WEBVTT

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No, no.

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I'm going to keep
playing with this

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until by the very last poem,
it's going to be so perfect,

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I'm going to want to continue.

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So the title of the book then
talks about ancient light.

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It talks about, if this
is what we've experienced,

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if this is what colonization
has wrought, how do we survive?

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How do we thrive?

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How do we continue--

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not just as Indigenous people,
but we're all impacted by this?

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Colonization wants to own
and control everything.

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What happens to the
wildlife and the creatures?

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That's possession.

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The things that we
see happen around us,

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how do we heal from that?

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How do we survive?

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And so I, of course--

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part of what I am
addressing in this book

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is going to
Indigenous teachings.

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It's going to stories and
songs, and it's going to place.

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It's going to land and
waters and other beings.

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And so there are many
ways we can heal.

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We can seek connection.

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We can survive.

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We continue.

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We can flourish.

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And so after we get through
this kind of hard opening,

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the book turns to what
are some of those ways.

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What is the ancient
light that feeds us?

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And so I go first to this poem.

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Pam, did you edit
an issue called--

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yes, you did.

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So I have a poem in here called
"On the Dignity of Gestures."

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And I wrote it for an issue
that Pam Uschuk edited, which

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was dignity as an
endangered species,

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dignity itself as endangered.

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So there's a lot of
story around this.

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And I won't give you the
stories of every poem,

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but I do want to tell this one.

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If you remember, a
number of Januaries

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ago, Nathan Phillips was
an Indigenous man drumming

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on the mall in Washington.

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And he was confronted by all
the MAGA hat-wearing youth.

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And what did he do?

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He just kept drumming.

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He just kept drumming.

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He didn't engage.

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So for me, that was dignity.

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That was the
embodiment of dignity.

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So I wrote this poem
for Nathan Phillips.

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But he only appears in
here, just a little tiny

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bit at the end, because
there are all kinds of ways

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that we can understand
that sort of dignity.

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Well, fast forward a little bit,
and Indigenous Nations Poets

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was having their first
in-person retreat

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after the pandemic
in Washington, DC,

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at the Library of Congress.

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And as part of the closing
day, the faculty was reading,

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the fellows were reading.

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And I decided, well,
what better place

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to read that poem than at DC?

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So I read the poem.

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And right after this
reading, all of us

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hoof-tailed it out to
Joy Harjo's dance party.

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She was with us that
week, and she wanted

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us to close with a dance party.

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So I had one thing.

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I had the book, not this
book, but the book-- it

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was a French book that
originally had that poem in it.

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And I had my purse.

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That's all I had.

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Went out there, danced,
had a great time.

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We were going out to dinner
and two of my fellows

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came and said, Kim, the man you
wrote that poem about is here.

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And so I went back.

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Sure, he was there,
and he was looking

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maybe a little bedraggled.

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And I went up to him,
and I introduced myself.

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And I said, I admired
so much the way

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you handled yourself that day.

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And I said, I actually
wrote a poem to honor you.

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So I had fellows with me.

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He had youth with him.

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And they said, will
you read it to him?

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Well, two things-- my
purse and the book.

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So I'm able to stand with
him with the Washington thing

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behind me and us two together,
reading him this poem.

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And then I had a pen.

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I signed it.

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And as I was leaning over
the wall to sign the book,

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I hear him saying to his
youth, that poem's about me,

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I'm in that book.

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It was the coolest moment.

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And then I came.

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Then we went off to dinner,
for which I was now late.

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And I arrived at the table,
and I told the story.

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And one of my
fellow board members

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said, Oh, that was serendipity.

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And Luci Tapahonso said,
that was not serendipity.

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The spirits were all over that.

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[LAUGHS] So this is the poem.

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On the Dignity of Gestures,
for Nathan Phillips.

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One, remember hands ungloved
and notched by life,

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Watch them pour stovetop
coffee into tin cups,

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Lift cross poles
onto fence books,

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Mend nets, rock your children.

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Two, pay homage and speak the
names of sweepers and shovelers,

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Canners, cafeteria cooks, baby
doctors, and deathbed watchers.

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Esme, Dale, Margaret,
David, Mike, and Colleen.

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Three, receive all gifts,

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Crocheted afghan or prize money,

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With humility.

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Gratitude spreads
easy as butter.

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Unworthiness endures.

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Four, watch the eyes of turtle,

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Admire the neck
courting of swan,

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Study wingbeats
and tail rhythms,

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Note how otter sows
stoop to lift pups,

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Listen to wind in fall to
trees bending and unbroken,

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Announce like spring frogs

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The unfolding of each holy year,

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Carry candles into cathedrals,

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Poetry into prisons.

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Five, do not become
beasts in the fray.

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Remember the Indigenous
hands that drummed on,

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The man who stood strong.

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[APPLAUSE]

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