WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:03.540 align:middle line:84% I felt that what happened, I just realized, 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.510 align:middle line:84% at the end of my first book there's a poem called "Prayer." 00:00:06.510 --> 00:00:10.590 align:middle line:84% Which is a prayer about wanting to keep in touch with what 00:00:10.590 --> 00:00:13.530 align:middle line:84% seems central to me, which is really the body, 00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:15.810 align:middle line:84% even though I knew that wasn't what 00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:18.960 align:middle line:84% seems central to a lot of other people. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:21.300 align:middle line:84% And then I just noticed that this one ends-- 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:23.310 align:middle line:90% it's a kind of prayer in a way. 00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:25.210 align:middle line:84% The business about the dream of ruling 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:27.220 align:middle line:90% the world, one's own world. 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:28.735 align:middle line:90% Just one's own space. 00:00:28.735 --> 00:00:35.850 align:middle line:90% 00:00:35.850 --> 00:00:39.750 align:middle line:90% The third book is in four parts. 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:44.310 align:middle line:84% And I'll read one or two poems for each part. 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:46.020 align:middle line:84% I've written a lot of World War II poems 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:48.960 align:middle line:84% in the last five years, a lot of family poems. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:84% And it wasn't until maybe about four years ago 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:54.870 align:middle line:84% that I started writing poems that 00:00:54.870 --> 00:00:59.460 align:middle line:84% feel too like a combination of war poems and family poems. 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:01.770 align:middle line:84% And those are New York City poems-- 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:03.707 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:03.707 --> 00:01:05.040 align:middle line:90% --where I've lived for 20 years. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.140 align:middle line:90% I grew up in California. 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:08.960 align:middle line:84% And I lived in New York City for 20 years. 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:12.200 align:middle line:84% And I've been on tough block in a tough neighborhood-- 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.030 align:middle line:90% beautiful, beautiful, and tough. 00:01:14.030 --> 00:01:16.850 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.850 --> 00:01:22.430 align:middle line:84% So I'll read one of those city poems now, "On the Subway." 00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:25.010 align:middle line:90% "The boy and I face each other. 00:01:25.010 --> 00:01:28.430 align:middle line:84% His feet are huge in black sneakers laced 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:30.980 align:middle line:84% with white and a complex pattern like a set 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:33.470 align:middle line:90% of intentional scars. 00:01:33.470 --> 00:01:36.410 align:middle line:84% We are stuck on opposite sides of the car. 00:01:36.410 --> 00:01:39.410 align:middle line:84% A couple of molecules stuck in a rod of light, 00:01:39.410 --> 00:01:42.360 align:middle line:90% rapidly moving through darkness. 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:45.450 align:middle line:84% He has the casual, cold look of a mugger, 00:01:45.450 --> 00:01:48.210 align:middle line:90% alert under hooded limbs. 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:52.740 align:middle line:84% He is wearing red, like the inside of the body exposed. 00:01:52.740 --> 00:01:55.500 align:middle line:84% I'm wearing dark fur, the whole skin 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.290 align:middle line:90% of an animal taken and used. 00:01:58.290 --> 00:02:00.390 align:middle line:90% I look at his raw face. 00:02:00.390 --> 00:02:02.100 align:middle line:90% He looks at my fur coat. 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:04.770 align:middle line:84% And I don't know if I am in his power. 00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:09.449 align:middle line:84% He could take my coat so easily, my briefcase, my life. 00:02:09.449 --> 00:02:13.800 align:middle line:84% Or if he is in my power, the way I'm living off his life, eating 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:16.230 align:middle line:84% the steak he does not eat, as if I am 00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:18.900 align:middle line:90% taking the food from his mouth. 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.870 align:middle line:90% And he is Black and I am white. 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:24.300 align:middle line:84% And without meaning or trying to, 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:27.210 align:middle line:90% I must profit from his darkness. 00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:30.960 align:middle line:84% The way he absorbs the murderous beams of the nation's heart 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.970 align:middle line:84% as black cotton absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. 00:02:35.970 --> 00:02:41.520 align:middle line:84% There is no way to know how easy this white skin makes my life. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.470 align:middle line:84% This life he could take so easily 00:02:43.470 --> 00:02:47.070 align:middle line:84% and break across his knee like a stick, the way his own back 00:02:47.070 --> 00:02:48.840 align:middle line:90% is being broken. 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.465 align:middle line:84% The rod of his soul that it both was dark 00:02:51.465 --> 00:02:54.690 align:middle line:84% and amber, which is the heart of a seedling ready to 00:02:54.690 --> 00:02:57.480 align:middle line:84% thrust up into any available light." 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:00.180 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:02.930 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:02.930 --> 00:03:09.000 align:middle line:90%