WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:03.500 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, so I
published a new book.

00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:05.480 align:middle line:84%
That was my first
book and it tells

00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.590 align:middle line:84%
the story of my early life,
as a lot of first books do.

00:00:09.590 --> 00:00:13.080 align:middle line:90%


00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:19.437 align:middle line:84%
And it's a little grim,
and it's uncompromising,

00:00:19.437 --> 00:00:21.270 align:middle line:84%
and it really doesn't
have a sense of humor.

00:00:21.270 --> 00:00:24.630 align:middle line:84%
And so I wanted to write a book
where more of my personality

00:00:24.630 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:90%
was coming across.

00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:28.690 align:middle line:84%
And so I'm proud of what I've
been able to do in this book.

00:00:28.690 --> 00:00:31.450 align:middle line:84%
I think it's a little
more how I am as a person.

00:00:31.450 --> 00:00:33.610 align:middle line:84%
So to get us started,
are we feeling good?

00:00:33.610 --> 00:00:34.110 align:middle line:90%
Yes.

00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:34.610 align:middle line:90%


00:00:34.610 --> 00:00:35.280 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, OK, cool.

00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:35.580 align:middle line:90%
All right.

00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:36.080 align:middle line:90%
Good, good.

00:00:36.080 --> 00:00:38.490 align:middle line:84%
So I'm going to read the
first poem in this book,

00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:42.340 align:middle line:90%
and it's got no punctuation.

00:00:42.340 --> 00:00:43.370 align:middle line:90%
It catches up.

00:00:43.370 --> 00:00:44.320 align:middle line:90%
So my books are--

00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.180 align:middle line:84%
I'm such a narrative
writer, but I'm

00:00:46.180 --> 00:00:48.760 align:middle line:84%
too much of a coward
to write novels.

00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:52.810 align:middle line:84%
So I write poems
that are narrative

00:00:52.810 --> 00:00:54.490 align:middle line:90%
and like the books have an arc.

00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:57.070 align:middle line:84%
The character starts one place
and ends up in another place.

00:00:57.070 --> 00:00:58.160 align:middle line:90%
I don't really mean that.

00:00:58.160 --> 00:00:59.620 align:middle line:84%
I think poetry is
the best genre--

00:00:59.620 --> 00:01:00.120 align:middle line:90%
I do.

00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:03.150 align:middle line:90%


00:01:03.150 --> 00:01:07.530 align:middle line:84%
And so this poem picks
up with the speaker--

00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:09.960 align:middle line:84%
kind of where the
first book leaves him.

00:01:09.960 --> 00:01:15.060 align:middle line:90%
Are we all fans of Stevie Nicks?

00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:17.520 align:middle line:84%
OK, do we all know
who Stevie Nicks is?

00:01:17.520 --> 00:01:18.390 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, OK, cool.

00:01:18.390 --> 00:01:21.098 align:middle line:90%


00:01:21.098 --> 00:01:24.300 align:middle line:90%
I talk about her in this poem.

00:01:24.300 --> 00:01:28.710 align:middle line:84%
Day Moon-- after I left, I
waited for someone, a friend,

00:01:28.710 --> 00:01:31.920 align:middle line:84%
or her herself, to walk
quickly up to me on the bus

00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.250 align:middle line:84%
or in the bustling coffee
shop and slap my face, spit

00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:38.460 align:middle line:84%
on my hands, call me a
bastard, a real motherfucker,

00:01:38.460 --> 00:01:40.530 align:middle line:84%
but I waited, I
mean, I wanted to be

00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:42.960 align:middle line:90%
revealed by some visible sign.

00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:44.910 align:middle line:84%
A welt to ride the
ledge of my cheek

00:01:44.910 --> 00:01:46.410 align:middle line:84%
through the glass
littered streets--

00:01:46.410 --> 00:01:47.310 align:middle line:90%
It didn't come.

00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:49.560 align:middle line:84%
And it didn't come
and I grew desperate.

00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:52.330 align:middle line:84%
I stared too long at
strangers at Safeway.

00:01:52.330 --> 00:01:54.540 align:middle line:84%
I bought boxes of
clementines and ate them

00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:57.632 align:middle line:84%
like a possum on the
train, cramming the rinds

00:01:57.632 --> 00:01:59.340 align:middle line:84%
in the gap between
the seat and the wall.

00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:00.900 align:middle line:90%
I drank warm beer.

00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:02.310 align:middle line:90%
I made no calls.

00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:04.890 align:middle line:84%
I sat on a hot metal
bench by a briny lake

00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:07.800 align:middle line:84%
and tried to imagine the
lives of the joggers passing

00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:11.460 align:middle line:84%
in front of me-- their joys,
their sicknesses, and regrets.

00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:12.820 align:middle line:90%
I was useless.

00:02:12.820 --> 00:02:15.630 align:middle line:84%
I thought of my friend who
wrote a novel over a long winter

00:02:15.630 --> 00:02:16.740 align:middle line:90%
in Nova Scotia.

00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:19.710 align:middle line:84%
Read it once and
buried it in the copse

00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:21.270 align:middle line:90%
of birches behind the house.

00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:24.250 align:middle line:84%
He chose the spot he
said for its plainness.

00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:27.010 align:middle line:84%
So he couldn't remember
later and dig it up.

00:02:27.010 --> 00:02:30.310 align:middle line:84%
And in this way, one medicated
season slid into the next

00:02:30.310 --> 00:02:31.240 align:middle line:90%
without incident.

00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:32.350 align:middle line:90%
Gardenia bloom.

00:02:32.350 --> 00:02:33.700 align:middle line:90%
Persistent sun.

00:02:33.700 --> 00:02:37.270 align:middle line:84%
I fell in love with the perfect
voice of a Midwest radio

00:02:37.270 --> 00:02:40.060 align:middle line:84%
DJ from a station I
streamed on my phone--

00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.100 align:middle line:84%
called in one request
after another.

00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:45.760 align:middle line:84%
I fell in love with a video
of Stevie Nicks singing

00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:47.920 align:middle line:90%
backstage to her makeup artist.

00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:50.350 align:middle line:84%
Sheer cotton dress--
their harmonies

00:02:50.350 --> 00:02:52.300 align:middle line:90%
breezy and immaculate.

00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:55.210 align:middle line:84%
I woke around noon to the
thump thump of helicopters,

00:02:55.210 --> 00:02:59.530 align:middle line:84%
and another unsober voicemail
from my dad angling for a loan.

00:02:59.530 --> 00:03:02.650 align:middle line:84%
Went out in my underwear and
found a fine black powder

00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:06.160 align:middle line:84%
settling on the window sills,
dusting the parked cars.

00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:08.980 align:middle line:84%
A day moon suspended
in orange haze.

00:03:08.980 --> 00:03:11.500 align:middle line:84%
It turned out, a man
who would go months

00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:13.810 align:middle line:84%
without getting caught
was methodically

00:03:13.810 --> 00:03:17.890 align:middle line:84%
setting fire to the half built
condo complexes one by one.

00:03:17.890 --> 00:03:21.640 align:middle line:84%
1 in 10,000 residents
is a billionaire--

00:03:21.640 --> 00:03:23.650 align:middle line:90%
the same article told me.

00:03:23.650 --> 00:03:26.770 align:middle line:84%
Though I could be forgiven for
thinking the headlands were

00:03:26.770 --> 00:03:30.310 align:middle line:84%
burning again, the intervals
between disasters collapsing.

00:03:30.310 --> 00:03:31.780 align:middle line:90%
I caught my neighbor's eye.

00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:35.290 align:middle line:84%
She was stretching on her
stoop in a fantastic powder

00:03:35.290 --> 00:03:36.280 align:middle line:90%
blue tracksuit.

00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:37.810 align:middle line:90%
"What a world," I said.

00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:40.750 align:middle line:84%
And she did not seem
to hear and jogged

00:03:40.750 --> 00:03:42.010 align:middle line:90%
across the narrow street.

00:03:42.010 --> 00:03:45.880 align:middle line:84%
The moon behind her rising
or sinking, or neither--

00:03:45.880 --> 00:03:47.020 align:middle line:90%
it was hard to know.

00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:52.290 align:middle line:90%


00:03:52.290 --> 00:03:55.682 align:middle line:84%
Stevie-- that
video is incredible

00:03:55.682 --> 00:03:56.640 align:middle line:90%
if you haven't seen it.

00:03:56.640 --> 00:03:58.450 align:middle line:90%
It's called-- "Wild heart."

00:03:58.450 --> 00:04:00.977 align:middle line:84%
It's the seed-- I think there's
an important lesson, maybe,

00:04:00.977 --> 00:04:01.560 align:middle line:90%
to be learned.

00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.140 align:middle line:90%
And it's the seed of a song.

00:04:04.140 --> 00:04:06.540 align:middle line:84%
She's got like a
line or two lines

00:04:06.540 --> 00:04:08.410 align:middle line:84%
that she repeats
over and over again.

00:04:08.410 --> 00:04:09.315 align:middle line:90%
She's really young.

00:04:09.315 --> 00:04:13.380 align:middle line:90%


00:04:13.380 --> 00:04:16.410 align:middle line:84%
she's got something and she
knows she has something.

00:04:16.410 --> 00:04:19.769 align:middle line:84%
That early moment is so
precious, so special.

00:04:19.769 --> 00:04:23.280 align:middle line:84%
And that I shouldn't say
this, but she turned it

00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:24.460 align:middle line:90%
into an actual song later.

00:04:24.460 --> 00:04:26.580 align:middle line:90%
It was not that good.

00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:27.210 align:middle line:90%
It's not.

00:04:27.210 --> 00:04:30.150 align:middle line:84%
Like, the early seed
of it was so good.

00:04:30.150 --> 00:04:32.700 align:middle line:90%
Anyway, if you just Google--

00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:35.560 align:middle line:84%
Stevie Nicks backstage,
"Wild Heart," you'll find it.

00:04:35.560 --> 00:04:39.290 align:middle line:84%
I've watched it hundreds,
literally hundreds of times.

00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:40.000 align:middle line:90%