDA
Literary Award, and the Thom

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Gunn Award.

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Siken has received a Pushcart
Prize, two Arizona Commission

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on the Arts Grants,
and a fellowship

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from the National
Endowment for the Arts.

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He is co-founder and editor of
the literary magazine, "Spork."

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His poems have appeared
in such journals

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as The Iowa Review,
Conjunctions, and Forklift

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Ohio, and his poems
are also anthologized

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in The Best American Poetry
2000, and the recently

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published "Legitimate Dangers."

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Siken was born in New
York City and raised

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in Arizona, where he
received an MFA in poetry

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from the University of Arizona.

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I am pleased to
introduce Richard Siken.

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[APPLAUSE]