WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:02.520 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:84% I feel fortunate to have either chosen 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:13.915 align:middle line:84% or to have been thrust into the world of 1939 as an infant. 00:00:13.915 --> 00:00:15.540 align:middle line:84% And the place where it happened for me, 00:00:15.540 --> 00:00:19.230 align:middle line:84% which was in a small town in rural Mississippi 00:00:19.230 --> 00:00:24.690 align:middle line:84% with all storytelling that went on and all rhyming, 00:00:24.690 --> 00:00:27.930 align:middle line:84% and quoting, and Proverbs, and all these things 00:00:27.930 --> 00:00:29.520 align:middle line:84% that I was unaware of at the time 00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:33.130 align:middle line:84% would contribute to my becoming a writer. 00:00:33.130 --> 00:00:36.120 align:middle line:84% That's the only way you can understand 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:39.240 align:middle line:84% that is with hindsight, everybody is born at the time, 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:42.270 align:middle line:84% I think, when they're supposed to be born. 00:00:42.270 --> 00:00:46.260 align:middle line:84% Alison made some references to moon poems 00:00:46.260 --> 00:00:49.870 align:middle line:84% and the moon certainly comes up in my poetry quite a bit. 00:00:49.870 --> 00:00:54.720 align:middle line:84% In fact, last night at around 3 o'clock in the morning, 00:00:54.720 --> 00:01:00.630 align:middle line:84% at poetry guesthouse 1238 North Cherry, 00:01:00.630 --> 00:01:06.840 align:middle line:84% I was awakened by something that kept getting into my eyes. 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.600 align:middle line:84% And I turned over in bed and I thought 00:01:11.600 --> 00:01:15.330 align:middle line:84% I don't remember a streetlight being out there. 00:01:15.330 --> 00:01:17.030 align:middle line:84% And I pulled back the Venetian blinds 00:01:17.030 --> 00:01:21.530 align:middle line:84% and there was the full moon just doing its thing. 00:01:21.530 --> 00:01:23.450 align:middle line:84% And it was funny because you wrrite 00:01:23.450 --> 00:01:30.590 align:middle line:84% all the stuff about the moon and there it is and it's amazing. 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:32.207 align:middle line:84% And I told Karen this morning about, 00:01:32.207 --> 00:01:34.040 align:middle line:84% it she says oh, yeah, the moon in the desert 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:36.860 align:middle line:84% has a way of just lighting up everything. 00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:84% And I thought of Scott Momaday's House Made 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:41.930 align:middle line:84% of Dawn, his beautiful novel, and I 00:01:41.930 --> 00:01:48.620 align:middle line:84% understood that's not metaphor, that's real: house made of dawn. 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:51.380 align:middle line:84% It's very beautiful where you live, I think. 00:01:51.380 --> 00:01:55.010 align:middle line:84% So she's a fan of some of my poems 00:01:55.010 --> 00:02:01.100 align:middle line:84% and I wrote 22 of these things in the 80s 00:02:01.100 --> 00:02:03.260 align:middle line:84% and it was an interesting way that I did it I was-- 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:09.979 align:middle line:84% I was in Italy doing poetry and jazz things, poetry and gospel 00:02:09.979 --> 00:02:11.000 align:middle line:90% actually. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:15.950 align:middle line:84% And I was about to go from Italy to Yugoslavia-- 00:02:15.950 --> 00:02:20.810 align:middle line:84% the former Yugoslavia, everything is the former now. 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:24.650 align:middle line:84% The former Yugoslavia on a Fulbright and I 00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:30.890 align:middle line:84% bought a notebook in the Reggio, in that part of Italy, 00:02:30.890 --> 00:02:38.180 align:middle line:84% and I wrote on the title page of the notebook: 22 moon poems. 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:42.140 align:middle line:84% And it was a strange thing to do, Alison said why 22? 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:47.040 align:middle line:84% I said, well, it's a magical number 22 and she said, 00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:47.820 align:middle line:90% you did this? 00:02:47.820 --> 00:02:49.560 align:middle line:90% I said, yes. 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.170 align:middle line:90% So what happened? 00:02:52.170 --> 00:02:57.750 align:middle line:84% Well, the moon became this presence that saved me 00:02:57.750 --> 00:02:59.663 align:middle line:84% from being afraid of what I was about to do 00:02:59.663 --> 00:03:01.080 align:middle line:84% is about to go into Eastern Europe 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:04.770 align:middle line:84% and I had fears about it how you have fear about places 00:03:04.770 --> 00:03:07.290 align:middle line:84% that you've heard so much about you haven't been there. 00:03:07.290 --> 00:03:11.550 align:middle line:84% And so go by everybody else's story for example, we-- 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:18.660 align:middle line:84% about 10 days ago, I was in Israel in Jerusalem 00:03:18.660 --> 00:03:22.890 align:middle line:84% and just a few kilometers from Hebron, 00:03:22.890 --> 00:03:26.430 align:middle line:84% and I was sitting at the Jerusalem Sheraton 00:03:26.430 --> 00:03:31.170 align:middle line:84% looking at CNN News, and they were showing what was happening, 00:03:31.170 --> 00:03:37.320 align:middle line:84% and I got scared because media coverage is 00:03:37.320 --> 00:03:39.420 align:middle line:84% a very different thing than actually being there. 00:03:39.420 --> 00:03:41.700 align:middle line:84% But the conceit of these poems was 00:03:41.700 --> 00:03:45.150 align:middle line:84% that the moon would be someone that I 00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:51.030 align:middle line:84% would address as I traveled through Italy and Yugoslavia. 00:03:51.030 --> 00:03:53.160 align:middle line:84% And it would be something that you're 00:03:53.160 --> 00:03:55.290 align:middle line:90% familiar with from home you-- 00:03:55.290 --> 00:03:57.250 align:middle line:84% you can see from all over the world. 00:03:57.250 --> 00:04:01.380 align:middle line:84% So it was a little device for keeping track of travels 00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:03.660 align:middle line:90% and also writing poetry. 00:04:03.660 --> 00:04:06.570 align:middle line:84% And the truth is that I wrote more than 22 moon poems, 00:04:06.570 --> 00:04:09.330 align:middle line:84% but in the end, I cut it back to 22 and-- 00:04:09.330 --> 00:04:10.980 align:middle line:90% and published those. 00:04:10.980 --> 00:04:14.700 align:middle line:84% This is from the introduction, composed spontaneously 00:04:14.700 --> 00:04:18.089 align:middle line:84% between September of 1984 and February of 1985, 00:04:18.089 --> 00:04:20.610 align:middle line:84% while I was adrift in Italy, Yugoslavia, 00:04:20.610 --> 00:04:22.230 align:middle line:90% New York, and California. 00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:25.110 align:middle line:84% These moon inspired poems, moans, 00:04:25.110 --> 00:04:28.050 align:middle line:84% and soliloquies continue to amaze me. 00:04:28.050 --> 00:04:30.060 align:middle line:84% They are largely culled from a notebook 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:33.330 align:middle line:84% I kept during that wistful period when the moon sometimes 00:04:33.330 --> 00:04:37.170 align:middle line:84% visible, sometimes not became my confessor, 00:04:37.170 --> 00:04:40.010 align:middle line:90% companion and comforter. 00:04:40.010 --> 00:04:41.750 align:middle line:84% My abiding affection for the moon-- 00:04:41.750 --> 00:04:44.150 align:middle line:84% its beauty, its presence, and magic-- is still 00:04:44.150 --> 00:04:47.570 align:middle line:84% as wondrous to me as it was when I used to sit on the back porch 00:04:47.570 --> 00:04:51.170 align:middle line:84% steps summers in the rural Mississippi night 00:04:51.170 --> 00:04:54.230 align:middle line:84% and marvel at how moonlight could soften and brighten 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:58.550 align:middle line:84% my attitudes towards those very corn and cotton fields we 00:04:58.550 --> 00:05:02.390 align:middle line:84% kids would have to be out working in once the sun began 00:05:02.390 --> 00:05:04.010 align:middle line:90% making its rounds. 00:05:04.010 --> 00:05:07.010 align:middle line:84% In those nights, I'd have secret little boy chats 00:05:07.010 --> 00:05:10.340 align:middle line:84% with the man in the moon, smug in the knowledge, gathered 00:05:10.340 --> 00:05:14.570 align:middle line:84% from active living, and looking, and from losing myself 00:05:14.570 --> 00:05:15.830 align:middle line:90% in science fiction. 00:05:15.830 --> 00:05:20.270 align:middle line:84% That our little green planet was only one of countless trillions 00:05:20.270 --> 00:05:24.170 align:middle line:84% suspended in space with no strings attached, no visible 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:25.190 align:middle line:90% ones at least. 00:05:25.190 --> 00:05:28.040 align:middle line:84% One look at the heavens, all jammed up 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:30.260 align:middle line:84% and crammed with stars, and oceans 00:05:30.260 --> 00:05:32.550 align:middle line:90% of light and black no light. 00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:36.140 align:middle line:84% And I knew there was something altogether marvelous 00:05:36.140 --> 00:05:40.040 align:middle line:84% about our even being here that we'd forgotten somehow 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:42.940 align:middle line:90% or never knew about. 00:05:42.940 --> 00:05:49.460 align:middle line:84% So here's one of those poems, this one 00:05:49.460 --> 00:05:53.570 align:middle line:90% is called "Moonlessness." 00:05:53.570 --> 00:05:57.800 align:middle line:84% It comes from a night that I looked up and there was no moon 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:00.710 align:middle line:90% and I had to deal with that. 00:06:00.710 --> 00:06:03.230 align:middle line:90% Moonlessness. 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:08.210 align:middle line:84% You, you there you go again, disappearing on me moon 00:06:08.210 --> 00:06:11.480 align:middle line:84% and on the ripest of days right smack 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:15.470 align:middle line:84% dab in the middle of all- autumn. 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:17.990 align:middle line:84% No sooner do I grow used to having you 00:06:17.990 --> 00:06:21.350 align:middle line:84% around for days and nights on end 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:25.670 align:middle line:84% than the soothing shadow of you dissolves from the heavens. 00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:31.130 align:middle line:84% And even the taste of your light upon the wet shiny coat 00:06:31.130 --> 00:06:37.800 align:middle line:84% my tongue wears in this goodbye cartoon evaporates. 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:42.180 align:middle line:84% Hey, loony moon, don't you know that even 00:06:42.180 --> 00:06:48.720 align:middle line:84% I, a clown for love, no savvy whatever for stately details, 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:53.100 align:middle line:84% would gladly form an elegant delegation of one 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:57.660 align:middle line:90% to swim this darkness to you? 00:06:57.660 --> 00:07:02.880 align:middle line:84% Here in this particular now, here where you ditched me, 00:07:02.880 --> 00:07:09.480 align:middle line:84% it's all these crazy blues, the all blues, moon, that buoy me, 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:13.110 align:middle line:84% where I hover at the streaky kitchen window, 00:07:13.110 --> 00:07:17.400 align:middle line:84% soaking up the silvery orange and pale sky 00:07:17.400 --> 00:07:23.490 align:middle line:84% across the lost green street of red headed October. 00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:29.670 align:middle line:84% All of it blue, blue, ebulliently blue. 00:07:29.670 --> 00:07:33.780 align:middle line:84% This is the now that keeps pulsing, and pushing, 00:07:33.780 --> 00:07:39.090 align:middle line:84% and pulling me along this snail like switchback of a trail 00:07:39.090 --> 00:07:43.110 align:middle line:90% I travel moonless. 00:07:43.110 --> 00:07:48.630 align:middle line:84% Well, there's a phrase in here that intrigues me to this day, 00:07:48.630 --> 00:07:52.600 align:middle line:84% and it's the one that says smack dab 00:07:52.600 --> 00:08:01.590 align:middle line:84% in the middle of all- autumn, and all- autumn is hyphenated. 00:08:01.590 --> 00:08:08.110 align:middle line:84% And I got that from a very interesting encounter. 00:08:08.110 --> 00:08:10.240 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a little section here 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:14.100 align:middle line:90% and you'll figure it out.