WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:07.440 align:middle line:84% I believe magic, in magic, that it 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.370 align:middle line:90% is a magical universe created. 00:00:11.370 --> 00:00:15.180 align:middle line:84% And it's an unfashionable belief, 00:00:15.180 --> 00:00:20.940 align:middle line:84% except in some areas of the Bay Area. 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:30.440 align:middle line:84% Anyway, this was written over a period of 10 years 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84% or so, thinking about alchemy and creation. 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:40.220 align:middle line:84% Thicket Group, also Tucson, a burning liquid 00:00:40.220 --> 00:00:44.400 align:middle line:84% that was called the original force of nature. 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:46.190 align:middle line:90% It's in five parts. 00:00:46.190 --> 00:00:50.960 align:middle line:84% It's got these little droppings, drippings down 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.360 align:middle line:84% at the bottom of the page, little parts of language 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:56.870 align:middle line:90% that fell out of the poem. 00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:59.630 align:middle line:90% Why not use them, right? 00:00:59.630 --> 00:01:03.230 align:middle line:84% A power, for some reason it's likely to think 00:01:03.230 --> 00:01:08.810 align:middle line:84% of the insides of a thicket as a five-pointed liquid star. 00:01:08.810 --> 00:01:11.540 align:middle line:84% A group of us not knowing how to stand in nature 00:01:11.540 --> 00:01:16.070 align:middle line:84% in the '60s, each breath sponsored by that. 00:01:16.070 --> 00:01:20.000 align:middle line:84% Possible friends nearby smelled like hemp, white tortillas, 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.280 align:middle line:90% and 12 ounce Coca-Colas. 00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:27.470 align:middle line:84% The fire in their fingers talked back, had feelings. 00:01:27.470 --> 00:01:30.470 align:middle line:84% Locating consciousness, where would you say it is? 00:01:30.470 --> 00:01:34.610 align:middle line:84% It was the happiest moment in the first 20 years. 00:01:34.610 --> 00:01:39.410 align:middle line:84% And why do we seek to destroy it by changing? 00:01:39.410 --> 00:01:46.400 align:middle line:84% Mottled doves, garnets, empty spines. 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:50.330 align:middle line:84% Magic fought with the ideal time, curved the barren glow, 00:01:50.330 --> 00:01:52.460 align:middle line:84% and animals called from their nests 00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:55.280 align:middle line:90% at the center of the world. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.490 align:middle line:84% I had been a child being guessed at by onyx, fresh 00:01:58.490 --> 00:02:01.940 align:middle line:90% from nothing, dimension's pawn. 00:02:01.940 --> 00:02:05.030 align:middle line:84% My brother okayed the ground with sticks. 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.880 align:middle line:84% When something called, we answered it. 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:11.030 align:middle line:84% With a drop or two more of that inherited chemical, 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:14.690 align:middle line:84% we would have been a schizophrenic. 00:02:14.690 --> 00:02:18.380 align:middle line:84% Empty spines of sticks filled up with liquid fire. 00:02:18.380 --> 00:02:20.270 align:middle line:84% They had done this before, we just 00:02:20.270 --> 00:02:23.880 align:middle line:84% hadn't been quiet enough to mention it. 00:02:23.880 --> 00:02:28.040 align:middle line:84% Making theories of creation is about repetition, though even 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:31.180 align:middle line:90% the infinite happens just once. 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:35.870 align:middle line:84% Xx, sticks, cross-referencing each other. 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:39.800 align:middle line:84% A window had intended to climb out a window, 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:43.220 align:middle line:84% but intended is not what makes it happen. 00:02:43.220 --> 00:02:45.590 align:middle line:90% Delicious to climb out a window. 00:02:45.590 --> 00:02:49.280 align:middle line:84% The weather was not the window's fault. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.220 align:middle line:84% Smears on chrome fenders like pet clouds 00:02:52.220 --> 00:02:56.330 align:middle line:84% between which they might see a body coming curve to them. 00:02:56.330 --> 00:03:01.760 align:middle line:84% Before the thicket, your mouth stopped off at a boy. 00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:03.500 align:middle line:84% Going back a little, nearing them 00:03:03.500 --> 00:03:09.800 align:middle line:84% was faster, that which owned the thicket also owned the flower. 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:12.170 align:middle line:90% Either tell the story or don't. 00:03:12.170 --> 00:03:14.870 align:middle line:84% Narrative is such an either/or situation, 00:03:14.870 --> 00:03:20.030 align:middle line:84% like a window, just as sex is a metaphor for not getting it. 00:03:20.030 --> 00:03:24.350 align:middle line:84% You have changed the assignment to swirl, voice from a thicket, 00:03:24.350 --> 00:03:28.190 align:middle line:84% surfaces meet where you live into things. 00:03:28.190 --> 00:03:31.640 align:middle line:84% A body is a place missed specifically. 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:35.660 align:middle line:84% They met you in your body where you couldn't go alone. 00:03:35.660 --> 00:03:42.270 align:middle line:84% The spell, unable, unable, unable pretty soon. 00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:45.330 align:middle line:90% The thicket, a power came up. 00:03:45.330 --> 00:03:46.920 align:middle line:90% It was in between the voices. 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:49.950 align:middle line:84% It said you could stop making sense. 00:03:49.950 --> 00:03:51.360 align:middle line:90% Have you seen it? 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:53.100 align:middle line:90% Of course you have. 00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:55.110 align:middle line:90% Based on what? 00:03:55.110 --> 00:04:00.180 align:middle line:84% A red bird that caught fire on the alchemist's table. 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:03.150 align:middle line:84% The girls stood around in long paisley dresses, 00:04:03.150 --> 00:04:05.280 align:middle line:84% coyote cries coming through them. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.220 align:middle line:84% Something frightened and being canceled. 00:04:08.220 --> 00:04:11.400 align:middle line:90% We weren't on drugs then. 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:15.480 align:middle line:84% The thicket looked like the star of pubic hair. 00:04:15.480 --> 00:04:18.690 align:middle line:84% You always want to control how everything will turn out, 00:04:18.690 --> 00:04:20.790 align:middle line:90% is the problem. 00:04:20.790 --> 00:04:23.580 align:middle line:84% Suburban kids on the edge of change 00:04:23.580 --> 00:04:26.910 align:middle line:84% give up hope of being understood. 00:04:26.910 --> 00:04:29.130 align:middle line:84% Why did the fire need to rest in us 00:04:29.130 --> 00:04:33.810 align:middle line:84% after that fluttery little absolute terror of childhood? 00:04:33.810 --> 00:04:35.775 align:middle line:90% Wands being on fire. 00:04:35.775 --> 00:04:38.340 align:middle line:90% 00:04:38.340 --> 00:04:42.570 align:middle line:90% Dust devils, a power came up. 00:04:42.570 --> 00:04:44.940 align:middle line:84% It flew toward the guessing cloud. 00:04:44.940 --> 00:04:49.020 align:middle line:84% It was not as curved as night or straight as day. 00:04:49.020 --> 00:04:50.280 align:middle line:90% Have you heard it? 00:04:50.280 --> 00:04:52.350 align:middle line:90% Of course you have. 00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:56.580 align:middle line:84% It settled in the Lyndon Johnson desert, supervising funnels, 00:04:56.580 --> 00:05:01.320 align:middle line:84% Eisenhower birds egg head, stomach of peace and battles. 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:05.520 align:middle line:84% Standing before the thicket in long clothes not having sex. 00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:10.050 align:middle line:84% In the Bible, you can't worship fire without worshipping dust, 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:11.880 align:middle line:84% and whether you fought depression 00:05:11.880 --> 00:05:14.640 align:middle line:90% had everything to do with this. 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:19.680 align:middle line:84% A fire undaunted by the place where the years live. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:24.030 align:middle line:84% To be patient with the kind of plot in which nothing happens, 00:05:24.030 --> 00:05:29.160 align:middle line:84% alchemists devised a burning water that didn't wet the hands. 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:34.440 align:middle line:84% Elements mixed, swirled together, became decorative. 00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:37.500 align:middle line:90% Art comes from loneliness. 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:38.000 align:middle line:90%