WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.800 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.800 --> 00:00:05.230 align:middle line:84%
And so now, I'll read to
you some of the poems that

00:00:05.230 --> 00:00:06.520 align:middle line:90%
were published by Terrain.

00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:09.040 align:middle line:84%
They come from a sequence
that's titled Night Letters.

00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:13.150 align:middle line:84%
And it's a set of 12 poems that
were written between May 2020

00:00:13.150 --> 00:00:16.720 align:middle line:90%
and-- or June 2020 and May 2021.

00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:19.900 align:middle line:84%
As you all experienced,
this was the hardest time.

00:00:19.900 --> 00:00:22.630 align:middle line:84%
It was a really hard time for
everybody, a really dark time

00:00:22.630 --> 00:00:24.370 align:middle line:90%
in every possible way.

00:00:24.370 --> 00:00:27.010 align:middle line:84%
And in that period, I'd been
working on a different project

00:00:27.010 --> 00:00:30.070 align:middle line:84%
and just found that I couldn't
do that project anymore.

00:00:30.070 --> 00:00:33.020 align:middle line:84%
And I started writing these
letter poems or epistolary

00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:33.520 align:middle line:90%
poems.

00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:35.650 align:middle line:84%
So they're poems that
sound like letters.

00:00:35.650 --> 00:00:37.540 align:middle line:84%
And this was the way
out for me, the way

00:00:37.540 --> 00:00:38.650 align:middle line:90%
to get back into writing.

00:00:38.650 --> 00:00:40.192 align:middle line:84%
And throughout those
letters, I found

00:00:40.192 --> 00:00:42.670 align:middle line:84%
that the night sky was
this place of solace

00:00:42.670 --> 00:00:45.420 align:middle line:84%
and a place to come
back to and rest.

00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:48.000 align:middle line:84%
So with these, I'm going
to start with the two that

00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:49.530 align:middle line:90%
were published by Terrain.

00:00:49.530 --> 00:00:51.810 align:middle line:90%
And check the time.

00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:90%
So this is October.

00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:58.180 align:middle line:84%
These are the "Night
Letters, (October 2020)."

00:00:58.180 --> 00:01:00.400 align:middle line:90%
Dear--

00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:05.440 align:middle line:84%
nearly full moon lifting
above mountains sky deepening

00:01:05.440 --> 00:01:09.070 align:middle line:84%
toward sunset And
that moon so suddenly

00:01:09.070 --> 00:01:13.330 align:middle line:84%
huge that I stopped on my
bike in the street hungry

00:01:13.330 --> 00:01:16.840 align:middle line:84%
for that realness
that body that rock

00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:20.620 align:middle line:84%
reflecting sunlight
mundane and powerful

00:01:20.620 --> 00:01:23.110 align:middle line:84%
translucent the
way only the moon

00:01:23.110 --> 00:01:25.940 align:middle line:90%
before sunset can be

00:01:25.940 --> 00:01:26.750 align:middle line:90%
I stopped

00:01:26.750 --> 00:01:30.140 align:middle line:84%
on my way home riding
American streets

00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:32.990 align:middle line:84%
lined with signs and
flags touting our

00:01:32.990 --> 00:01:35.990 align:middle line:84%
two countries
hostilities unfolding

00:01:35.990 --> 00:01:38.660 align:middle line:84%
in the air all
around me and I rode

00:01:38.660 --> 00:01:41.090 align:middle line:84%
Through it anxious
that there will be

00:01:41.090 --> 00:01:43.970 align:middle line:84%
no end to the ways
we delude ourselves

00:01:43.970 --> 00:01:47.840 align:middle line:84%
speaking past one another
signals crossing silent

00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:51.680 align:middle line:84%
in mid-air I do it
all the time unwilling

00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:54.920 align:middle line:84%
to disagree out loud
filled by the fury

00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:57.800 align:middle line:90%
I let settle inside me

00:01:57.800 --> 00:01:58.700 align:middle line:90%
I have been looking

00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:02.630 align:middle line:84%
at the moon all my
life haven't you too

00:02:02.630 --> 00:02:05.540 align:middle line:84%
Eating its image
that light somewhere

00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:08.780 align:middle line:84%
in our cells waxing
towards fullness

00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:11.480 align:middle line:84%
Don't you want to
name it that feeling

00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:14.060 align:middle line:84%
of seeing your
life at a distance

00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:17.210 align:middle line:90%
lit by all it cannot hold

00:02:17.210 --> 00:02:18.460 align:middle line:90%
Waiting,

00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:22.000 align:middle line:90%