WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:14.680 align:middle line:84% My daughter, who is now a professor in her own right 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:16.480 align:middle line:90% of the Arizona State. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.360 align:middle line:84% It's so strange for me to realize that, 00:00:19.360 --> 00:00:25.810 align:middle line:84% but when she was five or four about that age used 00:00:25.810 --> 00:00:30.130 align:middle line:84% to walk around the house proclaiming that nobody loved 00:00:30.130 --> 00:00:32.680 align:middle line:90% her but the spring cricket. 00:00:32.680 --> 00:00:38.920 align:middle line:84% And children have these ways of getting under your skin, 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:40.780 align:middle line:90% and then you can't-- 00:00:40.780 --> 00:00:42.380 align:middle line:90% it was her power. 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:46.210 align:middle line:84% And we could not figure out who the spring cricket was. 00:00:46.210 --> 00:00:49.750 align:middle line:84% I even couldn't figure out if there were spring crickets 00:00:49.750 --> 00:00:51.530 align:middle line:84% and autumn crickets, or whatever. 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:54.220 align:middle line:90% And so what does a poet do? 00:00:54.220 --> 00:00:57.580 align:middle line:84% You become the spring cricket, and you talk about them. 00:00:57.580 --> 00:01:01.870 align:middle line:84% So I began writing poems from the spring cricket's point 00:01:01.870 --> 00:01:03.040 align:middle line:90% of view. 00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:07.940 align:middle line:90% And actually with her blessing. 00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:11.330 align:middle line:90% And so here's a couple of them. 00:01:11.330 --> 00:01:13.880 align:middle line:84% And then, I don't think I'm through with them. 00:01:13.880 --> 00:01:15.490 align:middle line:84% I think they're going to be more. 00:01:15.490 --> 00:01:20.320 align:middle line:84% This is the first one that appeared. 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:23.460 align:middle line:84% It's called The Spring Cricket Considers 00:01:23.460 --> 00:01:26.190 align:middle line:90% the Question of Negritude. 00:01:26.190 --> 00:01:29.480 align:middle line:90% 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:33.060 align:middle line:84% I was playing my tunes all by myself. 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:36.440 align:middle line:84% I didn't know anybody else who could play along. 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:39.980 align:middle line:84% Sure, the tunes were sad, but sweet too 00:01:39.980 --> 00:01:42.860 align:middle line:84% and wouldn't come until the day gave out. 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:45.830 align:middle line:84% You know, that way the sky has of dangling 00:01:45.830 --> 00:01:48.500 align:middle line:90% her last bright wisps? 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:52.800 align:middle line:84% That's when the ache would bloom inside until I couldn't wait. 00:01:52.800 --> 00:01:55.790 align:middle line:84% I knelt down to scrape myself clean 00:01:55.790 --> 00:01:59.140 align:middle line:90% and didn't care who heard. 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.860 align:middle line:84% Then came the shouts and whistles, 00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:08.020 align:middle line:84% the round up into jars, a clamber of legs. 00:02:08.020 --> 00:02:12.220 align:middle line:84% Now there were others tumbled, clouded. 00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:14.630 align:middle line:90% I didn't know their names. 00:02:14.630 --> 00:02:16.870 align:middle line:90% We were a musical lantern. 00:02:16.870 --> 00:02:20.980 align:middle line:84% Children slept to our rasping sighs. 00:02:20.980 --> 00:02:23.830 align:middle line:84% And if now and then, one of us shook free 00:02:23.830 --> 00:02:28.690 align:middle line:84% and sang as he climbed to the brim, he would always 00:02:28.690 --> 00:02:34.800 align:middle line:84% fall again, which made them laugh and clap their hands. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:39.340 align:middle line:84% At least then we knew what pleased them 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:42.180 align:middle line:90% and where the brink was. 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:44.000 align:middle line:90%