WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.150 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.150 --> 00:00:08.970 align:middle line:90%
I'll read my September 11 poem.

00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:14.305 align:middle line:84%
[INAUDIBLE] I have a
poem called "10 Ways

00:00:14.305 --> 00:00:16.680 align:middle line:84%
to Get Ray Charles and Ronald
Reagan into the Same Poem."

00:00:16.680 --> 00:00:19.570 align:middle line:90%


00:00:19.570 --> 00:00:21.670 align:middle line:84%
I've got one through 9
and I don't have 10 yet.

00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:24.280 align:middle line:90%
So, it's funny.

00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:26.200 align:middle line:84%
They died within a few
days of each other.

00:00:26.200 --> 00:00:28.330 align:middle line:84%
And I started to
just see similarities

00:00:28.330 --> 00:00:30.980 align:middle line:84%
because Ronald Reagan was
very absent from his body

00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:32.215 align:middle line:90%
when he died.

00:00:32.215 --> 00:00:33.910 align:middle line:84%
And Ray Charles
hadn't seen anything.

00:00:33.910 --> 00:00:36.620 align:middle line:84%
And I started seeing these
strange links between the two

00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:37.660 align:middle line:90%
of them.

00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:39.880 align:middle line:84%
And of course being
a poet, I decided

00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:41.490 align:middle line:90%
to exploit that immediately.

00:00:41.490 --> 00:00:44.130 align:middle line:90%


00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:44.880 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:49.200 align:middle line:84%
This is "To the Woman,
Not Trying to Fly,

00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:51.590 align:middle line:84%
who Fell with her
Legs Closed, Arms

00:00:51.590 --> 00:00:53.370 align:middle line:84%
Pressed Against the
Front of her Body,

00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:57.230 align:middle line:84%
While Primly
Clutching her Purse."

00:00:57.230 --> 00:00:59.030 align:middle line:90%
One.

00:00:59.030 --> 00:01:01.760 align:middle line:84%
You didn't topple,
cartwheel, or plummet.

00:01:01.760 --> 00:01:04.160 align:middle line:84%
You believed that your
descent, while swift,

00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:05.750 align:middle line:84%
would end tenderly,
and that there

00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:08.150 align:middle line:90%
would be things to attend to.

00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:10.850 align:middle line:84%
While others fell past
you screeching for mercy

00:01:10.850 --> 00:01:14.330 align:middle line:84%
and splayed like stars, you
aimed your pinpoint of body

00:01:14.330 --> 00:01:16.520 align:middle line:84%
toward a future that
included checkbooks,

00:01:16.520 --> 00:01:21.380 align:middle line:84%
snapshots of squirming children,
a scarlet stump of lipstick.

00:01:21.380 --> 00:01:24.530 align:middle line:84%
There would be need
for these things again.

00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:26.960 align:middle line:84%
Your keenly ordered mind
couldn't help but see

00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:30.020 align:middle line:84%
the vertical drop as
mere inconvenience.

00:01:30.020 --> 00:01:32.930 align:middle line:84%
You didn't hurtle,
flail, or pinwheel.

00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:35.570 align:middle line:84%
Your eyes straight ahead,
your sweet drumming heart

00:01:35.570 --> 00:01:36.920 align:middle line:90%
struggling toward a fuss.

00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.830 align:middle line:84%
You were most concerned
with decorum, the proper way

00:01:39.830 --> 00:01:42.680 align:middle line:90%
for a lady to manage adversity.

00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:45.200 align:middle line:84%
I watched your fall
and readied myself,

00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:47.630 align:middle line:90%
for I been called a lady too.

00:01:47.630 --> 00:01:49.820 align:middle line:84%
I would be here to
help you to your feet,

00:01:49.820 --> 00:01:53.750 align:middle line:84%
to brush strands of
the sky from your eyes.

00:01:53.750 --> 00:01:54.573 align:middle line:90%
Two.

00:01:54.573 --> 00:01:57.410 align:middle line:84%
For poets, these
are difficult days.

00:01:57.410 --> 00:01:59.390 align:middle line:84%
We have at our
disposal every letter

00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:02.180 align:middle line:84%
of every syllable of every
word ever written or spoken

00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:03.140 align:middle line:90%
in any language.

00:02:03.140 --> 00:02:06.290 align:middle line:84%
But when I attempt to
bellow the word, fly,

00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:10.009 align:middle line:84%
I discover that it can
no longer conjure sound.

00:02:10.009 --> 00:02:12.770 align:middle line:84%
There is the man with his
skin fused to his shirt.

00:02:12.770 --> 00:02:14.780 align:middle line:90%
Perhaps he can tell us why.

00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:17.360 align:middle line:84%
There are hands, shoes,
cell phones, sudden gifts

00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:18.980 align:middle line:90%
and the grit and groan.

00:02:18.980 --> 00:02:20.930 align:middle line:90%
Maybe they hold a clue.

00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:22.820 align:middle line:84%
There: that blue
Toyota Camry sitting

00:02:22.820 --> 00:02:25.730 align:middle line:84%
for nine days in the train
station lot in Tarrytown.

00:02:25.730 --> 00:02:28.100 align:middle line:84%
There is, have you seen
him, her, them, she,

00:02:28.100 --> 00:02:30.560 align:middle line:84%
was he, brown eyes,
light lip, tattoo,

00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.210 align:middle line:84%
there are those
thousands of mothers

00:02:32.210 --> 00:02:35.810 align:middle line:84%
suddenly convinced that their
children had learned to fly.

00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:38.480 align:middle line:90%
And most certainly did.

00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:40.040 align:middle line:90%
I am a poet.

00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:43.640 align:middle line:84%
That means that I am
God most of the time.

00:02:43.640 --> 00:02:45.620 align:middle line:84%
Poets can set
monstrous eyes deep

00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:47.270 align:middle line:90%
in the chubby faces of angels.

00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:49.550 align:middle line:84%
I can roughly grab the
shoulders of a woman who

00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:52.580 align:middle line:84%
is plastering yet another
flyer to yet another pole.

00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:55.220 align:middle line:84%
And I can shout, your
daughter cannot hear you.

00:02:55.220 --> 00:02:58.400 align:middle line:84%
She is not lost and thriving
in some pocket of air.

00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:01.200 align:middle line:90%
She is dead.

00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:02.930 align:middle line:84%
But when I'm merely
human, keeper

00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:05.030 align:middle line:84%
of checkbooks and
children, when dawn

00:03:05.030 --> 00:03:08.180 align:middle line:84%
demands hard copy of the stanzas
I've written in the night,

00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:11.270 align:middle line:84%
the words are limp and
not breathing on the page.

00:03:11.270 --> 00:03:13.790 align:middle line:84%
Their lives lie far
below the surface of me.

00:03:13.790 --> 00:03:15.350 align:middle line:90%
They can't hear me coming.

00:03:15.350 --> 00:03:18.080 align:middle line:90%
And there is no air.

00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:19.520 align:middle line:90%
Three.

00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:22.100 align:middle line:84%
When the sea is, when we are,
when our parts and the world

00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:23.120 align:middle line:90%
is back to normal.

00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:25.880 align:middle line:84%
When we can fly, drive, walking,
inhale, without believing it

00:03:25.880 --> 00:03:27.410 align:middle line:90%
is possible to die from it.

00:03:27.410 --> 00:03:29.600 align:middle line:84%
When we stop glaring
at every brown skinned,

00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:31.940 align:middle line:84%
silk haired, scraggly
beard, turban, burqa.

00:03:31.940 --> 00:03:34.820 align:middle line:84%
When everyone who hates us
and everyone we hate is dead.

00:03:34.820 --> 00:03:36.200 align:middle line:90%
When Afghanistan is over.

00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:39.140 align:middle line:84%
And our boys, husbands, sons,
brothers, sisters, daughters

00:03:39.140 --> 00:03:41.540 align:middle line:84%
are back home safe
on this sainted soil.

00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:43.070 align:middle line:84%
And the rubble
that was the Towers

00:03:43.070 --> 00:03:44.750 align:middle line:90%
is swept and gilded smooth.

00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:47.480 align:middle line:84%
And fallen ghosts have found
their feet and slithered away.

00:03:47.480 --> 00:03:50.360 align:middle line:84%
When it's OK to get
sputtered up about no tax day

00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:52.700 align:middle line:84%
or shark attacks as a
continuing phenomenon.

00:03:52.700 --> 00:03:55.160 align:middle line:84%
Where it's OK for someone
sitting next to you in a bar,

00:03:55.160 --> 00:03:57.350 align:middle line:84%
yes, you have permission
to get drunk again.

00:03:57.350 --> 00:03:59.970 align:middle line:84%
When it's OK for someone
sitting next to you to say,

00:03:59.970 --> 00:04:02.568 align:middle line:84%
hey, has anyone looked at Gary
Condit for this World Trade

00:04:02.568 --> 00:04:03.110 align:middle line:90%
Center thing?

00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:05.330 align:middle line:84%
I mean it sure got
the focus off him.

00:04:05.330 --> 00:04:06.532 align:middle line:90%
His timing was sweet.

00:04:06.532 --> 00:04:08.240 align:middle line:84%
Hell, he could have
pulled Chandra's head

00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.370 align:middle line:84%
out of his freezer
and said, hey, hey!

00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:11.300 align:middle line:90%
Check this out.

00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:13.910 align:middle line:84%
And nobody would have
even had time for that.

00:04:13.910 --> 00:04:16.130 align:middle line:90%
When it's OK to laugh at that.

00:04:16.130 --> 00:04:18.230 align:middle line:84%
When you can listen
to this poem and feel

00:04:18.230 --> 00:04:20.510 align:middle line:84%
removed from it, as
if this dreadful thing

00:04:20.510 --> 00:04:23.180 align:middle line:84%
happened long ago in a
place that can't be touched.

00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:25.520 align:middle line:84%
And after all stranger
things have fallen.

00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:27.920 align:middle line:84%
When you can finally smell
cinnamon and hairspray

00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.380 align:middle line:84%
and coffee splashes
against the curb and not

00:04:30.380 --> 00:04:32.563 align:middle line:84%
smell the dust of it
and all those gone thems

00:04:32.563 --> 00:04:33.230 align:middle line:90%
that were there.

00:04:33.230 --> 00:04:36.560 align:middle line:84%
When you are once again counting
calories, comparing light beers

00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:40.130 align:middle line:84%
and not caring if Whitney
Houston is hooked or unhooked.

00:04:40.130 --> 00:04:42.830 align:middle line:84%
When things are back to
what they were before

00:04:42.830 --> 00:04:45.710 align:middle line:90%
they weren't anymore.

00:04:45.710 --> 00:04:47.990 align:middle line:84%
My neighbor will finally
pull the American flag

00:04:47.990 --> 00:04:50.150 align:middle line:84%
from the tip of his
pickup truck Santana,

00:04:50.150 --> 00:04:53.510 align:middle line:84%
and stare at me in silence,
forgetting that he called

00:04:53.510 --> 00:04:55.520 align:middle line:90%
me sister, high-fived me.

00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:58.670 align:middle line:84%
Talked about black and
white against a common foe.

00:04:58.670 --> 00:05:00.590 align:middle line:84%
When the wind comes
when we believe

00:05:00.590 --> 00:05:02.750 align:middle line:90%
that there is no longer a foe.

00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:04.490 align:middle line:90%
There must be a foe.

00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:06.770 align:middle line:90%
There must always be a foe.

00:05:06.770 --> 00:05:09.080 align:middle line:84%
That's the moment
he will catch my eye

00:05:09.080 --> 00:05:11.870 align:middle line:84%
and hold it and
think to himself,

00:05:11.870 --> 00:05:16.340 align:middle line:90%
what are you looking at, nigger?

00:05:16.340 --> 00:05:17.690 align:middle line:90%
Four.

00:05:17.690 --> 00:05:20.990 align:middle line:84%
My granddaughter is obsessed
with the drawing of stars.

00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:23.450 align:middle line:84%
Each point must be
perfect, meticulously

00:05:23.450 --> 00:05:25.970 align:middle line:84%
measured, twinkling
beyond all reason.

00:05:25.970 --> 00:05:28.760 align:middle line:84%
We have experimented with
the most efficient ways

00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:32.300 align:middle line:84%
to manufacture whole crammed
parades of starlight.

00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.970 align:middle line:84%
We feel entire pages
with nighttime skies

00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:38.090 align:middle line:84%
with no fiery wink
is allowed to flaw.

00:05:38.090 --> 00:05:41.450 align:middle line:84%
Why are you so worried about
how the stars look, I ask.

00:05:41.450 --> 00:05:45.920 align:middle line:84%
Grandma, she says, in that
slow exasperated whine

00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:50.150 align:middle line:84%
that makes me feel feeble and
clueless and utterly loved,

00:05:50.150 --> 00:05:54.950 align:middle line:84%
a star has got to be perfect
before God lets it fall.

00:05:54.950 --> 00:05:58.850 align:middle line:90%


00:05:58.850 --> 00:06:00.700 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:06.000 align:middle line:90%