WEBVTT

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--UA bookstore.

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And I want to remind you
that, thanks to a small grant

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from the Arizona
Humanities Council,

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we're also running a series of
talks by our visiting writers

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this spring.

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So, tomorrow at 11:00 in
Student Union room 285,

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Greg Pape will be giving a
talk that we originally called

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"Poetry and a Palpable
Sense of Time."

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And in true poetic
fashion, it may wander

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wonderfully from that title.

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But please come to that as well.

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We're starting this
semester series

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by inviting one of our
graduates of the MFA program.

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And we're trying to make a habit
of bringing one person back,

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at least one, each year.

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Greg grew up, at least
in part, in Tucson

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and received his MFA here.

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He also studied with Phil
Levine at Cal State, in Fresno.

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He's the author of
Border Crossings,

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Black Branches, Storm Pattern,
all published by Pittsburgh,

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and Sunflower Facing the Sun,
which won the Edward Ford Piper

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award from the
University of Iowa Press.

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He's won many awards and
fellowships, among them,

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fellowships at the
Fine Arts Work Center

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in Provincetown, NEAs
and Pushcart Prizes.

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He's taught all
over the country,

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in public schools and Indian
reservations in Arizona,

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and I think he told me 11
colleges and universities

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before he really found a home
at the University of Montana,

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where he now teaches in the
creative writing program.

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I've admired his
work for a long time.

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His poems have a
strong narrative line,

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a compelling sense of place,
and the effect of place

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on one's inner landscape.

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The sense of place is very
far-ranging in his poems.

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They make readings of
the lands and ruins

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of the Southwest, of the
birthing room where his son is

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born, of Tucson's
own No-Tel Motel,

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of a peach orchard where a young
man shakes free the harvest

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with a hydraulic arm
while imagining his lover

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parting her lips for the deep
kiss that leads to heaven.

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And in each place,
he seems to find,

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in his words, things in
life that happen only once

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and make us who we are.

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Please welcome Greg Pape.

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[APPLAUSE]

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It's really nice to
be back in Tucson,

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especially because
I live in Montana.

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And in January,
everybody in Montana

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would like to be in Tucson.

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This morning, Alison
and I took a walk.

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I was really anxious to get
out into the countryside here.

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We went down to Madera Canyon
and we walked up and around,

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looking for birds
and things like that.

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And I thought I would read, for
Alison, a poem about a bird.

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It's a Florida
bird called an ani.

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Any of you ever seen an ani?

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It's a big ugly bird.

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"October, November, December,
I've forgotten the month.

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But I remember
the moment I first

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saw the ani, perched on the
limb of a young tree, planted

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in the divider strip of a
parking lot in South Florida,

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North Miami, Bay
Vista, where they used

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to dump toxic waste
in the mangroves,

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then paved it over and
built a university.

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I worked there two years.

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The limb was so
slight and the ani

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so heavy it bobbed up
and down in the breeze.

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Clouds loomed above the sea.

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Tar black and shining in the
sun, its big grotesque beak

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in profile, it
looked straight at me

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with one eye glinting
like a black pearl.

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I am the Lord God of this
exact place, it said.

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Who are you?"

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Birdwatching turned around.

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I'll read a few--

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I've moved around
so much that I tend

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to associate my poems with
the places I wrote them

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and the places they live.

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This one is an Arizona poem.

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It's called "The Morning
Horse, Canyon de Chelly."

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"Standing on the slick
rock, looking down

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into the still-shaded
canyon, the man and the woman

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could see a mud-roofed
hogan with the top half

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of the east-facing door
open, waiting for sunlight.

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A horse walked over to the
door and put its head in

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as if to say good morning, or,
it's about time, or, here I am,

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your horse, just like yesterday.

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Then, before the sun
touched the horse's back,

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before the sheep came
bounding out of their pens,

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adding their baas and bells
to the quiet of the canyon,

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they eased down the
trail in the morning air

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toward White House ruin.

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Ravens rode the thermals and
red lizards pulsed in red dust.

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The trail ran out at the river,
so they took off their shoes

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and hung them on their
shoulders and walked on

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in the cold, shallow water.

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Now, weeks later, as
she sleeps beside him,

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he thinks of the horse.

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He thinks the mornings
come to him like that.

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That into the darkness of sleep,
there comes a long, dark face

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with large questioning eyes,
whose light he feels in his own

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before he opens them.

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Before he turns to her
or she turns to him,

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the day is already moving
in each of them like sun

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into the canyon, to light
the ruins and the river

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and the horse that wants."

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This poem is set
in Chaco Canyon.

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Some of you may have been to
Chaco Canyon, the wonderful--

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it's probably the most extensive
ruins in the United States.

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And they're fabulous,
beautifully constructed.

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And even seeing them a thousand
years after they were abandoned,

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they're quite impressive.

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Stone masons today, people
who work with stone,

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look at this stuff
and can't figure out

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how it was done so well.

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Wijiji is the name of one of the
houses, one of the great houses

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in Chaco Canyon.

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And we're in the Southwest.

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I probably don't have to
explain all the stuff in here,

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so I won't.

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"Someone found the ochre
clay, or ground soft stone

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colored by iron oxide,
and mixed it in a bowl.

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Someone cut the hollow reed
from the rushes along the arroyo

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or fashioned the long
bone of an eagle's wing.

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Someone pressed a hand
on the canyon wall

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and blew the liquid ochre
onto hand and stone.

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Someone a thousand years ago
made this image, a yellow glow

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around an absent hand.

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There must have been joy
in the moment of making,

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and joy touched with sadness
in the moments afterward.

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Just as there is now,
in the way the glow

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holds to the shape of
the hand that's gone.

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On my way to this
place, I thought of you,

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the one I ask so much of.

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Storm clouds rose
over Chacra Mesa.

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Fajada Butte stood alone with
its secret knowledge of the sun.

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I walked up the path in the
changing light of the canyon,

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toward Wijiji, least of the
great houses of Chaco, place

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abandoned for a thousand years.

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Word uttered by the
body of a hummingbird,

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no one knows what it means.

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Wind came up through the siege
and brought the smell of rain.

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Somewhere in the
rocks, Kokopelli,

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with his burden of
seeds and his flute,

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bent over and blew his hopeful
music down on the husks.

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The seed of that music
opened and rose, waved

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and clattered like green corn.

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Virga blew in tattered
curtains above the mesa.

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A hummingbird hovered
at a red flower.

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At the base of the canyon
wall, when the wind stopped,

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I knelt before water
symbols, migration spirals,

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the wolf pulling down the
deer, the mother giving birth,

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and the small, absent hand
lit with a yellow glow.

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I put my hand to the image
and saw it disappear.

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More than one or the other,
more than all the regrets,

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more than the hand that touches,
it is the touching that lasts."

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I just got back from a really
fine fall semester down

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in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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I had been down
there 10 years ago,

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and I had some good
friends still down there.

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And it was nice to get away from
all the responsibilities of home

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in Montana for a while.

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And I had written
a poem 10 years--

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or I started a
poem 10 years ago.

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It sometimes takes me about
five years to finish a poem.

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And this is one.

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It's dated, so I know
that it took a long time.

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It just came out in
a book last year.

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And the title of the poem is
"Trains: Tuscaloosa, Alabama,

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Spring, 1983."

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That's when I started it.

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And one of the things
about living in Tuscaloosa,

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it's kind of like Tucson.

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If you live on
this side of town,

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you hear the trains
coming through town

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at night and at different
times during the day and early

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in the morning.

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And you listen to
them a lot, and you

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get to where you can tell time
by listening to these trains.

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And when I lived in
Tuscaloosa the first time,

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I lived in a
neighborhood right next

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to a spur of the railroad
track that went down

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to the Black Warrior River.

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And they loaded
coal barges there.

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The trains would bring the coal
in, come down this little spur,

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and load them onto
the boats at night.

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So I was perfectly aware
of when a train came

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by-- it'd just shake the house.

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And I had to deal with it.

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And I tried to make it
into a positive thing.

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Here's the poem.

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"I know when a train is coming.

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I can feel it in my feet.

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My azaleas tremble.

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My windows creak.

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The people who live
along the tracks

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have learned to ignore
trains in order to sleep,

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learned long ago to include
them, like bad weather,

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in the ragged sequences
of their dreams.

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Dreams are nothing
but the impure fuel

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the world burns,
the black coal that

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fills the barges and trains that
moves on the rivers and tracks

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in the heavy commerce of night.

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It's night now.

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And rain falls soft as soot
from the Goodrich stacks.

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Men in black gloves
breathe the oxides

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and sweat at the
presses and molds.

00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:16.910 align:middle line:84%
I listen for trains,
imagining the cigarette burns

00:13:16.910 --> 00:13:21.110 align:middle line:84%
in each petal of dogwood
that trembles by the tracks

00:13:21.110 --> 00:13:24.410 align:middle line:84%
or floats in the pines
along the interstate,

00:13:24.410 --> 00:13:28.100 align:middle line:84%
where scum of yellow
pine pollen gathers

00:13:28.100 --> 00:13:31.560 align:middle line:90%
at the edges of the streams.

00:13:31.560 --> 00:13:37.080 align:middle line:84%
I remember my first train
ride, Fresno to LA, on my own,

00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:39.090 align:middle line:90%
10 years old.

00:13:39.090 --> 00:13:42.510 align:middle line:84%
I can still hear the
singing as the train rocks

00:13:42.510 --> 00:13:45.720 align:middle line:84%
on the winding tracks
and through the tunnels

00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:50.220 align:middle line:84%
of the Tehachapi Mountains,
a group of Hawaiian boys

00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:53.730 align:middle line:84%
in flowered shirts
touring the states,

00:13:53.730 --> 00:13:56.520 align:middle line:90%
singing in the observation car.

00:13:56.520 --> 00:13:59.865 align:middle line:84%
There's a hole at the
bottom of the sea.

00:13:59.865 --> 00:14:02.550 align:middle line:90%
One boy strums a ukulele.

00:14:02.550 --> 00:14:06.700 align:middle line:84%
There's a log in the hole
at the bottom of the sea.

00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:12.510 align:middle line:84%
A simple song sung faster as
it's one verse grows longer.

00:14:12.510 --> 00:14:16.620 align:middle line:84%
There's a bump on the log in the
hole at the bottom of the sea.

00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:19.620 align:middle line:84%
There's a frog on the bump
on the log in the hole

00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:21.780 align:middle line:90%
at the bottom of the sea.

00:14:21.780 --> 00:14:25.770 align:middle line:84%
Until we were all laughing and
singing and adding our words

00:14:25.770 --> 00:14:29.880 align:middle line:84%
to fill the hole in the green
sunlight of the train heading

00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:32.640 align:middle line:90%
for LA.

00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:36.330 align:middle line:84%
I don't know what happened then,
or who met me at the station,

00:14:36.330 --> 00:14:41.100 align:middle line:84%
or how I said goodbye to the
Hawaiian boys and their ukulele.

00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:44.280 align:middle line:84%
The memory ends
with the singing.

00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:48.030 align:middle line:84%
The memory ends with the
singing and the train.

00:14:48.030 --> 00:14:52.830 align:middle line:84%
The memory ends with the singing
and the train on the way to LA.

00:14:52.830 --> 00:14:56.370 align:middle line:84%
And I go on listening
in Tuscaloosa,

00:14:56.370 --> 00:15:01.230 align:middle line:84%
with the open shells of my
ears, each one with its hole

00:15:01.230 --> 00:15:06.390 align:middle line:84%
at the bottom of the sea, each
one with its train and its black

00:15:06.390 --> 00:15:08.745 align:middle line:84%
gloves and its
trembling petals."

00:15:08.745 --> 00:15:24.440 align:middle line:90%


00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:26.180 align:middle line:84%
Here's a poem
called "Some Names."

00:15:26.180 --> 00:15:28.160 align:middle line:84%
And I know there's
at least one person

00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:35.490 align:middle line:84%
in the audience to whom these
names will mean something,

00:15:35.490 --> 00:15:36.990 align:middle line:90%
one person besides me.

00:15:36.990 --> 00:15:46.440 align:middle line:90%


00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:49.350 align:middle line:90%
"Some Names."

00:15:49.350 --> 00:16:02.470 align:middle line:84%
"Nooncaster, Colombini, Abrahms,
Perez, Patigian, Doohan, Eliot,

00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:05.980 align:middle line:90%
Masterpolo, Roderick.

00:16:05.980 --> 00:16:08.620 align:middle line:90%
Some names come back tonight.

00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:12.460 align:middle line:84%
Nooncaster was a butcher
who drove a red Corvette

00:16:12.460 --> 00:16:17.110 align:middle line:84%
with a fiberglass body
that shattered like a toy.

00:16:17.110 --> 00:16:21.040 align:middle line:84%
He always carried cash,
supplied every barbecue

00:16:21.040 --> 00:16:24.610 align:middle line:84%
with fresh red meat,
and charmed the air

00:16:24.610 --> 00:16:27.460 align:middle line:84%
with his quick
delivery, bright eyes,

00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:33.950 align:middle line:84%
and the odd music, part nasal,
part gravel, of his voice.

00:16:33.950 --> 00:16:37.370 align:middle line:84%
Colombini had biceps
like baseballs.

00:16:37.370 --> 00:16:40.790 align:middle line:84%
Abrahms was an
unlit neon sign who

00:16:40.790 --> 00:16:42.800 align:middle line:84%
could turn it on
when he wanted to

00:16:42.800 --> 00:16:46.850 align:middle line:84%
and sing like Sam
Cook or Otis Redding,

00:16:46.850 --> 00:16:51.440 align:middle line:84%
long before they were ghosts,
but spent most of his time

00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:56.770 align:middle line:84%
in a dark dream of some
childhood road, listening.

00:16:56.770 --> 00:16:58.810 align:middle line:90%
Perez was cool.

00:16:58.810 --> 00:17:02.140 align:middle line:84%
No better word for the way he
moved through the hot valley

00:17:02.140 --> 00:17:07.300 align:middle line:84%
nights, in spit-shined French
toes or a lowered Chevy,

00:17:07.300 --> 00:17:12.010 align:middle line:84%
black as his eyes, his hair
slicked back as if to say,

00:17:12.010 --> 00:17:18.890 align:middle line:84%
the wind, sun, moon, and
stars all stop when I stop.

00:17:18.890 --> 00:17:25.610 align:middle line:84%
Patigian was part lion, part
wren, but looked like a bear.

00:17:25.610 --> 00:17:30.170 align:middle line:84%
Doohan lit the barbecue with
gas splashed from a baby moon

00:17:30.170 --> 00:17:31.310 align:middle line:90%
hubcap.

00:17:31.310 --> 00:17:34.580 align:middle line:84%
And just as we imagined
it would happen,

00:17:34.580 --> 00:17:37.850 align:middle line:90%
his arm went up in flames.

00:17:37.850 --> 00:17:41.330 align:middle line:84%
Eliot drove his loaded
Ford on country roads

00:17:41.330 --> 00:17:44.570 align:middle line:84%
and raced the
trains to crossings.

00:17:44.570 --> 00:17:48.340 align:middle line:90%
And almost always won.

00:17:48.340 --> 00:17:53.110 align:middle line:84%
Masterpolo made a mess of
things in the Y Knot Roadhouse

00:17:53.110 --> 00:17:55.480 align:middle line:90%
because he wouldn't let it ride.

00:17:55.480 --> 00:18:01.880 align:middle line:84%
He tore the antlered heads from
the dumb walls, old friends,

00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:08.110 align:middle line:84%
acquaintances, role models in
the badass arts of adolescence.

00:18:08.110 --> 00:18:11.305 align:middle line:90%
And Roderick, we called him Red.

00:18:11.305 --> 00:18:16.360 align:middle line:84%
He had a fine, nervous
laugh and hands quick enough

00:18:16.360 --> 00:18:19.750 align:middle line:84%
to confuse even
his own freckles.

00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:24.640 align:middle line:84%
Roderick, one of those names on
the wall in Washington you can

00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:26.140 align:middle line:90%
find in your own face."

00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:31.190 align:middle line:90%


00:18:31.190 --> 00:18:31.790 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:18:31.790 --> 00:18:39.620 align:middle line:90%


00:18:39.620 --> 00:18:40.940 align:middle line:90%
Before I moved to Montana--

00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:43.680 align:middle line:84%
I've been in Montana
for seven years now.

00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:49.190 align:middle line:84%
And before my wife and I
moved, we lived in Miami Beach.

00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:51.290 align:middle line:84%
You couldn't pick two
more different places

00:18:51.290 --> 00:18:55.760 align:middle line:84%
in the world, Stevensville,
Montana, and Miami

00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:59.810 align:middle line:90%
Beach, Florida, very different.

00:18:59.810 --> 00:19:03.230 align:middle line:84%
Miami is a wonderful,
interesting place.

00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:07.160 align:middle line:84%
I think of it as what New
York City must have been like

00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:10.070 align:middle line:84%
in the '20s and '30s, when
there were these massive waves

00:19:10.070 --> 00:19:12.420 align:middle line:90%
of immigration.

00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.850 align:middle line:90%
I talked to a person down there.

00:19:14.850 --> 00:19:17.760 align:middle line:84%
And he said, well,
Miami is not a city.

00:19:17.760 --> 00:19:20.630 align:middle line:90%
It's an urban experiment.

00:19:20.630 --> 00:19:23.390 align:middle line:84%
And in many ways, it's failing
as an urban experiment,

00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:28.200 align:middle line:84%
but in many ways,
it's successful.

00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:30.770 align:middle line:84%
But you have to make a lot
of adjustments to live there.

00:19:30.770 --> 00:19:32.720 align:middle line:84%
One of the things, one
of the simple things

00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:34.400 align:middle line:84%
that we take for
granted, I think,

00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.390 align:middle line:84%
is go to the grocery store and
you fill up your shopping cart.

00:19:38.390 --> 00:19:41.390 align:middle line:84%
And you get in line, you pay
for your stuff, and you go home.

00:19:41.390 --> 00:19:44.510 align:middle line:84%
In Miami, it was
kind of an adventure.

00:19:44.510 --> 00:19:48.530 align:middle line:84%
There were times that I
waited in line for 45 minutes

00:19:48.530 --> 00:19:51.200 align:middle line:84%
just to check out at
the checkout counter.

00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:56.030 align:middle line:84%
And when I got there,
had additional troubles.

00:19:56.030 --> 00:19:58.940 align:middle line:90%
But I enjoyed it.

00:19:58.940 --> 00:20:03.710 align:middle line:84%
And I wrote a poem about it, so
it was kind of all worthwhile.

00:20:03.710 --> 00:20:06.800 align:middle line:84%
If you can salvage
shards of your experience

00:20:06.800 --> 00:20:11.540 align:middle line:84%
and put it into
poetry, that's great.

00:20:11.540 --> 00:20:13.730 align:middle line:84%
OK, this is called, "In
Line at the Supermarket."

00:20:13.730 --> 00:20:16.380 align:middle line:90%


00:20:16.380 --> 00:20:19.260 align:middle line:90%
"Here you've got time to think.

00:20:19.260 --> 00:20:22.860 align:middle line:84%
Between the breath mints
and the Glamour magazines,

00:20:22.860 --> 00:20:27.060 align:middle line:84%
you can feel yourself growing
old as you read the headlines

00:20:27.060 --> 00:20:32.880 align:middle line:84%
of the non-newspapers, 'Country
Doctor Performs Head Transplant

00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:38.880 align:middle line:84%
on Alien,' or something homier,
'Passionate Groom Kills Bride

00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.430 align:middle line:90%
with First Kiss.'

00:20:41.430 --> 00:20:44.310 align:middle line:84%
You're growing old, all
right, but you'll never

00:20:44.310 --> 00:20:47.790 align:middle line:84%
be as old as the woman who
runs her shopping cart up

00:20:47.790 --> 00:20:50.730 align:middle line:84%
against your hip bone
and keeps on pushing

00:20:50.730 --> 00:20:53.520 align:middle line:90%
until you have to say stop.

00:20:53.520 --> 00:20:58.530 align:middle line:84%
She stares at you through the
faintest blue haze, her face

00:20:58.530 --> 00:21:01.080 align:middle line:90%
ancient, perverse.

00:21:01.080 --> 00:21:03.990 align:middle line:90%
And you wonder what she sees.

00:21:03.990 --> 00:21:08.550 align:middle line:84%
The couple in front of you have
time to debate their selections.

00:21:08.550 --> 00:21:11.520 align:middle line:84%
We don't need a ham
this big, he says,

00:21:11.520 --> 00:21:14.580 align:middle line:90%
as he holds it under her nose.

00:21:14.580 --> 00:21:18.960 align:middle line:84%
Yes, we do, as she places
her fingertips on the ham

00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:24.090 align:middle line:84%
and pushes it back down lightly
to the stalled conveyor.

00:21:24.090 --> 00:21:26.940 align:middle line:84%
They are younger than
you are, but it's

00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:28.800 align:middle line:90%
hard to tell how much younger.

00:21:28.800 --> 00:21:32.190 align:middle line:90%
They too look worn and tired.

00:21:32.190 --> 00:21:36.570 align:middle line:84%
You stare at her spiked yellow
hair and her bare shoulders,

00:21:36.570 --> 00:21:38.760 align:middle line:90%
just a breath away.

00:21:38.760 --> 00:21:41.910 align:middle line:84%
On her left shoulder,
a tattoo, like a brand,

00:21:41.910 --> 00:21:46.320 align:middle line:84%
that says 'Mike'
in shaky cursive.

00:21:46.320 --> 00:21:47.955 align:middle line:90%
You wonder if this man is Mike.

00:21:47.955 --> 00:21:51.540 align:middle line:90%


00:21:51.540 --> 00:21:54.600 align:middle line:90%
You think about slavery.

00:21:54.600 --> 00:21:58.110 align:middle line:84%
There was a man you worked
with once, whose style was

00:21:58.110 --> 00:22:02.010 align:middle line:90%
cool, ironic, like dry ice.

00:22:02.010 --> 00:22:06.120 align:middle line:84%
He referred to his night
shift job as a slave.

00:22:06.120 --> 00:22:08.790 align:middle line:84%
This is my second
slave, he said,

00:22:08.790 --> 00:22:12.120 align:middle line:84%
meaning he had a
day job too, meaning

00:22:12.120 --> 00:22:15.240 align:middle line:84%
we have to become
caricatures of ourselves

00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:20.070 align:middle line:84%
in order to do these jobs,
in order to live like this.

00:22:20.070 --> 00:22:23.160 align:middle line:84%
You wonder what Mike
does for a living.

00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:28.350 align:middle line:84%
You stare at the tattoo on
his arm, a skull with wings

00:22:28.350 --> 00:22:30.960 align:middle line:90%
where the ears were.

00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:32.880 align:middle line:84%
And under that, in
case you don't get it,

00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.095 align:middle line:84%
written in ribbony script, all
capitals, the word 'death.'

00:22:37.095 --> 00:22:40.110 align:middle line:90%


00:22:40.110 --> 00:22:42.720 align:middle line:84%
For some reason,
you want to laugh

00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:46.440 align:middle line:84%
but don't, because Mike,
if that's his name,

00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.910 align:middle line:84%
has just turned to
you out of boredom.

00:22:49.910 --> 00:22:52.460 align:middle line:84%
And in a friendly voice
you wouldn't have expected,

00:22:52.460 --> 00:22:56.090 align:middle line:90%
says, man, this place is slow.

00:22:56.090 --> 00:22:59.060 align:middle line:84%
But I'd rather shop here
than that Pantry Pride

00:22:59.060 --> 00:23:00.710 align:middle line:90%
down the street.

00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:03.380 align:middle line:84%
My old lady went there
last week for groceries,

00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:06.200 align:middle line:84%
and when she came out
the car was stripped,

00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:08.810 align:middle line:90%
wheels and everything.

00:23:08.810 --> 00:23:11.180 align:middle line:90%
It's a bad neighborhood, man.

00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:12.935 align:middle line:84%
You never know who
you're going to meet."

00:23:12.935 --> 00:23:25.490 align:middle line:90%


00:23:25.490 --> 00:23:28.510 align:middle line:84%
I think that, one
thing about America

00:23:28.510 --> 00:23:33.610 align:middle line:84%
these days, is that it's become
an awfully violent place.

00:23:33.610 --> 00:23:39.010 align:middle line:84%
I used to think I was a kind
of a tough, hardened character,

00:23:39.010 --> 00:23:40.150 align:middle line:90%
in that I could take it.

00:23:40.150 --> 00:23:43.720 align:middle line:84%
But I started having
children in middle age,

00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.400 align:middle line:84%
and it changed my
perspective on everything.

00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:49.630 align:middle line:84%
And I, all of a sudden, got real
sensitive to all this violence

00:23:49.630 --> 00:23:52.030 align:middle line:90%
that's around us.

00:23:52.030 --> 00:23:54.880 align:middle line:84%
I used to be part of the
problem, but I'm not anymore.

00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.610 align:middle line:90%


00:23:57.610 --> 00:24:00.280 align:middle line:84%
But I think one of the
effects that all this violence

00:24:00.280 --> 00:24:03.280 align:middle line:84%
has on us is it's
very subtle, you know.

00:24:03.280 --> 00:24:04.540 align:middle line:90%
We watch it on TV.

00:24:04.540 --> 00:24:05.890 align:middle line:90%
We read about it in the news.

00:24:05.890 --> 00:24:08.380 align:middle line:84%
We experience it
daily in our lives.

00:24:08.380 --> 00:24:11.622 align:middle line:90%
And we kind of internalize it.

00:24:11.622 --> 00:24:12.580 align:middle line:90%
We don't talk about it.

00:24:12.580 --> 00:24:13.430 align:middle line:90%
We don't worry about it.

00:24:13.430 --> 00:24:14.472 align:middle line:90%
We don't get too cynical.

00:24:14.472 --> 00:24:16.780 align:middle line:90%
But it has an effect on us.

00:24:16.780 --> 00:24:22.700 align:middle line:84%
And I think it takes some
of our power away from us.

00:24:22.700 --> 00:24:27.937 align:middle line:84%
And, I don't know, this is a
poem about a guy who's tired.

00:24:27.937 --> 00:24:29.020 align:middle line:90%
He's been at work all day.

00:24:29.020 --> 00:24:29.530 align:middle line:90%
He comes home.

00:24:29.530 --> 00:24:32.050 align:middle line:84%
He flips on the TV, and he sees
another one of these things

00:24:32.050 --> 00:24:35.770 align:middle line:84%
that just, you know,
turns his mind.

00:24:35.770 --> 00:24:39.520 align:middle line:84%
And, in the poem, I
guess I'm vicariously

00:24:39.520 --> 00:24:45.280 align:middle line:84%
trying to take some power
back away from all this stuff.

00:24:45.280 --> 00:24:47.840 align:middle line:90%
It's called, "Evening News."

00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:51.920 align:middle line:84%
"He comes home from work
tired, his mind breaking

00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.190 align:middle line:84%
and accelerating, weaving
through the day's traffic

00:24:55.190 --> 00:24:57.050 align:middle line:90%
of acts and images.

00:24:57.050 --> 00:25:00.980 align:middle line:84%
The slim hooker in yellow
heels strolling the shoulder

00:25:00.980 --> 00:25:03.020 align:middle line:90%
of Biscayne Boulevard.

00:25:03.020 --> 00:25:05.900 align:middle line:90%
Tina Turner's voice sweating.

00:25:05.900 --> 00:25:10.850 align:middle line:84%
The astronauts flaming out like
meteorites over the Atlantic.

00:25:10.850 --> 00:25:16.160 align:middle line:84%
A rusted shopping cart tipped
over a curb, its burden lifted,

00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:18.590 align:middle line:90%
its ghost fled.

00:25:18.590 --> 00:25:21.170 align:middle line:90%
He puts the key in the door.

00:25:21.170 --> 00:25:24.890 align:middle line:84%
The small green lizard on
the wall above the mailbox

00:25:24.890 --> 00:25:30.200 align:middle line:84%
cocks its head and holds
still, as if listening.

00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:33.620 align:middle line:84%
I'm home, he says,
and opens the door,

00:25:33.620 --> 00:25:37.760 align:middle line:84%
steps into the familiar room,
into the quietest moment

00:25:37.760 --> 00:25:39.170 align:middle line:90%
of the day.

00:25:39.170 --> 00:25:41.030 align:middle line:90%
He turns on the news.

00:25:41.030 --> 00:25:43.460 align:middle line:90%
He sips his beer.

00:25:43.460 --> 00:25:48.260 align:middle line:84%
They're showing a poorly
focused, unsteady video segment

00:25:48.260 --> 00:25:51.890 align:middle line:84%
taken by a bystander
of a shirtless man

00:25:51.890 --> 00:25:57.020 align:middle line:84%
stabbing another man on a
canal overpass in Miami Beach,

00:25:57.020 --> 00:25:59.300 align:middle line:90%
just blocks away.

00:25:59.300 --> 00:26:03.830 align:middle line:84%
Jesus, he says, what
am I supposed to do?

00:26:03.830 --> 00:26:06.200 align:middle line:84%
The news anchor says
it began, apparently,

00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:08.450 align:middle line:90%
as an argument over money.

00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:10.190 align:middle line:90%
The men were friends.

00:26:10.190 --> 00:26:13.310 align:middle line:90%
One owed the other $10.

00:26:13.310 --> 00:26:15.170 align:middle line:90%
He turns off the news.

00:26:15.170 --> 00:26:18.440 align:middle line:84%
He runs the video
backwards in his mind.

00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:21.980 align:middle line:84%
The shirtless man
rises from the railing.

00:26:21.980 --> 00:26:25.010 align:middle line:84%
His friend bursts up
from the bloody water,

00:26:25.010 --> 00:26:28.250 align:middle line:84%
flips over the railing,
lands on his feet,

00:26:28.250 --> 00:26:31.550 align:middle line:84%
grabs the bare shoulders
of his friend, who

00:26:31.550 --> 00:26:35.780 align:middle line:84%
pulls the knife from his
chest, steps back quickly,

00:26:35.780 --> 00:26:39.200 align:middle line:84%
swallowing his curses,
hiding the knife,

00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:44.480 align:middle line:84%
moving back across the line
into a life of debt and anger,

00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:46.640 align:middle line:90%
friendship and choice.

00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:53.450 align:middle line:84%
A life now his, he must
invent the next move for.

00:26:53.450 --> 00:26:59.090 align:middle line:84%
He goes to the back window,
stares at the uncut grass.

00:26:59.090 --> 00:27:03.260 align:middle line:84%
From somewhere, a bird,
a painted bunting,

00:27:03.260 --> 00:27:08.270 align:middle line:84%
alights with a claim
from the offices of air.

00:27:08.270 --> 00:27:15.260 align:middle line:84%
Chartreuse, flame red,
indigo blue, the bird says,

00:27:15.260 --> 00:27:16.325 align:middle line:90%
this is for you."

00:27:16.325 --> 00:27:23.480 align:middle line:90%


00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:28.340 align:middle line:84%
My mother lives in Long Beach,
and she got shaken out of bed

00:27:28.340 --> 00:27:29.630 align:middle line:90%
yesterday.

00:27:29.630 --> 00:27:32.060 align:middle line:84%
I spent an hour talking to
her on the phone last night,

00:27:32.060 --> 00:27:33.830 align:middle line:90%
and she was really frightened.

00:27:33.830 --> 00:27:38.150 align:middle line:84%
And she's 77 years old, and
she's got heart problems.

00:27:38.150 --> 00:27:41.028 align:middle line:84%
And I thought maybe she
would die of a heart attack

00:27:41.028 --> 00:27:42.320 align:middle line:90%
just because she was so scared.

00:27:42.320 --> 00:27:43.910 align:middle line:90%
But she's all right.

00:27:43.910 --> 00:27:49.020 align:middle line:90%
And this is a poem about--

00:27:49.020 --> 00:27:52.720 align:middle line:90%
so dedicated to my mother.

00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:53.800 align:middle line:90%
Wrong book.

00:27:53.800 --> 00:27:57.422 align:middle line:90%
I get confused here.

00:27:57.422 --> 00:27:58.255 align:middle line:90%
It's called "Peace."

00:27:58.255 --> 00:28:05.520 align:middle line:90%


00:28:05.520 --> 00:28:09.690 align:middle line:84%
"I can see my mother and my
wife sitting in a booth inside

00:28:09.690 --> 00:28:13.320 align:middle line:84%
the restaurant, eating breakfast
as I stand in the parking lot

00:28:13.320 --> 00:28:16.530 align:middle line:84%
with my 19-month-old
son in my arms.

00:28:16.530 --> 00:28:20.640 align:middle line:84%
We have stepped out into the
morning sun because he refuses

00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:23.850 align:middle line:84%
to eat or sit in a high
chair or stop shouting

00:28:23.850 --> 00:28:25.410 align:middle line:90%
'tractor, tractor!'

00:28:25.410 --> 00:28:29.070 align:middle line:84%
at the old man in a
motorized wheelchair, trying

00:28:29.070 --> 00:28:33.000 align:middle line:90%
to read his paper in peace.

00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:37.500 align:middle line:84%
It's peace we want amid the
angers and hungers of this city.

00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.670 align:middle line:84%
For my son, it's the peace
that comes from the release

00:28:41.670 --> 00:28:44.550 align:middle line:90%
from confinement and restraint.

00:28:44.550 --> 00:28:47.880 align:middle line:84%
For myself, the
release, temporarily,

00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:52.080 align:middle line:84%
from the role of
confiner and restrainer.

00:28:52.080 --> 00:28:55.530 align:middle line:84%
And those two women we
love sitting together,

00:28:55.530 --> 00:28:58.050 align:middle line:90%
unlike strangers, at breakfast.

00:28:58.050 --> 00:29:01.830 align:middle line:84%
we can only see their heads and
shoulders through the window,

00:29:01.830 --> 00:29:06.510 align:middle line:84%
are remaking quietly the
necessary bonds of family,

00:29:06.510 --> 00:29:09.480 align:middle line:84%
brushing off the
crumbs of strangeness,

00:29:09.480 --> 00:29:14.520 align:middle line:84%
and sipping coffee in a kind
of peace made possible by many

00:29:14.520 --> 00:29:20.240 align:middle line:84%
choices based on what we
can see and what we can't."

00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:22.760 align:middle line:90%
Or the other way around.

00:29:22.760 --> 00:29:26.300 align:middle line:84%
"At the corner of Long Beach
Boulevard and Ocean Avenue,

00:29:26.300 --> 00:29:29.660 align:middle line:84%
you can see neither
ocean nor beach,

00:29:29.660 --> 00:29:32.420 align:middle line:84%
but the bow of the
Queen Mary hulks

00:29:32.420 --> 00:29:35.240 align:middle line:84%
in the distance
between high rises

00:29:35.240 --> 00:29:38.300 align:middle line:84%
from which older men and
women have been evicted

00:29:38.300 --> 00:29:40.490 align:middle line:84%
so the buildings
may be renovated

00:29:40.490 --> 00:29:44.300 align:middle line:84%
to further the economic
goals of the republic.

00:29:44.300 --> 00:29:47.270 align:middle line:84%
My mother, still
one of the lucky,

00:29:47.270 --> 00:29:52.400 align:middle line:84%
has found a low-rent room on the
fourth floor of Baptist Gardens,

00:29:52.400 --> 00:29:54.800 align:middle line:84%
with a view of a
parking lot where

00:29:54.800 --> 00:29:58.790 align:middle line:84%
her '67 Pontiac
Catalina is parked

00:29:58.790 --> 00:30:01.670 align:middle line:84%
and still runs
when she needs it.

00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:06.500 align:middle line:84%
There's a tree she loves to look
down on, a Mexican market that

00:30:06.500 --> 00:30:12.830 align:middle line:84%
is usually open, an intersection
with a constant surf of traffic,

00:30:12.830 --> 00:30:16.970 align:middle line:84%
and, morning and
evening, the warm,

00:30:16.970 --> 00:30:21.590 align:middle line:84%
soft air that smells of
exhaust and the Pacific."

00:30:21.590 --> 00:30:26.850 align:middle line:90%


00:30:26.850 --> 00:30:27.870 align:middle line:90%
I'll read another poem.

00:30:27.870 --> 00:30:29.412 align:middle line:84%
I'll read that little
poem, "Church,"

00:30:29.412 --> 00:30:32.730 align:middle line:84%
which also comes out of
taking my kids down to visit

00:30:32.730 --> 00:30:34.180 align:middle line:90%
their grandmother.

00:30:34.180 --> 00:30:36.630 align:middle line:84%
It's a dangerous place to
have a grandmother live.

00:30:36.630 --> 00:30:40.467 align:middle line:90%


00:30:40.467 --> 00:30:43.050 align:middle line:84%
There's a lot of muggings and
stuff that happen on the streets

00:30:43.050 --> 00:30:43.740 align:middle line:90%
down there.

00:30:43.740 --> 00:30:48.540 align:middle line:84%
And this is-- I'm standing
outside with my little boy.

00:30:48.540 --> 00:30:54.240 align:middle line:84%
And I'm paranoid, and I'm
holding my young son in my arms.

00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:56.096 align:middle line:90%
And this guy comes up.

00:30:56.096 --> 00:30:57.270 align:middle line:90%
And it's called "Church."

00:30:57.270 --> 00:31:00.240 align:middle line:90%


00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:03.450 align:middle line:84%
"Tarnished fake gold
chains and cross,

00:31:03.450 --> 00:31:08.430 align:middle line:84%
dirty gold tangles of hair
around a bruised sun-scabbed

00:31:08.430 --> 00:31:13.500 align:middle line:84%
face, in which the eyes sputter
but burn like an arc welder

00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:14.790 align:middle line:90%
underwater.

00:31:14.790 --> 00:31:18.790 align:middle line:84%
One I-could-cut-your-throat
hand in a pocket,

00:31:18.790 --> 00:31:21.780 align:middle line:84%
the other whispering,
help me, please,

00:31:21.780 --> 00:31:24.360 align:middle line:84%
through the dead
Los Angeles air.

00:31:24.360 --> 00:31:25.860 align:middle line:90%
He comes toward me.

00:31:25.860 --> 00:31:28.890 align:middle line:84%
Father, holding
my son in my arms.

00:31:28.890 --> 00:31:32.670 align:middle line:84%
Son, for whose sake I feel
a sudden ferocity pulse

00:31:32.670 --> 00:31:33.990 align:middle line:90%
through my heart.

00:31:33.990 --> 00:31:39.000 align:middle line:84%
As he steps quickly toward us,
through still air soon to rise

00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:42.900 align:middle line:84%
from the oil-stained
asphalt of this parking lot,

00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:45.330 align:middle line:90%
warming in morning sun.

00:31:45.330 --> 00:31:51.210 align:middle line:84%
This church, where I offer the
coins and receive his blessing,

00:31:51.210 --> 00:31:55.020 align:middle line:84%
and we hold each
other a moment only,

00:31:55.020 --> 00:31:57.870 align:middle line:84%
among the uncommitted
murders in our eyes."

00:31:57.870 --> 00:32:09.680 align:middle line:90%


00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:12.040 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem that I
associate with Montana.

00:32:12.040 --> 00:32:15.250 align:middle line:84%
And I don't know if it
would have the same meaning

00:32:15.250 --> 00:32:16.240 align:middle line:90%
as it does up there.

00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:21.070 align:middle line:84%
But there are more cows
in Montana than people.

00:32:21.070 --> 00:32:25.090 align:middle line:84%
And cows kind of run
the country up there.

00:32:25.090 --> 00:32:28.225 align:middle line:90%
They have certain rights.

00:32:28.225 --> 00:32:31.570 align:middle line:90%


00:32:31.570 --> 00:32:36.250 align:middle line:84%
And I guess I'm sort of
being hard on the cows here.

00:32:36.250 --> 00:32:38.560 align:middle line:84%
Although I love
cows, I really do.

00:32:38.560 --> 00:32:41.790 align:middle line:90%


00:32:41.790 --> 00:32:46.800 align:middle line:84%
"Build a world of cows
and see where it gets you.

00:32:46.800 --> 00:32:50.430 align:middle line:84%
My cows, really my
neighbor's cows,

00:32:50.430 --> 00:32:54.360 align:middle line:84%
move through the day like
worlds unto themselves.

00:32:54.360 --> 00:32:57.000 align:middle line:84%
Between the fences,
they revolve.

00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.360 align:middle line:84%
Between night and
day, they stand.

00:33:00.360 --> 00:33:03.390 align:middle line:84%
They stand for the
ground they stand on.

00:33:03.390 --> 00:33:07.590 align:middle line:84%
They stand for the
grass, green or burned.

00:33:07.590 --> 00:33:11.460 align:middle line:84%
Alive, or the sturdy
husks of lives.

00:33:11.460 --> 00:33:17.940 align:middle line:84%
They stand for the air, the sky,
the weather that shows no mercy.

00:33:17.940 --> 00:33:21.570 align:middle line:84%
Over the fields, down
the hill to the gully,

00:33:21.570 --> 00:33:26.840 align:middle line:84%
up the hill to the hill,
they drift like clouds.

00:33:26.840 --> 00:33:31.220 align:middle line:84%
They lie down in the sun,
suggesting at a distance

00:33:31.220 --> 00:33:35.240 align:middle line:84%
the first rocks
that came to rest.

00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:39.020 align:middle line:84%
These cows stand for
the world we build.

00:33:39.020 --> 00:33:43.460 align:middle line:84%
And though we see daily the
terror of where we're going,

00:33:43.460 --> 00:33:45.326 align:middle line:90%
we say, more!

00:33:45.326 --> 00:33:46.550 align:middle line:90%
More!

00:33:46.550 --> 00:33:52.190 align:middle line:84%
Like the cows, who are,
like us, between the seeds

00:33:52.190 --> 00:33:54.680 align:middle line:90%
and the flames, a truce."

00:33:54.680 --> 00:34:00.600 align:middle line:90%


00:34:00.600 --> 00:34:04.500 align:middle line:84%
I'll read you a couple
more Montana poems.

00:34:04.500 --> 00:34:07.170 align:middle line:84%
This one is called,
"Turning Things Over."

00:34:07.170 --> 00:34:11.460 align:middle line:90%


00:34:11.460 --> 00:34:16.020 align:middle line:84%
I'm a meditative poet,
but I can't sit still

00:34:16.020 --> 00:34:17.190 align:middle line:90%
and meditate very well.

00:34:17.190 --> 00:34:18.510 align:middle line:90%
So I like to walk.

00:34:18.510 --> 00:34:22.080 align:middle line:84%
And I do a lot of walking
and hiking and stuff.

00:34:22.080 --> 00:34:24.690 align:middle line:84%
And I think that that's
a form of meditation

00:34:24.690 --> 00:34:26.520 align:middle line:90%
that I really like.

00:34:26.520 --> 00:34:29.595 align:middle line:90%
And this is kind of about that.

00:34:29.595 --> 00:34:32.489 align:middle line:90%
It doesn't make sense otherwise.

00:34:32.489 --> 00:34:35.190 align:middle line:84%
"Turning Things Over,
Rock Creek, Montana."

00:34:35.190 --> 00:34:37.590 align:middle line:84%
Rock Creek is this really
beautiful trout streams.

00:34:37.590 --> 00:34:40.920 align:middle line:84%
It's one of the most beautiful
trout streams in the country.

00:34:40.920 --> 00:34:42.630 align:middle line:84%
And I get over
there as often as I

00:34:42.630 --> 00:34:47.748 align:middle line:84%
can and camp out and
walk around, fish,

00:34:47.748 --> 00:34:48.540 align:middle line:90%
that sort of thing.

00:34:48.540 --> 00:34:51.600 align:middle line:90%


00:34:51.600 --> 00:34:55.110 align:middle line:84%
"One of many
witnesses, he watches

00:34:55.110 --> 00:35:00.630 align:middle line:84%
the passage of the moon from
ridge to ridge above the canyon.

00:35:00.630 --> 00:35:06.840 align:middle line:84%
He thinks, light on the
water, wind in the trees,

00:35:06.840 --> 00:35:14.340 align:middle line:84%
river in the leaves, leaves in
the river, rainbow in the river,

00:35:14.340 --> 00:35:22.632 align:middle line:84%
fish in the rainbow, fire in the
fish, soul in the fire, this.

00:35:22.632 --> 00:35:26.520 align:middle line:84%
This air weighs more, he thinks,
in the bottom of the canyon,

00:35:26.520 --> 00:35:28.680 align:middle line:90%
on the ridge of night.

00:35:28.680 --> 00:35:33.270 align:middle line:84%
Water in the creek coaxes
stones toward the river.

00:35:33.270 --> 00:35:37.410 align:middle line:84%
Water in his thoughts
goes around and around.

00:35:37.410 --> 00:35:40.410 align:middle line:90%
Before dawn, the wind stops.

00:35:40.410 --> 00:35:43.740 align:middle line:90%
A single bird tries a note.

00:35:43.740 --> 00:35:48.120 align:middle line:84%
And soon, the trees
are full of persuasion.

00:35:48.120 --> 00:35:51.570 align:middle line:84%
He walks a dirt road
as the light comes.

00:35:51.570 --> 00:35:55.380 align:middle line:84%
Night holds on in
pockets in the pines.

00:35:55.380 --> 00:36:01.290 align:middle line:84%
He breathes, and something takes
his breath and turns his gaze.

00:36:01.290 --> 00:36:06.990 align:middle line:84%
Light comes out of the pines,
riding the big flanks of moose.

00:36:06.990 --> 00:36:12.360 align:middle line:84%
Three moose in procession,
profound thoughts he wants

00:36:12.360 --> 00:36:15.360 align:middle line:90%
to hold but can't.

00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:18.390 align:middle line:84%
His breath drifts
with the air, adrift

00:36:18.390 --> 00:36:23.310 align:middle line:84%
with moose gone into the trees,
into the pockets of night

00:36:23.310 --> 00:36:25.170 align:middle line:90%
and the pines.

00:36:25.170 --> 00:36:30.690 align:middle line:84%
He's left with the
light of one small idea.

00:36:30.690 --> 00:36:32.130 align:middle line:90%
Good morning.

00:36:32.130 --> 00:36:34.560 align:middle line:90%
He walks it down the road.

00:36:34.560 --> 00:36:37.050 align:middle line:90%
Good morning, good morning.

00:36:37.050 --> 00:36:39.810 align:middle line:84%
And morning bugles
like a bull elk.

00:36:39.810 --> 00:36:43.140 align:middle line:84%
And trees begin to
breathe and branch

00:36:43.140 --> 00:36:47.550 align:middle line:84%
with thought that stops
above his head and points,

00:36:47.550 --> 00:36:50.580 align:middle line:90%
like antlers, up.

00:36:50.580 --> 00:36:54.780 align:middle line:84%
Crack of rock on rock
comes down the canyon.

00:36:54.780 --> 00:36:59.730 align:middle line:84%
That light blush on the
heart fades then fires.

00:36:59.730 --> 00:37:03.300 align:middle line:84%
Up the slope and over the
scree, the bird of his gaze

00:37:03.300 --> 00:37:06.300 align:middle line:84%
goes and lights
on a bear, digging

00:37:06.300 --> 00:37:08.860 align:middle line:90%
at the base of a boulder.

00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:13.285 align:middle line:84%
The bear rocks the
boulder from side to side,

00:37:13.285 --> 00:37:16.060 align:middle line:84%
and gives it a
shove from the top,

00:37:16.060 --> 00:37:19.330 align:middle line:84%
offers it up to
gravity as the sun

00:37:19.330 --> 00:37:23.260 align:middle line:84%
rises and shines in
the eyes of the bear,

00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:26.050 align:middle line:90%
who looks down on what?

00:37:26.050 --> 00:37:33.160 align:middle line:84%
A feast of larvae, ants, worms,
exposed in the damp earth?

00:37:33.160 --> 00:37:38.140 align:middle line:84%
Or an empty hole that
attests to hunger?

00:37:38.140 --> 00:37:43.540 align:middle line:84%
Along the creek, mist
and shadow linger.

00:37:43.540 --> 00:37:47.770 align:middle line:84%
When he looks again,
the bear is gone.

00:37:47.770 --> 00:37:52.300 align:middle line:84%
He goes on walking, turning
things over in the early light."

00:37:52.300 --> 00:37:56.260 align:middle line:90%


00:37:56.260 --> 00:37:59.140 align:middle line:84%
Now I'll read you
another moose poem.

00:37:59.140 --> 00:38:03.430 align:middle line:84%
I've become infatuated with
moose since I moved to Montana.

00:38:03.430 --> 00:38:05.200 align:middle line:90%
We got a lot of moose up there.

00:38:05.200 --> 00:38:09.950 align:middle line:84%
And I used to think they were
sort of the homeliest creatures

00:38:09.950 --> 00:38:10.450 align:middle line:90%
on Earth.

00:38:10.450 --> 00:38:12.490 align:middle line:84%
And now I think
they're beautiful.

00:38:12.490 --> 00:38:15.550 align:middle line:90%
I just love them.

00:38:15.550 --> 00:38:19.390 align:middle line:84%
Also, I think one of the most
beautiful poems in the English

00:38:19.390 --> 00:38:23.200 align:middle line:84%
language is Elizabeth
Bishop's poem "The Moose."

00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:28.030 align:middle line:84%
It's a beautiful long, lyrical,
narrative poem about a bus ride

00:38:28.030 --> 00:38:29.815 align:middle line:90%
that she takes.

00:38:29.815 --> 00:38:31.690 align:middle line:84%
And she's driving along
in this bus at night.

00:38:31.690 --> 00:38:32.950 align:middle line:84%
And all of a sudden,
a moose comes out

00:38:32.950 --> 00:38:34.360 align:middle line:90%
of the woods and the bus stops.

00:38:34.360 --> 00:38:39.190 align:middle line:84%
And everybody in the bus kind of
gets out and looks at the moose.

00:38:39.190 --> 00:38:42.245 align:middle line:84%
And it becomes this
moment in the poem,

00:38:42.245 --> 00:38:43.870 align:middle line:84%
a sort of moment of
transcendence where

00:38:43.870 --> 00:38:48.130 align:middle line:84%
everybody shares this image,
mystical image of the moose,

00:38:48.130 --> 00:38:50.530 align:middle line:84%
and just a beautiful,
beautiful poem.

00:38:50.530 --> 00:38:53.020 align:middle line:84%
So for years, I've
been wanting to--

00:38:53.020 --> 00:38:54.650 align:middle line:84%
I had that in the
back of my mind.

00:38:54.650 --> 00:38:56.320 align:middle line:84%
And now that I see
a lot of moose,

00:38:56.320 --> 00:38:58.520 align:middle line:90%
I've started writing about them.

00:38:58.520 --> 00:39:00.655 align:middle line:84%
This is called,
"Remember the Moose."

00:39:00.655 --> 00:39:06.700 align:middle line:90%


00:39:06.700 --> 00:39:10.870 align:middle line:84%
"She must have come down
from high mountain meadows,

00:39:10.870 --> 00:39:15.480 align:middle line:84%
where beargrass blooms
had dried and fallen,

00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:19.080 align:middle line:84%
paintbrush put away its
colors, and mud wallows

00:39:19.080 --> 00:39:24.690 align:middle line:84%
begun to freeze and stay frozen
past noon, down along the creek,

00:39:24.690 --> 00:39:28.500 align:middle line:84%
through aspen, alder,
and willow thickets,

00:39:28.500 --> 00:39:33.760 align:middle line:84%
to high grass along a
road leading to town.

00:39:33.760 --> 00:39:37.930 align:middle line:84%
Why she kept on coming,
you can only guess.

00:39:37.930 --> 00:39:42.250 align:middle line:84%
Rich, green smell
of cemetery grass,

00:39:42.250 --> 00:39:49.330 align:middle line:84%
muted bellow of a distant bull,
old path imprinted in her genes,

00:39:49.330 --> 00:39:53.810 align:middle line:90%
deep doubts, simple curiosity.

00:39:53.810 --> 00:39:59.480 align:middle line:84%
Maybe she was lost, or came as
a reminder of something lost.

00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:03.200 align:middle line:84%
A moose grazing among
the graves on sunset hill

00:40:03.200 --> 00:40:07.940 align:middle line:84%
is an image one might hold for
years, turning it over and over,

00:40:07.940 --> 00:40:12.260 align:middle line:84%
working it into a story or
finding it strangely lit,

00:40:12.260 --> 00:40:16.180 align:middle line:90%
inverted in a dream.

00:40:16.180 --> 00:40:21.450 align:middle line:84%
Remember the moose outside the
tent in Idaho, the moonlight

00:40:21.450 --> 00:40:25.620 align:middle line:84%
and mosquitoes, how she looked
like a boulder in the creek,

00:40:25.620 --> 00:40:30.480 align:middle line:84%
until she lifted her great head
from the water, big worldly

00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:35.580 align:middle line:84%
angel, and turned to look at
you with ropes of weeds hanging

00:40:35.580 --> 00:40:38.330 align:middle line:90%
from her mouth.

00:40:38.330 --> 00:40:42.350 align:middle line:84%
By day, she strolled among the
park's swing sets and jungle

00:40:42.350 --> 00:40:49.400 align:middle line:84%
gyms, stopping to sniff the dull
shine of a slide, or stopping,

00:40:49.400 --> 00:40:54.240 align:middle line:84%
high as a house, in
some child's eye.

00:40:54.240 --> 00:40:58.560 align:middle line:84%
Parents, sensing danger,
tried to shoo her away.

00:40:58.560 --> 00:41:01.740 align:middle line:84%
But she followed
her own calling.

00:41:01.740 --> 00:41:06.510 align:middle line:84%
Nearly blind after the sun went
down, street lights and house

00:41:06.510 --> 00:41:11.670 align:middle line:84%
lights surrounded her,
a confusion of moons.

00:41:11.670 --> 00:41:16.560 align:middle line:84%
She must have picked
one to lead her on.

00:41:16.560 --> 00:41:20.130 align:middle line:84%
They found her on the
Newsome's front porch,

00:41:20.130 --> 00:41:26.160 align:middle line:84%
snout pressed against the
wall, back legs splayed.

00:41:26.160 --> 00:41:30.360 align:middle line:84%
Terrified, someone said,
as neighbors gathered

00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:34.290 align:middle line:84%
to watch the wildlife
officials load their darts

00:41:34.290 --> 00:41:38.175 align:middle line:84%
and end her urban visit
in a sudden blur of drugs.

00:41:38.175 --> 00:41:41.500 align:middle line:90%


00:41:41.500 --> 00:41:45.520 align:middle line:84%
Think of Golden Gate
Park half a life ago,

00:41:45.520 --> 00:41:48.460 align:middle line:90%
a day of dancing and chanting.

00:41:48.460 --> 00:41:53.170 align:middle line:84%
Thousands of hairy
kids, men, women, dogs,

00:41:53.170 --> 00:41:56.230 align:middle line:90%
with beads and dirty bandannas.

00:41:56.230 --> 00:41:59.800 align:middle line:84%
A fog of breath and
marijuana pulsing

00:41:59.800 --> 00:42:04.300 align:middle line:84%
around black banks of
speakers blasting the twilight

00:42:04.300 --> 00:42:07.780 align:middle line:84%
with drum beat and
guitar shrieks.

00:42:07.780 --> 00:42:11.590 align:middle line:84%
Someone smiling hands
you a hit of something.

00:42:11.590 --> 00:42:16.330 align:middle line:84%
You walk off across a baseball
diamond toward some tree

00:42:16.330 --> 00:42:22.800 align:middle line:84%
or siren or patch of grass,
looking for your country.

00:42:22.800 --> 00:42:25.470 align:middle line:84%
A shock-eyed man
marches barefoot,

00:42:25.470 --> 00:42:30.330 align:middle line:84%
mouthing a manic recitation,
like a fuse burning.

00:42:30.330 --> 00:42:36.390 align:middle line:84%
You walk and walk into dark, and
lie down and stare at the moon

00:42:36.390 --> 00:42:39.570 align:middle line:84%
until it comes down
and covers your face

00:42:39.570 --> 00:42:41.490 align:middle line:90%
with its bowl of white light.

00:42:41.490 --> 00:42:45.240 align:middle line:90%


00:42:45.240 --> 00:42:48.900 align:middle line:84%
After the drugs took
hold, the drugs wore off.

00:42:48.900 --> 00:42:54.630 align:middle line:84%
They loaded her on a truck
gently as they could, drove her

00:42:54.630 --> 00:43:01.140 align:middle line:84%
out of town on dirt roads,
lifted her down into high grass,

00:43:01.140 --> 00:43:05.130 align:middle line:90%
waited to see her waken.

00:43:05.130 --> 00:43:08.700 align:middle line:84%
Think of leaving
and coming back.

00:43:08.700 --> 00:43:12.540 align:middle line:84%
Think what you have
nurtured and betrayed.

00:43:12.540 --> 00:43:18.480 align:middle line:84%
Think of the towns and cities
you changed with your absence.

00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:20.670 align:middle line:90%
Think of the country.

00:43:20.670 --> 00:43:24.600 align:middle line:84%
Remember the moose turning
away, lowering her head

00:43:24.600 --> 00:43:28.710 align:middle line:84%
into the water, leaving
you the afterimage.

00:43:28.710 --> 00:43:34.270 align:middle line:84%
Unspoken words, weeds
hanging from your mouth.

00:43:34.270 --> 00:43:37.930 align:middle line:84%
Remember waking
in a colder place,

00:43:37.930 --> 00:43:40.720 align:middle line:84%
glad to breathe and
see your breath."

00:43:40.720 --> 00:43:50.677 align:middle line:90%


00:43:50.677 --> 00:43:58.333 align:middle line:84%
I guess I've got time for a
couple more, about three more.

00:43:58.333 --> 00:43:59.500 align:middle line:90%
You want to hear three more?

00:43:59.500 --> 00:44:01.020 align:middle line:90%
Mm-hmm.

00:44:01.020 --> 00:44:02.160 align:middle line:90%
Three more, all right.

00:44:02.160 --> 00:44:03.480 align:middle line:90%
Promise, no more, just three.

00:44:03.480 --> 00:44:05.690 align:middle line:90%
All right.

00:44:05.690 --> 00:44:08.850 align:middle line:84%
All right, two poems about
the birth of my first child.

00:44:08.850 --> 00:44:13.290 align:middle line:84%
One of them is an
odd poem called,

00:44:13.290 --> 00:44:14.760 align:middle line:90%
"Among the Various Errors."

00:44:14.760 --> 00:44:24.240 align:middle line:90%


00:44:24.240 --> 00:44:27.270 align:middle line:84%
"I've gone down into
the river to see

00:44:27.270 --> 00:44:30.480 align:middle line:90%
what it's like to be a fish.

00:44:30.480 --> 00:44:33.630 align:middle line:84%
Shadows of wings
have passed over me,

00:44:33.630 --> 00:44:36.150 align:middle line:90%
and I've hidden in fear.

00:44:36.150 --> 00:44:40.530 align:middle line:84%
I've seen nymphs swim up from
the rocks toward the light,

00:44:40.530 --> 00:44:44.850 align:middle line:84%
seeing the delicate ones
move in the meniscus.

00:44:44.850 --> 00:44:48.780 align:middle line:84%
And I've risen to
take them in my mouth.

00:44:48.780 --> 00:44:55.080 align:middle line:84%
I've felt the terror of the hook
and the pull of the tight line.

00:44:55.080 --> 00:44:58.080 align:middle line:84%
I've broken free and lay
stunned on the bottom,

00:44:58.080 --> 00:45:01.650 align:middle line:90%
pumping my red gills to live.

00:45:01.650 --> 00:45:07.620 align:middle line:84%
I've quivered in the hand and
beheld the eyes of the man I am.

00:45:07.620 --> 00:45:11.850 align:middle line:84%
All this, among the
various errors and insights

00:45:11.850 --> 00:45:14.550 align:middle line:90%
of the imagination.

00:45:14.550 --> 00:45:19.190 align:middle line:84%
I still know almost
nothing about grief, except

00:45:19.190 --> 00:45:24.080 align:middle line:84%
that it has value and
can't be thrown away.

00:45:24.080 --> 00:45:26.900 align:middle line:84%
And laughter is
the kind of water

00:45:26.900 --> 00:45:30.110 align:middle line:84%
that riffles over
the rocks and shines.

00:45:30.110 --> 00:45:33.280 align:middle line:90%


00:45:33.280 --> 00:45:36.460 align:middle line:84%
My friend told the story
of a lonely man who

00:45:36.460 --> 00:45:41.290 align:middle line:84%
found a dead baby in
the can and took it home

00:45:41.290 --> 00:45:46.480 align:middle line:84%
and washed it, carefully
wrapped it in a clean towel,

00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:50.980 align:middle line:84%
held it gently,
and wept all day,

00:45:50.980 --> 00:45:53.485 align:middle line:84%
until the police came
and took it away.

00:45:53.485 --> 00:45:57.070 align:middle line:90%


00:45:57.070 --> 00:46:02.050 align:middle line:84%
When my son was born, he spent
a long time in the birth canal.

00:46:02.050 --> 00:46:04.480 align:middle line:84%
His mother would push
and the top of his head

00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:09.410 align:middle line:84%
would appear, crowning,
then disappear.

00:46:09.410 --> 00:46:12.050 align:middle line:84%
It seemed like hours
before he was all the way

00:46:12.050 --> 00:46:16.160 align:middle line:84%
born into the one good
hand of the doctor

00:46:16.160 --> 00:46:20.990 align:middle line:84%
on duty, who held my son's
head down a moment, wiped

00:46:20.990 --> 00:46:25.970 align:middle line:84%
clear the nostrils so the first
breath swelled his small chest.

00:46:25.970 --> 00:46:32.780 align:middle line:84%
His eyes opened and he looked
around the room in true wonder.

00:46:32.780 --> 00:46:37.100 align:middle line:84%
And in that slippery moment,
he slid off between her legs

00:46:37.100 --> 00:46:40.340 align:middle line:84%
and fell through
the close air, down

00:46:40.340 --> 00:46:43.340 align:middle line:84%
into the bottom of
a plastic trash bag

00:46:43.340 --> 00:46:48.930 align:middle line:84%
placed there over a hamper
to catch the placenta.

00:46:48.930 --> 00:46:54.350 align:middle line:84%
The doctor fished him
quickly out by one tiny arm.

00:46:54.350 --> 00:46:58.490 align:middle line:84%
After that, the doctor
wouldn't look at me.

00:46:58.490 --> 00:47:00.980 align:middle line:84%
I might have said
something in anger,

00:47:00.980 --> 00:47:04.550 align:middle line:90%
but joy still held my tongue.

00:47:04.550 --> 00:47:09.240 align:middle line:84%
I cut the cord, shook
the doctor's good hand.

00:47:09.240 --> 00:47:15.060 align:middle line:84%
I tell the story now and laugh,
how my firstborn son slipped

00:47:15.060 --> 00:47:16.545 align:middle line:90%
from his mother into the trash."

00:47:16.545 --> 00:47:29.590 align:middle line:90%


00:47:29.590 --> 00:47:39.910 align:middle line:84%
"In the birthing room,
you can say anything.

00:47:39.910 --> 00:47:43.780 align:middle line:84%
But there are things
that can't be told.

00:47:43.780 --> 00:47:47.590 align:middle line:84%
They worked out a method of
breathing to help you through,

00:47:47.590 --> 00:47:49.420 align:middle line:90%
to ease the pain.

00:47:49.420 --> 00:47:53.450 align:middle line:84%
But the pain is deeper
than breath goes.

00:47:53.450 --> 00:47:55.100 align:middle line:90%
I'll never know.

00:47:55.100 --> 00:48:00.200 align:middle line:84%
Here, for me, things are as
simplified as a traffic light,

00:48:00.200 --> 00:48:06.470 align:middle line:84%
the quickly passing yellow of
choice between two commands.

00:48:06.470 --> 00:48:08.530 align:middle line:90%
Here's my hand.

00:48:08.530 --> 00:48:10.340 align:middle line:90%
Nothing can drive me away.

00:48:10.340 --> 00:48:14.470 align:middle line:84%
I am like a stud in the wall
that makes this room possible.

00:48:14.470 --> 00:48:19.840 align:middle line:84%
You are like a sunflower facing
the sun, for better or worse,

00:48:19.840 --> 00:48:22.300 align:middle line:90%
here for the duration.

00:48:22.300 --> 00:48:25.690 align:middle line:84%
Let the knees buckle,
the hernia bulge,

00:48:25.690 --> 00:48:29.110 align:middle line:84%
the sweat swim along
the lines of the skin.

00:48:29.110 --> 00:48:33.460 align:middle line:84%
Let the disks of the
spine fuse with cold fire.

00:48:33.460 --> 00:48:37.750 align:middle line:84%
Let the feet flatten and the
small vessels in the eyes burst

00:48:37.750 --> 00:48:39.670 align:middle line:90%
and redden.

00:48:39.670 --> 00:48:43.780 align:middle line:84%
Listen to the voice of the
will, egged on by the heart.

00:48:43.780 --> 00:48:46.780 align:middle line:84%
Setting out on this journey
through the mountains, deserts,

00:48:46.780 --> 00:48:52.750 align:middle line:84%
and swamps of the body, I'll
hold your hand and fan and fan

00:48:52.750 --> 00:48:55.390 align:middle line:90%
for as many hours as it takes.

00:48:55.390 --> 00:48:59.590 align:middle line:84%
This is December 10th
and January 28th.

00:48:59.590 --> 00:49:04.450 align:middle line:84%
This is the day within the
days we've been moving toward.

00:49:04.450 --> 00:49:06.970 align:middle line:90%
Nurse says don't push.

00:49:06.970 --> 00:49:10.000 align:middle line:90%
Resist the urge to push.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.280 align:middle line:90%
Doctor says push.

00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:15.640 align:middle line:90%
I say breathe, breathe.

00:49:15.640 --> 00:49:20.980 align:middle line:84%
You open your mouth, release
another mottled sparrow of pain.

00:49:20.980 --> 00:49:22.420 align:middle line:90%
You can say anything."

00:49:22.420 --> 00:49:25.960 align:middle line:90%


00:49:25.960 --> 00:49:30.925 align:middle line:84%
And the last poem I'll read
is another Arizona poem.

00:49:30.925 --> 00:49:33.405 align:middle line:90%


00:49:33.405 --> 00:49:34.780 align:middle line:84%
Many of you have
probably been up

00:49:34.780 --> 00:49:39.490 align:middle line:84%
to Wupatki National
Monument, north of Flagstaff.

00:49:39.490 --> 00:49:43.480 align:middle line:84%
And there are these lovely
Anasazi and Sinagua ruins

00:49:43.480 --> 00:49:45.140 align:middle line:90%
up there.

00:49:45.140 --> 00:49:48.950 align:middle line:90%
There's one called the Citadel.

00:49:48.950 --> 00:49:50.840 align:middle line:84%
How many of you have
ever seen the Citadel?

00:49:50.840 --> 00:49:52.500 align:middle line:90%
It's that kind of round one.

00:49:52.500 --> 00:49:55.920 align:middle line:90%
Yeah, kind of falling apart.

00:49:55.920 --> 00:49:57.770 align:middle line:90%
It's misnamed, I think.

00:49:57.770 --> 00:50:00.800 align:middle line:90%


00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:05.570 align:middle line:84%
Archeologists of a certain
era considered everything

00:50:05.570 --> 00:50:07.640 align:middle line:84%
in the Southwest a
sort of fortification

00:50:07.640 --> 00:50:08.990 align:middle line:90%
against war and disaster.

00:50:08.990 --> 00:50:11.360 align:middle line:84%
But I'm convinced
that the Citadel

00:50:11.360 --> 00:50:14.810 align:middle line:84%
was some kind of an
observatory or a high place

00:50:14.810 --> 00:50:17.190 align:middle line:90%
to look out over the land.

00:50:17.190 --> 00:50:18.860 align:middle line:90%
I don't know.

00:50:18.860 --> 00:50:22.980 align:middle line:84%
But this takes place
at the Citadel.

00:50:22.980 --> 00:50:25.740 align:middle line:84%
"By the time I had
walked out of the canyon,

00:50:25.740 --> 00:50:30.270 align:middle line:84%
toward the end of a day of
deep quiet and daydreams

00:50:30.270 --> 00:50:34.590 align:middle line:84%
among lizards and wrens, a
day of clarity in the sun

00:50:34.590 --> 00:50:37.110 align:middle line:84%
and puzzles in
the shadows, where

00:50:37.110 --> 00:50:40.830 align:middle line:84%
I found the petroglyph of
a running animal pecked

00:50:40.830 --> 00:50:44.970 align:middle line:84%
into the rock at the base of
the canyon a thousand years ago.

00:50:44.970 --> 00:50:48.090 align:middle line:84%
The animal, I thought
at first, was a horse.

00:50:48.090 --> 00:50:51.150 align:middle line:84%
But after looking a while
and thinking about it,

00:50:51.150 --> 00:50:54.330 align:middle line:90%
realized was a mountain lion.

00:50:54.330 --> 00:50:56.880 align:middle line:84%
I was ready, I
thought, for anything.

00:50:56.880 --> 00:51:00.180 align:middle line:84%
I was feeling
strong, light, open.

00:51:00.180 --> 00:51:02.670 align:middle line:84%
I was ready to
sing for a stranger

00:51:02.670 --> 00:51:05.070 align:middle line:84%
or walk into the
Cinder Hills with one

00:51:05.070 --> 00:51:07.380 align:middle line:90%
of the spirits of Lomaki.

00:51:07.380 --> 00:51:11.610 align:middle line:84%
Or put on a black satin cape,
step out of my dusty shoes,

00:51:11.610 --> 00:51:15.930 align:middle line:84%
croak, and flap off to ride
thermals with the ravens.

00:51:15.930 --> 00:51:21.210 align:middle line:84%
I was that happy, as if a new
depth had entered my life.

00:51:21.210 --> 00:51:25.020 align:middle line:84%
When I came upon the tattooed
family posing for pictures

00:51:25.020 --> 00:51:29.790 align:middle line:84%
among the walls and rubble
of Box Canyon Pueblo,

00:51:29.790 --> 00:51:33.210 align:middle line:84%
and noticed their station
wagon with Indiana plates

00:51:33.210 --> 00:51:38.220 align:middle line:84%
and the trailer with the words
Skin Tattoos painted carefully

00:51:38.220 --> 00:51:40.680 align:middle line:84%
in big black
letters, I considered

00:51:40.680 --> 00:51:45.840 align:middle line:84%
asking the smiling father, his
tattooed belly bulging proudly

00:51:45.840 --> 00:51:48.540 align:middle line:84%
beneath his shirt,
to make a portrait

00:51:48.540 --> 00:51:51.340 align:middle line:90%
of the lion on my chest.

00:51:51.340 --> 00:51:53.550 align:middle line:90%
I was that happy.

00:51:53.550 --> 00:51:55.980 align:middle line:84%
But asked, instead,
how are you doing.

00:51:55.980 --> 00:51:58.380 align:middle line:90%
Pretty good so far, he smiled.

00:51:58.380 --> 00:52:01.470 align:middle line:84%
And I went on walking
across the road,

00:52:01.470 --> 00:52:06.000 align:middle line:84%
past the battered pickup to
Nalakihu and the Citadel,

00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:08.940 align:middle line:84%
home to the
Hisatsinom, ancestors

00:52:08.940 --> 00:52:15.760 align:middle line:84%
of the Hopi, guardian spirits
of the land nicknamed America.

00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:18.730 align:middle line:84%
I suppose I should
keep this to myself.

00:52:18.730 --> 00:52:22.300 align:middle line:84%
But there are things in a
life that happen only once

00:52:22.300 --> 00:52:27.130 align:middle line:84%
and make us who we are, like
being born from one woman,

00:52:27.130 --> 00:52:32.770 align:middle line:84%
or the first true kiss that
makes all the others possible.

00:52:32.770 --> 00:52:37.510 align:middle line:84%
I suppose I should hold my
heart hostage to a regular beat.

00:52:37.510 --> 00:52:42.310 align:middle line:84%
And if it must go faster, they
say, it should do so gradually,

00:52:42.310 --> 00:52:46.180 align:middle line:84%
so it isn't strained or damaged
so the whole system starts

00:52:46.180 --> 00:52:49.000 align:middle line:84%
to break down, and
the invisible bird

00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:52.270 align:middle line:84%
that flies back and forth
between the extremities

00:52:52.270 --> 00:52:58.640 align:middle line:84%
bursts into a sudden scattering
of individual feathers.

00:52:58.640 --> 00:53:02.030 align:middle line:84%
But there they
were, three of them,

00:53:02.030 --> 00:53:06.620 align:middle line:84%
standing at the top of the
Citadel in late afternoon light,

00:53:06.620 --> 00:53:09.650 align:middle line:84%
silhouettes among
the rocks, rising

00:53:09.650 --> 00:53:14.840 align:middle line:84%
like gods and human figures
from the ancient walls.

00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:18.650 align:middle line:84%
I stood quietly on the trail
below until one of them

00:53:18.650 --> 00:53:23.090 align:middle line:84%
came down to me and put
a hand on my shoulder,

00:53:23.090 --> 00:53:28.790 align:middle line:84%
lowered his head, opened my
shirt, and spoke in the old way,

00:53:28.790 --> 00:53:31.100 align:middle line:90%
directly to my heart.

00:53:31.100 --> 00:53:35.480 align:middle line:84%
Don't go any further, heart,
he said, until you are blessed.

00:53:35.480 --> 00:53:39.740 align:middle line:84%
He rubbed hooma over my
chest and touched my forehead

00:53:39.740 --> 00:53:43.220 align:middle line:84%
with the white dust of
cornmeal on his fingers.

00:53:43.220 --> 00:53:47.510 align:middle line:84%
He poured hooma in my left hand
and placed a sprig of cedar

00:53:47.510 --> 00:53:48.680 align:middle line:90%
in my right.

00:53:48.680 --> 00:53:50.540 align:middle line:90%
Go pray, he said.

00:53:50.540 --> 00:53:52.940 align:middle line:90%
What for, I asked.

00:53:52.940 --> 00:53:57.560 align:middle line:84%
Pray for now, this place,
all your relations,

00:53:57.560 --> 00:54:00.050 align:middle line:90%
pray for the hostages.

00:54:00.050 --> 00:54:03.890 align:middle line:84%
Then he walked off down the
trail to join the others,

00:54:03.890 --> 00:54:08.600 align:middle line:84%
not gods, but poor,
living men from Moenkopi,

00:54:08.600 --> 00:54:11.030 align:middle line:84%
here at the home
of their ancestors,

00:54:11.030 --> 00:54:15.410 align:middle line:84%
to pray for the world
and bless a stranger."

00:54:15.410 --> 00:54:15.950 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:54:15.950 --> 00:54:19.300 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:54:19.300 --> 00:54:25.000 align:middle line:90%