WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.210 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.210 --> 00:00:07.875 align:middle line:84% So that was a long poem about three things 00:00:07.875 --> 00:00:09.000 align:middle line:90% that I couldn't do without. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.610 align:middle line:84% The poem, the poetics, and the poetry. 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% I can give a lecture on that, but I won't. 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:21.000 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read this sequence here. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:29.220 align:middle line:84% It's shorter than the other one, but basically, I 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:36.540 align:middle line:84% had to approach prisons that were on occupied, stolen, 00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:39.600 align:middle line:84% Indigenous land, which all of them 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:45.690 align:middle line:84% are and thinking of how I even walk up to one, 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:48.750 align:middle line:84% and how to engage with the landscape and the environment 00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:52.180 align:middle line:90% around which prisons are built. 00:00:52.180 --> 00:00:55.840 align:middle line:84% How prisons are usually in remote places 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.560 align:middle line:84% because we don't want to see them. 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:01.570 align:middle line:84% We don't want to see them because we 00:01:01.570 --> 00:01:03.850 align:middle line:84% don't want to face the inhumanity with which we 00:01:03.850 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:90% are complicit. 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:06.670 align:middle line:84% So they usually-- in California at least-- 00:01:06.670 --> 00:01:08.815 align:middle line:84% they put them way out in the middle of nowhere, 00:01:08.815 --> 00:01:10.690 align:middle line:84% which also makes it more difficult for people 00:01:10.690 --> 00:01:15.230 align:middle line:84% to visit their family, their loved ones. 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:18.400 align:middle line:84% And so in places where the prison is 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.390 align:middle line:84% in the center of town, there's these things 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:24.400 align:middle line:84% called prison chic which aestheticize and romanticize. 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:28.270 align:middle line:84% And particularly, the prison closest to me 00:01:28.270 --> 00:01:34.120 align:middle line:84% where my brother-in-law is held, he's 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:38.380 align:middle line:84% serving life in Folsom Prison, is 00:01:38.380 --> 00:01:40.960 align:middle line:84% made famous because of Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash's visit 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:42.400 align:middle line:90% to the prison. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:45.880 align:middle line:84% Folsom Prison Blues, and so it's a very wealthy, affluent 00:01:45.880 --> 00:01:49.450 align:middle line:84% community with a bike trail that goes around the prison, 00:01:49.450 --> 00:01:52.390 align:middle line:84% and the prison itself is hidden in the architecture 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:56.590 align:middle line:84% of the landscape around it with the Folsom Dam there. 00:01:56.590 --> 00:02:00.190 align:middle line:84% But nonetheless, the bridges take 00:02:00.190 --> 00:02:03.640 align:middle line:84% on this prison chic of being built by the same stones 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:06.670 align:middle line:84% that the prison was built in like guard towers 00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:10.419 align:middle line:84% and turrets, decorative guard towers and turrets. 00:02:10.419 --> 00:02:15.970 align:middle line:84% And so you have these kinds of almost like Alcatraz 00:02:15.970 --> 00:02:21.310 align:middle line:84% kind of tourism with widely-funded public art 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:25.060 align:middle line:90% and expensive road bikes. 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:27.640 align:middle line:84% So this is where that poem comes from 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:32.080 align:middle line:84% and documenting the plants that are 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.270 align:middle line:84% outside of the prison on that trail 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:40.210 align:middle line:84% and their curative properties as a way of thinking 00:02:40.210 --> 00:02:42.100 align:middle line:90% how people heal. 00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:51.330 align:middle line:84% Even, how do they heal when healing is just out of reach? 00:02:51.330 --> 00:02:55.640 align:middle line:84% How to heal with language and weeds, 00:02:55.640 --> 00:02:59.390 align:middle line:84% and the myths of these plants that are so close to us. 00:02:59.390 --> 00:03:02.135 align:middle line:84% The redbud and the dogwood in specific. 00:03:02.135 --> 00:03:05.870 align:middle line:84% It is called "Eclogue: A Field Guide and Cure". 00:03:05.870 --> 00:03:12.880 align:middle line:90% 00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:15.820 align:middle line:84% Walking seven miles around Folsom Prison, 00:03:15.820 --> 00:03:20.320 align:middle line:84% my job, for it is a job, is to document plants and log 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:22.330 align:middle line:90% their curative properties. 00:03:22.330 --> 00:03:25.750 align:middle line:84% Sweet fennel, black locust, yerba santa, 00:03:25.750 --> 00:03:32.270 align:middle line:84% dove weed, chaparral broom, Eastern redbud, sweet gum. 00:03:32.270 --> 00:03:33.740 align:middle line:90% A schemata. 00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:40.940 align:middle line:84% If maps minus borders equals debt then what could 00:03:40.940 --> 00:03:44.120 align:middle line:84% they have healed for whom there is no healing. 00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:46.670 align:middle line:90% 00:03:46.670 --> 00:03:48.790 align:middle line:84% There's a lot of curative properties 00:03:48.790 --> 00:03:53.380 align:middle line:84% like carminative, galactagogue, properties of plants. 00:03:53.380 --> 00:03:56.530 align:middle line:84% I am required to tell you I have a cousin serving life 00:03:56.530 --> 00:03:58.840 align:middle line:90% without parole in Folsom Prison. 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:01.180 align:middle line:84% In your imagination of his crime, 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:05.470 align:middle line:84% for you have already imagined it, there must be a gold bell. 00:04:05.470 --> 00:04:10.970 align:middle line:84% It behooves you to imagine it ring and the rain that follows. 00:04:10.970 --> 00:04:14.300 align:middle line:84% It rained and we did nothing about it. 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:18.459 align:middle line:84% The court said there is no further explanation needed. 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:23.340 align:middle line:84% His time and his nails like blue division, 00:04:23.340 --> 00:04:27.330 align:middle line:84% as in departing from a common source. 00:04:27.330 --> 00:04:33.190 align:middle line:84% A house inside another house, and so we arrive. 00:04:33.190 --> 00:04:37.720 align:middle line:90% Tragedy plus time equals comedy. 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:41.030 align:middle line:84% Six hummingbirds nailed to a wall. 00:04:41.030 --> 00:04:46.960 align:middle line:84% The prison museum named The Big House in bold italics. 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:49.750 align:middle line:84% My brother remodeled this prison kitchen. 00:04:49.750 --> 00:04:53.230 align:middle line:84% Pots as big as a bath bolted to the floor. 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:55.240 align:middle line:90% Biggest he'd ever seen. 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:57.730 align:middle line:90% Ungodly heavy. 00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:00.640 align:middle line:84% I went to school where the football stadium-- 00:05:00.640 --> 00:05:02.080 align:middle line:84% not unlike this football stadium-- 00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:04.300 align:middle line:84% was also called The Big House and where 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:08.380 align:middle line:90% people screamed and screamed. 00:05:08.380 --> 00:05:15.170 align:middle line:84% If comedy minus time equals tragedy then 00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:20.040 align:middle line:84% there is shame here, but not how you imagine it. 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:23.820 align:middle line:84% Black sunflower seeds evenly placed on the table. 00:05:23.820 --> 00:05:27.810 align:middle line:84% The sound of them opening and closing. 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:30.790 align:middle line:84% Now, unlike those I saw on the trail. 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:36.120 align:middle line:84% How ungodly large and heavy the redbud and dogwood 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:38.880 align:middle line:90% were in biblical times. 00:05:38.880 --> 00:05:42.630 align:middle line:84% The dogwood used to crucify the son of God. 00:05:42.630 --> 00:05:47.460 align:middle line:84% The redbud used by his traitor Judas to hang himself in shame. 00:05:47.460 --> 00:05:51.630 align:middle line:84% Thenceforth, both trees in their unique guilt 00:05:51.630 --> 00:05:56.490 align:middle line:84% never again grew large enough to hold a body. 00:05:56.490 --> 00:06:02.350 align:middle line:84% Their branches thenceforth too thin to ever hang from, 00:06:02.350 --> 00:06:08.160 align:middle line:84% and their petals no longer white but red in spring. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:12.190 align:middle line:84% Thenceforth, named the Judas tree. 00:06:12.190 --> 00:06:14.730 align:middle line:90% Ungodly beautiful. 00:06:14.730 --> 00:06:17.910 align:middle line:90% Mile after mile. 00:06:17.910 --> 00:06:21.990 align:middle line:84% Febrifuge, black locust for fever, 00:06:21.990 --> 00:06:25.800 align:middle line:84% [? eaten ?] for the tumors that grow in whatever empty space is 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:28.200 align:middle line:90% left in your body. 00:06:28.200 --> 00:06:33.240 align:middle line:84% Emetic, analgesic to move the pain in your mouth in circles 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:37.530 align:middle line:84% until it feels like stirring a large pot of warm broth 00:06:37.530 --> 00:06:38.310 align:middle line:90% in winter. 00:06:38.310 --> 00:06:41.920 align:middle line:90% 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:48.980 align:middle line:84% If wealth plus comedy is greater than or equal to madness, 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:55.250 align:middle line:84% then you are lovely in the eyes of the state. 00:06:55.250 --> 00:07:00.330 align:middle line:84% Gum bush, California yerba santa, 00:07:00.330 --> 00:07:04.650 align:middle line:84% the lips of the hanged Judas unable again 00:07:04.650 --> 00:07:09.590 align:middle line:84% to defile with a kiss the most holy. 00:07:09.590 --> 00:07:14.290 align:middle line:84% You can make a tincture and tea from their bark 00:07:14.290 --> 00:07:17.060 align:middle line:84% to stimulate the respiratory system. 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:20.620 align:middle line:84% It treats chronic asthma, not just for a poem person, 00:07:20.620 --> 00:07:24.030 align:middle line:90% but a person person. 00:07:24.030 --> 00:07:32.010 align:middle line:84% If breath minus time is less than or equal to tragedy, 00:07:32.010 --> 00:07:37.870 align:middle line:84% then my job is to imagine a crime absolved 00:07:37.870 --> 00:07:41.850 align:middle line:90% of these oils of the sweet gum. 00:07:41.850 --> 00:07:46.650 align:middle line:84% Emmenagogue, carminative, anointed. 00:07:46.650 --> 00:07:49.410 align:middle line:84% The court recommends an explanation. 00:07:49.410 --> 00:07:50.790 align:middle line:90% So be it. 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:54.810 align:middle line:84% This manicured trail named after Johnny Cash's famous visit 00:07:54.810 --> 00:08:01.600 align:middle line:84% has polite cyclists on expensive bikes and public art. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.020 align:middle line:84% A cold infusion for the common flu and congestion. 00:08:05.020 --> 00:08:07.510 align:middle line:90% Mile after ungodly mile. 00:08:07.510 --> 00:08:12.550 align:middle line:84% White flowers, red flowers, some kind of peppermint. 00:08:12.550 --> 00:08:17.770 align:middle line:84% Consumptive weed ingested to terminate pregnancy. 00:08:17.770 --> 00:08:21.490 align:middle line:84% Its very same feathery seeds at one time 00:08:21.490 --> 00:08:25.670 align:middle line:90% used to stuff baby toys. 00:08:25.670 --> 00:08:29.930 align:middle line:84% Henceforth, each mile through the town center's prison 00:08:29.930 --> 00:08:30.770 align:middle line:90% aesthetic. 00:08:30.770 --> 00:08:34.460 align:middle line:84% Bridges designed with decorative guard towers, rusted grates, 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:38.450 align:middle line:84% and hedge walls lined with the same quarried stones 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:40.880 align:middle line:90% used to build a prison. 00:08:40.880 --> 00:08:42.874 align:middle line:90% A rustic panopticon's charm. 00:08:42.874 --> 00:08:45.410 align:middle line:90% 00:08:45.410 --> 00:08:51.170 align:middle line:84% If tragedy plus repetition is greater than permanence 00:08:51.170 --> 00:08:57.460 align:middle line:84% over tragedy, then, of course, they were wildly capable. 00:08:57.460 --> 00:09:02.000 align:middle line:84% Febrifuge, analgesic, the scent of almonds. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:10.430 align:middle line:84% Dear cousin, this is the closest I can and have ever come. 00:09:10.430 --> 00:09:14.330 align:middle line:84% Nearby, antique shops sell the collateral damage 00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:19.220 align:middle line:84% of outdated restraints long after they've outlived 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:22.240 align:middle line:90% their usefulness and practice. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:27.480 align:middle line:90% Use, as in use this for that. 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:33.180 align:middle line:84% The restorative power of your life set to a score. 00:09:33.180 --> 00:09:37.440 align:middle line:84% Both a purge and hunger to know your best self in your best 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:42.120 align:middle line:84% starch shirt, in your best ironed pants. 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:46.470 align:middle line:84% Lemon-scented gum to keep the mosquitoes away. 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:49.900 align:middle line:90% More shiny bicycle thank yous. 00:09:49.900 --> 00:09:52.510 align:middle line:84% Henceforth, cheers from the inmates. 00:09:52.510 --> 00:09:55.510 align:middle line:84% Cheers from the guards holding Mary Magdalene. 00:09:55.510 --> 00:09:59.320 align:middle line:84% Cheers and screaming and more cheers and more screaming. 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.370 align:middle line:90% 00:10:02.370 --> 00:10:07.570 align:middle line:84% Unknown variable, plus or minus beauty. 00:10:07.570 --> 00:10:12.330 align:middle line:84% Standard deviation plus or minus two. 00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:13.890 align:middle line:84% Even the Folsom Lake has dried up. 00:10:13.890 --> 00:10:15.570 align:middle line:90% This is the last section. 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:17.850 align:middle line:84% Even though Folsom Lake has dried up, 00:10:17.850 --> 00:10:21.900 align:middle line:84% the beachside homes have firmly maintained their value. 00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:23.130 align:middle line:90% More cheers. 00:10:23.130 --> 00:10:24.870 align:middle line:90% More lemon-scented gum. 00:10:24.870 --> 00:10:27.090 align:middle line:84% The blood and blood you gave, which 00:10:27.090 --> 00:10:31.960 align:middle line:84% made way for a bewildering path I could never follow. 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:35.920 align:middle line:84% The last adjacent mile to you, dear cousin. 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:39.460 align:middle line:84% The last bird thrumming like a nervous finger. 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:44.770 align:middle line:84% More cheers deranged by the absence of cardinal points, 00:10:44.770 --> 00:10:48.010 align:middle line:90% useless instruments, stamens. 00:10:48.010 --> 00:10:51.580 align:middle line:90% 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:56.900 align:middle line:84% We lose and loosen direction on good, white, legal paper. 00:10:56.900 --> 00:11:00.560 align:middle line:84% Dear cousin, dear son, idle brother, 00:11:00.560 --> 00:11:04.340 align:middle line:84% your blue opera swimming down river. 00:11:04.340 --> 00:11:10.890 align:middle line:84% Your greatest good of that bronze redemption of Christ. 00:11:10.890 --> 00:11:16.980 align:middle line:84% I document the oldest tree in existence. 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:20.790 align:middle line:90% I run into a bellflower. 00:11:20.790 --> 00:11:27.590 align:middle line:84% I run into a field and clamor of bells. 00:11:27.590 --> 00:11:28.190 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:11:28.190 --> 00:11:31.540 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:11:31.540 --> 00:11:37.000 align:middle line:90%