WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.460 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.460 --> 00:00:13.130 align:middle line:84% I'm Mark Wunderlich, the acting director of the University 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:14.930 align:middle line:84% of Arizona Poetry Center, and I want 00:00:14.930 --> 00:00:17.550 align:middle line:84% to thank you all for coming out this evening. 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:21.140 align:middle line:84% First, I would like to thank Shane House for providing 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.450 align:middle line:84% a venue for tonight's reading and effectively 00:00:23.450 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:90% opening their home to us. 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:27.540 align:middle line:90% We really do appreciate that. 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:31.760 align:middle line:84% And I'd especially like to thank Ashley Hatcher, Gretchen McPhee, 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:35.570 align:middle line:84% Brendan McBride, Courtney Hamilton, and Karen Falkenstrom 00:00:35.570 --> 00:00:39.110 align:middle line:84% for their vigilance and superior organization 00:00:39.110 --> 00:00:42.310 align:middle line:84% skills, which made this reading and residency possible. 00:00:42.310 --> 00:00:44.122 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:00:44.122 --> 00:00:46.580 align:middle line:84% I'd also like to thank those readers who juried this year's 00:00:46.580 --> 00:00:51.590 align:middle line:84% competition, for their time and commitment to this program. 00:00:51.590 --> 00:00:54.020 align:middle line:84% The Summer Residency Program of the Poetry Center 00:00:54.020 --> 00:00:56.840 align:middle line:84% offers a one-month residency to a writer selected 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.510 align:middle line:84% from a national competition of poets, fiction, 00:00:59.510 --> 00:01:01.130 align:middle line:90% and creative nonfiction. 00:01:01.130 --> 00:01:03.170 align:middle line:84% In its second year, the residency 00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:05.090 align:middle line:84% is an opportunity for an emerging artist 00:01:05.090 --> 00:01:07.730 align:middle line:84% to enjoy the resources the Poetry Center's 00:01:07.730 --> 00:01:10.340 align:middle line:84% library and archives and introduces them 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:13.160 align:middle line:84% to Tucson's vibrant writing community. 00:01:13.160 --> 00:01:14.960 align:middle line:84% The residency provides accommodations 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:18.650 align:middle line:84% in the Poetry Center's guest house and, hopefully, the time 00:01:18.650 --> 00:01:21.830 align:middle line:84% and quietude to produce new work, revise old work, 00:01:21.830 --> 00:01:27.000 align:middle line:84% read, or, if he or she chooses, to do absolutely nothing. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.210 align:middle line:84% It is, as the poet William Matthews once 00:01:29.210 --> 00:01:30.890 align:middle line:90% called it, art jail. 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:34.280 align:middle line:84% But in a world whose velocity seems to be increasing, 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:36.710 align:middle line:84% we hope to be a point of respite, 00:01:36.710 --> 00:01:39.350 align:middle line:84% a slow spot on the road, where a writer can perhaps 00:01:39.350 --> 00:01:42.140 align:middle line:84% find some solitude and presence of mind 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:47.450 align:middle line:90% to do what it is they do best. 00:01:47.450 --> 00:01:50.000 align:middle line:84% It's my great pleasure to introduce poet Kymberly 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.240 align:middle line:84% Taylor, this year's recipient of the University of Arizona Poetry 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:56.600 align:middle line:90% Center's Summer Residency. 00:01:56.600 --> 00:01:59.210 align:middle line:84% Kymberly's poems have a grace and a fury 00:01:59.210 --> 00:02:02.570 align:middle line:84% stemming from a poetic imagination I can only 00:02:02.570 --> 00:02:04.940 align:middle line:90% call labyrinth. 00:02:04.940 --> 00:02:07.820 align:middle line:84% Actively engaged with the natural world, 00:02:07.820 --> 00:02:11.750 align:middle line:84% she is a natural descendant of Sylvia Plath and Amy Clampitt. 00:02:11.750 --> 00:02:15.200 align:middle line:84% But their influences remain shadows on what is clearly 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:18.890 align:middle line:84% a singular imagination, with its home in some luminous 00:02:18.890 --> 00:02:21.890 align:middle line:84% poet-created world of-- and I'm quoting Kymberly-- 00:02:21.890 --> 00:02:26.540 align:middle line:84% "late American promises spread out before her like a fan." 00:02:26.540 --> 00:02:29.120 align:middle line:90% 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:31.370 align:middle line:84% As a poet, Taylor pushes language 00:02:31.370 --> 00:02:35.870 align:middle line:84% to its farthest, edgiest limits, whether that be its Germanic, 00:02:35.870 --> 00:02:39.980 align:middle line:84% old English roots or to the fragmented musical notation 00:02:39.980 --> 00:02:41.330 align:middle line:90% of birdsong. 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:45.140 align:middle line:84% The goal of this pushing to be the creation of a system 00:02:45.140 --> 00:02:51.320 align:middle line:84% and a world or her extraordinary characters can thrive. 00:02:51.320 --> 00:02:54.650 align:middle line:84% Kymberly received her MFA from Columbia University's School 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:56.900 align:middle line:84% of the Arts writing division, where she also 00:02:56.900 --> 00:02:59.180 align:middle line:84% acted as the poetry editor of Columbia: 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:01.070 align:middle line:90% A Magazine of Poetry and Prose. 00:03:01.070 --> 00:03:05.150 align:middle line:84% She has poems forthcoming in Inky Blue and Hawai'i Review, 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:06.890 align:middle line:84% and has worked as a journal editor 00:03:06.890 --> 00:03:09.290 align:middle line:90% and comedian in Washington, DC. 00:03:09.290 --> 00:03:12.650 align:middle line:84% She currently lives in New York City and South Bend, Indiana. 00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:15.194 align:middle line:84% It's my pleasure to introduce Kymberly Taylor. 00:03:15.194 --> 00:03:18.512 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:18.512 --> 00:03:21.360 align:middle line:90% 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:23.580 align:middle line:90% Thanks very much, Mark. 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:27.510 align:middle line:84% I just want to begin by thanking the incredible, phenomenal staff 00:03:27.510 --> 00:03:31.770 align:middle line:84% of the Poetry Center, who has just made my stay here the best 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:34.020 align:middle line:84% kind of art jail I would ever be in 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:35.920 align:middle line:90% and would never want to leave. 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:39.810 align:middle line:84% So, thanks to Mark, Karen, Brendan, Gretchen, and Courtney. 00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:41.280 align:middle line:90% All of you, thank you, really. 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.950 align:middle line:90% 00:03:43.950 --> 00:03:46.560 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with a poem that 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.820 align:middle line:84% is sort of a Southwest version of Maurice Sendak's Where 00:03:50.820 --> 00:03:52.710 align:middle line:90% the Wild Things Are. 00:03:52.710 --> 00:03:56.020 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you're familiar with the children's book, 00:03:56.020 --> 00:03:58.680 align:middle line:84% but I thought it needed a little Southwest flavor. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:02.280 align:middle line:84% And here I am in the Southwest, so I thought I'd give it a shot. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.400 align:middle line:90% 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:07.440 align:middle line:90% "Where the Wild Things Went" 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:09.610 align:middle line:90% 00:04:09.610 --> 00:04:14.170 align:middle line:84% "Just before the ocotillo began to recede from the bathroom 00:04:14.170 --> 00:04:20.950 align:middle line:84% mirror, before saguaros permit the ceiling to descend and stars 00:04:20.950 --> 00:04:26.620 align:middle line:84% fade back into bedspread, I will hunt the wildest, 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:31.060 align:middle line:84% chart the grasses flattened by their great hooves, 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.390 align:middle line:84% track their spore through the pecan grove 00:04:34.390 --> 00:04:40.540 align:middle line:84% to the edge of the precipice far above the fiery fronds. 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:46.660 align:middle line:84% And in and out of years, beyond indolent, ancestral indigo, 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:52.120 align:middle line:84% I see the extravagant weavers and the wild things bellowing, 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:58.540 align:middle line:84% flexing their claws in furred and unsorrowed clefts. 00:04:58.540 --> 00:05:01.300 align:middle line:84% I see the Archimedian point from which 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:05.650 align:middle line:84% a girl lifts the whole world, our instructions written 00:05:05.650 --> 00:05:08.500 align:middle line:90% upon her immense tent. 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:11.290 align:middle line:84% She tells me that the being woven 00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:14.230 align:middle line:84% is the nest that will catch me as I 00:05:14.230 --> 00:05:21.280 align:middle line:84% fall beyond the certain words at certain times that I am. 00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:25.900 align:middle line:84% Homesick for what I do not know, for what is not near." 00:05:25.900 --> 00:05:33.280 align:middle line:90% 00:05:33.280 --> 00:05:36.250 align:middle line:84% I was diving with my mother in the Exumas, 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:40.720 align:middle line:84% and we came upon a large, mysterious creature 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:46.660 align:middle line:84% and her little baby that really scared the heck out of us. 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:48.910 align:middle line:84% But later, I found out the name of it. 00:05:48.910 --> 00:05:50.890 align:middle line:90% It was a cownose ray. 00:05:50.890 --> 00:05:55.150 align:middle line:84% And that's the title of this next poem. 00:05:55.150 --> 00:05:59.500 align:middle line:84% "The obvious flume assembles into a giant ray, 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:03.370 align:middle line:84% hugging the in-reef, crushing mollusks in her tooth 00:06:03.370 --> 00:06:08.650 align:middle line:84% plates, her body a gray-winged teapot, 00:06:08.650 --> 00:06:11.740 align:middle line:90% pinches up into a pug nose. 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:17.230 align:middle line:84% Sub-rostral lobes extend from the midnight disk of her body. 00:06:17.230 --> 00:06:22.810 align:middle line:84% The outer corners falcate, the posterior edges concave. 00:06:22.810 --> 00:06:27.790 align:middle line:84% Behind her stiffens the venomous tail spine. 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:32.350 align:middle line:84% Her eyes are sensitive to exterior, to the pup just 00:06:32.350 --> 00:06:35.200 align:middle line:90% visible beneath the wing. 00:06:35.200 --> 00:06:39.850 align:middle line:84% A miniature spout of her, he is plump, wingless, 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:41.710 align:middle line:90% whittled for flight. 00:06:41.710 --> 00:06:46.300 align:middle line:84% Tight, fraught, they are too tiny to contain the past. 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:50.290 align:middle line:84% Her vast, honed horizons have consumed it. 00:06:50.290 --> 00:06:53.500 align:middle line:84% They bask in the circuitry of now, 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:57.520 align:middle line:84% their vigil fragile as they turn in tandem 00:06:57.520 --> 00:07:01.900 align:middle line:84% beneath the minimal eulogy of a fossil tree. 00:07:01.900 --> 00:07:04.660 align:middle line:90% She stares at me. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:06.640 align:middle line:90% I am known. 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:09.850 align:middle line:84% For a moment, even think it possible to belong 00:07:09.850 --> 00:07:13.000 align:middle line:90% to this pre-world joy. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.610 align:middle line:84% Craving the greatness like a right, 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:20.710 align:middle line:84% I swim close as if we accelerate, vanish, 00:07:20.710 --> 00:07:26.710 align:middle line:84% slow-motion hearts into the undergold lit by silver fins 00:07:26.710 --> 00:07:27.670 align:middle line:90% and basket star." 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:35.800 align:middle line:90% 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:38.740 align:middle line:84% This next piece is written about a girl 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:42.190 align:middle line:84% who reads the patterns of the bird as omens. 00:07:42.190 --> 00:07:46.900 align:middle line:84% And she chooses not to speak and to become mute. 00:07:46.900 --> 00:07:49.420 align:middle line:84% And I have some old English in the poem, 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:51.670 align:middle line:84% and I'll translate that for you now 00:07:51.670 --> 00:07:53.890 align:middle line:90% so you won't be too surprised. 00:07:53.890 --> 00:07:59.320 align:middle line:84% And the translation is strength, affliction, joy, 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:03.580 align:middle line:90% to know, bird, bird, all. 00:08:03.580 --> 00:08:06.604 align:middle line:84% And the title of the poem is [INAUDIBLE]. 00:08:06.604 --> 00:08:09.270 align:middle line:90% 00:08:09.270 --> 00:08:12.330 align:middle line:84% Country-big girl reading the birds, 00:08:12.330 --> 00:08:16.470 align:middle line:84% their sideways laticing, banking left, 00:08:16.470 --> 00:08:24.180 align:middle line:84% lift, lift, into anvil, lunule, ell, strengou, broc, dream, 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:28.740 align:middle line:90% cnawan, brdd, brdd, eall. 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:33.330 align:middle line:84% To the dovecot, straight through the orchard, she with her bow, 00:08:33.330 --> 00:08:38.700 align:middle line:84% past clocky colt, weir and sedge, the tundra swan smashing 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:44.760 align:middle line:84% willow and cress in the stream running bluely, brokely. 00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:47.730 align:middle line:84% How she envied the white fiend, the wands 00:08:47.730 --> 00:08:53.250 align:middle line:84% churring in its sloe-eyes roving beneath its webs. 00:08:53.250 --> 00:08:58.650 align:middle line:84% She listens to the small church in the breast of a finch. 00:08:58.650 --> 00:09:01.740 align:middle line:84% There is no other, for all the old gods 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:09.930 align:middle line:84% have gone, leaving instead red leaves, wisteria, and finch. 00:09:09.930 --> 00:09:15.390 align:middle line:84% Through combe she wilds, unceasing, galloping, blown. 00:09:15.390 --> 00:09:18.270 align:middle line:84% Not speaking, her silence curving 00:09:18.270 --> 00:09:21.900 align:middle line:84% in rapt, out smooth, a vessel upon which 00:09:21.900 --> 00:09:26.970 align:middle line:84% her life elides, each day in its papers dissolving. 00:09:26.970 --> 00:09:32.190 align:middle line:84% At the dovecot, a wolf crunches the headbones of a bird. 00:09:32.190 --> 00:09:35.940 align:middle line:84% The girl kills, tends to the rest, 00:09:35.940 --> 00:09:39.150 align:middle line:84% feeding them white berries and seed. 00:09:39.150 --> 00:09:45.780 align:middle line:84% Another day passing in which she is the greatest and the least. 00:09:45.780 --> 00:09:51.640 align:middle line:84% She moves among the listeners, sets them free. 00:09:51.640 --> 00:09:57.930 align:middle line:84% They do not fly but cluster on her shoulders, head, wrists. 00:09:57.930 --> 00:10:03.360 align:middle line:84% Staying near, telling her every small thing. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.270 align:middle line:84% What can't be named, the infinite 00:10:06.270 --> 00:10:08.280 align:middle line:90% miscalculations of once upon. 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:15.560 align:middle line:90% 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:18.140 align:middle line:84% When I got here, a friend from the Poetry Center 00:10:18.140 --> 00:10:22.490 align:middle line:84% pointed out a century plant right around the corner from me. 00:10:22.490 --> 00:10:25.010 align:middle line:84% I'm sure you all know about the century plant. 00:10:25.010 --> 00:10:26.840 align:middle line:84% But I had never heard of them, and I just 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:29.090 align:middle line:90% thought they were phenomenal. 00:10:29.090 --> 00:10:31.640 align:middle line:84% So I thought I would go out on a limb 00:10:31.640 --> 00:10:34.160 align:middle line:84% and try to write a poem about it. 00:10:34.160 --> 00:10:38.900 align:middle line:84% And this poem is called "Ancient Head." 00:10:38.900 --> 00:10:41.990 align:middle line:90% 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:46.560 align:middle line:84% Inside itself for 40 years, the century plant's 00:10:46.560 --> 00:10:51.080 align:middle line:84% gargantuan flower stock spews 15 feet aloft 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:58.910 align:middle line:84% then topples whole torso from its presidio of dying quills. 00:10:58.910 --> 00:11:04.730 align:middle line:84% Its ancient head, unsocratic, casts a single severe seed 00:11:04.730 --> 00:11:09.080 align:middle line:84% that torques into fissure, soon to pluck up 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:11.810 align:middle line:90% between barrel bush and stones. 00:11:11.810 --> 00:11:16.370 align:middle line:90% Tiny sabers, faithful, pointed. 00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:20.660 align:middle line:84% Its first fatal blossom explains the lie 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:27.980 align:middle line:84% of giving almost everything fast, the lies of futility, 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:31.610 align:middle line:84% of beauty, [INAUDIBLE], corded and coiled 00:11:31.610 --> 00:11:34.250 align:middle line:90% into cut spectacle craving. 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:39.590 align:middle line:84% Glory growing in, abandoned, postponed. 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:43.550 align:middle line:84% Observing acids, radiances, decades 00:11:43.550 --> 00:11:46.670 align:middle line:90% of sun around a bare spool. 00:11:46.670 --> 00:11:50.000 align:middle line:84% Articulating monsoon and moons into singular, 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.280 align:middle line:90% [? phatic ?] movie. 00:11:52.280 --> 00:11:59.630 align:middle line:84% Century, witness us, the givers splayed legged, nipple-pierced, 00:11:59.630 --> 00:12:04.535 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] grin, all out to everyone but those who love us. 00:12:04.535 --> 00:12:11.840 align:middle line:90% 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:14.960 align:middle line:84% This is the beginning of a small seduction series that 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:17.810 align:middle line:90% lasts for three poems or so. 00:12:17.810 --> 00:12:24.170 align:middle line:84% The start of the first poem is called "Seduction." 00:12:24.170 --> 00:12:28.010 align:middle line:90% 00:12:28.010 --> 00:12:31.512 align:middle line:84% Her bedroom looks out across the cay. 00:12:31.512 --> 00:12:36.480 align:middle line:84% A house and I haunt the corner, angular and crude, 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:41.330 align:middle line:84% pruding upon each incident stare and stir of her. 00:12:41.330 --> 00:12:43.490 align:middle line:90% I dissembled into the snow. 00:12:43.490 --> 00:12:45.860 align:middle line:90% My breasts slice for her. 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:49.100 align:middle line:90% My instruments are confused. 00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:51.640 align:middle line:84% My feathers purpling in the glossing. 00:12:51.640 --> 00:12:53.420 align:middle line:90% And I will attack her. 00:12:53.420 --> 00:12:58.130 align:middle line:84% Throat first, my beak [INAUDIBLE] lurch at her spine. 00:12:58.130 --> 00:13:04.490 align:middle line:84% Her pain increasing, and with it myself, on this dread day, 00:13:04.490 --> 00:13:07.190 align:middle line:90% that I am wild and spectacular. 00:13:07.190 --> 00:13:08.900 align:middle line:90% Wound fragment. 00:13:08.900 --> 00:13:11.570 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] abominable aunt. 00:13:11.570 --> 00:13:13.820 align:middle line:90% Old and old. 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:16.700 align:middle line:90% I belong to her. 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:20.400 align:middle line:84% But first I will begin by spreading my cape so blue 00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:23.810 align:middle line:84% upon the ground and begging a beauty to sit upon it. 00:13:23.810 --> 00:13:33.290 align:middle line:90% 00:13:33.290 --> 00:13:35.830 align:middle line:84% Caution-- might be a [INAUDIBLE]. 00:13:35.830 --> 00:13:38.680 align:middle line:90% 00:13:38.680 --> 00:13:42.550 align:middle line:84% He kept her terrible on a small leash. 00:13:42.550 --> 00:13:45.340 align:middle line:90% She belonged to the second son. 00:13:45.340 --> 00:13:49.210 align:middle line:90% Him, dark, over her. 00:13:49.210 --> 00:13:53.260 align:middle line:84% How she learned to perform, first unbelieving, 00:13:53.260 --> 00:13:57.730 align:middle line:84% fingers halting at her phone buttons, then with abandon, 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:01.210 align:middle line:90% like a handful of thrown sea. 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:07.360 align:middle line:84% Arms around her often, unfastening, fastening 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:12.520 align:middle line:84% the chain hooked to her jewel collar, attached to the eyeballs 00:14:12.520 --> 00:14:15.460 align:middle line:84% opposite the vault. Gradually, she 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:20.470 align:middle line:84% began to move only in relation to other things, 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:22.600 align:middle line:90% to her cages and rack. 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:27.970 align:middle line:84% The gallery and hook, the 36 steps to him. 00:14:27.970 --> 00:14:31.180 align:middle line:84% She grew older, limbs made formal 00:14:31.180 --> 00:14:34.270 align:middle line:90% by the variant postures craved. 00:14:34.270 --> 00:14:37.300 align:middle line:84% Sometimes unseen series [INAUDIBLE] 00:14:37.300 --> 00:14:43.240 align:middle line:84% would crack, heal badly, though not so noticeable. 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:47.920 align:middle line:84% She tried to escape once, crouched in the daylight 00:14:47.920 --> 00:14:51.790 align:middle line:84% darkness of a cane hamper, shuttled to the middle. 00:14:51.790 --> 00:14:55.360 align:middle line:84% She begged them to keep her, to give her work. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.840 align:middle line:84% The problem never just the problem. 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:03.070 align:middle line:84% And when he found her, she did not resist. 00:15:03.070 --> 00:15:08.830 align:middle line:84% For there was that in her that some reason and all things, 00:15:08.830 --> 00:15:13.960 align:middle line:84% in the tongs that lift abreast the delirious freedom 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:18.520 align:middle line:84% after pain, and that this must be so. 00:15:18.520 --> 00:15:24.910 align:middle line:84% She torn, but mostly whole, able to rest in the overlooked space 00:15:24.910 --> 00:15:28.630 align:middle line:84% opening for those [INAUDIBLE] life. 00:15:28.630 --> 00:15:33.640 align:middle line:90% Here, serenity, a private wind. 00:15:33.640 --> 00:15:39.220 align:middle line:84% She tamed a bird, a small swift, essential to her. 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:44.440 align:middle line:84% She watches it across fields, desperately flowering. 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:48.790 align:middle line:84% At the appointed hour, she blindfolds herself, 00:15:48.790 --> 00:15:51.730 align:middle line:90% brushes her body with oils. 00:15:51.730 --> 00:15:55.390 align:middle line:90% His scent, him. 00:15:55.390 --> 00:15:57.400 align:middle line:90% She is burning. 00:15:57.400 --> 00:15:59.880 align:middle line:84% Never before had she felt so bright. 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:05.050 align:middle line:90% 00:16:05.050 --> 00:16:06.700 align:middle line:84% Won't be so bad after that, I promise. 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:09.820 align:middle line:90% 00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:13.330 align:middle line:84% This next poem I wrote when I was reading Virgil. 00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:17.650 align:middle line:84% And he was sort of describing this ancient creature that was 00:16:17.650 --> 00:16:21.430 align:middle line:84% lost in the modern world, and that described this next poem 00:16:21.430 --> 00:16:24.280 align:middle line:90% entitled "Beloved." 00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:29.830 align:middle line:84% And I'm experimenting with some rhymes in this poem. 00:16:29.830 --> 00:16:31.200 align:middle line:90% Beloved. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:31.700 align:middle line:90% One. 00:16:31.700 --> 00:16:34.270 align:middle line:90% 00:16:34.270 --> 00:16:41.080 align:middle line:84% My unusual steps, rare spot and sound, I forage and fend 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.060 align:middle line:90% east headland down. 00:16:43.060 --> 00:16:48.880 align:middle line:84% Sleep on the form, secretly into [? celandine ?]. 00:16:48.880 --> 00:16:53.440 align:middle line:84% I've taught bees to chronicle [INAUDIBLE] rooms of woodruff, 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:56.770 align:middle line:90% whatnot, wintergreen wound. 00:16:56.770 --> 00:16:59.440 align:middle line:90% Now gone, my own. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.850 align:middle line:84% Moons have thinned, archipelagos grown. 00:17:03.850 --> 00:17:08.920 align:middle line:84% I let you see me, hunter, though you begin my death. 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:11.589 align:middle line:90% Come lay down your bow. 00:17:11.589 --> 00:17:14.470 align:middle line:84% Night and again, I've thought of you, 00:17:14.470 --> 00:17:17.349 align:middle line:90% considered I ought to mend you. 00:17:17.349 --> 00:17:20.920 align:middle line:90% So sleep clear, cool in my lair. 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:25.839 align:middle line:84% Outside, bay, wood thrush, wild pear. 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:30.820 align:middle line:84% Yes, I'll drink what you're offering, thinking while. 00:17:30.820 --> 00:17:32.500 align:middle line:90% Two. 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:33.110 align:middle line:90% Wait. 00:17:33.110 --> 00:17:33.640 align:middle line:90% Slight. 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:34.300 align:middle line:90% Shatter. 00:17:34.300 --> 00:17:34.960 align:middle line:90% Shock. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:35.650 align:middle line:90% Entrap. 00:17:35.650 --> 00:17:36.340 align:middle line:90% Trust. 00:17:36.340 --> 00:17:40.190 align:middle line:84% Drop into all that is you, but that is not all. 00:17:40.190 --> 00:17:43.720 align:middle line:84% For don't you know, I can ride if I choose. 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:44.470 align:middle line:90% Explode. 00:17:44.470 --> 00:17:45.430 align:middle line:90% Shackle. 00:17:45.430 --> 00:17:48.460 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] a final ruse. 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:52.240 align:middle line:90% But I will wait, thinning, old. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:55.000 align:middle line:90% Patient, this love must be. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:00.520 align:middle line:84% And it is then I will beg you to set me free in a sigh of green, 00:18:00.520 --> 00:18:03.820 align:middle line:84% the death dew, just one of me left 00:18:03.820 --> 00:18:09.610 align:middle line:84% to farther in the far stark, moving slowly flower to flower. 00:18:09.610 --> 00:18:18.100 align:middle line:90% 00:18:18.100 --> 00:18:23.380 align:middle line:84% Just this next poem is written about the death of Actaeon, who, 00:18:23.380 --> 00:18:25.450 align:middle line:90% as you may know, is from Ovid. 00:18:25.450 --> 00:18:27.700 align:middle line:84% And the goddess Diana, when she was 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.760 align:middle line:84% bathing in a pool with her nymphs around her, 00:18:30.760 --> 00:18:35.230 align:middle line:84% saw Actaeon spying on her, so she turned him into a stag. 00:18:35.230 --> 00:18:39.430 align:middle line:84% And his own, unfortunately, his own hound killed him. 00:18:39.430 --> 00:18:43.090 align:middle line:90% 00:18:43.090 --> 00:18:44.800 align:middle line:90% You hide, boy. 00:18:44.800 --> 00:18:47.170 align:middle line:90% Mine shrewd on these breasts. 00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:50.110 align:middle line:84% Kissed by the bear who bathed me. 00:18:50.110 --> 00:18:55.360 align:middle line:84% As I rise from this soft pool, curtain by wild mint, 00:18:55.360 --> 00:19:02.050 align:middle line:84% by [INAUDIBLE], pray now, for your eyes will soon be wounds. 00:19:02.050 --> 00:19:05.050 align:middle line:84% Already your tame mouth goes wild, 00:19:05.050 --> 00:19:08.830 align:middle line:84% your shadow crouches on four feet. 00:19:08.830 --> 00:19:15.520 align:middle line:84% I Inhale the scent of your blood as your own hounds gorge you. 00:19:15.520 --> 00:19:21.760 align:middle line:84% In apology, your antlers hang in the ash tree, their torn velvet 00:19:21.760 --> 00:19:22.900 align:middle line:90% bleaching in the sun. 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:29.670 align:middle line:90% 00:19:29.670 --> 00:19:36.820 align:middle line:84% This next poem stems from sort of rebelling against having 00:19:36.820 --> 00:19:37.990 align:middle line:90% to go to confession. 00:19:37.990 --> 00:19:39.220 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:19:39.220 --> 00:19:42.840 align:middle line:84% I grew up a Catholic, and I had to do that a lot. 00:19:42.840 --> 00:19:46.870 align:middle line:84% As you know, once you close that little booth [? robe ?], 00:19:46.870 --> 00:19:51.490 align:middle line:84% it's just you, and the screen, and this shadowy guy behind it. 00:19:51.490 --> 00:19:54.880 align:middle line:84% I've created my own sort of version. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:59.440 align:middle line:84% And there's somebody in here that I refer to as grandfa. 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.390 align:middle line:84% And I just hope that everyone has 00:20:01.390 --> 00:20:04.220 align:middle line:84% a grandfa in their life, whatever that shape or form may 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:04.720 align:middle line:90% take. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:08.650 align:middle line:90% 00:20:08.650 --> 00:20:11.740 align:middle line:90% What I most love. 00:20:11.740 --> 00:20:16.330 align:middle line:84% Stripped of my escorts, my false tail coil behind. 00:20:16.330 --> 00:20:21.070 align:middle line:84% Grandfa, I blush, you have caught me, 00:20:21.070 --> 00:20:26.770 align:middle line:84% one, forging my prayers, two, tattooing a star print 00:20:26.770 --> 00:20:31.990 align:middle line:84% on my ass, three, removing the starfish. 00:20:31.990 --> 00:20:35.740 align:middle line:84% I admit you all of the above, and to rudely brooding 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:39.910 align:middle line:84% and rakishly roving through hip and shroud, despite christened 00:20:39.910 --> 00:20:43.900 align:middle line:84% the [? Attican ?] nun to parading my pooky. 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:48.070 align:middle line:84% Becoming background music, a fat singer sings. 00:20:48.070 --> 00:20:52.480 align:middle line:84% I have flowered a furnaced, mirth myself into over. 00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:53.910 align:middle line:90% Broken I am. 00:20:53.910 --> 00:20:58.030 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] my sunniness turns grim. 00:20:58.030 --> 00:21:01.090 align:middle line:84% Give absolution and just a slight tap, 00:21:01.090 --> 00:21:03.070 align:middle line:90% and I will come back to you. 00:21:03.070 --> 00:21:07.840 align:middle line:84% Lucid limner, buoyant foyer, oh, Fa. 00:21:07.840 --> 00:21:12.400 align:middle line:84% And then cleansed, I will continue to consume all that I 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:13.563 align:middle line:90% shouldn't. 00:21:13.563 --> 00:21:14.063 align:middle line:90% [? 00:21:14.063 --> 00:21:17.950 align:middle line:84% These salons ?], the late American promises I spread 00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:24.460 align:middle line:84% before me like a fan, choosing first people aplenty, hero next, 00:21:24.460 --> 00:21:27.010 align:middle line:90% then justice for. 00:21:27.010 --> 00:21:33.130 align:middle line:84% Gnawing each fastidiously, knowing only [INAUDIBLE]. 00:21:33.130 --> 00:21:36.550 align:middle line:84% If I couldn't know you, let me finger 00:21:36.550 --> 00:21:40.210 align:middle line:84% your strange, torn edges, your crucifix, 00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:44.590 align:middle line:84% soothe your crooked unmanageable limbs. 00:21:44.590 --> 00:21:47.080 align:middle line:84% Glittering cripple, dear Fa, I am 00:21:47.080 --> 00:21:49.600 align:middle line:84% in a line moving timely and forward 00:21:49.600 --> 00:21:52.210 align:middle line:90% toward an overstark hotel. 00:21:52.210 --> 00:21:56.590 align:middle line:84% Inside it's just table adorned with skull and monk. 00:21:56.590 --> 00:22:00.830 align:middle line:90% With forgivances, sandwiches. 00:22:00.830 --> 00:22:02.800 align:middle line:90% How the lights judge! 00:22:02.800 --> 00:22:06.520 align:middle line:84% Like we all do, not missing things small-- 00:22:06.520 --> 00:22:13.330 align:middle line:84% a pointy shoe, the cadence of sneeze, if one will eat roast. 00:22:13.330 --> 00:22:15.490 align:middle line:90% What penance due? 00:22:15.490 --> 00:22:17.530 align:middle line:90% Pay what you wish. 00:22:17.530 --> 00:22:21.820 align:middle line:84% Should I give what I most love, the adequacies I covet 00:22:21.820 --> 00:22:24.310 align:middle line:90% under my fern full of far? 00:22:24.310 --> 00:22:26.860 align:middle line:90% My tiny flock of gain? 00:22:26.860 --> 00:22:29.320 align:middle line:84% Or, what I know best, the comfort 00:22:29.320 --> 00:22:34.300 align:middle line:84% of this distance between us, its impotence, its permanence. 00:22:34.300 --> 00:22:40.490 align:middle line:90% 00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:44.300 align:middle line:84% This next poem is written for a friend of mine who I recently 00:22:44.300 --> 00:22:45.130 align:middle line:90% visited. 00:22:45.130 --> 00:22:46.720 align:middle line:90% The desert [INAUDIBLE]. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:49.440 align:middle line:90% And we just had a great time. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:55.808 align:middle line:84% And we saw these mountain lions, and I dedicate this poem to him. 00:22:55.808 --> 00:22:56.350 align:middle line:90% "The Lovers." 00:22:56.350 --> 00:22:58.870 align:middle line:90% 00:22:58.870 --> 00:22:59.890 align:middle line:90% Facing each other. 00:22:59.890 --> 00:23:03.010 align:middle line:90% The mountain lions sleep. 00:23:03.010 --> 00:23:07.990 align:middle line:84% The far one's giant paws touch, flop forward at the wrists 00:23:07.990 --> 00:23:12.520 align:middle line:84% to curl up against the buttery tundra of his chest fur. 00:23:12.520 --> 00:23:17.950 align:middle line:84% Its taut power unwound into molten golden kitten, 00:23:17.950 --> 00:23:24.100 align:middle line:84% whose mighty ear tips sadden against the trial of his head. 00:23:24.100 --> 00:23:29.980 align:middle line:84% Lions rest, not like new lovers who turn away and sleep, 00:23:29.980 --> 00:23:35.260 align:middle line:84% as if already mourning what they've given too soon, 00:23:35.260 --> 00:23:40.290 align:middle line:84% but like ancient hearts who still, even in sleep, exchange. 00:23:40.290 --> 00:23:43.450 align:middle line:90% 00:23:43.450 --> 00:23:49.210 align:middle line:84% The lions will die here, an exhibit of their former selves. 00:23:49.210 --> 00:23:53.110 align:middle line:84% So exhale a heavy breath of the mountain from which they've 00:23:53.110 --> 00:23:58.990 align:middle line:84% come, a mountain bloated open, its wounds stolen and divided 00:23:58.990 --> 00:24:02.050 align:middle line:84% among the thieves, who are their children. 00:24:02.050 --> 00:24:06.370 align:middle line:84% And their children-- sell their wounds, or wear them proudly. 00:24:06.370 --> 00:24:13.030 align:middle line:84% Each glorious murder glittering upon breast, hands, throat. 00:24:13.030 --> 00:24:16.570 align:middle line:84% The wounds of a father become their own. 00:24:16.570 --> 00:24:26.870 align:middle line:90% 00:24:26.870 --> 00:24:29.400 align:middle line:84% And this poem is entitled "Grew." 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:31.550 align:middle line:90% And it's a hunting poem. 00:24:31.550 --> 00:24:34.495 align:middle line:84% It's about sort of learning to aim, shoot. 00:24:34.495 --> 00:24:38.090 align:middle line:90% 00:24:38.090 --> 00:24:39.980 align:middle line:90% "Grew." 00:24:39.980 --> 00:24:41.690 align:middle line:90% Take my shoes. 00:24:41.690 --> 00:24:45.500 align:middle line:84% I give them to you to walk in just up the hill. 00:24:45.500 --> 00:24:50.690 align:middle line:84% They are smaller than yours, the laces studded with small violet 00:24:50.690 --> 00:24:52.370 align:middle line:90% cakes. 00:24:52.370 --> 00:24:55.460 align:middle line:90% In turn, I'll take your gun. 00:24:55.460 --> 00:25:00.380 align:middle line:84% Smith Wesson, 12 gauge, bolt action. 00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:05.060 align:middle line:84% Looking down this barrel, a life with the hard, oiled groove. 00:25:05.060 --> 00:25:07.850 align:middle line:84% I studied it on you, strict against fields 00:25:07.850 --> 00:25:09.920 align:middle line:90% stunted with pheasant. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.370 align:middle line:84% The blue [? stem ?] half forgiving a weasel, looking 00:25:13.370 --> 00:25:16.220 align:middle line:90% inside at the newborn's egg. 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:20.120 align:middle line:84% Jaw jammed against the site but flushed 00:25:20.120 --> 00:25:24.650 align:middle line:90% to shoulder, just as you teach. 00:25:24.650 --> 00:25:29.240 align:middle line:84% There is your heart, perpetually wavering. 00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:33.140 align:middle line:84% First above, then below, the bull's eye. 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:43.140 align:middle line:90% 00:25:43.140 --> 00:25:45.930 align:middle line:84% The next poem I'm going to read begins 00:25:45.930 --> 00:25:50.910 align:middle line:84% a series about a woman named Y. And she began her life 00:25:50.910 --> 00:25:52.590 align:middle line:90% as bird songs. 00:25:52.590 --> 00:25:58.680 align:middle line:84% And she leads a life as part woman and part flying creature. 00:25:58.680 --> 00:26:02.280 align:middle line:84% And I found this really fabulous book called Born To Sing-- 00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:05.190 align:middle line:84% A World Interpretation of Bird Song. 00:26:05.190 --> 00:26:09.780 align:middle line:84% And in the book, it talks about how life is rhythm, 00:26:09.780 --> 00:26:14.290 align:middle line:84% and the rhythms of music constitute a universal language, 00:26:14.290 --> 00:26:17.160 align:middle line:84% which can be translated into birdsong if only 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:21.420 align:middle line:84% we had the tools to decipher what they're saying. 00:26:21.420 --> 00:26:25.620 align:middle line:84% And the book takes an anti-behavioral standpoint 00:26:25.620 --> 00:26:26.460 align:middle line:90% towards birds. 00:26:26.460 --> 00:26:28.680 align:middle line:84% And it's a completely scientific book, 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.368 align:middle line:84% it's not sort of one of these new age psychology books, 00:26:31.368 --> 00:26:33.660 align:middle line:84% which makes it even the more fascinating that there are 00:26:33.660 --> 00:26:37.050 align:middle line:84% people out there who are really beginning to look at birds 00:26:37.050 --> 00:26:41.340 align:middle line:90% in this non--behavioral way. 00:26:41.340 --> 00:26:47.790 align:middle line:84% And in the poem itself, I have notations of bird songs, 00:26:47.790 --> 00:26:50.550 align:middle line:84% but because I would be terrible at, one, imitating them. 00:26:50.550 --> 00:26:51.200 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:52.570 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] try to translate. 00:26:52.570 --> 00:26:57.150 align:middle line:84% I have taped the first stanza of bird songs for you to listen to. 00:26:57.150 --> 00:27:01.110 align:middle line:84% And the poem is written in a biography form, 00:27:01.110 --> 00:27:02.850 align:middle line:90% just to let you know. 00:27:02.850 --> 00:27:05.640 align:middle line:84% And I would just like to read you one quote from the book, 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:10.980 align:middle line:84% and that is, "Birds learn to talk only when the human 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:12.870 align:middle line:84% or teacher becomes a love object." 00:27:12.870 --> 00:27:15.660 align:middle line:90% 00:27:15.660 --> 00:27:21.540 align:middle line:84% And the title of the poem is "Bird By Bird Into This 00:27:21.540 --> 00:27:22.080 align:middle line:90% And This." 00:27:22.080 --> 00:27:26.805 align:middle line:90% 00:27:26.805 --> 00:27:31.260 align:middle line:90% [BIRDS SINGING] 00:27:31.260 --> 00:28:27.230 align:middle line:90% 00:28:27.230 --> 00:28:30.290 align:middle line:84% "Bird By Bird Into This And This." 00:28:30.290 --> 00:28:33.200 align:middle line:90% 2008. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:38.600 align:middle line:84% With unsuspicious disposition, Y begins first grade, occasionally 00:28:38.600 --> 00:28:41.810 align:middle line:84% bursting into song, like the bird she once was, 00:28:41.810 --> 00:28:45.560 align:middle line:90% in front of the startled nuns. 00:28:45.560 --> 00:28:47.930 align:middle line:90% 2010. 00:28:47.930 --> 00:28:52.940 align:middle line:84% Y is given her first platypus, whose tiny fins and bill 00:28:52.940 --> 00:28:56.720 align:middle line:84% provide her with an important but subtle connection 00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:00.500 align:middle line:90% to her ancestral past. 00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:02.960 align:middle line:90% 2013. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.490 align:middle line:84% Y, suffering from chronic insomnia, is taken by her mother 00:29:07.490 --> 00:29:10.280 align:middle line:84% to a psychiatrist named Walda, who 00:29:10.280 --> 00:29:13.355 align:middle line:84% tries to teach her meditation techniques with whale tapes. 00:29:13.355 --> 00:29:16.850 align:middle line:90% 00:29:16.850 --> 00:29:19.580 align:middle line:90% 2015. 00:29:19.580 --> 00:29:23.390 align:middle line:84% Dropping Walda, Y begins to fly at night, 00:29:23.390 --> 00:29:28.870 align:middle line:84% folding her wings carefully into her lunchbox before dawn. 00:29:28.870 --> 00:29:31.640 align:middle line:90% 2016. 00:29:31.640 --> 00:29:35.810 align:middle line:90% Y receives her 96th platypus. 00:29:35.810 --> 00:29:38.690 align:middle line:90% 2017. 00:29:38.690 --> 00:29:42.170 align:middle line:84% Y gets her first job in a grocery store wrapping 00:29:42.170 --> 00:29:44.810 align:middle line:90% head lettuce in cellophane. 00:29:44.810 --> 00:29:49.400 align:middle line:84% As her boss reprimands her for her addictive lateness, 00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:54.780 align:middle line:84% they hear the cellophane uncrinkling from 250 heads. 00:29:54.780 --> 00:29:55.520 align:middle line:90% Y is fired. 00:29:55.520 --> 00:29:59.990 align:middle line:90% 00:29:59.990 --> 00:30:03.050 align:middle line:90% 2022. 00:30:03.050 --> 00:30:07.580 align:middle line:84% Y enters college, where she shows virtuosity in languages 00:30:07.580 --> 00:30:13.240 align:middle line:84% and hypnotizes professors with her subtle vowel trills. 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:17.330 align:middle line:90% 2023. 00:30:17.330 --> 00:30:21.890 align:middle line:84% Y is flying during adolescence-- increases its velocity. 00:30:21.890 --> 00:30:25.700 align:middle line:84% Sometimes she becomes a long-haired star 00:30:25.700 --> 00:30:27.815 align:middle line:84% before touching down behind her parents' colonial. 00:30:27.815 --> 00:30:30.380 align:middle line:90% 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:32.870 align:middle line:90% 2024. 00:30:32.870 --> 00:30:37.430 align:middle line:90% Y moves into a group house. 00:30:37.430 --> 00:30:41.090 align:middle line:84% Intolerant of her 300 platypuses, her roommates become 00:30:41.090 --> 00:30:42.500 align:middle line:90% mean. 00:30:42.500 --> 00:30:46.550 align:middle line:84% In retaliation, Y blows up Evelyn's StairMaster. 00:30:46.550 --> 00:30:50.150 align:middle line:90% 00:30:50.150 --> 00:30:53.480 align:middle line:90% 2026. 00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:58.640 align:middle line:84% Y begins her first job as an administrative assistant. 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:01.640 align:middle line:84% She becomes skilled in stuffing her science fiction 00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:05.240 align:middle line:90% novel into her top desk drawer. 00:31:05.240 --> 00:31:07.520 align:middle line:90% 2028. 00:31:07.520 --> 00:31:11.000 align:middle line:84% Noticing that her boss, Bonnie, has inadvertently 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:13.790 align:middle line:84% spilled blusher on the tips of her shoes, 00:31:13.790 --> 00:31:16.655 align:middle line:84% Y falls in love for the first time. 00:31:16.655 --> 00:31:19.250 align:middle line:90% 00:31:19.250 --> 00:31:23.000 align:middle line:84% Y sets out to shock the office and seduces Bonnie. 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.050 align:middle line:84% They jet to Paris for a weekend getaway. 00:31:27.050 --> 00:31:30.230 align:middle line:84% And in this illusory moment, strained 00:31:30.230 --> 00:31:35.630 align:middle line:84% by excessive amounts of pastry, caffeine, and sex, 00:31:35.630 --> 00:31:39.280 align:middle line:84% Y realizes that Bonnie is perfect for her. 00:31:39.280 --> 00:31:42.380 align:middle line:90% Y breaks up with Bonnie. 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:43.480 align:middle line:90% Y is fired. 00:31:43.480 --> 00:31:46.790 align:middle line:90% 00:31:46.790 --> 00:31:50.030 align:middle line:90% 2030. 00:31:50.030 --> 00:31:53.300 align:middle line:84% Ancient tragic motive reflected in the modern, 00:31:53.300 --> 00:31:56.840 align:middle line:84% Y enters a period of obsessive flying. 00:31:56.840 --> 00:32:02.450 align:middle line:84% Lonely for love she shuns, she hunts the night flywheels, 00:32:02.450 --> 00:32:05.690 align:middle line:84% screaming above the trilevels and branches, 00:32:05.690 --> 00:32:08.345 align:middle line:84% dropping her nature on expensive cars. 00:32:08.345 --> 00:32:11.390 align:middle line:90% 00:32:11.390 --> 00:32:14.180 align:middle line:90% 2031. 00:32:14.180 --> 00:32:17.180 align:middle line:84% Heedless of her reputation, Y has now 00:32:17.180 --> 00:32:19.670 align:middle line:90% taken to flying in the daytime. 00:32:19.670 --> 00:32:23.480 align:middle line:84% Gaudy and black-necked, randomly and promiscuously 00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:26.510 align:middle line:84% sparring with mockers [INAUDIBLE], 00:32:26.510 --> 00:32:30.350 align:middle line:84% joining great swarms of waterfowl, shorebirds, 00:32:30.350 --> 00:32:31.820 align:middle line:90% and other transients. 00:32:31.820 --> 00:32:36.550 align:middle line:90% 00:32:36.550 --> 00:32:40.300 align:middle line:90% 2036. 00:32:40.300 --> 00:32:44.830 align:middle line:84% Y is dimly aware that she is trapped in finite grammars, 00:32:44.830 --> 00:32:49.120 align:middle line:84% constrained by a century that cannot define her. 00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:52.240 align:middle line:84% But she struggles toward alternative thoughts 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:56.410 align:middle line:84% and tactical realms, the post-verbal. 00:32:56.410 --> 00:33:00.370 align:middle line:84% For her wings once lifted into a larger scheme, where 00:33:00.370 --> 00:33:02.560 align:middle line:90% there were extra positions. 00:33:02.560 --> 00:33:07.720 align:middle line:84% The band forms infinite sequences. 00:33:07.720 --> 00:33:13.600 align:middle line:84% But she is here, or sometimes the birds are coarse and poor. 00:33:13.600 --> 00:33:16.850 align:middle line:90% 00:33:16.850 --> 00:33:20.340 align:middle line:90% 2036. 00:33:20.340 --> 00:33:24.930 align:middle line:84% Increasingly, Y has great difficulty returning home, 00:33:24.930 --> 00:33:27.810 align:middle line:84% and this is the beginning of sorrow. 00:33:27.810 --> 00:33:31.020 align:middle line:84% She will fly until the word has shed its meanings. 00:33:31.020 --> 00:33:37.860 align:middle line:90% 00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:41.190 align:middle line:84% And the next two poems sort of explain 00:33:41.190 --> 00:33:45.870 align:middle line:84% a little what Y has been up to since we've met her. 00:33:45.870 --> 00:33:51.840 align:middle line:84% And the title of this poem is, "God Was Too Busy." 00:33:51.840 --> 00:33:56.340 align:middle line:84% Y, taking advantage of the fact that God was too busy watching 00:33:56.340 --> 00:34:00.840 align:middle line:84% sparrows, moved dangerously higher and faster, 00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:06.150 align:middle line:84% effortlessly attaining an escape velocity, 00:34:06.150 --> 00:34:09.600 align:middle line:84% propelling her deep into the ionosphere. 00:34:09.600 --> 00:34:14.790 align:middle line:84% And through the exosphere, Y burst a fine fluttering thing. 00:34:14.790 --> 00:34:17.909 align:middle line:90% She was not sure she was free. 00:34:17.909 --> 00:34:22.380 align:middle line:84% And there she met a girl who was no longer a bird. 00:34:22.380 --> 00:34:25.710 align:middle line:84% Her heart no longer occupied with the thought 00:34:25.710 --> 00:34:28.350 align:middle line:90% of wanting to fly. 00:34:28.350 --> 00:34:32.370 align:middle line:84% Seeking such peace, Y-- on her magnificent wings, 00:34:32.370 --> 00:34:36.239 align:middle line:84% before the light blue girl, folding provisions 00:34:36.239 --> 00:34:39.540 align:middle line:84% into her primary feathers that emitted 00:34:39.540 --> 00:34:43.170 align:middle line:90% faint prisms and space light. 00:34:43.170 --> 00:34:47.969 align:middle line:84% The beauty hit Y's wings, and our Y was happy. 00:34:47.969 --> 00:34:50.670 align:middle line:90% Then she began to die. 00:34:50.670 --> 00:34:54.750 align:middle line:84% She missed blending into the evening's lightning, fields 00:34:54.750 --> 00:34:59.940 align:middle line:84% of silver potatoes falling away like lesser guilts. 00:34:59.940 --> 00:35:03.600 align:middle line:84% Everything she meant to be, taken from herself 00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:08.460 align:middle line:84% and suspended between two scarred hands. 00:35:08.460 --> 00:35:12.510 align:middle line:84% Y asked the beauty for her wings back, but learned that 00:35:12.510 --> 00:35:17.790 align:middle line:84% never would she see them again, but a stronger, swifter pair 00:35:17.790 --> 00:35:22.230 align:middle line:84% would be hers, if only she breathed deeply enough. 00:35:22.230 --> 00:35:28.540 align:middle line:90% 00:35:28.540 --> 00:35:32.965 align:middle line:84% And the second Y poem is called "Slight Bondage." 00:35:32.965 --> 00:35:36.250 align:middle line:90% 00:35:36.250 --> 00:35:39.340 align:middle line:84% Trapped in space, Y's thoughts narrowed 00:35:39.340 --> 00:35:41.800 align:middle line:84% into a series of perceptions that 00:35:41.800 --> 00:35:46.810 align:middle line:84% only bound her more intimately to the light blue girl. 00:35:46.810 --> 00:35:50.470 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] chain, she did as commanded, 00:35:50.470 --> 00:35:54.730 align:middle line:84% hurling dark pageants into the comet drop. 00:35:54.730 --> 00:35:57.670 align:middle line:84% She has almost forgotten she could fly. 00:35:57.670 --> 00:36:01.690 align:middle line:84% The idea of wings faded as the rosettes in her grandmother's 00:36:01.690 --> 00:36:05.625 align:middle line:84% carpet, threadbare petals only visible to those 00:36:05.625 --> 00:36:09.460 align:middle line:90% who remember their shapes. 00:36:09.460 --> 00:36:13.630 align:middle line:84% And though far above the Earth, Y could distinguish the faint 00:36:13.630 --> 00:36:18.400 align:middle line:84% sound of a 40-year-old man's body crashing on top of his 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:20.740 align:middle line:90% mother's dead one. 00:36:20.740 --> 00:36:24.520 align:middle line:84% The man would continue to despise his mother, 00:36:24.520 --> 00:36:28.240 align:middle line:84% and need his mother, like a bashed bit of moon 00:36:28.240 --> 00:36:30.850 align:middle line:84% orbiting the universe that smashed it. 00:36:30.850 --> 00:36:33.460 align:middle line:90% 00:36:33.460 --> 00:36:39.310 align:middle line:84% 70 song sequences and Y, divided form of a human heart. 00:36:39.310 --> 00:36:44.380 align:middle line:84% And this was the beginning of an immense crack beneath her feet, 00:36:44.380 --> 00:36:47.470 align:middle line:84% underneath the grief that would not come. 00:36:47.470 --> 00:36:54.200 align:middle line:90% 00:36:54.200 --> 00:36:59.060 align:middle line:84% And this final poem continues my bird obsession, 00:36:59.060 --> 00:37:01.730 align:middle line:84% which had come over me when I was here. 00:37:01.730 --> 00:37:05.470 align:middle line:84% And I read this while watching all the birds 00:37:05.470 --> 00:37:09.650 align:middle line:84% upon the back patio of the Poetry Center's cottage. 00:37:09.650 --> 00:37:13.310 align:middle line:84% It's just amazing the amount of birds that land there. 00:37:13.310 --> 00:37:16.100 align:middle line:84% And that sort of led to this poem, 00:37:16.100 --> 00:37:21.400 align:middle line:84% and it's called "Light Breathing." 00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:24.010 align:middle line:84% It started with just a few crumbs 00:37:24.010 --> 00:37:29.980 align:middle line:84% scattered on the patio, picked at by just a few thrashers. 00:37:29.980 --> 00:37:33.280 align:middle line:84% Oval sonnets floriating in swags of sunlight 00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:37.600 align:middle line:84% damasking the Southwest corner of the yard. 00:37:37.600 --> 00:37:40.520 align:middle line:84% Came a cactus wren, the peaked tuft, 00:37:40.520 --> 00:37:44.620 align:middle line:84% thistle threads [INAUDIBLE] scuttling forward a furnished 00:37:44.620 --> 00:37:47.110 align:middle line:90% bolt with tail trucked up. 00:37:47.110 --> 00:37:51.070 align:middle line:84% And here tips a mourning dove, her roan stipples, 00:37:51.070 --> 00:37:56.110 align:middle line:84% tiny scapulas pushing through the torn tin wing hues. 00:37:56.110 --> 00:38:01.210 align:middle line:84% She ticks, breast first, sorrow, sorrow. 00:38:01.210 --> 00:38:04.000 align:middle line:84% And just then, the wood thrush barge in. 00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:07.480 align:middle line:84% Bellies squared high, and miniature black bits 00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:10.300 align:middle line:84% pinning a mingle of mottled browns. 00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:12.190 align:middle line:90% Why, multitudes have alit. 00:38:12.190 --> 00:38:15.400 align:middle line:84% Surely, the small circle of food is gone, 00:38:15.400 --> 00:38:20.680 align:middle line:84% yet they are everywhere, much more than there ought to be. 00:38:20.680 --> 00:38:25.220 align:middle line:84% Here's a veery, tawny jostle, boisterously bulleting 00:38:25.220 --> 00:38:27.340 align:middle line:90% his faint honey bill. 00:38:27.340 --> 00:38:32.470 align:middle line:84% A pivot dusts, head, then tail down in it all a fluff. 00:38:32.470 --> 00:38:35.350 align:middle line:90% Chestnut families whirring. 00:38:35.350 --> 00:38:39.490 align:middle line:84% They're feeding each other now, landing upon clotheslines, 00:38:39.490 --> 00:38:41.650 align:middle line:90% prickly pear, lawn chairs. 00:38:41.650 --> 00:38:44.780 align:middle line:84% And suddenly, as they come up, they all 00:38:44.780 --> 00:38:49.000 align:middle line:84% rise, plunging and pitching in the goldenness. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:52.690 align:middle line:84% Upblown and high, taking the yard and high, 00:38:52.690 --> 00:38:58.750 align:middle line:84% far above the fluted fence, the adobes foreshortening as we lift 00:38:58.750 --> 00:39:01.510 align:middle line:90% delicately into the sparkle. 00:39:01.510 --> 00:39:06.340 align:middle line:84% And below is the cross that, because I could not carry, 00:39:06.340 --> 00:39:08.160 align:middle line:90% I hung from. 00:39:08.160 --> 00:39:16.330 align:middle line:84% And now it is a slim fur laden with cones, infinitely dividing. 00:39:16.330 --> 00:39:17.771 align:middle line:90% Thanks very much. 00:39:17.771 --> 00:39:22.388 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:39:22.388 --> 00:39:34.087 align:middle line:90%