WEBVTT

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I want to thank the Tucson
community for having me.

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The Poetry Center-- I just
think that this is like one

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of the most amazing--

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this is a poet's heaven.

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I came here and I
was like, oh my god.

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And then they have a
little place for you

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to sleep when you
get tired of reading.

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This is so beautiful.

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Tucson is really amazing.

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I lost my wallet
and yet found it.

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So we're doing well Tucson.

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I want to thank
Tyler, who has been

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an absolute wonderful
host; Paola, who's

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been a wonderful host; Aria.

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The class we had last
night it just-- this

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is such a beautiful space.

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And I heard someone
when I first got

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here, someone said oh, Tucson
really a lot like Austin.

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And I totally agree.

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I can see this as a type
of city where you could,

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go out one night,
meet some folks

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and become friends for
them, with them immediately

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and be having a barbecue
with them by that weekend.

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It feels like that type of city.

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I feel like I'm meeting people
who are just great folks.

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What I want to do tonight is
toggle between new and old work,

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if you don't mind.

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And maybe if y'all let
me know because this is--

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I'm here to be in
service of y'all.

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I might read from
some one of my essays.

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Is that OK?

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That's all right.

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That's all right.

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Cause we going to be
up here for 40 minutes.

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And it's cold.

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So we got to warm each
other in different ways.

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Y'all might be like, these poems
are getting a little chilly.

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Then we move to the essays.

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This next poem I'm going to read
is called "Night Knowledge."

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And there's this-- so sometimes
I give myself challenges.

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And the challenge was to use a
word that I don't normally use.

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And I don't normally
think of as poetic.

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And so I think it's useful to
do these things right to bring.

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And so the word was zombie.

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And of course, as I was
thinking about this,

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I was also learning about
this disease that was--

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made its way to Texas that was
happening in deer, turning deer

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into zombie.

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Basically into zombie, they
would attack their brain.

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And they would just
become like zombies.

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And it's sort of like mad cow
disease, if you remember that.

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So that's the only
thing you need to know.

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"Night Knowledge."

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Deer turning zombie circle
after circle in a blue field

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Bluebonnets mashed to
the-- mashed, matted

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to the deer's blooming heels.

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This the manna and
unleavened miracle

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Of a deer that less
than four or more--

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Excuse me, let me start again.

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Like I said, it's a new poem.

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"Night Knowledge."

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Deer turning zombie circle
after circle in a blue field

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Bluebonnets mashed, matted
to the deer's bluing heels

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This the manna and
unleavened miracle

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Of a deer that less than
four full moons before

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Obeying the turn and
compass of its mind

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Nosed through the drying Timothy

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And moon to find
a company of deer

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Splashed and wet with light

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Eating from a field
and cried to them,

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Not out of misery,
not yet, at least

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But cried nevertheless
out of recognition

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Perhaps, to say, here am I

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Maybe in the crying the
company of deer heard

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Smelled the unclean
thing nesting in him

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So said nothing back
just kept on eating

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But the night echoed,
answered, here am I

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A lantern holding the dark

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Night is a lantern
that holds the dark

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And see it says that which
is the wideness of your life

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The snow that sweeps
the white flowers

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underground and the
white flowers underground

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Is this the knowledge
of the night?

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That are merely a gate of God

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A swinging curtain miming
the air passing through it

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But is not the air itself

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Only its echo.

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So when the wind no
longer cares to lean

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Discarded, we tremble
above the ground.

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Zombie in a field

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Gored by darkness

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And humbly the night
bows to us, in us

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Genuflects to our
gutted tabernacle.

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Here am I.

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[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]

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