WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.780 --> 00:00:13.690 align:middle line:84% I do want to mention that Suzanne Gardinier will also be 00:00:13.690 --> 00:00:17.200 align:middle line:84% giving a talk tomorrow in our Continuing Lecture Series, 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:23.665 align:middle line:84% and that will be at 11:00 in Student Union Room 283. 00:00:23.665 --> 00:00:25.540 align:middle line:84% If you haven't been coming to those lectures, 00:00:25.540 --> 00:00:28.630 align:middle line:84% they've been just terrific, and I anticipate 00:00:28.630 --> 00:00:30.590 align:middle line:90% that this one will be as well. 00:00:30.590 --> 00:00:33.380 align:middle line:90% So please join us for that. 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:35.990 align:middle line:84% Suzanne grew up in Massachusetts, lives now in Sag 00:00:35.990 --> 00:00:38.160 align:middle line:90% Harbor, New York. 00:00:38.160 --> 00:00:43.460 align:middle line:84% Her book, The New World, won the 1992 AWP Award Series in poetry, 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:46.730 align:middle line:84% and it's just out from the University of Pittsburgh Press. 00:00:46.730 --> 00:00:49.490 align:middle line:84% Her work has also been in Under 35: The New 00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:51.920 align:middle line:84% Generation of American Poets, and the Best American 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.200 align:middle line:90% Poetry 1989 and 1990. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:56.880 align:middle line:84% She's won a number of other awards, 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:01.280 align:middle line:84% including the coveted and lucrative Lannan Literary 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:03.200 align:middle line:90% Fellowship. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:05.960 align:middle line:84% She received her MFA from Columbia University, 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:09.170 align:middle line:84% and is currently working on a novel called The Seventh 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:10.700 align:middle line:90% Generation. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:12.920 align:middle line:84% If you haven't read The New World yet, 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:17.340 align:middle line:84% you're in for truly a wonderful adventure. 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:22.190 align:middle line:84% It's a book that has a striking structure. 00:01:22.190 --> 00:01:25.130 align:middle line:84% It's one book composed of five books, actually. 00:01:25.130 --> 00:01:26.690 align:middle line:84% And as she said earlier today, if you 00:01:26.690 --> 00:01:28.310 align:middle line:84% don't get the poem right the first time, 00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:29.185 align:middle line:90% just keep writing it. 00:01:29.185 --> 00:01:34.130 align:middle line:84% And each section of the book uses the same series of titles, 00:01:34.130 --> 00:01:38.120 align:middle line:84% but the poems are really rewritten and really revisioned. 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:42.680 align:middle line:84% So that what comes together is an astonishing kaleidoscope 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.610 align:middle line:84% of voices and views, of what it is 00:01:46.610 --> 00:01:52.010 align:middle line:84% to be a member of a tarnished and idealistic nation, 00:01:52.010 --> 00:01:54.230 align:middle line:90% such as we are. 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:57.110 align:middle line:84% About the book, Adrienne Rich has written, 00:01:57.110 --> 00:02:00.980 align:middle line:84% "this is a great poem of this end of our century. 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:05.090 align:middle line:84% It is masterfully structured in recurring themes and voices 00:02:05.090 --> 00:02:07.490 align:middle line:84% which work on and off each other. 00:02:07.490 --> 00:02:10.759 align:middle line:84% I found this a thrilling poem to read." 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:12.680 align:middle line:84% I'm sure many of you will as well, 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:16.313 align:middle line:84% and ask you to join me in welcoming Suzanne Gardinier. 00:02:16.313 --> 00:02:25.680 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:26.280 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:30.562 align:middle line:90% 00:02:30.562 --> 00:02:32.520 align:middle line:84% I thought because of the structure of the book, 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:34.062 align:middle line:84% there are any number of ways that you 00:02:34.062 --> 00:02:35.790 align:middle line:90% can jump in and jump out of it. 00:02:35.790 --> 00:02:37.950 align:middle line:84% I had originally hoped that I could publish it 00:02:37.950 --> 00:02:40.380 align:middle line:84% with no page numbers, but Pittsburgh was not 00:02:40.380 --> 00:02:42.120 align:middle line:90% too wild about that. 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:44.070 align:middle line:84% So it still has page numbers, but I'm 00:02:44.070 --> 00:02:48.360 align:middle line:84% going to sort of go through it backwards to forwards instead 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:50.280 align:middle line:90% tonight. 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:51.930 align:middle line:84% Just to give a little orientation, 00:02:51.930 --> 00:02:56.143 align:middle line:84% I'll read a little bit from the notes at the back. 00:02:56.143 --> 00:02:57.810 align:middle line:84% "The New World is centered in the circle 00:02:57.810 --> 00:03:01.650 align:middle line:84% 50 miles in all directions from Columbus Circle in Manhattan. 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:03.420 align:middle line:84% The messages from other parts of the world 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:06.420 align:middle line:84% are transmitted through this geographical area. 00:03:06.420 --> 00:03:08.700 align:middle line:84% The only exceptions are the voice of Columbus, 00:03:08.700 --> 00:03:11.130 align:middle line:84% and that of the ghost of Santo Domingo, 00:03:11.130 --> 00:03:14.130 align:middle line:84% speaking from where they first encountered each other 500 00:03:14.130 --> 00:03:16.050 align:middle line:90% years ago. 00:03:16.050 --> 00:03:18.270 align:middle line:90% In the poem, many voices speak. 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:20.910 align:middle line:84% My name on it should not be understood as any claim 00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:23.220 align:middle line:90% to originality or ownership. 00:03:23.220 --> 00:03:26.800 align:middle line:84% I am less the poem's author than its gatherer, to make it, 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.580 align:middle line:84% I thought much less than I listened. 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:34.140 align:middle line:84% In the words of the Chilean song, 'Yo no soy quien canto, 00:03:34.140 --> 00:03:35.250 align:middle line:90% solo soy la voz.' 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:40.372 align:middle line:84% The list of sources below--" comes after that. 00:03:40.372 --> 00:03:42.330 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start at the very end of the poem. 00:03:42.330 --> 00:03:45.480 align:middle line:84% The first sections that I'm going to read are the voice 00:03:45.480 --> 00:03:48.690 align:middle line:84% of Columbus, who appears in a section called "Admirals," 00:03:48.690 --> 00:03:52.290 align:middle line:84% and the voice of the ghost of Santo Domingo. 00:03:52.290 --> 00:03:54.990 align:middle line:84% Over and over again in the course of writing the poem, 00:03:54.990 --> 00:03:59.190 align:middle line:84% I started writing it wandering around near Columbus Circle, 00:03:59.190 --> 00:04:02.250 align:middle line:84% seeing that statue of Columbus up on his pedestal, 00:04:02.250 --> 00:04:06.450 align:middle line:84% about three or four years before the 500th anniversary of his 00:04:06.450 --> 00:04:07.530 align:middle line:90% landing. 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:11.100 align:middle line:84% And I kept thinking about that meeting, that day 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:13.050 align:middle line:84% actually, when he and his friends 00:04:13.050 --> 00:04:17.459 align:middle line:84% showed up, and the values that they brought with them, 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.250 align:middle line:84% and the values of the people whom they met, 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:24.120 align:middle line:84% and how those two currents have survived. 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:29.470 align:middle line:84% And fortunately for us, one didn't annihilate the other. 00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:33.120 align:middle line:84% So this is the end of the poem imagining that day. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.030 align:middle line:84% It's in a section called "Migrations," 00:04:36.030 --> 00:04:40.050 align:middle line:84% and it's in the voice of the ghost of Santo Domingo. 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:41.940 align:middle line:90% "It was the moon of big winds. 00:04:41.940 --> 00:04:45.870 align:middle line:84% In the night, I dreamed the dance of the death of the chief. 00:04:45.870 --> 00:04:47.850 align:middle line:84% We have put his things in their places. 00:04:47.850 --> 00:04:50.160 align:middle line:90% We sang in the circle. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:53.250 align:middle line:84% We have wiped the blood from the Earth where he stood, 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:55.170 align:middle line:90% his abiding place. 00:04:55.170 --> 00:04:58.800 align:middle line:84% We have smoothed over the Earth where he lay. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.820 align:middle line:84% Then the new chief stepped forward, 00:05:00.820 --> 00:05:02.970 align:middle line:90% but his face was hidden. 00:05:02.970 --> 00:05:05.430 align:middle line:84% Now the council fire is rekindled. 00:05:05.430 --> 00:05:07.770 align:middle line:90% We sang to him dancing. 00:05:07.770 --> 00:05:10.530 align:middle line:84% The sorrow, we have borne it elsewhere. 00:05:10.530 --> 00:05:13.260 align:middle line:84% From your throat, we have taken the grief. 00:05:13.260 --> 00:05:18.030 align:middle line:84% You have lost that upon which your eyes rested trustfully. 00:05:18.030 --> 00:05:20.460 align:middle line:84% Nevertheless there are many matters. 00:05:20.460 --> 00:05:24.270 align:middle line:84% Now the Commonwealth rests in your hands. 00:05:24.270 --> 00:05:28.950 align:middle line:84% The morning was clear, but all day the dream walked beside me. 00:05:28.950 --> 00:05:32.040 align:middle line:84% The leaves of the tallest trees spoke its words 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:34.500 align:middle line:90% and held its hidden face. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:39.030 align:middle line:84% By the stream rocks, we washed in the glinting sprays. 00:05:39.030 --> 00:05:42.570 align:middle line:84% Over the water the sun swept to warm us. 00:05:42.570 --> 00:05:45.870 align:middle line:84% Over the water the birds swept to eat. 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:48.120 align:middle line:84% Over the water the wind swept, to hurry 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:50.490 align:middle line:90% the end of the day's harvest. 00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:54.520 align:middle line:84% Before dark, I slept again between two trees. 00:05:54.520 --> 00:05:58.440 align:middle line:84% I saw over the water the sweep of gulls wings, 00:05:58.440 --> 00:06:00.825 align:middle line:84% over the water a signal, a sail." 00:06:00.825 --> 00:06:11.950 align:middle line:90% 00:06:11.950 --> 00:06:14.665 align:middle line:84% And this next is called "The Ghost of Santo Domingo." 00:06:14.665 --> 00:06:17.290 align:middle line:90% 00:06:17.290 --> 00:06:20.620 align:middle line:84% "They gave us broken crockery, broken glass, 00:06:20.620 --> 00:06:24.670 align:middle line:84% the ends of broken straps, broken fragments of hoops 00:06:24.670 --> 00:06:30.070 align:middle line:84% that bound the wine casks, red woolen caps, hawks bells, glass 00:06:30.070 --> 00:06:31.660 align:middle line:90% beads. 00:06:31.660 --> 00:06:34.030 align:middle line:84% When he would not set his foot on the land, 00:06:34.030 --> 00:06:36.850 align:middle line:84% we swam the cove out to his ship. 00:06:36.850 --> 00:06:40.300 align:middle line:84% Some of us he kept and would not let go. 00:06:40.300 --> 00:06:42.940 align:middle line:84% We offered pineapples and sweet potatoes, 00:06:42.940 --> 00:06:46.450 align:middle line:84% and tried to tell him where the wind was light and the water 00:06:46.450 --> 00:06:49.390 align:middle line:84% fresh and the reefs deeply buried, 00:06:49.390 --> 00:06:53.200 align:middle line:84% and where trees spoke storm warnings most clearly. 00:06:53.200 --> 00:06:56.290 align:middle line:84% He asked for the ornaments at our necks. 00:06:56.290 --> 00:06:59.440 align:middle line:84% We gave bits of gold and rainbow parrots. 00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:04.210 align:middle line:84% We embraced him, our lost one, our brother returned. 00:07:04.210 --> 00:07:07.870 align:middle line:84% Before his fort and ruler and compass, 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:10.060 align:middle line:84% before those who touched him fell sick 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:14.320 align:middle line:84% and died, before we stopped lying together to make no more 00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:18.280 align:middle line:84% children, before the women set free from their cabins 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:21.430 align:middle line:84% came back and could not eat or sleep, 00:07:21.430 --> 00:07:24.580 align:middle line:84% before the withering of the blossom tree, 00:07:24.580 --> 00:07:28.090 align:middle line:84% before we knew them, before the unmasking when 00:07:28.090 --> 00:07:31.480 align:middle line:84% their flesh fell away and left fever and swords, 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:33.100 align:middle line:90% we welcomed them. 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.170 align:middle line:90% We danced and feasted. 00:07:35.170 --> 00:07:38.920 align:middle line:84% We ran among the villages calling, come, come, 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:40.330 align:middle line:90% see the people from the sky." 00:07:40.330 --> 00:07:52.120 align:middle line:90% 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:55.120 align:middle line:84% This next-- I wrote the poem basically 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.430 align:middle line:84% by walking around with my yellow legal pads, 00:07:57.430 --> 00:08:00.400 align:middle line:84% within that 50 mile radius from Columbus Circle, 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:02.747 align:middle line:90% writing down what I saw. 00:08:02.747 --> 00:08:05.080 align:middle line:84% Fortunately for the poem, a lot of it didn't make it in, 00:08:05.080 --> 00:08:06.640 align:middle line:90% but some of it did. 00:08:06.640 --> 00:08:08.800 align:middle line:84% And one thing I kept noticing is-- 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:12.820 align:middle line:84% I think of it as two parallel streams, of those values 00:08:12.820 --> 00:08:15.790 align:middle line:84% that Columbus and the people who came with him brought with them, 00:08:15.790 --> 00:08:18.010 align:middle line:84% and the values of the people he found there. 00:08:18.010 --> 00:08:23.050 align:middle line:84% And the voices that they took on were so different in the poem, 00:08:23.050 --> 00:08:25.630 align:middle line:90% going back and forth. 00:08:25.630 --> 00:08:27.950 align:middle line:84% And so these are two more of them. 00:08:27.950 --> 00:08:31.180 align:middle line:84% The first one is called "Admirals," 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:32.289 align:middle line:90% and it's Columbus' voice. 00:08:32.289 --> 00:08:36.520 align:middle line:84% And virtually every word in it comes from his journals. 00:08:36.520 --> 00:08:38.799 align:middle line:84% And then I'll read another "Ghost of Santo Domingo," 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:42.190 align:middle line:90% and you can hear the difference. 00:08:42.190 --> 00:08:43.720 align:middle line:90% "Admirals." 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:46.060 align:middle line:84% "The people go naked, men and women 00:08:46.060 --> 00:08:49.420 align:middle line:84% of handsome bodies and very good faces. 00:08:49.420 --> 00:08:52.000 align:middle line:84% On the first island, I took some by force 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:54.490 align:middle line:84% that they might give information. 00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:58.000 align:middle line:84% They remain so much our friends that it was a marvel. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.790 align:middle line:84% Thus the eternal God our Lord gives victory 00:09:00.790 --> 00:09:03.490 align:middle line:90% to those who follow his way. 00:09:03.490 --> 00:09:06.400 align:middle line:84% They swam to the ships and brought us water. 00:09:06.400 --> 00:09:08.680 align:middle line:84% They are so free with all they possess, 00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:11.860 align:middle line:84% none would believe without having seen it. 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.920 align:middle line:84% Of anything they have, they give with as much love 00:09:14.920 --> 00:09:17.230 align:middle line:90% as if they gave their hearts. 00:09:17.230 --> 00:09:20.380 align:middle line:84% Of keen intelligence, they navigate all these seas, 00:09:20.380 --> 00:09:23.170 align:middle line:90% but are timid beyond cure. 00:09:23.170 --> 00:09:26.050 align:middle line:84% They bear no arms nor know thereof. 00:09:26.050 --> 00:09:29.080 align:middle line:84% When I showed them swords, they grasped by the blade 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:31.790 align:middle line:90% and cut themselves in ignorance. 00:09:31.790 --> 00:09:33.220 align:middle line:90% They have no iron. 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:36.160 align:middle line:90% Their spears are made of cane. 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:38.710 align:middle line:84% It seems they belong to no religion. 00:09:38.710 --> 00:09:41.140 align:middle line:84% They are of the opinion that I and my ships 00:09:41.140 --> 00:09:45.610 align:middle line:84% come from the source of all power and goodness, the sky. 00:09:45.610 --> 00:09:48.370 align:middle line:84% In all the world, there are no better people nor better 00:09:48.370 --> 00:09:49.690 align:middle line:90% country. 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:53.180 align:middle line:84% With 50 men, we could subjugate them and make them do whatever 00:09:53.180 --> 00:09:53.680 align:middle line:90% we want." 00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:57.900 align:middle line:90% 00:09:57.900 --> 00:10:00.960 align:middle line:90% "The Ghost of Santo Domingo." 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:03.990 align:middle line:84% "That the Earth may shelter and sustain us, 00:10:03.990 --> 00:10:06.120 align:middle line:84% that she may wrap herself in mists 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:09.900 align:middle line:84% and put them off again before us, that she may be everywhere 00:10:09.900 --> 00:10:14.130 align:middle line:84% touched by rain, that the planted mounds on the hillside 00:10:14.130 --> 00:10:17.640 align:middle line:84% may prosper, that potato and cassava roots 00:10:17.640 --> 00:10:21.600 align:middle line:84% may plunge deep and hold the black Earth tightly, 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:26.070 align:middle line:84% that the squash leaves may give moisture and shade, 00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:28.560 align:middle line:84% that the island sea may swallow the sun, 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:31.620 align:middle line:84% and with celebration, return it to us, 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.710 align:middle line:84% that the manatee and its clan may prosper, 00:10:34.710 --> 00:10:38.310 align:middle line:84% that the heavy winds may come in their time, 00:10:38.310 --> 00:10:41.610 align:middle line:84% that the white sand may warm under the sun's body, 00:10:41.610 --> 00:10:44.760 align:middle line:84% and may cool and moisten under the moon, 00:10:44.760 --> 00:10:48.240 align:middle line:84% that the moon may navigate its passage safely, 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.190 align:middle line:84% that we may gather after the flood 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:55.500 align:middle line:84% tides, that the old rocks may know our newborn children, 00:10:55.500 --> 00:10:59.220 align:middle line:84% that the ducklings may know our dying and dead, 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:02.640 align:middle line:84% that in solitude the old ones will protect us, 00:11:02.640 --> 00:11:06.810 align:middle line:84% that our songs may travel with the fragrant smoke, 00:11:06.810 --> 00:11:09.360 align:middle line:84% that we may smell good to each other, 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.720 align:middle line:84% that lovers may laugh and be satisfied, 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.720 align:middle line:84% that the village fire burn on unkindled. 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:18.930 align:middle line:84% We face each other and sing without ceasing. 00:11:18.930 --> 00:11:22.905 align:middle line:84% We dance, we dance, we dance, we dance." 00:11:22.905 --> 00:11:43.280 align:middle line:90% 00:11:43.280 --> 00:11:46.550 align:middle line:84% This is-- I'll read two more sections sort of 00:11:46.550 --> 00:11:47.780 align:middle line:90% along this path. 00:11:47.780 --> 00:11:50.893 align:middle line:84% One is one I wrote very early in the course of writing the poem. 00:11:50.893 --> 00:11:52.310 align:middle line:84% It took me four years to write it, 00:11:52.310 --> 00:11:54.380 align:middle line:84% and this was very close to the beginning. 00:11:54.380 --> 00:11:58.490 align:middle line:84% And this is about Columbus Circle in Manhattan. 00:11:58.490 --> 00:12:01.610 align:middle line:84% "He stares South on his column over anchors, 00:12:01.610 --> 00:12:04.070 align:middle line:84% over the tree of heaven at his feet, 00:12:04.070 --> 00:12:06.590 align:middle line:84% on an island where the avenues divide. 00:12:06.590 --> 00:12:10.130 align:middle line:84% His hand on his hip, one foot forward. 00:12:10.130 --> 00:12:12.500 align:middle line:84% Below in the dirty circular pool, 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.490 align:middle line:84% dead leaves float among the dumb fountain spigots. 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:20.420 align:middle line:84% In a tableau, a sailor hauls a wood boat ashore. 00:12:20.420 --> 00:12:23.960 align:middle line:84% In the center, Columbus sinks under a royal standard 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:26.060 align:middle line:90% and a cross. 00:12:26.060 --> 00:12:30.830 align:middle line:84% To the right is a tumult of vines and trees hiding shadows. 00:12:30.830 --> 00:12:34.730 align:middle line:84% The corrosive rain has touched the image and blurred it. 00:12:34.730 --> 00:12:38.120 align:middle line:84% From his post, he assesses the neighboring smaller island 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:41.690 align:middle line:84% of moored motorcycles, pedestrians prohibited, 00:12:41.690 --> 00:12:45.860 align:middle line:84% push carts, gyros, souvlaki, a blanket spread 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:48.410 align:middle line:90% with nude magazines. 00:12:48.410 --> 00:12:52.460 align:middle line:84% The cars simmer and hinder each other around the circle, 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.100 align:middle line:90% the drivers leaning and cursing. 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:59.090 align:middle line:84% The engines gutter and steam, and with their soot firings 00:12:59.090 --> 00:13:03.200 align:middle line:84% erase the statue's messages, which include these words: 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:08.960 align:middle line:84% A Cristoforo Colombo donavo un mondo al mondo. 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:13.130 align:middle line:84% And a winged angel crouched, his nakedness hidden, 00:13:13.130 --> 00:13:15.590 align:middle line:84% his hand on a globe, fingers dipping in." 00:13:15.590 --> 00:13:28.330 align:middle line:90% 00:13:28.330 --> 00:13:31.810 align:middle line:84% And this last part of this trip through 00:13:31.810 --> 00:13:34.270 align:middle line:84% is something that I wrote visiting 00:13:34.270 --> 00:13:39.850 align:middle line:84% the Museum of the American Indian up in upper Manhattan. 00:13:39.850 --> 00:13:42.940 align:middle line:84% "This afternoon, cut bound shocks of cane 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:47.020 align:middle line:84% lean against open backed vans on upper Broadway. 00:13:47.020 --> 00:13:50.500 align:middle line:84% In back are coconuts hacked to the sweet white meat 00:13:50.500 --> 00:13:51.940 align:middle line:90% with machetes. 00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:55.060 align:middle line:84% Sweat darkens the sides of the shirts of the men 00:13:55.060 --> 00:13:58.690 align:middle line:84% who hand out cups of iced juice from plaintains, 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:02.080 align:middle line:84% and pike oranges beside mounted blades, 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:06.340 align:middle line:84% their peels spun away in one continuous curving. 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:09.490 align:middle line:84% Up the street past red, white, and blue ice rockets, 00:14:09.490 --> 00:14:13.390 align:middle line:84% papayas, and soaps called Dove and Shield, 00:14:13.390 --> 00:14:16.210 align:middle line:90% on the hill is the stone museum. 00:14:16.210 --> 00:14:20.170 align:middle line:90% Maya, Carib, Arawak in the sky. 00:14:20.170 --> 00:14:24.670 align:middle line:84% Algonquin, Shoshone, Iroquois, Sioux. 00:14:24.670 --> 00:14:28.660 align:middle line:84% And over Quixote's starving horse and broken spear, 00:14:28.660 --> 00:14:34.780 align:middle line:84% Pizarro, Cortes, De Leon, Pinzon, Columbus. 00:14:34.780 --> 00:14:39.250 align:middle line:84% Inside past the cashier, silenced, sealed in glass, 00:14:39.250 --> 00:14:43.540 align:middle line:84% is a beaded condolence string with the deaths of 20 chiefs 00:14:43.540 --> 00:14:45.580 align:middle line:90% nicked in the pendant. 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:49.420 align:middle line:84% Belts of quahog wampum tell histories in a language 00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:52.510 align:middle line:90% of raised arms and evergreens. 00:14:52.510 --> 00:14:55.390 align:middle line:84% A Cherokee sculptor from North Carolina, 00:14:55.390 --> 00:14:59.350 align:middle line:84% in loafers and patience, a bear claw hung from his neck, 00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:01.660 align:middle line:90% carved spaces from rock. 00:15:01.660 --> 00:15:04.720 align:middle line:84% Pleased to meet you, two women say to a third, 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:06.970 align:middle line:90% gesturing toward the sculptor. 00:15:06.970 --> 00:15:09.520 align:middle line:84% We have a boy on his reservation. 00:15:09.520 --> 00:15:11.410 align:middle line:90% We wanted an American. 00:15:11.410 --> 00:15:13.720 align:middle line:84% What were we going to get, a ghetto kid? 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:14.920 align:middle line:90% No, sir. 00:15:14.920 --> 00:15:16.960 align:middle line:90% We decided on a Native American. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:20.140 align:middle line:84% And no sir, we've never regretted it. 00:15:20.140 --> 00:15:23.440 align:middle line:84% One opens a wallet and takes out a photograph. 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:26.120 align:middle line:90% He's 14 now, taller than me. 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:29.200 align:middle line:90% He's planning a military career. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:33.760 align:middle line:84% From a wall, Buffalo Bill smiles his hired smile. 00:15:33.760 --> 00:15:35.350 align:middle line:90% The chisel rings. 00:15:35.350 --> 00:15:38.830 align:middle line:84% The Annual Report of the Minnesota State Treasurer, 00:15:38.830 --> 00:15:45.370 align:middle line:84% July 4, 1863, records that from the military expense fund, 00:15:45.370 --> 00:15:48.760 align:middle line:84% J.C. Davis paid for postage stamps, 00:15:48.760 --> 00:15:53.860 align:middle line:84% canisters, transportation of arms, labor and arsenal, powder 00:15:53.860 --> 00:15:58.150 align:middle line:84% and lead, and Sioux scalps, as per the order 00:15:58.150 --> 00:16:03.880 align:middle line:84% that offered $25 to anybody for each scalp of a male Sioux 00:16:03.880 --> 00:16:06.040 align:middle line:90% delivered to this office. 00:16:06.040 --> 00:16:09.040 align:middle line:90% There's a case of hair. 00:16:09.040 --> 00:16:12.590 align:middle line:84% Two tourists speaking German look and nod and murmur 00:16:12.590 --> 00:16:14.890 align:middle line:90% the tribal names. 00:16:14.890 --> 00:16:17.980 align:middle line:84% The cards beside the cases speak, but do not 00:16:17.980 --> 00:16:21.070 align:middle line:84% say, on the day when the people understand 00:16:21.070 --> 00:16:26.110 align:middle line:84% who you were, they will bite the Earth and raise to you temples. 00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:28.570 align:middle line:84% They name a dusty race of strangers, 00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:32.080 align:middle line:84% with no connection to we who step onto Broadway 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:35.080 align:middle line:90% and walk over the ravaged land. 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:38.830 align:middle line:84% At the hatches of the vans bearing fruits of the island, 00:16:38.830 --> 00:16:43.270 align:middle line:84% the Admiral gulled and gutted and changed forever. 00:16:43.270 --> 00:16:47.200 align:middle line:84% The children of former slaves, and the children of former slave 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:50.140 align:middle line:84% owners, and the children of their commingling, 00:16:50.140 --> 00:16:53.170 align:middle line:84% greet each other in the tongue of the conquerors 00:16:53.170 --> 00:16:56.320 align:middle line:90% and in its rebellious variation. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.680 align:middle line:84% Babies sleep in strollers, their large lolled 00:16:59.680 --> 00:17:03.850 align:middle line:84% heads at right angles to their narrow shoulders. 00:17:03.850 --> 00:17:08.140 align:middle line:84% Their bodies, and later the crescent moon's blurred cusps, 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:11.619 align:middle line:84% testify beside the forges and furnace 00:17:11.619 --> 00:17:14.980 align:middle line:84% smokestacks and sirens and trains 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:18.069 align:middle line:84% that this island is not a machine. 00:17:18.069 --> 00:17:20.290 align:middle line:84% Inside the locked museum, the corner 00:17:20.290 --> 00:17:24.970 align:middle line:84% is dark that describes the Taino, those who taught Columbus 00:17:24.970 --> 00:17:27.609 align:middle line:84% how to feed himself and his men, how 00:17:27.609 --> 00:17:32.410 align:middle line:84% to sleep in net beds hung between trees or hold hooks. 00:17:32.410 --> 00:17:34.940 align:middle line:84% Taino was their word for themselves. 00:17:34.940 --> 00:17:37.720 align:middle line:84% It was a word they spoke to strangers. 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.060 align:middle line:84% It was a greeting, meaning people of peace." 00:17:40.060 --> 00:17:55.060 align:middle line:90% 00:17:55.060 --> 00:17:58.840 align:middle line:84% This next-- one of the cycles in the poem is a blues. 00:17:58.840 --> 00:18:03.610 align:middle line:84% Part of what I wanted to do is use a form indigenous 00:18:03.610 --> 00:18:08.230 align:middle line:84% to this country, which the 12 bar blues is. 00:18:08.230 --> 00:18:11.110 align:middle line:84% And this first one, the you in the "Blues" 00:18:11.110 --> 00:18:12.850 align:middle line:90% is addressed to this country. 00:18:12.850 --> 00:18:17.860 align:middle line:84% And it's about the promises that were 00:18:17.860 --> 00:18:20.530 align:middle line:84% made to me as a kid about what this country is, 00:18:20.530 --> 00:18:24.710 align:middle line:84% and the gap between them and the reality. 00:18:24.710 --> 00:18:27.055 align:middle line:90% And I'll sing it for you. 00:18:27.055 --> 00:18:32.200 align:middle line:84% (SINGING) "You tell me no trouble's on your trail, 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:36.610 align:middle line:84% you tell me no trouble's on your trail. 00:18:36.610 --> 00:18:42.280 align:middle line:84% But you got shakes and blood under your nails. 00:18:42.280 --> 00:18:47.110 align:middle line:84% When you keep on lying like you do, 00:18:47.110 --> 00:18:51.910 align:middle line:84% when you keep on lying like you do, 00:18:51.910 --> 00:18:57.460 align:middle line:84% I can't love you the way you want me to. 00:18:57.460 --> 00:19:03.190 align:middle line:84% You promised me something you ain't given yet, yeah, 00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:10.720 align:middle line:84% you promised something you ain't given yet, you promised me, 00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:12.595 align:middle line:90% and I won't forget." 00:19:12.595 --> 00:19:26.340 align:middle line:90% 00:19:26.340 --> 00:19:28.680 align:middle line:84% This next section is called "To the City of Fire." 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:34.280 align:middle line:84% And there's a word in it, usahn, which was-- it's U-S-A-H-N. 00:19:34.280 --> 00:19:35.040 align:middle line:90% And it's a word-- 00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:39.240 align:middle line:84% I wanted a word for coming from this country. 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:41.730 align:middle line:84% And American, for some folks, I know means 00:19:41.730 --> 00:19:44.220 align:middle line:84% from Hudson's Bay to Tierra Del Fuego. 00:19:44.220 --> 00:19:47.393 align:middle line:84% So I wanted something particular to here, so that's why it's USA. 00:19:47.393 --> 00:19:48.810 align:middle line:84% It's also because every time I say 00:19:48.810 --> 00:19:51.300 align:middle line:84% the word English for the language I'm using, 00:19:51.300 --> 00:19:53.260 align:middle line:84% I hear British English in my head. 00:19:53.260 --> 00:19:55.440 align:middle line:84% So I wanted a word for this English. 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:59.250 align:middle line:84% So that's what it does in this stanza. 00:19:59.250 --> 00:20:00.195 align:middle line:90% "To the City of Fire." 00:20:00.195 --> 00:20:02.820 align:middle line:90% 00:20:02.820 --> 00:20:04.620 align:middle line:84% "All along there have been places 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:08.460 align:middle line:84% where I have stopped my sentences to hear you. 00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:10.650 align:middle line:84% For every word of this blathering figure, 00:20:10.650 --> 00:20:13.890 align:middle line:84% four words' worth of attentive silence. 00:20:13.890 --> 00:20:18.180 align:middle line:84% This poem is no more mine than the whorls of my fingerprints, 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:23.850 align:middle line:84% the graves of my ancestors, this usahn in my mouth and no less. 00:20:23.850 --> 00:20:26.280 align:middle line:84% Here is the place for you to speak. 00:20:26.280 --> 00:20:30.660 align:middle line:84% Alive or dead, midwifing this city's birth, 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:34.110 align:middle line:84% or leaving the neck-wound cord to its purpose, 00:20:34.110 --> 00:20:39.690 align:middle line:84% or sitting by, or walking the hallway outside the red room. 00:20:39.690 --> 00:20:42.600 align:middle line:84% Here is one place for you to say your piece. 00:20:42.600 --> 00:20:44.640 align:middle line:84% Although since we began this journey, 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.300 align:middle line:84% you have started and stopped as you pleased, put your two cents 00:20:48.300 --> 00:20:50.910 align:middle line:90% in or offered your silence. 00:20:50.910 --> 00:20:53.010 align:middle line:90% I offer this now. 00:20:53.010 --> 00:20:54.840 align:middle line:90% Tell me your part. 00:20:54.840 --> 00:20:58.120 align:middle line:84% Tell me what I have not been able to imagine. 00:20:58.120 --> 00:21:02.100 align:middle line:84% Tell me the universe that is parallel to the ones I know. 00:21:02.100 --> 00:21:04.440 align:middle line:84% Tell me your ecstatic breakfasts, 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:08.220 align:middle line:84% what food pleases you, what gods, if any. 00:21:08.220 --> 00:21:11.250 align:middle line:84% Tell me your mother and father, your sidewalks 00:21:11.250 --> 00:21:13.950 align:middle line:90% and leaves, your exiles. 00:21:13.950 --> 00:21:17.790 align:middle line:84% Tell me what you have told no one, hardly told yourself. 00:21:17.790 --> 00:21:18.570 align:middle line:90% Tell me. 00:21:18.570 --> 00:21:19.980 align:middle line:90% I'm leaning forward to listen." 00:21:19.980 --> 00:21:35.370 align:middle line:90% 00:21:35.370 --> 00:21:37.350 align:middle line:84% One of the things I tried to do in the poem 00:21:37.350 --> 00:21:43.740 align:middle line:84% was to make concrete the intimacy 00:21:43.740 --> 00:21:46.800 align:middle line:84% that I feel with some things that aren't concrete. 00:21:46.800 --> 00:21:49.050 align:middle line:84% Among them are ghosts, some of whose voices 00:21:49.050 --> 00:21:50.160 align:middle line:90% you've heard already. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:53.410 align:middle line:84% And some of them are ideas, I guess. 00:21:53.410 --> 00:21:56.550 align:middle line:84% Although when I say ideas, it doesn't feel like that-- 00:21:56.550 --> 00:22:00.150 align:middle line:90% and one is the idea of peace. 00:22:00.150 --> 00:22:02.850 align:middle line:84% And so there's a section of the poem that's called, "To Peace." 00:22:02.850 --> 00:22:04.200 align:middle line:90% And I'll read some of those. 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:07.380 align:middle line:90% 00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:09.270 align:middle line:90% "To Peace." 00:22:09.270 --> 00:22:11.190 align:middle line:90% "When will you come? 00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:15.840 align:middle line:84% The days are long, the nights damp and quick, but many. 00:22:15.840 --> 00:22:18.600 align:middle line:84% I am leaving the light for you, my traveler. 00:22:18.600 --> 00:22:20.850 align:middle line:90% Where are you staying tonight? 00:22:20.850 --> 00:22:25.560 align:middle line:84% What strangers fork and cup and sheets press against you? 00:22:25.560 --> 00:22:29.520 align:middle line:84% The rumors that you were seen in the east have come to nothing. 00:22:29.520 --> 00:22:32.190 align:middle line:90% Can you not send a letter? 00:22:32.190 --> 00:22:35.190 align:middle line:84% Without you, the hours will not balance. 00:22:35.190 --> 00:22:39.360 align:middle line:84% The summer burns and the winter snows course through the streets 00:22:39.360 --> 00:22:41.940 align:middle line:90% and flood the low houses. 00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:44.280 align:middle line:84% Our neighbors' faces are battlements. 00:22:44.280 --> 00:22:47.790 align:middle line:84% But perhaps for you, we have lost this name. 00:22:47.790 --> 00:22:51.120 align:middle line:84% We hunt each other underground, hold celebrations 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:55.350 align:middle line:84% in locked chambers, sleep uncovered in the rain. 00:22:55.350 --> 00:22:59.250 align:middle line:84% The children no longer know your name or your features. 00:22:59.250 --> 00:23:01.260 align:middle line:84% To the youngest, you are as near as what 00:23:01.260 --> 00:23:03.720 align:middle line:90% hides under grave markers. 00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:06.360 align:middle line:84% They have not known what it is to live with you, 00:23:06.360 --> 00:23:12.010 align:middle line:84% my elusive, my empty the plazas my stay away. 00:23:12.010 --> 00:23:14.670 align:middle line:84% How will I recognize your counterfeit? 00:23:14.670 --> 00:23:17.040 align:middle line:84% Does the place where your foot meets the Earth still 00:23:17.040 --> 00:23:19.170 align:middle line:90% keep the same imprint? 00:23:19.170 --> 00:23:22.740 align:middle line:84% Has your blindness become more burden than gift? 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:24.545 align:middle line:90% Will you remember the way? 00:23:24.545 --> 00:23:26.910 align:middle line:84% Will you feel the light's warmth and come in?" 00:23:26.910 --> 00:23:39.060 align:middle line:90% 00:23:39.060 --> 00:23:43.725 align:middle line:84% This is another crabbier one, "To Peace." 00:23:43.725 --> 00:23:46.230 align:middle line:84% "Peace, I have feared you, hated you, 00:23:46.230 --> 00:23:49.740 align:middle line:84% scuffed dirt on what little of you I could bear near me. 00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:52.980 align:middle line:84% Scorned you, called you vicious names. 00:23:52.980 --> 00:23:56.970 align:middle line:84% Every time you have settled over an afternoon, a friendship, 00:23:56.970 --> 00:24:00.810 align:middle line:84% a night walk, my brow, my sleep, I 00:24:00.810 --> 00:24:03.930 align:middle line:84% have lashed free of your desolate island back 00:24:03.930 --> 00:24:06.090 align:middle line:90% to the familiar continent. 00:24:06.090 --> 00:24:09.930 align:middle line:84% Coward, I watched you buckle under night sticks and fire 00:24:09.930 --> 00:24:10.710 align:middle line:90% hoses. 00:24:10.710 --> 00:24:13.350 align:middle line:84% You have disgusted me, slipping flowers 00:24:13.350 --> 00:24:15.960 align:middle line:84% into guns, holding hands with yourself, 00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:18.630 align:middle line:90% singing to bullets and dogs. 00:24:18.630 --> 00:24:22.140 align:middle line:84% Who can speak your language but animals and saints? 00:24:22.140 --> 00:24:25.050 align:middle line:84% What history records your triumphs? 00:24:25.050 --> 00:24:28.440 align:middle line:84% Over what centuries have you reigned, miasma? 00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:30.360 align:middle line:84% Where are the stone lists of those 00:24:30.360 --> 00:24:33.210 align:middle line:90% who have died in your name? 00:24:33.210 --> 00:24:34.950 align:middle line:84% In the land where you are loved, what 00:24:34.950 --> 00:24:38.130 align:middle line:84% becomes of the veterans of all against all? 00:24:38.130 --> 00:24:40.230 align:middle line:90% How will I clothe myself? 00:24:40.230 --> 00:24:42.060 align:middle line:90% How will I eat? 00:24:42.060 --> 00:24:43.800 align:middle line:84% How will I teach my children whom 00:24:43.800 --> 00:24:46.410 align:middle line:84% to respect, how to find themselves 00:24:46.410 --> 00:24:51.490 align:middle line:84% on a map of the world, when I have so seldom seen your face? 00:24:51.490 --> 00:24:54.960 align:middle line:84% Tell me bloodless, outlaw, phantom. 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:57.060 align:middle line:84% What is the work of the belligerents 00:24:57.060 --> 00:24:59.130 align:middle line:90% in your anarchic kingdom? 00:24:59.130 --> 00:25:00.030 align:middle line:90% Where is my place?" 00:25:00.030 --> 00:25:16.450 align:middle line:90% 00:25:16.450 --> 00:25:19.510 align:middle line:90% This is the last "To Peace." 00:25:19.510 --> 00:25:23.200 align:middle line:84% "Why should you come to meet me, your most awkward lover 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:25.510 align:middle line:90% stumbling over your name? 00:25:25.510 --> 00:25:27.400 align:middle line:90% I have nothing to give you. 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:30.550 align:middle line:84% I have no way with gestures or sweetness, 00:25:30.550 --> 00:25:35.050 align:middle line:84% nothing to say to those who spit on your likeness before me, 00:25:35.050 --> 00:25:38.630 align:middle line:84% nor to those who insist that at last you are dead. 00:25:38.630 --> 00:25:41.530 align:middle line:84% Nor to you, my invisible, breathing 00:25:41.530 --> 00:25:44.950 align:middle line:84% your voice in the air when music falls silent. 00:25:44.950 --> 00:25:48.460 align:middle line:84% Your step on the path when it's too dark to see, 00:25:48.460 --> 00:25:51.640 align:middle line:84% your lips on my lips, and dreams vanishing 00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:55.660 align:middle line:84% to morning's barren thistles caught in my hair. 00:25:55.660 --> 00:26:00.370 align:middle line:84% Here there are many smooth words for you in all mouths but mine. 00:26:00.370 --> 00:26:02.890 align:middle line:84% Here you are honored with banners stained yellow 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:04.480 align:middle line:90% for cowardice. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:07.720 align:middle line:84% Here boxes of bones are laid at your feet, 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:10.090 align:middle line:84% and rifles thrust into your hands, 00:26:10.090 --> 00:26:12.070 align:middle line:90% but you will not hold them. 00:26:12.070 --> 00:26:15.130 align:middle line:84% I know you by the sound of the rifles falling 00:26:15.130 --> 00:26:18.190 align:middle line:90% and the bones embraced. 00:26:18.190 --> 00:26:21.250 align:middle line:84% I'm standing between two hills over water 00:26:21.250 --> 00:26:24.730 align:middle line:84% on a narrow log, unsure underfoot. 00:26:24.730 --> 00:26:26.060 align:middle line:90% You were late. 00:26:26.060 --> 00:26:28.400 align:middle line:90% My legs are tired. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:31.405 align:middle line:84% We share the long night waiting between us. 00:26:31.405 --> 00:26:34.810 align:middle line:84% I your devoted impatient stranger, 00:26:34.810 --> 00:26:39.220 align:middle line:84% you my skittish near with no sign, eyeing this bridge, 00:26:39.220 --> 00:26:40.645 align:middle line:90% deciding whether to cross." 00:26:40.645 --> 00:27:01.147 align:middle line:90% 00:27:01.147 --> 00:27:03.480 align:middle line:84% One of the things that happened in the course of writing 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:08.400 align:middle line:84% the poem was, I would get this feeling that I have right now, 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:12.750 align:middle line:84% this sort of heavy sadness in my chest 00:27:12.750 --> 00:27:17.190 align:middle line:84% at what I saw in the course of making the poem. 00:27:17.190 --> 00:27:20.430 align:middle line:84% And I needed something to give me 00:27:20.430 --> 00:27:23.110 align:middle line:90% the strength to keep doing it. 00:27:23.110 --> 00:27:25.770 align:middle line:84% And so that came out in the poem-- 00:27:25.770 --> 00:27:29.220 align:middle line:84% in the cycle in the book called, "Where Blind Sorrow Is Taught 00:27:29.220 --> 00:27:30.297 align:middle line:90% to See." 00:27:30.297 --> 00:27:31.255 align:middle line:90% And they're love poems. 00:27:31.255 --> 00:27:34.990 align:middle line:90% 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:38.260 align:middle line:84% "Before you, I walked with my hands in my pockets 00:27:38.260 --> 00:27:41.800 align:middle line:84% by the dark deserted piers in all weathers. 00:27:41.800 --> 00:27:45.220 align:middle line:84% Before you, I asked at the oracles of steel grates 00:27:45.220 --> 00:27:48.730 align:middle line:84% and park maples' winter cordage, and tried 00:27:48.730 --> 00:27:52.210 align:middle line:84% to decipher the admonitions of saplings and windows 00:27:52.210 --> 00:27:55.030 align:middle line:90% of notebooks and globes. 00:27:55.030 --> 00:27:57.520 align:middle line:84% Before you, I bluffed and hoarded. 00:27:57.520 --> 00:28:01.660 align:middle line:84% I ranged the inconsolable archipelago bent 00:28:01.660 --> 00:28:06.310 align:middle line:84% with useless offerings ungiven, past taverns and perfumes 00:28:06.310 --> 00:28:11.290 align:middle line:84% and cardboard palettes, longing for the embrace of mannequins. 00:28:11.290 --> 00:28:15.520 align:middle line:84% Trying to walk captivity's scent from my clothes. 00:28:15.520 --> 00:28:18.700 align:middle line:84% Before you I could not hold oblivion tightly enough 00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:20.500 align:middle line:90% against me. 00:28:20.500 --> 00:28:23.350 align:middle line:84% The parsed day's murders and educations 00:28:23.350 --> 00:28:25.870 align:middle line:84% settled into the bones of my face, 00:28:25.870 --> 00:28:28.510 align:middle line:84% where I could no longer understand them. 00:28:28.510 --> 00:28:30.760 align:middle line:90% Before you, blank tablets. 00:28:30.760 --> 00:28:33.580 align:middle line:90% Before you, dumb. 00:28:33.580 --> 00:28:37.000 align:middle line:84% Before you, I looked for you in the rubble of roadways 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:39.160 align:middle line:90% and broken impediments. 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.490 align:middle line:84% In the praying mantis climbing the pilaster, 00:28:42.490 --> 00:28:45.580 align:middle line:84% and the bleak hacked view from the promontory, 00:28:45.580 --> 00:28:49.930 align:middle line:84% in cuffed new leaves stirring in empty shoes. 00:28:49.930 --> 00:28:53.140 align:middle line:84% Before you, I walked and whistled invitations, 00:28:53.140 --> 00:28:55.450 align:middle line:84% and heard no answering voice before you." 00:28:55.450 --> 00:29:07.450 align:middle line:90% 00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:12.760 align:middle line:84% This is another of the "Where Blind Sorrow Is Taught to See." 00:29:12.760 --> 00:29:17.140 align:middle line:84% "Rain shines black with a red and white light laced street, 00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:19.870 align:middle line:90% divides and becomes two. 00:29:19.870 --> 00:29:22.480 align:middle line:84% The walkers hunch coats over their heads, 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:25.030 align:middle line:90% but no rain falls here. 00:29:25.030 --> 00:29:26.620 align:middle line:84% Through the wall between us comes 00:29:26.620 --> 00:29:31.090 align:middle line:84% your voice, you who give me shelter for the night. 00:29:31.090 --> 00:29:35.800 align:middle line:84% Foot to piston fire to axle to tire to street with rain 00:29:35.800 --> 00:29:40.870 align:middle line:84% between, makes music surge and ebbs with each change of light. 00:29:40.870 --> 00:29:44.980 align:middle line:84% This song finds you a window across our bridge, you who 00:29:44.980 --> 00:29:48.010 align:middle line:90% give me shelter for the night. 00:29:48.010 --> 00:29:51.760 align:middle line:84% When does a bridge connect and when divide? 00:29:51.760 --> 00:29:54.460 align:middle line:84% When the wind pushes further into this room, 00:29:54.460 --> 00:29:56.320 align:middle line:90% the sill glistens. 00:29:56.320 --> 00:29:58.720 align:middle line:90% Chimes ring but softly. 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:01.780 align:middle line:84% Your laugh rises and hushes them, you who 00:30:01.780 --> 00:30:05.020 align:middle line:90% give me shelter for the night. 00:30:05.020 --> 00:30:10.210 align:middle line:84% Sirens slur their frantic words, but here there is no danger. 00:30:10.210 --> 00:30:15.130 align:middle line:84% The buttons down my shirt have all day held in my loneliness. 00:30:15.130 --> 00:30:18.160 align:middle line:84% I unfasten them, invisible, to you who 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:21.400 align:middle line:90% give me shelter for the night. 00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:25.600 align:middle line:84% The light on the page fails just outside the window. 00:30:25.600 --> 00:30:28.330 align:middle line:90% The sheets are cool and dry. 00:30:28.330 --> 00:30:32.230 align:middle line:84% The street slicks and chills, split in two. 00:30:32.230 --> 00:30:36.580 align:middle line:84% Your warm arpeggios sound through the lath and plaster, 00:30:36.580 --> 00:30:38.410 align:middle line:84% you who give me shelter for the night." 00:30:38.410 --> 00:30:58.968 align:middle line:90% 00:30:58.968 --> 00:31:00.510 align:middle line:84% I had-- as I said, part of what I did 00:31:00.510 --> 00:31:04.770 align:middle line:84% was walk around in that 50 mile radius, and see what I saw. 00:31:04.770 --> 00:31:06.650 align:middle line:84% And part of the time I was in schools. 00:31:06.650 --> 00:31:09.510 align:middle line:84% And that sense I spoke of at the beginning, 00:31:09.510 --> 00:31:12.150 align:middle line:84% about being less an author than a gatherer, 00:31:12.150 --> 00:31:16.050 align:middle line:84% comes from having listened a lot in the course of the poem, 00:31:16.050 --> 00:31:17.430 align:middle line:90% and wrote down what people said. 00:31:17.430 --> 00:31:20.790 align:middle line:84% And as Stan Max says in his comics, 00:31:20.790 --> 00:31:24.060 align:middle line:84% all dialogue guaranteed verbatim in this next section 00:31:24.060 --> 00:31:25.110 align:middle line:90% that I'll read. 00:31:25.110 --> 00:31:28.440 align:middle line:90% It's called "At School." 00:31:28.440 --> 00:31:32.190 align:middle line:84% "Excuse me, the teacher says, where are you going, mister? 00:31:32.190 --> 00:31:33.780 align:middle line:90% Do you have a pass? 00:31:33.780 --> 00:31:35.040 align:middle line:90% He nods. 00:31:35.040 --> 00:31:36.540 align:middle line:90% May I see it? 00:31:36.540 --> 00:31:40.800 align:middle line:84% He sighs, offers the paper, and stares out the door glass 00:31:40.800 --> 00:31:43.740 align:middle line:90% laced with diamonds of wire. 00:31:43.740 --> 00:31:49.050 align:middle line:84% On his chest are a skull and the words, harvester of sorrow. 00:31:49.050 --> 00:31:52.560 align:middle line:84% The interrogation complete, he continues his journey. 00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:54.840 align:middle line:90% She resumes her watch. 00:31:54.840 --> 00:31:58.650 align:middle line:84% Something's burning, Charlie, a colleague tells her. 00:31:58.650 --> 00:32:00.070 align:middle line:90% Can you smell it? 00:32:00.070 --> 00:32:02.410 align:middle line:90% They don't know what it is. 00:32:02.410 --> 00:32:06.150 align:middle line:84% Probably toxic fumes, she says, and we're all going to die. 00:32:06.150 --> 00:32:09.840 align:middle line:84% Nah, Charlie says, hooking a thumb under his belt. 00:32:09.840 --> 00:32:12.240 align:middle line:90% The buckle says USMC. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:13.230 align:middle line:90% We're safe. 00:32:13.230 --> 00:32:15.450 align:middle line:90% This is peace. 00:32:15.450 --> 00:32:18.660 align:middle line:84% I did what I had to do over there, he says. 00:32:18.660 --> 00:32:23.700 align:middle line:84% I went and when I came home, I lay in the streets to stop it. 00:32:23.700 --> 00:32:26.230 align:middle line:84% I thought I would change the world. 00:32:26.230 --> 00:32:28.860 align:middle line:84% I used to be an idealist, she says. 00:32:28.860 --> 00:32:31.170 align:middle line:84% It's still in you somewhere, he tells her. 00:32:31.170 --> 00:32:33.450 align:middle line:90% No, I don't think so. 00:32:33.450 --> 00:32:37.260 align:middle line:84% Her gaze splits as another adolescent approaches. 00:32:37.260 --> 00:32:40.410 align:middle line:84% When the revolution comes, Charlie laughs, you and me, 00:32:40.410 --> 00:32:42.960 align:middle line:84% chickie, will lie in the streets. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:44.910 align:middle line:90% Don't hold your breath, Charlie. 00:32:44.910 --> 00:32:47.670 align:middle line:84% Yes I'm telling you, chickie, we'll lie in the streets." 00:32:47.670 --> 00:33:01.700 align:middle line:90% 00:33:01.700 --> 00:33:03.310 align:middle line:90% This is something else I saw. 00:33:03.310 --> 00:33:04.780 align:middle line:84% It's a section called "Democracy." 00:33:04.780 --> 00:33:07.510 align:middle line:90% 00:33:07.510 --> 00:33:11.290 align:middle line:84% "Where there was furnishing and canopy, is now playing this. 00:33:11.290 --> 00:33:14.350 align:middle line:84% General Washington's pew at St Paul's is 00:33:14.350 --> 00:33:16.870 align:middle line:90% paint and varnished wood. 00:33:16.870 --> 00:33:20.620 align:middle line:84% On a brass plaque is his prayer, the soldier surveyor 00:33:20.620 --> 00:33:24.340 align:middle line:84% whom the Senecas called destroyer of towns. 00:33:24.340 --> 00:33:27.100 align:middle line:84% Almighty God, we make our prayer that 00:33:27.100 --> 00:33:31.840 align:middle line:84% will keep the United States of America in thy holy protection, 00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:34.780 align:middle line:84% that thou wilt incline the hearts of citizens 00:33:34.780 --> 00:33:38.710 align:middle line:84% to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience 00:33:38.710 --> 00:33:42.280 align:middle line:84% to government, to entertain a brotherly affection 00:33:42.280 --> 00:33:44.680 align:middle line:90% and love for one another. 00:33:44.680 --> 00:33:49.030 align:middle line:84% Beside the padlocked alms boxes, the unlit candles, 00:33:49.030 --> 00:33:53.170 align:middle line:84% and the velvet altar rope, a man with no elbows in his shirt 00:33:53.170 --> 00:33:56.260 align:middle line:84% wields a bucket across the floor. 00:33:56.260 --> 00:33:59.440 align:middle line:84% He stoops over the mangle, then heaves and sweeps 00:33:59.440 --> 00:34:02.170 align:middle line:90% wet arcs over the tile. 00:34:02.170 --> 00:34:05.350 align:middle line:84% In every pew of the sanctuary is a man, 00:34:05.350 --> 00:34:07.450 align:middle line:90% each separate from the others. 00:34:07.450 --> 00:34:10.510 align:middle line:84% One with cuts on his neck, one coughing, 00:34:10.510 --> 00:34:14.230 align:middle line:84% one stretched facedown asleep, one awake, 00:34:14.230 --> 00:34:16.480 align:middle line:90% with his head on his fists. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:20.284 align:middle line:84% At half past 10, they rise and join the line for the tickets 00:34:20.284 --> 00:34:20.784 align:middle line:90% for food." 00:34:20.784 --> 00:34:38.480 align:middle line:90% 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:42.630 align:middle line:84% I'll read two more sections, and then I'll sing a last blues. 00:34:42.630 --> 00:34:43.880 align:middle line:90% This one is called "Refugees." 00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:47.560 align:middle line:90% 00:34:47.560 --> 00:34:49.900 align:middle line:84% "Every night she dreams of departure 00:34:49.900 --> 00:34:52.690 align:middle line:84% from successive islands of suffering. 00:34:52.690 --> 00:34:54.400 align:middle line:90% There is no mainland. 00:34:54.400 --> 00:34:58.300 align:middle line:84% There is no knowing the depth of any one island's pain, 00:34:58.300 --> 00:35:01.210 align:middle line:84% until after her feet have settled on the new 00:35:01.210 --> 00:35:04.010 align:middle line:84% and she looks back over the water. 00:35:04.010 --> 00:35:06.820 align:middle line:84% But the glare blinds and her eyes are tired. 00:35:06.820 --> 00:35:09.820 align:middle line:90% And already she can't remember. 00:35:09.820 --> 00:35:13.270 align:middle line:84% On each new island are the orders and the barked opaque 00:35:13.270 --> 00:35:14.620 align:middle line:90% new words. 00:35:14.620 --> 00:35:16.600 align:middle line:90% A nod means no. 00:35:16.600 --> 00:35:19.090 align:middle line:90% A wave means go away. 00:35:19.090 --> 00:35:22.810 align:middle line:84% A pointed finger means here's the dirty place for you 00:35:22.810 --> 00:35:28.360 align:middle line:84% to wait, to clean, to sleep, to live. 00:35:28.360 --> 00:35:31.210 align:middle line:84% Each island has its order to be removed, 00:35:31.210 --> 00:35:35.260 align:middle line:84% food to be cooked, children to be tended, and saved 00:35:35.260 --> 00:35:40.450 align:middle line:84% these tasks for its most recent strangers, its little loved. 00:35:40.450 --> 00:35:43.900 align:middle line:84% On her knees on the floor, or over the steaming heap 00:35:43.900 --> 00:35:47.035 align:middle line:84% of clothes that are not hers, by the crib 00:35:47.035 --> 00:35:51.460 align:middle line:84% of the baby who is not hers, and who will not stop crying. 00:35:51.460 --> 00:35:54.190 align:middle line:84% A sudden sweep of her hand reminds her 00:35:54.190 --> 00:35:56.800 align:middle line:84% of the gesture from the last island, 00:35:56.800 --> 00:35:59.540 align:middle line:90% but it is gone in a minute. 00:35:59.540 --> 00:36:03.130 align:middle line:84% The one she stands on, she calls this new world. 00:36:03.130 --> 00:36:05.890 align:middle line:84% The one she has left forgotten, she calls home." 00:36:05.890 --> 00:36:14.130 align:middle line:90% 00:36:14.130 --> 00:36:18.030 align:middle line:84% And this last one I'll read, is called "To the City of Fire," 00:36:18.030 --> 00:36:22.080 align:middle line:90% and that begins the book. 00:36:22.080 --> 00:36:25.500 align:middle line:84% "If I forget you, let my sleep dwindle and vanish 00:36:25.500 --> 00:36:28.140 align:middle line:90% in the dark early mornings. 00:36:28.140 --> 00:36:31.890 align:middle line:84% Let sleep forget me until I learn to keep you near, 00:36:31.890 --> 00:36:35.880 align:middle line:84% and not stray, and not rest in my wanderings 00:36:35.880 --> 00:36:38.370 align:middle line:90% over your rutted face. 00:36:38.370 --> 00:36:42.030 align:middle line:84% How can you think it can ever be finished between us? 00:36:42.030 --> 00:36:45.510 align:middle line:84% Do you understand how the jostlings and marketplaces 00:36:45.510 --> 00:36:49.050 align:middle line:84% of any other city, how any meadow or china 00:36:49.050 --> 00:36:50.880 align:middle line:90% cup will summon you? 00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:55.110 align:middle line:84% Dying, my provenance, eyes closed, 00:36:55.110 --> 00:37:00.090 align:middle line:84% trailing blood from a severed leg left in the trap you made. 00:37:00.090 --> 00:37:03.330 align:middle line:84% Do you think you will dance that dance forever? 00:37:03.330 --> 00:37:04.890 align:middle line:90% Listen. 00:37:04.890 --> 00:37:07.950 align:middle line:84% There will be a night when the steel din of your heartbeat 00:37:07.950 --> 00:37:12.240 align:middle line:84% will fall almost silent, when I will ask your clamor from you 00:37:12.240 --> 00:37:13.890 align:middle line:90% and it will be given. 00:37:13.890 --> 00:37:15.900 align:middle line:90% I mean to stay. 00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:18.930 align:middle line:84% I mean to last your rebuffs, betrayals, 00:37:18.930 --> 00:37:22.170 align:middle line:90% trials of stamina and trust. 00:37:22.170 --> 00:37:26.880 align:middle line:84% I mean to part your smoke, to sleep my mindful sleep. 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:30.630 align:middle line:84% And with that strength, hold you and say the parting words 00:37:30.630 --> 00:37:34.860 align:middle line:84% over you, and listen to the manifold voices of those you 00:37:34.860 --> 00:37:37.590 align:middle line:90% crushed struggle into speech. 00:37:37.590 --> 00:37:40.005 align:middle line:84% To give myself, to help make what will come." 00:37:40.005 --> 00:37:47.967 align:middle line:90% 00:37:47.967 --> 00:37:49.175 align:middle line:90% And this last of the "Blues." 00:37:49.175 --> 00:37:51.760 align:middle line:90% 00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:57.410 align:middle line:84% (SINGING) "Come here, baby, wrap your arms around. 00:37:57.410 --> 00:38:02.630 align:middle line:84% Come here, baby, wrap your arms around. 00:38:02.630 --> 00:38:08.210 align:middle line:84% Want to hear you make them happy sounds. 00:38:08.210 --> 00:38:15.570 align:middle line:84% Tell me in my ear where you come from, tell me in my ear 00:38:15.570 --> 00:38:18.960 align:middle line:90% where you come from. 00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:22.465 align:middle line:84% Tell me every sweet thing you ever done. 00:38:22.465 --> 00:38:25.260 align:middle line:90% 00:38:25.260 --> 00:38:32.660 align:middle line:84% Ain't nobody but us here tonight, ain't nobody but us 00:38:32.660 --> 00:38:35.360 align:middle line:90% here tonight. 00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:39.813 align:middle line:84% Sing me all your old songs, it's all right." 00:38:39.813 --> 00:38:43.556 align:middle line:90% 00:38:43.556 --> 00:38:44.548 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:38:44.548 --> 00:38:46.532 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:38:46.532 --> 00:38:50.996 align:middle line:90% 00:38:50.996 --> 00:38:51.988 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:38:51.988 --> 00:38:57.440 align:middle line:90% 00:38:57.440 --> 00:38:57.940 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:38:57.940 --> 00:39:01.440 align:middle line:90% 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:05.950 align:middle line:84% If anybody has any questions or wants to say anything, 00:39:05.950 --> 00:39:06.450 align:middle line:90% feel free. 00:39:06.450 --> 00:39:07.283 align:middle line:90% That would be great. 00:39:07.283 --> 00:39:16.280 align:middle line:90% 00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:17.600 align:middle line:90% OK, thank you. 00:39:17.600 --> 00:39:23.540 align:middle line:90% 00:39:23.540 --> 00:39:28.255 align:middle line:90% [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:39:28.255 --> 00:40:48.000 align:middle line:90%