WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.570 align:middle line:84% I think there's two more poems from this book 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:05.940 align:middle line:84% and then two from the new project. 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:06.930 align:middle line:90% Is it good timing? 00:00:06.930 --> 00:00:09.010 align:middle line:90% Yeah, take your time. 00:00:09.010 --> 00:00:11.130 align:middle line:90% I want to hear more. 00:00:11.130 --> 00:00:12.090 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:12.090 --> 00:00:15.510 align:middle line:84% This next poem is a burning haibun. 00:00:15.510 --> 00:00:18.510 align:middle line:84% The burning haibun is a form of my own invention 00:00:18.510 --> 00:00:19.905 align:middle line:90% for folks who don't know. 00:00:19.905 --> 00:00:23.760 align:middle line:84% A haibun is a traditional Japanese haiku form. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:27.720 align:middle line:84% It is a prose poem followed by a haiku which 00:00:27.720 --> 00:00:29.700 align:middle line:90% acts the capstone of it. 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:32.880 align:middle line:84% The burning haibun adds erasure into this. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:36.820 align:middle line:84% So it's a prose poem, an erasure of the prose poem, 00:00:36.820 --> 00:00:40.740 align:middle line:84% and an erasure of the first erasure down into a haiku. 00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:42.870 align:middle line:90% It looks a little bit like this. 00:00:42.870 --> 00:00:45.720 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.720 --> 00:00:49.840 align:middle line:84% "My mouth is the mouth of a river. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:53.590 align:middle line:84% Language is a slick tongue to think 00:00:53.590 --> 00:00:58.060 align:middle line:84% how you can say thirst and mean, instead, desire. 00:00:58.060 --> 00:01:03.100 align:middle line:84% But hasn't language always led the mouth back to what filth? 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:07.720 align:middle line:84% Between the teeth, there is a dozen paths to every me. 00:01:07.720 --> 00:01:09.280 align:middle line:90% Do you follow? 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.790 align:middle line:84% I can say the oldest profession and mean 00:01:12.790 --> 00:01:17.410 align:middle line:84% that I've made a living in the currency of hunger, 00:01:17.410 --> 00:01:21.220 align:middle line:84% a career of making my body into water, 00:01:21.220 --> 00:01:25.600 align:middle line:84% that I have heard so many names moaned in my ear, 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:28.060 align:middle line:90% and none of them are mine. 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:31.780 align:middle line:84% I suck a man's cock, and it tastes of copper. 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:38.290 align:middle line:84% He comes until empty, and I feel coins clinking inside me. 00:01:38.290 --> 00:01:42.970 align:middle line:84% My body laments no guilt, except for my mother's shame, 00:01:42.970 --> 00:01:46.030 align:middle line:90% though she does not know. 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:48.610 align:middle line:84% At night, I've pulled their memories 00:01:48.610 --> 00:01:53.170 align:middle line:84% up like pills lodged in my throat, which my body will not 00:01:53.170 --> 00:01:55.150 align:middle line:90% spasm away. 00:01:55.150 --> 00:02:00.730 align:middle line:84% Each false name I have been fed rising the crook of my finger, 00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:06.310 align:middle line:84% damp and dissolving a palmful of luminous silt. 00:02:06.310 --> 00:02:11.720 align:middle line:84% Men are selfish with the truth, but each is clever as a clever. 00:02:11.720 --> 00:02:17.350 align:middle line:84% See, every name hinges on the J, Jeff, Jack, 00:02:17.350 --> 00:02:21.850 align:middle line:84% James, a simple sidestep from a name known best 00:02:21.850 --> 00:02:25.460 align:middle line:90% as client and baptismal. 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:29.900 align:middle line:84% There are at least 100 words for how I have survived, 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:33.770 align:middle line:84% and so many of their names lead back to water. 00:02:33.770 --> 00:02:37.910 align:middle line:84% Call me siren, nymph of the pavement. 00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:40.940 align:middle line:84% We were taught desire is a flame, 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:45.740 align:middle line:84% but it is, instead, a river when I was starving. 00:02:45.740 --> 00:02:49.420 align:middle line:84% I opened my mouth and said, 'Drink.' 00:02:49.420 --> 00:02:50.630 align:middle line:90% [SNAPS FINGERS] 00:02:50.630 --> 00:02:55.520 align:middle line:84% Language is a slick and mean desire between the teeth. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:58.460 align:middle line:84% There's a profession in the currency 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:01.940 align:middle line:84% of hunger, a career of making a man's 00:03:01.940 --> 00:03:06.110 align:middle line:90% empty coins inside my body. 00:03:06.110 --> 00:03:10.700 align:middle line:84% Lament for my mother's shame as lodged in my throat. 00:03:10.700 --> 00:03:17.330 align:middle line:84% False name I've been fed on, my damp and luminous self. 00:03:17.330 --> 00:03:22.850 align:middle line:84% See, every name hinges on the simple sidestep. 00:03:22.850 --> 00:03:26.720 align:middle line:84% How I have survived their desires, slain. 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:28.130 align:middle line:90% [SNAPS FINGERS] 00:03:28.130 --> 00:03:31.610 align:middle line:90% There's currency in empty men. 00:03:31.610 --> 00:03:34.370 align:middle line:90% I fed myself on their desire." 00:03:34.370 --> 00:03:39.720 align:middle line:90% 00:03:39.720 --> 00:03:43.620 align:middle line:84% I just wanted to-- the two things that stuck out to me-- 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:47.490 align:middle line:84% well, one thing, "the career of making my body into water." 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:49.980 align:middle line:84% And that's like a refrain where you talk 00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:53.190 align:middle line:90% about this idea, this career. 00:03:53.190 --> 00:03:55.230 align:middle line:90% But I just love that. 00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:58.350 align:middle line:84% "Men are selfish with the truth." 00:03:58.350 --> 00:04:01.008 align:middle line:90% I can't dispute that, you know? 00:04:01.008 --> 00:04:02.410 align:middle line:90% It's great. 00:04:02.410 --> 00:04:04.290 align:middle line:90% Great work.