WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.860 align:middle line:90%
OK, last poem.

00:00:01.860 --> 00:00:08.060 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem that also has
a little bit of a history.

00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:13.280 align:middle line:90%
And it comes from the CB era.

00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:14.420 align:middle line:90%
I didn't write it then.

00:00:14.420 --> 00:00:15.950 align:middle line:90%
It was written very recently.

00:00:15.950 --> 00:00:18.740 align:middle line:84%
But you can tell now
that things percolate

00:00:18.740 --> 00:00:20.360 align:middle line:84%
in my consciousness
for quite a while,

00:00:20.360 --> 00:00:23.720 align:middle line:84%
and then something
kicks in, poem results.

00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:29.770 align:middle line:84%
So 1979, a record came
out called "Convoy."

00:00:29.770 --> 00:00:32.740 align:middle line:84%
And that started everybody
going down to RadioShack,

00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:36.110 align:middle line:84%
getting a Citizens Band radio
and hogging up the frequencies.

00:00:36.110 --> 00:00:37.360 align:middle line:90%
This is about to happen again.

00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:39.693 align:middle line:84%
They're about to-- I don't
know if you're aware of this,

00:00:39.693 --> 00:00:42.550 align:middle line:90%
but Motorola has a new radio.

00:00:42.550 --> 00:00:44.230 align:middle line:84%
The FCC, first of
all, has finally

00:00:44.230 --> 00:00:46.127 align:middle line:90%
done something for the people.

00:00:46.127 --> 00:00:47.710 align:middle line:84%
They're selling off
the broadcast band

00:00:47.710 --> 00:00:50.150 align:middle line:90%
to all these corporations.

00:00:50.150 --> 00:00:56.350 align:middle line:84%
But the new family channel
opens up this spring,

00:00:56.350 --> 00:01:00.220 align:middle line:84%
and Motorola has a
new radio receiver.

00:01:00.220 --> 00:01:02.590 align:middle line:90%
It's $179 a pair.

00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:04.360 align:middle line:84%
And you can talk
up to two miles.

00:01:04.360 --> 00:01:06.790 align:middle line:84%
You've got somebody to
talk with all the time.

00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:08.770 align:middle line:84%
You can talk with
them on this, and you

00:01:08.770 --> 00:01:11.350 align:middle line:84%
don't have to pay cellular
rates or hog up your telephone.

00:01:11.350 --> 00:01:14.230 align:middle line:84%
So everybody's going to be
abusing this about next year

00:01:14.230 --> 00:01:15.080 align:middle line:90%
this time.

00:01:15.080 --> 00:01:16.300 align:middle line:90%
So it'll be like this.

00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:21.220 align:middle line:84%
But this comes from listening
to CB radio in the early 80s

00:01:21.220 --> 00:01:23.710 align:middle line:84%
and hearing a woman
in San Jose say to--

00:01:23.710 --> 00:01:25.965 align:middle line:90%


00:01:25.965 --> 00:01:28.090 align:middle line:84%
I couldn't hear the other
part of the conversation.

00:01:28.090 --> 00:01:32.450 align:middle line:84%
I could just hear hers and
that was always interesting.

00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:36.020 align:middle line:84%
So you say you're
a Buddhist, huh?

00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:37.250 align:middle line:90%
Well, tell me this.

00:01:37.250 --> 00:01:38.840 align:middle line:90%
Are you wearing boots?

00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:39.710 align:middle line:90%
You know.

00:01:39.710 --> 00:01:40.310 align:middle line:90%
So--

00:01:40.310 --> 00:01:43.980 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:45.660 align:middle line:90%
She actually said that.

00:01:45.660 --> 00:01:46.933 align:middle line:90%
And I love that.

00:01:46.933 --> 00:01:49.100 align:middle line:84%
You get a lot of that kind
of stuff on the internet.

00:01:49.100 --> 00:01:49.892 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

00:01:49.892 --> 00:01:52.650 align:middle line:84%
I love-- when things
like this are new

00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:54.300 align:middle line:84%
and everybody's just
in there, and they

00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:57.000 align:middle line:84%
don't know what they're
doing, and you know,

00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.860 align:middle line:90%
and they say things like that.

00:01:58.860 --> 00:02:02.280 align:middle line:84%
The Buddhist Way Out
West Reflects on Boots.

00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:04.980 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:08.860 align:middle line:84%
"The loveliness of
poems is that they keep.

00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:12.680 align:middle line:84%
The loveliness of lives
is that they don't.

00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:17.790 align:middle line:84%
The rising tide one-ups
the tide that falls almost.

00:02:17.790 --> 00:02:22.170 align:middle line:84%
You come to me in nothing
but boots, and body, mind.

00:02:22.170 --> 00:02:26.550 align:middle line:84%
Here blue matches everything
you wear or even think

00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:30.600 align:middle line:84%
in this improvised
December of cold feet,

00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:35.730 align:middle line:84%
of wrinkling cold, twice
iced, now tough as lust.

00:02:35.730 --> 00:02:38.970 align:middle line:84%
Your soulful earrings'
blue goes smoothly

00:02:38.970 --> 00:02:44.200 align:middle line:84%
with the blurred blue of
our clouded afternight.

00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:51.070 align:middle line:84%
Up one-way streets, desire has
snipped us down and wired us

00:02:51.070 --> 00:02:54.640 align:middle line:84%
to this alternating
force for keeps.

00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:59.110 align:middle line:84%
And yet who knows what anguished
tide will swoop tomorrow

00:02:59.110 --> 00:03:03.070 align:middle line:90%
up and take us out so quickly.

00:03:03.070 --> 00:03:07.150 align:middle line:84%
Even poetry, our
tree-root deep identity,

00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:11.460 align:middle line:84%
can't ride time's
wave enthroned.

00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:15.420 align:middle line:84%
The mystery of love can't
hide for long either.

00:03:15.420 --> 00:03:19.110 align:middle line:90%
Come melt my night.

00:03:19.110 --> 00:03:21.060 align:middle line:90%
Forget today.

00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:27.070 align:middle line:84%
Let tides and lives beyond
their drunken way peel

00:03:27.070 --> 00:03:30.520 align:middle line:90%
off your sea and sky-dye duds.

00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:35.040 align:middle line:84%
Unstrap your blues
and stay a while.

00:03:35.040 --> 00:03:40.500 align:middle line:84%
But don't you, don't you,
don't you touch them boots."

00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:41.940 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE CHUCKLES]

00:03:41.940 --> 00:03:43.092 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:43.092 --> 00:03:45.990 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:45.990 --> 00:03:51.640 align:middle line:90%


00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:52.420 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:52.420 --> 00:04:04.000 align:middle line:90%


00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.820 align:middle line:84%
I'll be outside, I
think, at the book table.

00:04:06.820 --> 00:04:09.270 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]