WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:04.680 align:middle line:84%
Maybe it's time to
read this poem that

00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:07.020 align:middle line:90%
was written this afternoon.

00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:08.970 align:middle line:84%
Several people have
been nice to me here,

00:00:08.970 --> 00:00:12.300 align:middle line:84%
but a few students and I
went to the Desert Museum

00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:15.840 align:middle line:84%
and afterwards we stopped
at a bar for a few drinks

00:00:15.840 --> 00:00:17.265 align:middle line:90%
and wrote a collaborative poem.

00:00:17.265 --> 00:00:20.400 align:middle line:90%


00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:22.830 align:middle line:84%
Maybe the best way
to describe this poem

00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:27.660 align:middle line:84%
is that it's kind
of a surreal love

00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:33.420 align:middle line:84%
poem that was helped or hindered
a great deal by alcohol.

00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:36.330 align:middle line:90%


00:00:36.330 --> 00:00:38.760 align:middle line:84%
It gets, you'll see it
gets a little disjointed

00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:40.140 align:middle line:90%
toward the end.

00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.880 align:middle line:84%
I won't tell you
whose lines are which,

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.740 align:middle line:84%
but it was written by myself,
Rex Veeder, and Pat Skinner.

00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:50.240 align:middle line:90%


00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:56.290 align:middle line:84%
It was called "Hands Full
of Dangerous Red Berries."

00:00:56.290 --> 00:00:58.990 align:middle line:84%
"In the dark
corridors of Tucson,

00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:01.510 align:middle line:84%
I fill my hands
with red berries,

00:01:01.510 --> 00:01:05.650 align:middle line:84%
shaking hands with lizard eyes,
and letting the blue scalp

00:01:05.650 --> 00:01:10.450 align:middle line:84%
of the sky surround us,
enclose us--" excuse me.

00:01:10.450 --> 00:01:14.410 align:middle line:84%
"We lie down with tamarac
and fur, a leg up on thistles

00:01:14.410 --> 00:01:18.490 align:middle line:84%
and tumbleweed, and our dead
fathers become corporeal,

00:01:18.490 --> 00:01:20.860 align:middle line:84%
sticking out their
fetid tongues,

00:01:20.860 --> 00:01:23.935 align:middle line:84%
embracing trees,
making love to animals.

00:01:23.935 --> 00:01:30.430 align:middle line:84%
[LAUGHTER] Father,
I admit I like this,

00:01:30.430 --> 00:01:34.990 align:middle line:84%
your mouth in my hand, the night
song of your spine coming at me

00:01:34.990 --> 00:01:38.080 align:middle line:90%
like red fog.

00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:40.780 align:middle line:84%
Oh yellow knapsack
full of pictures

00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:42.820 align:middle line:90%
you would never show me.

00:01:42.820 --> 00:01:46.880 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:50.860 align:middle line:84%
Here you wrestle a steer,
your image in black and white

00:01:50.860 --> 00:01:52.810 align:middle line:90%
imagines itself red.

00:01:52.810 --> 00:01:55.060 align:middle line:90%
I swear it is.

00:01:55.060 --> 00:02:02.530 align:middle line:84%
O Freud's lost theory of
cactus envy, [LOUD LAUGHTER]

00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:03.880 align:middle line:90%
where have you been hiding?

00:02:03.880 --> 00:02:09.520 align:middle line:84%
[LAUGHTER] We laugh, we
love, but there are times

00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:11.860 align:middle line:90%
when leaves do not cover us.

00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:15.690 align:middle line:84%
Big on love, small on
doubt, we will work it out."

00:02:15.690 --> 00:02:19.390 align:middle line:84%
That-- [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]
It's not over yet.

00:02:19.390 --> 00:02:23.410 align:middle line:90%


00:02:23.410 --> 00:02:25.730 align:middle line:84%
"Texture our bones
with each other,

00:02:25.730 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:84%
curl up like contraband
embryos and kiss our knees,

00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:33.640 align:middle line:90%
this is your life."

00:02:33.640 --> 00:02:34.480 align:middle line:90%
That's it.

00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:36.030 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:36.030 --> 00:02:41.000 align:middle line:90%