WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:04.230 align:middle line:84%
And then the first
poem you read,

00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:05.890 align:middle line:84%
I thought it was
going somewhere else.

00:00:05.890 --> 00:00:09.150 align:middle line:84%
And the first thought
that came to me out of it

00:00:09.150 --> 00:00:14.990 align:middle line:90%
was to say this to you.

00:00:14.990 --> 00:00:19.480 align:middle line:84%
This is about a figure
who is nurturing

00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:23.050 align:middle line:90%
rather than destroying.

00:00:23.050 --> 00:00:26.590 align:middle line:84%
It's called "Mother," but it's
not about any human being.

00:00:26.590 --> 00:00:28.570 align:middle line:90%
And it's set in Italy.

00:00:28.570 --> 00:00:31.630 align:middle line:84%
And I use a phrase in it
that I feel, unfortunately, I

00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:32.590 align:middle line:90%
have to explain.

00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:34.600 align:middle line:84%
I just should rewrite
it really so I don't

00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:36.160 align:middle line:90%
need to think about it anymore.

00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:39.790 align:middle line:84%
But I say that a
"phylogeny of feeling

00:00:39.790 --> 00:00:44.410 align:middle line:84%
rushes, evolving, through me" in
this poem, which is an oblique

00:00:44.410 --> 00:00:47.350 align:middle line:90%
reference to evolutionary--

00:00:47.350 --> 00:00:52.890 align:middle line:84%
an evolutionary cliche,
which is that, in the fetus,

00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:56.880 align:middle line:84%
stages of evolution are
recapitulated from the creature

00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.640 align:middle line:84%
living in water, the
fish, all the way

00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:03.750 align:middle line:84%
through to the mammal
living in the air.

00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:07.620 align:middle line:84%
And the cliche for
that is that ontogeny,

00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:09.630 align:middle line:84%
which is the
individual development,

00:01:09.630 --> 00:01:12.340 align:middle line:84%
recapitulates
phylogeny, which is

00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:17.970 align:middle line:84%
the development of the entire
phylum, the entire strain

00:01:17.970 --> 00:01:20.100 align:middle line:90%
of life.

00:01:20.100 --> 00:01:22.350 align:middle line:84%
I've made that bigger than
it needs to be in the poem,

00:01:22.350 --> 00:01:23.190 align:middle line:90%
but here's the poem.

00:01:23.190 --> 00:01:23.690 align:middle line:90%
"Mother."

00:01:23.690 --> 00:01:26.780 align:middle line:90%


00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:30.380 align:middle line:84%
"In cobalt and gold
light on a hot, dry day

00:01:30.380 --> 00:01:35.300 align:middle line:84%
on a metaphysical slope pitched
toward an Umbrian town below,

00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:39.200 align:middle line:84%
a 700-year-old
olive tree exhales

00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:43.670 align:middle line:84%
from her silver green
leaves calm breath.

00:01:43.670 --> 00:01:48.440 align:middle line:84%
And nearby to brown horses
with black manes side by side

00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:51.740 align:middle line:84%
and facing opposite
poles of history

00:01:51.740 --> 00:01:56.090 align:middle line:84%
answer her with patient
blowing from time to time,

00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:59.390 align:middle line:84%
as with their long tails
they flick ever present

00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:03.490 align:middle line:90%
flies from each other's heads.

00:02:03.490 --> 00:02:08.500 align:middle line:84%
The olive trees splayed
wide gray trunk half curves

00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:12.920 align:middle line:84%
to make a living
hollow like a pelvis.

00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:17.690 align:middle line:84%
So even though I am big I
will myself to be small.

00:02:17.690 --> 00:02:21.650 align:middle line:84%
Inside it I curl myself
and wait a moment.

00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:25.910 align:middle line:84%
I still myself and a
phylogeny of feeling

00:02:25.910 --> 00:02:29.870 align:middle line:84%
rushes evolving through me,
then I stand up out of the tree

00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:33.800 align:middle line:84%
onto the path of dust
and dried horse turds

00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:35.450 align:middle line:90%
and yet again I am born.

00:02:35.450 --> 00:02:38.420 align:middle line:90%


00:02:38.420 --> 00:02:40.640 align:middle line:84%
Now, the hands of
the horse's thoughts

00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:42.800 align:middle line:84%
will take the hands
of my thoughts

00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:44.780 align:middle line:84%
and those of the
tree's thoughts,

00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:49.790 align:middle line:84%
and together will be still
on this path of our scarred

00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:52.450 align:middle line:90%
co-evolution.

00:02:52.450 --> 00:02:56.380 align:middle line:84%
In blue gold light of a moment
through which we are passing

00:02:56.380 --> 00:03:01.150 align:middle line:84%
without moving, the
tree slowly, the horses

00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:04.975 align:middle line:84%
quickly eye with
awareness of how quickly."

00:03:04.975 --> 00:03:08.810 align:middle line:90%


00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:12.630 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:12.630 --> 00:03:15.000 align:middle line:90%