WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.500 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a few sonnets from my forthcoming book. 00:00:07.500 --> 00:00:10.880 align:middle line:84% My forthcoming book is titled "This Was Supposed To Be About 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:12.120 align:middle line:90% Beauty". 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:18.440 align:middle line:84% And it's a series of 40 sonnets, and they flip, 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.190 align:middle line:84% so I write the sonnet from line 1 00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:23.520 align:middle line:84% to 14, and then on the opposite page, 00:00:23.520 --> 00:00:27.300 align:middle line:84% I flip it and I write it from line 14 to 1, 00:00:27.300 --> 00:00:29.400 align:middle line:90% and the meaning shifts. 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:32.800 align:middle line:84% And I don't think I knew it at the time 00:00:32.800 --> 00:00:35.180 align:middle line:84% why I wrote in this form, but I think now, 00:00:35.180 --> 00:00:38.880 align:middle line:84% in retrospect, I see that it might 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:44.920 align:middle line:84% have been very convenient because I had just 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:46.180 align:middle line:90% immigrated to America. 00:00:46.180 --> 00:00:47.300 align:middle line:90% That was four years ago. 00:00:47.300 --> 00:00:49.460 align:middle line:84% For a year I couldn't write in English. 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:53.920 align:middle line:84% I wrote in Arabic only, and only a few poems. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.260 align:middle line:84% And then the sonnets started coming, 00:00:56.260 --> 00:00:59.340 align:middle line:84% and I don't really remember how I started kind of flipping them, 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:01.240 align:middle line:90% but I did, and I went with it. 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:05.980 align:middle line:84% And I think-- to think of Edward Said's, 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.560 align:middle line:84% what he says is that the exile's mind is contrapuntal, which 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:12.100 align:middle line:84% means you're always thinking about different places at once, 00:01:12.100 --> 00:01:14.840 align:middle line:84% different time zones at once, different languages at once. 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:17.800 align:middle line:84% And so I think this form allowed me to have 00:01:17.800 --> 00:01:22.000 align:middle line:90% that instability in language. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.760 align:middle line:84% And it allowed also a container against what felt like chaos. 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:31.020 align:middle line:84% So a lot of them speak both to Lebanon and California, 00:01:31.020 --> 00:01:35.200 align:middle line:90% which is where I'm now based. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:38.100 align:middle line:84% And yeah, the book is coming out next March, actually. 00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:39.720 align:middle line:90% So yeah. 00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:44.860 align:middle line:90% This is Saint Sonnet. 00:01:44.860 --> 00:01:48.600 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:50.440 align:middle line:90% Land-wrecked, 00:01:50.440 --> 00:01:54.760 align:middle line:90% Once more I sing I love the sea. 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:59.160 align:middle line:90% Soulful, crazy, like you. 00:01:59.160 --> 00:02:02.140 align:middle line:90% At Baker Beach, sunset-bruised, 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:04.360 align:middle line:90% All the poets are mourning, 00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:06.640 align:middle line:90% "Life's too short'. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:13.280 align:middle line:84% America is the same town over and over again, you tell me. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.200 align:middle line:84% Here, banks structure bodies around zip codes. 00:02:18.200 --> 00:02:22.280 align:middle line:84% CVS, smoke shop, gas station, dive bar. 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:27.200 align:middle line:84% Ubiquitous parking lots on repeat. 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:31.960 align:middle line:84% The days dilate like lovers, pupils in moonlight. 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:36.320 align:middle line:84% I am lulled by BART's whir and your face. 00:02:36.320 --> 00:02:40.840 align:middle line:84% You who call the post office PO box. 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:43.120 align:middle line:90% You of misspell. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:46.200 align:middle line:90% And don't bury me here. 00:02:46.200 --> 00:02:51.400 align:middle line:84% Driving, I confuse my crossings, my Saints. 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:54.980 align:middle line:90% San Francisco, Mateo, Rafael. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:02:57.560 align:middle line:90% 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:01.840 align:middle line:90% San Francisco, Mateo, Rafael. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:07.270 align:middle line:84% Driving, I confuse my crossings, my Saints. 00:03:07.270 --> 00:03:09.990 align:middle line:90% You of misspell. 00:03:09.990 --> 00:03:11.990 align:middle line:90% And don't bury me here. 00:03:11.990 --> 00:03:16.510 align:middle line:84% You who call the post office PO box. 00:03:16.510 --> 00:03:17.370 align:middle line:90% Moonlight. 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:20.750 align:middle line:84% I'm lulled by BART's whir and your face. 00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:23.130 align:middle line:90% The days dilate like lovers, 00:03:23.130 --> 00:03:28.230 align:middle line:84% Pupils in ubiquitous parking lots on repeat. 00:03:28.230 --> 00:03:32.710 align:middle line:84% CVS, smoke shop, gas station, dive bar. 00:03:32.710 --> 00:03:35.510 align:middle line:84% Here, banks structure bodies around 00:03:35.510 --> 00:03:39.790 align:middle line:90% zip codes over and over again. 00:03:39.790 --> 00:03:42.710 align:middle line:90% You tell me life's too short. 00:03:42.710 --> 00:03:45.710 align:middle line:90% America is the same town. 00:03:45.710 --> 00:03:47.630 align:middle line:90% Sunset-bruised. 00:03:47.630 --> 00:03:50.350 align:middle line:90% All the poets are mourning. 00:03:50.350 --> 00:03:54.790 align:middle line:84% Soulful, crazy like you at Baker Beach. 00:03:54.790 --> 00:03:58.150 align:middle line:90% Land-wrecked, once more I sing 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:00.711 align:middle line:90% I love the sea. 00:04:00.711 --> 00:04:05.328 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE CLAPPING] 00:04:05.328 --> 00:04:11.000 align:middle line:90%