WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.750 --> 00:00:08.480 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to begin with a poem about my father. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:12.230 align:middle line:84% And whenever I read this poem, I always 00:00:12.230 --> 00:00:18.480 align:middle line:84% say it got started because it was Christmas time. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:24.405 align:middle line:84% I was in Houston, trying to find a gift for my niece and nephew. 00:00:24.405 --> 00:00:28.400 align:middle line:84% And that's really only part of the story. 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:35.240 align:middle line:84% The truth of the matter is I got in a tiff with my mentor. 00:00:35.240 --> 00:00:39.140 align:middle line:90% My mentor was Tony Hoagland. 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:40.160 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:43.580 align:middle line:84% And some of you might know Tony and that he 00:00:43.580 --> 00:00:46.940 align:middle line:90% was a very complicated person. 00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:50.040 align:middle line:84% But he was a wonderful mentor to me. 00:00:50.040 --> 00:00:52.250 align:middle line:84% And anyway, some of the poems that I 00:00:52.250 --> 00:00:53.400 align:middle line:90% was drafting at the time-- 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:56.970 align:middle line:84% I was a PhD student at Houston, University of Houston. 00:00:56.970 --> 00:00:59.690 align:middle line:84% And I had showed him some poems that 00:00:59.690 --> 00:01:01.940 align:middle line:84% would become The Stuff of Hollywood, 00:01:01.940 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:90% and he was not having it at all. 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:08.840 align:middle line:84% And so the last time I saw him, actually, before he died, 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:10.700 align:middle line:90% I showed him these poems. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:13.780 align:middle line:84% And he just looked at me like Tony could look at you. 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:17.653 align:middle line:84% And he said, you should have been a playwright. 00:01:17.653 --> 00:01:18.380 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:01:18.380 --> 00:01:20.740 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:20.740 --> 00:01:25.255 align:middle line:84% And I looked at him, and I went, hmm. 00:01:25.255 --> 00:01:28.900 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] And I stormed out of the guest house 00:01:28.900 --> 00:01:30.200 align:middle line:90% he was staying in. 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.590 align:middle line:84% And I was like, so basically, you're 00:01:32.590 --> 00:01:35.590 align:middle line:84% saying I'm not a poet based on these poems 00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:36.710 align:middle line:90% that I've showed you? 00:01:36.710 --> 00:01:39.400 align:middle line:84% And so I was like, what can I write? 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:44.440 align:middle line:84% And so that's how this poem came about. 00:01:44.440 --> 00:01:48.400 align:middle line:84% So thank you, Tony, wherever you're at. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:50.660 align:middle line:84% And so what I did was I wrote this poem. 00:01:50.660 --> 00:01:52.990 align:middle line:84% I can't remember how long it took. 00:01:52.990 --> 00:01:54.340 align:middle line:90% But I wrote the poem. 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:58.580 align:middle line:84% And I got this card that was a blank card, and I typed it out. 00:01:58.580 --> 00:02:01.420 align:middle line:84% And I folded it up, and I said, since I'm 00:02:01.420 --> 00:02:04.715 align:middle line:84% supposed to be a playwright, and I sent it to him. 00:02:04.715 --> 00:02:08.729 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] And then several months later, he emailed me, 00:02:08.729 --> 00:02:10.385 align:middle line:84% and he's like, so how are you doing? 00:02:10.385 --> 00:02:13.110 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:02:13.110 --> 00:02:14.263 align:middle line:90% This is "Bird." 00:02:14.263 --> 00:02:17.160 align:middle line:90% 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:20.620 align:middle line:84% "Yesterday, at Shepherd and Gray, 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.260 align:middle line:84% the parking lot was filled with birds, 00:02:23.260 --> 00:02:27.030 align:middle line:90% black birds, actually, grackles. 00:02:27.030 --> 00:02:29.130 align:middle line:90% It was a grackle lot. 00:02:29.130 --> 00:02:34.060 align:middle line:84% Instead of a bumper on a car, there were 10 grackles. 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:37.020 align:middle line:84% Instead of a sunroof, 50 grackles 00:02:37.020 --> 00:02:42.390 align:middle line:84% sat high, their bodies shimmers under cheap strip mall lights, 00:02:42.390 --> 00:02:45.030 align:middle line:84% as shoppers delayed their spending 00:02:45.030 --> 00:02:48.070 align:middle line:84% to pull out phones and take shots. 00:02:48.070 --> 00:02:53.340 align:middle line:84% Such spectators we were, like that summer in July, 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:57.540 align:middle line:84% when I was left again to wonder who was the child 00:02:57.540 --> 00:03:01.680 align:middle line:84% and who the adult. That Sunday evening, that 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.820 align:middle line:84% hung in the air like bug spray when my father, the one who 00:03:06.820 --> 00:03:10.160 align:middle line:84% fed me and gave me his last name, 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:15.440 align:middle line:84% stood two stories on our family porch, every neighbor, 00:03:15.440 --> 00:03:19.450 align:middle line:84% in all manner of dress, drawn from their homes, 00:03:19.450 --> 00:03:22.660 align:middle line:90% in the street, watching. 00:03:22.660 --> 00:03:26.800 align:middle line:84% Let me tell you how he spread his arms wide, 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.760 align:middle line:84% like the man he was before Vietnam 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:34.150 align:middle line:90% or before the schizophrenia. 00:03:34.150 --> 00:03:38.770 align:middle line:84% Let me tell you how a child learns the alphabet by counting, 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:43.810 align:middle line:84% how she learns only two letters separate the words hero 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:49.490 align:middle line:84% and heroine, how he stood high on the ledge of a porch 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:52.690 align:middle line:84% the child never much liked because there 00:03:52.690 --> 00:03:55.280 align:middle line:84% was a crack in its wooden center, 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.500 align:middle line:84% as if the world was waiting to open its jaws to swallow 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.990 align:middle line:90% her body whole. 00:04:01.990 --> 00:04:06.490 align:middle line:84% Let me tell you how that evening didn't hold death, 00:04:06.490 --> 00:04:09.580 align:middle line:84% but instead was the preface to death. 00:04:09.580 --> 00:04:13.680 align:middle line:90% The point being he jumped. 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:18.610 align:middle line:84% Some will say, there are worse songs to sing. 00:04:18.610 --> 00:04:21.430 align:middle line:84% Others might believe it a tragedy. 00:04:21.430 --> 00:04:24.250 align:middle line:84% But who are we to question the gods 00:04:24.250 --> 00:04:29.160 align:middle line:84% when a man, unconcerned with the inconvenience of his presence, 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:35.430 align:middle line:84% shows up in a parking lot, winged as an army of himself? 00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:39.250 align:middle line:84% Eventually, lights went dark in the shops. 00:04:39.250 --> 00:04:43.380 align:middle line:84% And each watcher retraced their steps back home 00:04:43.380 --> 00:04:47.380 align:middle line:84% to find their families, to rejoice over food, 00:04:47.380 --> 00:04:50.460 align:middle line:90% to laugh and settle the night. 00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:54.370 align:middle line:84% And the birds, steadfast they stood, 00:04:54.370 --> 00:04:56.130 align:middle line:90% not quite ready for flight." 00:04:56.130 --> 00:04:58.830 align:middle line:90% 00:04:58.830 --> 00:05:01.880 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:04.000 align:middle line:90%