WEBVTT

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That was very dear, thank you.

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I'm really glad to be here,
extremely glad to be here.

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Mama, thank you for the
flowers, I'm going to move them.

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I'm very grateful.

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How's that?

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Is the mic OK?

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Yeah.

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I'm really glad to be here,
very, very pleased to be here.

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I'll tell you what
I thought I'd do.

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I'm going to read
some from Loose Sugar.

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But sort of try to just give
you a little mix of my work.

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And I had in mind sort
of reading about Earth,

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and mothering, and
sexuality, and time,

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and some of the things I've been
thinking about over the years

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across the books.

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And I'll end with
a new poem that I

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have read only once that's
about to be published

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and is a few pages long.

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I'll start with-- we
just had our anniversary

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of our big earthquake
in California.

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This is Mighty Forms.

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The Earth had wanted
us all to itself,

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the mountains wanted
us back for themselves,

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the numbered valleys
of serpentine

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wanted us, that's why
it happened as it did.

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The split as if one slow
gear turned beneath us.

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Then the Tuesday shoppers paused
in the street, and the tube that

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held the trout-colored train,
and the courts of action

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from triangular buildings
and the terraced gardens that

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held camellias shook and shook,
each flower a single thought.

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Mothers and children
took cover under tables.

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I called out to her who was
my life from under the table.

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I hid under the table that held
the begonia with the fiery stem,

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the stem that had been trying to
root, that paused in its effort.

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I called to the
child who was my life

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and understood in
that endless instant

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before she answered, seeing how
pharaoh's army seeing the ground

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break open, seeing the
first fringed horses fall

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into the gap made their vows,
that each heart changes faced

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with a single awe.

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And in that moment, a
promise is written out.

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However we remember
California later,

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the Earth we loved
will know the truth,

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that it wanted us back for
itself with our mighty forms

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and our specific longings,
wanted them to be air and fire

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but they wouldn't.

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The kestrel circled over
a pine which lasted.

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The towhee who loved freedom,
gathering sea during the shaking

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lasted.

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The painting released by
the wall, the mark and hook

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we placed on the
wall, and the nail,

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and the memory of driving the
nail in, these also lasted.

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