WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.479 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.479 --> 00:00:05.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.970 --> 00:00:06.930 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:06.930 --> 00:00:08.850 align:middle line:90% Thanks for coming everybody. 00:00:08.850 --> 00:00:11.385 align:middle line:90% And thanks Rodney for that. 00:00:11.385 --> 00:00:17.067 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.067 --> 00:00:18.150 align:middle line:90% It's a lot of people here. 00:00:18.150 --> 00:00:23.280 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.670 align:middle line:84% I just spent the afternoon in the juvenile detention 00:00:26.670 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84% facility, which I recommend all of you to go visit sometime. 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:37.050 align:middle line:84% I'm sure probably some of you have been there, 00:00:37.050 --> 00:00:39.390 align:middle line:90% from the looks of it. 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:42.720 align:middle line:84% But, no, these are really amazing kids there. 00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:45.070 align:middle line:84% I read from the memoir and we had 00:00:45.070 --> 00:00:46.320 align:middle line:90% questions in between each one. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:47.910 align:middle line:84% And there were a lot of questions. 00:00:47.910 --> 00:00:51.780 align:middle line:84% And they had really intense, insightful questions. 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:54.678 align:middle line:84% They saw things in what I had written that-- 00:00:54.678 --> 00:00:56.220 align:middle line:84% they would ask a question and I would 00:00:56.220 --> 00:00:58.590 align:middle line:84% do that whole Socratic thing and just sort of say so, 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:00.840 align:middle line:90% what do you think about that? 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:02.760 align:middle line:90% And so they would get into it. 00:01:02.760 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:84% There was a passage about raking leaves. 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.050 align:middle line:90% And these guys like-- 00:01:07.050 --> 00:01:11.010 align:middle line:84% guys and girls, they lock them all up. 00:01:11.010 --> 00:01:15.870 align:middle line:90% They would see things. 00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:17.852 align:middle line:84% They were talking about raking the leaves. 00:01:17.852 --> 00:01:19.560 align:middle line:84% Like 10 different kids raised their hands 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:21.450 align:middle line:84% and each had a different interpretation of it. 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:22.490 align:middle line:90% It's really quite beautiful. 00:01:22.490 --> 00:01:24.740 align:middle line:84% I really recommend going there and reading your poetry 00:01:24.740 --> 00:01:26.655 align:middle line:84% sometime, and it's quite intense. 00:01:26.655 --> 00:01:29.580 align:middle line:90% 00:01:29.580 --> 00:01:34.080 align:middle line:90% So I'm going to read some work. 00:01:34.080 --> 00:01:38.020 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with a newish poem. 00:01:38.020 --> 00:01:40.470 align:middle line:90% It's called "Jesus Knew." 00:01:40.470 --> 00:01:42.580 align:middle line:90% Is that for me? 00:01:42.580 --> 00:01:43.520 align:middle line:90% No. 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:44.910 align:middle line:90% Is that a cell phone? 00:01:44.910 --> 00:01:47.116 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:47.116 --> 00:01:50.080 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:52.655 align:middle line:84% I think we should just all turn our cell phones on really. 00:01:52.655 --> 00:01:55.980 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:55.980 --> 00:01:57.405 align:middle line:90% It's going up there somewhere. 00:01:57.405 --> 00:02:00.730 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] 00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:02.073 align:middle line:90% "Jesus Knew." 00:02:02.073 --> 00:02:04.240 align:middle line:84% You might think all my poems because Rodney read one 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:05.920 align:middle line:90% about Jesus also. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.740 align:middle line:84% That was written a long time ago. 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:12.440 align:middle line:84% But this is yet another Jesus poem. 00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:15.020 align:middle line:84% 10 years later, Jesus comes back. 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:17.150 align:middle line:90% "Jesus Knew." 00:02:17.150 --> 00:02:20.660 align:middle line:84% "Unlike you and I, Jesus knew he'd die. 00:02:20.660 --> 00:02:22.640 align:middle line:90% Some days a headache woke him. 00:02:22.640 --> 00:02:25.910 align:middle line:84% It lingered, nothing terrible, but the word 00:02:25.910 --> 00:02:28.820 align:middle line:84% hung around his temples like this soul 00:02:28.820 --> 00:02:30.860 align:middle line:90% everyone wants but can't find. 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:32.910 align:middle line:90% Jesus knew he'd die. 00:02:32.910 --> 00:02:34.530 align:middle line:90% He just didn't know how. 00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:36.560 align:middle line:90% And that bothered him sometimes. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:40.220 align:middle line:84% And then he'd do one of his little tricks. 00:02:40.220 --> 00:02:42.350 align:middle line:84% What the hell, didn't hurt anyone. 00:02:42.350 --> 00:02:45.260 align:middle line:84% Didn't make anyone disappear forever. 00:02:45.260 --> 00:02:47.120 align:middle line:90% But the trick stopped working. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.060 align:middle line:84% He forgot why he did them and what for. 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:53.660 align:middle line:84% He confused a story about a guy named Jesus 00:02:53.660 --> 00:02:56.480 align:middle line:84% with a story about a father he never knew. 00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:00.350 align:middle line:84% And it all began to hang like a moth-eaten coat pulled out 00:03:00.350 --> 00:03:02.060 align:middle line:90% of a trunk on shaky days. 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:05.570 align:middle line:84% Hey, let's return to the scene of the fucking tragedy. 00:03:05.570 --> 00:03:08.750 align:middle line:84% At least we all know how it turns out instead 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:10.790 align:middle line:90% of this endless uncertainty. 00:03:10.790 --> 00:03:14.420 align:middle line:84% Hey, let's sell our souls a few more times. 00:03:14.420 --> 00:03:16.490 align:middle line:90% No one's really counting-- 00:03:16.490 --> 00:03:19.560 align:middle line:84% those little papers you trade for your sins, 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:21.050 align:middle line:90% what do you call them? 00:03:21.050 --> 00:03:22.310 align:middle line:90% Anyone? 00:03:22.310 --> 00:03:23.810 align:middle line:90% No?-- 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:29.360 align:middle line:84% Anyway, Jesus this, Jesus that, God of nickel, God of dime. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.980 align:middle line:84% Right, the real Jesus, he was lost. 00:03:31.980 --> 00:03:34.100 align:middle line:90% He walked into the desert. 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:35.300 align:middle line:90% Not far really. 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:39.380 align:middle line:84% His friends, his disciples, he told them he'd come back. 00:03:39.380 --> 00:03:42.080 align:middle line:84% Like us, he said this every time he left. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:46.160 align:middle line:84% But Jesus never said wait, never pointed to the sky, 00:03:46.160 --> 00:03:48.680 align:middle line:84% never claimed he'd rise again, never 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:50.540 align:middle line:90% asked us to eat his flesh. 00:03:50.540 --> 00:03:53.960 align:middle line:84% Jesus never asked anything as far as I can tell. 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:55.700 align:middle line:90% He got tired every day. 00:03:55.700 --> 00:04:00.020 align:middle line:84% And then slept, sometimes OK, sometimes unbearable. 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:03.440 align:middle line:84% The dreams, the father pointing a finger at everyone. 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:06.640 align:middle line:90% A finger we can't even look at."