WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.457 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.457 --> 00:00:04.290 align:middle line:84% But a lot in writing about the natural world 00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:06.922 align:middle line:84% is how long do you have to know a place before you can 00:00:06.922 --> 00:00:08.130 align:middle line:90% authentically write about it? 00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:09.672 align:middle line:84% And there's often a lot of resentment 00:00:09.672 --> 00:00:11.260 align:middle line:84% when an outsider comes in, writes 00:00:11.260 --> 00:00:13.883 align:middle line:84% the book about your place, and then leaves. 00:00:13.883 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:84% And the local people get pretty pissed off about it, 00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:17.460 align:middle line:90% for a lot of good reasons. 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:19.980 align:middle line:84% A place often gets misrepresented. 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:24.990 align:middle line:84% But I have been the celebrant of mobility, I guess. 00:00:24.990 --> 00:00:27.000 align:middle line:84% I've written about a lot of places 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.190 align:middle line:84% and tried to be respectful about it 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:33.780 align:middle line:84% that aren't places in which I have many generations or even 00:00:33.780 --> 00:00:36.130 align:middle line:90% many years of experience. 00:00:36.130 --> 00:00:38.460 align:middle line:84% So this first poem is a kind of attempt 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:42.970 align:middle line:84% to write about a place about which I know virtually nothing. 00:00:42.970 --> 00:00:45.780 align:middle line:84% I recently took a kayak trip in Florida 00:00:45.780 --> 00:00:49.080 align:middle line:84% on the Blackwater Creek, which is a tributary to the Wekiva 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:52.650 align:middle line:84% River, which is a tributary to the St. John's River, 00:00:52.650 --> 00:00:54.930 align:middle line:84% and one of the delights of it was 00:00:54.930 --> 00:00:57.960 align:middle line:84% learning the names of plants, and birds, 00:00:57.960 --> 00:00:59.160 align:middle line:90% and stuff that were there. 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:01.320 align:middle line:84% And so I wrote this poem-- and for those of you 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:05.290 align:middle line:84% interested in such things, there are two syntactical gestures 00:01:05.290 --> 00:01:07.800 align:middle line:84% stolen from Elizabeth Bishop in this poem. 00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:10.163 align:middle line:84% And I know a few of you will hear them. 00:01:10.163 --> 00:01:11.580 align:middle line:84% If you don't hear them, it doesn't 00:01:11.580 --> 00:01:12.705 align:middle line:90% make one bit of difference. 00:01:12.705 --> 00:01:17.370 align:middle line:84% But for those of you who do, it's a fun thing you can do. 00:01:17.370 --> 00:01:19.980 align:middle line:90% 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:23.010 align:middle line:90% "The Blackwater." 00:01:23.010 --> 00:01:27.510 align:middle line:84% "Traveling past deadfall hickory and cypress knees, 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:33.360 align:middle line:84% past the pearly eggs of apple snails beaded onto pickerelweed, 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:37.170 align:middle line:84% the metallic lace golden orb spiders 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:41.070 align:middle line:84% had strung between us and the sky, 00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:46.200 align:middle line:84% we paddled where the river took us, easy bending passage 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.200 align:middle line:84% through a wilderness that gave way only 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:52.950 align:middle line:90% enough for us to keep moving, 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:57.060 align:middle line:84% unsure where we'd come ashore or turn back 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.810 align:middle line:90% to pull upstream and home. 00:02:00.810 --> 00:02:06.180 align:middle line:84% Oh, but it was peaceful, riding like flotsam on the current, 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:09.750 align:middle line:84% silently scaring off the gators, buzzard, 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:16.500 align:middle line:84% and hawk that knew us, even in our gentleness, as danger. 00:02:16.500 --> 00:02:20.820 align:middle line:84% One glistening anhinga noticed us so late, it stood frozen 00:02:20.820 --> 00:02:25.950 align:middle line:84% on a snag, our plastic hulls nosing up so close, 00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:30.030 align:middle line:90% we felt, at last, harmless. 00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:35.520 align:middle line:84% Cool amber dark moving elements, musk of peat, 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:41.130 align:middle line:84% silt, and root gnarl suspended in its tannin tea-- 00:02:41.130 --> 00:02:46.680 align:middle line:84% why should I feel at home in its tireless flowing? 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:54.960 align:middle line:84% As if I'd never left the amnion where spirit first meets flesh, 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.120 align:middle line:84% as if I could remember what lies ahead, 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:05.880 align:middle line:84% where the molecules disperse to seed the sea. 00:03:05.880 --> 00:03:12.030 align:middle line:84% On the river, not knowing what's ahead is what moves us forward. 00:03:12.030 --> 00:03:16.830 align:middle line:84% One more oxbow, we think, stroking our blades 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:22.800 align:middle line:84% into resinous riffle and pool, all the while knowing 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:29.010 align:middle line:84% we'll never be more complete than this, never appetite 00:03:29.010 --> 00:03:36.270 align:middle line:84% more quiet than gliding through the sword-shadow of sabal palm 00:03:36.270 --> 00:03:37.680 align:middle line:90% and saw palmetto." 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:41.657 align:middle line:90% 00:03:41.657 --> 00:03:43.621 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:43.621 --> 00:03:46.570 align:middle line:90% 00:03:46.570 --> 00:03:48.120 align:middle line:90% Thanks.