WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.980 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.980 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:84% And so I keep finding things in here. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:10.590 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with one, and I've gone back and forth on it. 00:00:10.590 --> 00:00:12.505 align:middle line:84% In fact, I did a whole new order of poems 00:00:12.505 --> 00:00:14.810 align:middle line:84% while we were sitting here, and then I 00:00:14.810 --> 00:00:17.750 align:middle line:84% think I might revert to what I have. 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:23.720 align:middle line:84% But I hesitated with this one, because I don't think 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:28.500 align:middle line:84% the translation is up to the Yup'ik part. 00:00:28.500 --> 00:00:32.670 align:middle line:84% But I can't say that, I am not a Yup'ik speaker, 00:00:32.670 --> 00:00:35.610 align:middle line:84% but I can see the end words in the Yup'ik part. 00:00:35.610 --> 00:00:39.090 align:middle line:84% But it's called "Prayer Song Asking for a Whale." 00:00:39.090 --> 00:00:42.540 align:middle line:84% And I think about the roots of American poetry 00:00:42.540 --> 00:00:45.120 align:middle line:84% and the roots of poetry in which we 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:48.690 align:middle line:84% exist in a realm in which we're absolutely 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:50.400 align:middle line:90% interdependent with Earth. 00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:51.270 align:middle line:90% We are Earth. 00:00:51.270 --> 00:00:53.130 align:middle line:90% There's this interdependence. 00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:57.060 align:middle line:84% And so what we speak and how we move about 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:01.770 align:middle line:84% has everything to do with is embedded in that relationship. 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:11.840 align:middle line:90% 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:17.210 align:middle line:84% Poetry is the closest to power language that we have 00:01:17.210 --> 00:01:19.820 align:middle line:90% because you're so exact. 00:01:19.820 --> 00:01:24.980 align:middle line:84% And we use poetry to speak really what can't be spoken. 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:29.408 align:middle line:84% We use poetry to go beyond words, 00:01:29.408 --> 00:01:30.950 align:middle line:84% of course, which is ironic because we 00:01:30.950 --> 00:01:35.270 align:middle line:84% have to use words absolutely precisely like a harpoon, 00:01:35.270 --> 00:01:35.840 align:middle line:90% in a way. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.300 align:middle line:84% You might want to say in that way 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:43.430 align:middle line:84% to get to where we're going even beyond language. 00:01:43.430 --> 00:01:49.970 align:middle line:84% Poetry demands that we speak beyond language. 00:01:49.970 --> 00:01:52.330 align:middle line:84% So I think of this "Prayer Song Asking 00:01:52.330 --> 00:01:56.730 align:middle line:84% for a Whale" and thinking of it's a prayer song that are-- 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:58.630 align:middle line:84% I think of my poems, a lot of them 00:01:58.630 --> 00:02:05.980 align:middle line:84% is songs that ultimately poetry music and the roots of poetry 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:09.580 align:middle line:84% always lead to music, always lead to dance. 00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:11.920 align:middle line:84% And then I think about this relationship 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:15.460 align:middle line:84% because what this poem "Prayer Song" says 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:23.110 align:middle line:84% is that you can't do a prayer song asking for a whale 00:02:23.110 --> 00:02:27.780 align:middle line:84% without there being some relationship. 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:32.460 align:middle line:84% And so I'm going to read the poem in English. 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:33.260 align:middle line:90% This is before. 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:34.880 align:middle line:84% I'll just read the little part here. 00:02:34.880 --> 00:02:36.440 align:middle line:84% And I have a special connection, I 00:02:36.440 --> 00:02:38.270 align:middle line:84% want to say, to St. Lawrence Island. 00:02:38.270 --> 00:02:39.830 align:middle line:90% I have not been there. 00:02:39.830 --> 00:02:42.680 align:middle line:84% I always meet people from their music. 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:48.380 align:middle line:84% And I have met several people and then whalers. 00:02:48.380 --> 00:02:52.940 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to honor them by trying to at least acknowledge 00:02:52.940 --> 00:02:55.020 align:middle line:90% them in this place. 00:02:55.020 --> 00:02:59.330 align:middle line:84% And one time, I had a person from St. Lawrence Island 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:02.765 align:middle line:84% bring me whale from there, whale meat, all the way to Santa Fe. 00:03:02.765 --> 00:03:05.480 align:middle line:90% 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:10.400 align:middle line:84% And we said in the hotel room, I brought some blueberries from 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.700 align:middle line:84% the grocery store, and she had her [ilu?_]. 00:03:13.700 --> 00:03:16.820 align:middle line:84% And we sat there on the floor of the hotel room. 00:03:16.820 --> 00:03:22.850 align:middle line:84% It was wonderful eating muktuk, and berries, 00:03:22.850 --> 00:03:24.440 align:middle line:90% and thanking the whale. 00:03:24.440 --> 00:03:26.390 align:middle line:84% I was so deeply honored, so I want 00:03:26.390 --> 00:03:28.910 align:middle line:84% to read this poem, too, because of that occasion. 00:03:28.910 --> 00:03:31.780 align:middle line:90% 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:35.020 align:middle line:84% And I think with this whole book, what throughout the book 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:38.570 align:middle line:84% illustrates is that really it's that relationship. 00:03:38.570 --> 00:03:42.920 align:middle line:84% It's not some kind of New Agey thing. 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:45.640 align:middle line:84% This is absolutely essential as we're seeing now 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:48.790 align:middle line:84% with climate change, with the Earth responding 00:03:48.790 --> 00:03:54.080 align:middle line:84% with fires the superstorms that we see, tornadoes that are 10, 00:03:54.080 --> 00:04:00.060 align:middle line:84% 20 times is as strong as they used to be when I was a child. 00:04:00.060 --> 00:04:02.130 align:middle line:84% Before the whaling season, the boat captain 00:04:02.130 --> 00:04:04.860 align:middle line:84% would sing ceremonial songs in the evening. 00:04:04.860 --> 00:04:09.840 align:middle line:84% The ceremony of sea singing was called ivaghulluk. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:11.850 align:middle line:84% I'm probably not saying it right. 00:04:11.850 --> 00:04:13.740 align:middle line:84% The boat captain would sing these songs 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:17.670 align:middle line:84% in such a low reverent voice that you could hardly make out 00:04:17.670 --> 00:04:19.500 align:middle line:84% the words, and that's because he was 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:24.150 align:middle line:84% singing as close as he could in English to whale songs. 00:04:24.150 --> 00:04:26.700 align:middle line:84% Especially before the whaling season began, 00:04:26.700 --> 00:04:28.920 align:middle line:84% the songs of petition were sung to God 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:33.930 align:middle line:90% in a prayerful pleading voice. 00:04:33.930 --> 00:04:39.490 align:middle line:84% "The time is almost here, the season of the deep blue sea, 00:04:39.490 --> 00:04:42.400 align:middle line:84% bringing good things from the deep blue sea. 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:44.440 align:middle line:90% Whale of distant ocean. 00:04:44.440 --> 00:04:45.640 align:middle line:90% May there be a whale. 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:48.790 align:middle line:84% May it indeed come within the waves. 00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:50.590 align:middle line:90% The time is almost here. 00:04:50.590 --> 00:04:53.840 align:middle line:84% The season of the deep blue sea, bringing good things 00:04:53.840 --> 00:04:55.360 align:middle line:90% from the deep blue sea. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:57.730 align:middle line:90% Walrus of distant ocean. 00:04:57.730 --> 00:04:59.080 align:middle line:90% May there be a whale. 00:04:59.080 --> 00:05:02.150 align:middle line:84% May it indeed come within the waves. 00:05:02.150 --> 00:05:05.900 align:middle line:84% The time is almost here, the season of the deep blue sea, 00:05:05.900 --> 00:05:08.660 align:middle line:84% bringing good things in the deep blue sea. 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:11.000 align:middle line:90% Bearded seal of distant ocean. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:12.440 align:middle line:90% May there be a whale. 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:15.035 align:middle line:84% May it indeed come within the waves." 00:05:15.035 --> 00:05:18.950 align:middle line:90% 00:05:18.950 --> 00:05:20.030 align:middle line:90% I would just love to-- 00:05:20.030 --> 00:05:25.010 align:middle line:84% So I went on an expedition to try to find this song 00:05:25.010 --> 00:05:26.510 align:middle line:90% or find a singing of it. 00:05:26.510 --> 00:05:28.580 align:middle line:90% I could not find it. 00:05:28.580 --> 00:05:30.760 align:middle line:90% I could not find one. 00:05:30.760 --> 00:05:34.270 align:middle line:84% But anyway, a lot of our poems are like that. 00:05:34.270 --> 00:05:36.700 align:middle line:84% I think many of our poems, whether they're 00:05:36.700 --> 00:05:40.060 align:middle line:84% in the English language or any other language, 00:05:40.060 --> 00:05:42.280 align:middle line:84% probably 96% of the world's poems 00:05:42.280 --> 00:05:45.730 align:middle line:84% are love poems, bring me this man, 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:52.330 align:middle line:84% bring me this woman, or falling apart, make them go away. 00:05:52.330 --> 00:05:55.780 align:middle line:84% I see somebody else over the horizon, 00:05:55.780 --> 00:05:59.140 align:middle line:84% or bring us food, or praising the plants. 00:05:59.140 --> 00:06:01.390 align:middle line:90% I mean, think about it. 00:06:01.390 --> 00:06:06.290 align:middle line:84% That winds to so intrinsically through all poetry. 00:06:06.290 --> 00:06:09.700 align:middle line:84% Our place in the seasons where we are. 00:06:09.700 --> 00:06:11.810 align:middle line:90% The plants around us. 00:06:11.810 --> 00:06:14.470 align:middle line:90% It's all so intertwined. 00:06:14.470 --> 00:06:18.417 align:middle line:90% 00:06:18.417 --> 00:06:20.500 align:middle line:84% And, of course, he sings out-- you have to sing it 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.010 align:middle line:90% from a place of belonging. 00:06:22.010 --> 00:06:25.720 align:middle line:90% You have to belong to the sea. 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:32.170 align:middle line:84% You have to belong to the whale and so on.