WEBVTT 00:00:13.186 --> 00:00:40.030 - Are you ready? It's only like 24. Are you ready? We can welcome you to 5 Wooden Coats 25th anniversary reading. 00:00:49.922 --> 00:00:57.250 - we're going to begin with a group poem. It's going to be a little more restrained than last year's group 00:00:57.250 --> 00:01:04.578 - poem. For those of you who remember, you know, Wellington Boots and so forth. It's not really like that. 00:01:04.578 --> 00:01:11.138 - The 70s. Trends. Jonestown. Est. TM. Jogging. Cycling. Fast walking. Purple tee. Health food. 00:01:11.138 --> 00:01:18.256 - Singles bars. Swinging singles. Micron spandex. Hard pants. Burst shoes. Pant tops. Polyester leisure 00:01:18.256 --> 00:01:19.582 - shoes. Mood rings. 00:01:20.098 --> 00:01:29.122 - Pet Rops. Have a nice day. Happy face. I'm okay, you're okay. TV radios. Mopeds. Macramé. Streaking. 00:01:29.122 --> 00:01:38.323 - Disco. Hustle. Miz. ERA. Roe vs. Wade. I Am Woman. Fear of flying. Joy of sex. Looking for Mr. Goodbar. 00:01:38.323 --> 00:01:46.462 - Happy day is the fun. The total moment. String bikini. Watership down. 74. Mainstream news. 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:56.615 - The wounded knee trial begins February. Charges dismissed September. Senate ratifies 1925 Geneva Protocol 00:01:56.615 --> 00:02:02.566 - banning chemical and biological warfare. Mariner 10 reports Venus not as closely related to Earth as 00:02:02.566 --> 00:02:08.575 - scientists once suspected. Golda Maire resigns. Maria Estella Martinez de Perón becomes president of 00:02:08.575 --> 00:02:14.644 - Argentina. Patricia Hearst kidnapped. Agnes Garrity, holder of 10 women's swimming records, dies. Jill 00:02:14.644 --> 00:02:17.118 - Kerr Conway becomes first woman president 00:02:17.282 --> 00:02:46.494 - What never changes, Ethiopian and Eritrean 00:02:54.114 --> 00:03:02.362 - Here explodes nuclear device. Pakistan will develop nuclear program. Pope Paul VI reaffirms unequivocal 00:03:02.362 --> 00:03:10.689 - opposition to birth control. Pope claims Pope Pius XII knew by 1942 of Nazi deportation of Jews. 100,000 00:03:10.689 --> 00:03:19.095 - die of drought in sub-Saharan region of West Africa. What was invisible, unmentioned, battered and abused 00:03:19.095 --> 00:03:23.774 - women and children, women's music and culture, homophobia, 00:03:24.514 --> 00:03:32.105 - the old, the different, the land, the animals, the plants, the water, the air. Invisible to myself, 00:03:32.105 --> 00:03:39.619 - my longing for women's country, which I took 20 years to enter. Myself. Early 70s, I'm underwater, 00:03:39.619 --> 00:03:47.514 - snowed in, bogged down, kids everywhere, toys, diapers, dirty dishes, dust balls growing under the bed, 00:03:47.514 --> 00:03:53.662 - my world, the yard, the block, the park, playground, the grocery store. One day, 00:03:54.210 --> 00:04:01.331 - casual conversation as I pick up the kids from nursery school. So you like theater? Come to a puppet 00:04:01.331 --> 00:04:08.522 - rehearsal. Then I'm learning, acting, dancing, writing at 1 a.m., going back to school, fitting it in 00:04:08.522 --> 00:04:15.924 - somehow with all the mother stuff. And here's Helen in a class, her poem's full of the land, local ways. 00:04:15.924 --> 00:04:22.622 - She runs a nursery garden, is an oasis among the college youth. They move on to other courses, 00:04:22.882 --> 00:04:31.468 - And we, with nowhere to speak our words, make our own place. Like a garden, it's grown and changed, 00:04:31.468 --> 00:04:40.226 - good years and bad, the workers come and go, yet it keeps on, and here we are, 25. How I wish I could 00:04:40.226 --> 00:04:48.984 - say, here's to another 25. But on this side of the hill, it's not very likely. So I take each meeting 00:04:48.984 --> 00:04:51.646 - as I do each day, the one that 00:05:13.730 --> 00:05:26.122 - Thank you, Tonya. I'll let you all get comfortable. It's nice to see this lake of faces, not exactly 00:05:26.122 --> 00:05:38.760 - a sea, but a full room of those of you who wanted to help us celebrate tonight. I, too, remember 1974. 00:05:38.760 --> 00:05:43.422 - I was mother of toddlers, not yet 30. 00:05:43.938 --> 00:05:54.733 - and sure of my rich and married future. Psychics were predicting the planet in upheaval as the century 00:05:54.733 --> 00:06:05.633 - turned 25 years. Volcanoes, earthquakes, climactic changes, storms, floods. Penetubo, Mount St. Helens, 00:06:05.633 --> 00:06:13.598 - Turkey, Taiwan, Nicaragua, El Nino, La Nina, North Carolina, Andrew, Floyd, 00:06:15.938 --> 00:06:25.905 - and they predicted that human lives would reflect the planetary. Viral epidemics, environmental diseases, 00:06:25.905 --> 00:06:35.685 - physical, emotional trauma, classroom violence, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress. 00:06:35.685 --> 00:06:45.182 - Kali chakra, dances of universal peace, commit random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. 00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:56.516 - one day at a time. Transformation? Indeed. Those psychics knew better than to tell what 25 years would 00:06:56.516 --> 00:07:05.953 - break for me. But they could have said, take heart in hard times. Your work will have meaning. You will 00:07:05.953 --> 00:07:15.934 - find your tribe. You will make a new kind of family. Be proud of your children. You will learn you are loved. 00:07:16.674 --> 00:07:28.056 - and worthy, you will find women, many women. And some of you will sit together, poets in a circle, marking 00:07:28.056 --> 00:07:38.694 - your transformations, bringing each other courage and delight. This is a little note to Floyd. Have 00:07:38.694 --> 00:07:45.502 - you ever noticed they name the great forces of nature as women? 00:07:46.050 --> 00:07:57.511 - La mer, the sea, mother of us all, and used to be hurricanes. I miss that. I figure we could all stand 00:07:57.511 --> 00:08:08.972 - remembering the consequences of a woman's rage. Thank you. This next piece was inspired by a note from 00:08:08.972 --> 00:08:13.534 - Tanya probably a little over a year ago. 00:08:15.458 --> 00:08:25.131 - Lifeblood for a crone, the full harvest moon emerging from a cloud, crickets in the rain, a blue jay 00:08:25.131 --> 00:08:35.091 - in the spruce tree, a clear droplet at the end of each dogwood leaf, the queenly cat and the silly one, 00:08:35.091 --> 00:08:43.614 - dogs who visit my office, babies whose mothers hand them to me, strangers who smile back 00:08:43.970 --> 00:08:55.331 - Pleasantness in traffic. Sunday morning public radio. Reading anything. Cooking for friends. The window 00:08:55.331 --> 00:09:06.473 - seat. My desk on the sun porch. The vine that blossoms on the fence. Quiet in the house. A new dress. 00:09:06.473 --> 00:09:13.246 - Old sweatshirt. Coffee at sunrise. Rehearsals. Women writing. 00:09:13.538 --> 00:09:26.719 - Women singing, dancers, actors, backstage with the crew, on stage in the airy light, making a room full 00:09:26.719 --> 00:09:39.519 - of people laugh, holding a woman who weeps, being held anytime. Women. This came from a meeting of a 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:42.814 - poetry group at Meadowood 00:09:46.562 --> 00:09:54.686 - It's easy to think of regeneration as leaves dry and fall into spring, seasons of transformation. What 00:09:54.686 --> 00:10:02.889 - will I find come spring under the compost left from this autumn? September always like school starting, 00:10:02.889 --> 00:10:11.013 - the smell of newness on the air. Fresh crayons, shiny brown oxfords, starched and iron dress. Standing 00:10:11.013 --> 00:10:14.878 - up straight and proud, a school girl once again, 00:10:15.106 --> 00:10:16.606 - on her way to adventure. 00:10:56.866 --> 00:11:05.377 - Where are you? Well, we're now going to hear from Deborah Campbell, and you can find some of her wonderful 00:11:05.377 --> 00:11:13.332 - poetry in the chat book for sale in the lobby for Amir Pitten's. I've enjoyed what I've seen in the 00:11:13.332 --> 00:11:17.150 - chat book. I'm looking forward to hearing more. 00:11:25.794 --> 00:11:32.641 - Yes, I'm Deborah Campbell. I left Bloomington, though, in 1981. So I'm a stranger in Bloomington now. 00:11:32.641 --> 00:11:39.353 - But it's really nice to come back. I was in that 74 group. I wasn't with Sandra Gilbert. I was with 00:11:39.353 --> 00:11:46.065 - Ruth Stone. But I joined the group right after the class. And it was really great. But there are no 00:11:46.065 --> 00:11:52.979 - pictures of us from that time, because we had no sense that this was going to go on and on and on like 00:11:52.979 --> 00:11:54.590 - this. So we were there. 00:11:55.554 --> 00:12:05.700 - I'd like to read first the blizzard. Three rooms on the ground floor, a small apartment, walls close, 00:12:05.700 --> 00:12:15.846 - yellow light at the centers of rooms, leaving corners of warm beige. Flurries of effervescence rising 00:12:15.846 --> 00:12:24.798 - in the glass of beer half drunk. A refrigerator and pantry of food waits. Two cats sleep. 00:12:25.250 --> 00:12:35.080 - one filling the hollow of a chair, the other on the floor that covers the hot water pipe running to 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:45.107 - the baseboard radiators. Beyond the sheetrock, insulation, and mortared brick, beyond the wood frame, 00:12:45.107 --> 00:12:53.758 - glass panes and electric wiring, winds sweep knee-high snow in broad sheets and funnels 00:12:54.146 --> 00:13:02.797 - Curling waves, sharp bridges, mounds, buttes and palisades, now like water, now like rock, 00:13:02.797 --> 00:13:12.493 - now like sand. Forming and reforming, the snow conforming to shapes nature loves. Through the camera, 00:13:12.493 --> 00:13:22.474 - I view the snow subject. Through the frame of the viewfinder, focusing the two halves of the split image 00:13:22.474 --> 00:13:23.710 - rangefinder. 00:13:24.130 --> 00:13:33.148 - Lining frame with the frame of the window, first focusing on the frame, then on the snow beyond. The 00:13:33.148 --> 00:13:42.077 - screen blurs the image. The frames of the panes cut the ridge of snow like boxes on a design graph. 00:13:42.077 --> 00:13:51.273 - Typing this into the computer with its straight lines, right angles, boxes within boxes, all functions 00:13:51.273 --> 00:13:52.702 - neatly labeled. 00:13:53.666 --> 00:14:05.667 - I, subject, format this object phrase. I, subject, view this object text. The poem, an object in a box, 00:14:05.667 --> 00:14:17.207 - in a box, in an architecture of boxes, does not line up with, does not conform to. Trying to grasp, 00:14:17.207 --> 00:14:21.246 - shape the scene, record its forms, 00:14:21.762 --> 00:14:32.858 - I cannot reach outside the shelter of my walls to the space beyond where gale force wind cuts across 00:14:32.858 --> 00:14:43.844 - all human possibility. The next poem is Nathaniel and the Freight Train. To get home, we must cross 00:14:43.844 --> 00:14:49.886 - the tracks. He looks to the left. I look to the right. 00:14:50.466 --> 00:14:59.720 - as we have previously arranged. This night, in the distance to the left, a light appears. The track 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:09.251 - is a straight shot for miles. How far off is the light? How long do we have to wait? But wait we must, 00:15:09.251 --> 00:15:17.950 - for Nathaniel must see the train. I park the car and carry him to the tracks to better judge. 00:15:19.330 --> 00:15:28.806 - The light does not seem to move. He leans forward slightly in my arms and says in a voice firm with 00:15:28.806 --> 00:15:38.660 - toddler expertise, it's coming. With a small Indiana town at our backs and corn and soybean countryside 00:15:38.660 --> 00:15:48.894 - ahead, the air is still. Not a sound from the recycling plant nearby. On the grassy bank across the tracks, 00:15:49.474 --> 00:15:58.877 - are three white wooden crosses barely visible in the light of the plant's loading dock. Memorials to 00:15:58.877 --> 00:16:08.373 - three teens who died before the gates went in. Finally, the faint whisper of whistle at a crossing at 00:16:08.373 --> 00:16:18.334 - the line. The volume grows. Two long, one short, one long. The warning spelled out with escalating urgency 00:16:19.234 --> 00:16:27.259 - The circle of light grows. Nathaniel is eager, but he signals me to move back. The gates come down. 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:35.364 - His body is tense. I see his wide eyes in the advancing light. Then the avalanche of metal is on us. 00:16:35.364 --> 00:16:38.654 - The rumble and screech of rolling stock. 00:16:38.978 --> 00:16:48.289 - Nathaniel holds on tight, 25 cars, 50 cars pass in the dark, the screens of wheel meeting track, the 00:16:48.289 --> 00:16:57.692 - Russian spiral of hot air meeting flesh. The last car passes, and with the suddenness of epiphany, on 00:16:57.692 --> 00:17:07.003 - the other side of the tracks, the three white wooden crosses glow in the ambient light, in the still 00:17:07.003 --> 00:17:08.478 - shuddering air. 00:17:13.954 --> 00:17:33.386 - turn is up. And next we have Heather Good. Hi. I joined Five Women Poets in the summer of 1998 and I 00:17:33.386 --> 00:17:43.390 - came to the group as a dancer who was interested in 00:17:44.034 --> 00:17:52.967 - creating performance pieces that combined movement with poetry. And what I've done since I joined the 00:17:52.967 --> 00:18:01.812 - group is to write a lot of poetry. So I'm going to read some of it for you. Legacy. The women in her 00:18:01.812 --> 00:18:11.358 - family are made of stories of how they married badly and plowed the fields while their drunk husbands slept. 00:18:12.578 --> 00:18:20.817 - How they pulled their own children out of their wounds. How they always lived alone except for each 00:18:20.817 --> 00:18:29.551 - other. How disease took their loved ones and carved up their capable bodies. How they educated themselves 00:18:29.551 --> 00:18:37.873 - when the world would not. How they built wisdom out of war and poverty and loss. She has listened at 00:18:37.873 --> 00:18:41.086 - their bedsides as they died too young. 00:18:41.570 --> 00:18:55.014 - and written their histories in brittle pages on her bones. Only the strong can bear such things, 00:18:55.014 --> 00:19:09.150 - she knows. She examines herself without hope for signs of weakness. Duet. I see a self within myself. 00:19:09.826 --> 00:19:18.935 - A self that walks with me inside my skin, a heart that beats inside my heart, and hands that fold into 00:19:18.935 --> 00:19:28.044 - my hands. Skin inside skin and blood inside blood, like a child rocked in the cradle of my arms within 00:19:28.044 --> 00:19:34.942 - arms. My eyes look forever inwards, holding someone smaller in their embrace. 00:19:40.578 --> 00:19:52.995 - So we gave ourselves sort of an assignment to write a poem about 1974, which is the year that five women 00:19:52.995 --> 00:20:05.648 - poets started up. So this is my 1974 poem. 1974, the year I learned to write, not just childish scribbles, 00:20:05.648 --> 00:20:10.142 - but two real letters of the alphabet. 00:20:10.722 --> 00:20:29.034 - H. Two vertical hatches sliced by horizontal. O. A curving line reaching around to meet itself. H-O. 00:20:29.034 --> 00:20:39.006 - H-O. Ho. My crayon signature. My magic word. My first. 00:20:54.242 --> 00:21:03.747 - Deborah Horne. Yesterday I was in North Carolina, and tomorrow I'm on my way back. But this is one event 00:21:03.747 --> 00:21:13.434 - I really didn't want to miss. Being with this group of women has been an important part of my life through 00:21:13.434 --> 00:21:21.310 - the late 80s and early 90s. The first poem I'd like to read tonight is called Patches. 00:21:23.746 --> 00:21:33.079 - Imagines of my past drift timeless on stratosphere, whisked along on whim of some crafty quiltmaker 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:42.412 - intent on random, wild design. Suddenly, a jagged, pain-red swatch whirling on gust of furious wind 00:21:42.412 --> 00:21:52.958 - drops and fits itself into the fiber of my day. No sooner done than silken star design, a moment brightly prized 00:21:53.634 --> 00:22:05.618 - settles milkweed light beside the red. An updraft floats this fabric of my life while patches tumble 00:22:05.618 --> 00:22:17.840 - into folds and corners. The quilter smiles at patterned disarray while stitching captured patches into 00:22:17.840 --> 00:22:22.942 - the texture of my day. Stone Soup Gallery. 00:22:23.650 --> 00:22:33.012 - on bent branches in Anna's yard. Aluminum saucepans wink at sunset, dripping ham and beans onto a hungry 00:22:33.012 --> 00:22:42.106 - lawn. Pan handles lodge and garden loom at angles determined by their velocity. In summer heat, flies 00:22:42.106 --> 00:22:51.467 - scavenge piles of boiled potatoes and turnips strewn from doorstep to white picket fence. Skillets caked 00:22:51.467 --> 00:22:52.894 - with gravy rust 00:22:53.346 --> 00:23:03.982 - rain. Behind lace curtains in the kitchen window, Anna admires her gallery and waits for the next time 00:23:03.982 --> 00:23:14.617 - Edward comes home, sperms the meal stirred from her cache of time, and leaves her alone with a boiling 00:23:14.617 --> 00:23:22.878 - pot and her anger. Housekeeping. Balancing the sleeping house on her shoulders, 00:23:23.362 --> 00:23:31.195 - She tiptoes in ballerina shoes under shifting moon shadows through fields of frozen mud. A floorboard 00:23:31.195 --> 00:23:39.257 - creaks. She stiffens, eyes wide as lily pads, fearful that as little as a mouse traveling the baseboards 00:23:39.257 --> 00:23:47.551 - could tilt the awkward load. Send it crashing earthward, spilling chairs, china, credit cards, and children 00:23:47.551 --> 00:23:52.158 - through broken panes and unhinged doors into a wasted heat. 00:23:53.698 --> 00:24:03.621 - The house, silent again, pushes down and sends spasms through her back. She lifts one soundless foot 00:24:03.621 --> 00:24:13.544 - and extends it one step closer to dawn. Truck stop of America. Daddy always said, if you want a good 00:24:13.544 --> 00:24:22.878 - meal, eat at a truck stop. Mother, meanwhile, eagle-eyed her plate and napkin rubbed her fork. 00:24:23.298 --> 00:24:31.212 - Today, at truck stop of America, each elbowed me in memory through aisles of trucker's logs, CB radios, 00:24:31.212 --> 00:24:38.973 - headlight lamps, peppermint stars, Waylon and Willie and Roseanne Cash, wild and free t-shirts, dusty 00:24:38.973 --> 00:24:46.735 - tins of Redman, and 83 Louis Lamour paperbacks. Finally, seated in vinyl padded boots inspecting fork 00:24:46.735 --> 00:24:49.246 - and glass, I ordered Harky Fair. 00:24:49.730 --> 00:24:57.237 - Two truckers' cat brims tilted down mumbled roots and weather. Waitress pushes back a strand of hair, 00:24:57.237 --> 00:25:05.038 - jokes with solitary cop, and plants my port of steaming soup before me. I plunk a quarter in the jukebox. 00:25:05.038 --> 00:25:12.545 - It blasts out Mississippi Squirrel Revival as I reach across the table for a cleaner spoon. Mom nods. 00:25:12.545 --> 00:25:18.654 - Dad eyes my soup. Twenty minutes later, I drop a crumpled bill by half-empty bowl. 00:25:19.266 --> 00:25:29.127 - I smile. Before I rise, I feel a knowing elbow on left and right. I nod. They smile. The final poem 00:25:29.127 --> 00:25:38.989 - is called Trucking South. All my worldly goods loaded on the largest rider truck hover behind me as 00:25:38.989 --> 00:25:46.878 - I take a deep breath, clutch the steering wheel, and wave goodbye to neighbors. 00:25:48.002 --> 00:25:55.448 - Long curves mold my hands to the wheel, my eyes to the road. I dare not exhale, look right or left, 00:25:55.448 --> 00:26:02.894 - speed up, or think of the next 600 miles. At Louisville, the road narrows to a single lane over the 00:26:02.894 --> 00:26:10.639 - Ohio where the bridge reads, bridge under construction. Finally, as I slide onto the two lanes of Route 00:26:10.639 --> 00:26:16.670 - 64, I exhale, turn on the radio, and check the mirror for my backup, the Taurus, 00:26:16.770 --> 00:26:23.965 - that provides me cover to change lanes. My foot sinks deeper on the gas. I'm trucking. Heeds, 00:26:23.965 --> 00:26:31.620 - hills speed by. I move into the left lane, leaving lesser cars behind. No cover car tails me now. I 00:26:31.620 --> 00:26:39.351 - let up on the gas and annoyed. I have a hang of this. Where is my Taurus? I break and slow to 50. In 00:26:39.351 --> 00:26:44.862 - the mirror, the Taurus spins slowly into sight. I urge the truck to 70. 00:26:45.346 --> 00:26:53.923 - The tourist drops back, and I grumble as I slow again. I am woman. I am trucker. Let me roll. A fingernail 00:26:53.923 --> 00:27:02.020 - of moon scratches the graying sky. My shoulders ache as I exit to the West Virginia Motel. I set the 00:27:02.020 --> 00:27:10.276 - brake and jump to the pavement, strutting a bit with trucker pride. A lecture on speed from my tourist 00:27:10.276 --> 00:27:15.166 - friend does not deflate me. I'm a trucker. At 2 AM, I awake. 00:27:15.970 --> 00:27:22.896 - I know I can't get back into the cab, wind over miles of mountains, and live. No longer a trucker, I 00:27:22.896 --> 00:27:29.822 - lie awake, weighing options. I can risk my life and goods, or I can live here in this two-restaurant 00:27:29.822 --> 00:27:37.228 - town for the rest of my days. Coffee in hand, I climb onto the truck and dare it to slip out of my control. 00:27:37.228 --> 00:27:44.222 - Past Charleston, mountains twist and climb, and I learn the force of gravity as I slope to 40 and 30. 00:27:45.346 --> 00:27:52.765 - Downhills begin to thrill me, and I'm trucking again. I pull through a weigh station, an official trucker 00:27:52.765 --> 00:28:00.183 - now. I gas up with the fellows at a truck stop. I'm getting into this again, leaving terror to the night. 00:28:00.183 --> 00:28:07.252 - Blasting country songs on the radio, I sing along. Now it's easy sitting high above traffic, hauling 00:28:07.252 --> 00:28:14.320 - my life to a new home. Regret seeps in as I pull to a halt. I'm ready for another hundred miles, and 00:28:14.320 --> 00:28:15.230 - now it ends. 00:28:16.066 --> 00:28:29.328 - I hop to the ground, the feel of the road still in me, and I know that while I will never make this 00:28:29.328 --> 00:28:42.590 - trip again, I am a trucker. The next set of poems are Beth Kelly's and Andra Royce will read these. 00:28:53.634 --> 00:29:01.876 - I'm really sorry that Beth couldn't be here because nobody can read her poems like she does. But they're 00:29:01.876 --> 00:29:10.196 - such good ones that we thought we would give you an example. Coffee Grounds. Damn, love is a hard-hearted 00:29:10.196 --> 00:29:18.045 - woman. She stands with red hands strong on them broad hips and scowls your hunger into silence till 00:29:18.045 --> 00:29:21.342 - you're sorry you asked for bacon and eggs 00:29:22.050 --> 00:29:29.894 - Coffee, just coffee, if it's already hot. Yes, that'll be fine, thanks, fine. And she fixes you with 00:29:29.894 --> 00:29:38.203 - her eye as that hot black brew pours bitter fire down your throat. But you drink it down, careful watching 00:29:38.203 --> 00:29:46.202 - her watching you while your heart's brought back to knowing you don't even like coffee. Just sometimes 00:29:46.202 --> 00:29:47.678 - the way it smells. 00:29:48.802 --> 00:29:58.536 - You dream of fancy foods your heart ain't yet to taste, but somehow remembers anyways. Then you smell 00:29:58.536 --> 00:30:08.270 - the coffee and wish that old dog image of love would move her fat ass out of your kitchen and let you 00:30:08.270 --> 00:30:16.382 - get to the stove yourself. This is called After the Farmer's Market. I am almost 40. 00:30:16.866 --> 00:30:25.811 - Middle-aged and stiff from arthritis and professional posturing. But the sun is too sweet. The morning 00:30:25.811 --> 00:30:34.756 - too new was summer to resist. So I sit on this warm concrete step, eat fresh strawberries from a brown 00:30:34.756 --> 00:30:43.441 - paper bag, and watch the cars go by. And the last one is Elegy. Her heart was a buried stone larger 00:30:43.441 --> 00:30:46.046 - than the ground that held it. 00:30:47.010 --> 00:30:55.199 - cracked from years of the earth's deep fire yearning toward the sun. No drink was ever sweeter than 00:30:55.199 --> 00:31:03.552 - the water of this lonely fountain poured out, not for many, nor for the forgiveness of sins, but into 00:31:03.552 --> 00:31:12.478 - the roots of the sycamore and katalpa for the simple task of living, for the simple need to love. Ben Kelly. 00:31:22.562 --> 00:31:33.263 - Our next poet is Antonio Macchi. I'm going to start off with a joint poem. Helen is going to read it 00:31:33.263 --> 00:31:43.964 - with me. It's a true story of taking my young children to a poetry reading. And there are two voices 00:31:43.964 --> 00:31:51.486 - in the poem. That's why we're going to read it as a duet, so to speak. 00:31:52.674 --> 00:31:59.595 - At the reading. The poet is reading about the white slavers. At the back of the auditorium, John finds 00:31:59.595 --> 00:32:06.717 - a tick crawling out of his hair. To suit that on a young girl. Holds it between his thumb and forefinger. 00:32:06.717 --> 00:32:13.503 - To seize her in the streets. And as she weeps and shrieks. Tries to flick it off. Carry her away. It 00:32:13.503 --> 00:32:19.550 - doesn't want to go. To far countries where unimaginable things happen. But falls at last. 00:32:19.650 --> 00:32:28.579 - Belly up, legs kicking. Only in this case, the family laid in wait. We all stomp on it. It still lies 00:32:28.579 --> 00:32:37.071 - there kicking. And a total of a getaway car. Finally, I get my house key, press down on the tip, 00:32:37.071 --> 00:32:46.087 - slice it up, poke it in a nail hole. Thus saving the family honor and the child. As the poet finishes, 00:32:46.087 --> 00:32:47.838 - we all clap loudly. 00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:14.056 - Thank you. I'm going to read two short poems from the chapbook. A gray day. The room, cold white. Walls, 00:33:14.056 --> 00:33:26.807 - chairs, floor. French windows showed us a corner of the autumn garden. A flower bed along a mossy red 00:33:26.807 --> 00:33:29.182 - brick wall, a tree 00:33:29.346 --> 00:33:40.513 - Not quite bare of its pale yellow leaves, around it on the bent grass, fallen ones, large feathers 00:33:40.513 --> 00:33:52.019 - overlapping. Their color lit the room. So when the poet stood and read, she shone. The words from her 00:33:52.019 --> 00:33:58.110 - mouth, bright birds that settled in our hearts. What? 00:34:00.130 --> 00:34:09.717 - We sit upstairs in your small room. You ask, what does a poet need? I remember a cat crouching in the 00:34:09.717 --> 00:34:19.209 - grass, a chipmunk between her paws. She was eating it whole. Driving one evening, two deer galloping 00:34:19.209 --> 00:34:28.702 - towards the road. I expected them to stop, but they came on, charged across, looking straight ahead. 00:34:30.370 --> 00:34:41.762 - I turn to you, say, I need to eat the chipmunk whole to risk all for where I am going. The last part 00:34:41.762 --> 00:34:53.492 - I'm going to read is from our first chapbook, which is also for sale. It's a historical chapbook. There 00:34:53.492 --> 00:34:57.214 - are only those copied out there. 00:34:57.570 --> 00:35:07.510 - So splurge a little. We'll sign it for you. This is a poem I've always been fond of. It's written about 00:35:07.510 --> 00:35:17.641 - a woman who was very important to me when I was growing up. And at this time of remembering our 25 years, 00:35:17.641 --> 00:35:27.486 - I would like to honor her. An act of remembrance for Mercia. I drive past your house, my wartime home, 00:35:28.066 --> 00:35:37.537 - always my home from home. Surely, I just missed seeing you this time. Surely, you are out of town. The 00:35:37.537 --> 00:35:46.915 - stone lions and the climbing roses are not there, nor the wartime potato patch in the flower bed, nor 00:35:46.915 --> 00:35:56.478 - the bricked in windows that made our basement air raid shelter. Yet, I can imagine if I put up in front 00:35:57.346 --> 00:36:05.832 - got out, opened the gate, and walked up the gravel drive. You would be there in the doorway before I 00:36:05.832 --> 00:36:14.319 - had reached the steps, stout and smiling, ginger hair crinkled, arms wide, Tonya, my dear, embracing 00:36:14.319 --> 00:36:22.721 - me beneath the enormous engraved picture of Wellington's victory and Queen Victoria's words. Please 00:36:22.721 --> 00:36:27.006 - understand that no one is depressed in this house. 00:36:27.682 --> 00:36:36.465 - We are not interested in the possibility of defeat. It does not exist. All through the party, I kept 00:36:36.465 --> 00:36:45.771 - looking towards the door, listening for something I couldn't hear. I was expecting you to arrive, bringing 00:36:45.771 --> 00:36:54.728 - that laughter I counted on for years. But one winter morning, getting up early, as you did through air 00:36:54.728 --> 00:36:57.598 - raids and holidays, fog and sun, 00:36:57.730 --> 00:37:08.542 - to make your cup of tea, you fell and left without saying goodbye. I have not cried for you. Like you, 00:37:08.542 --> 00:37:19.460 - I have not said goodbye. I imagine you still in the doorway, arms wide to greet me. How else can I bear 00:37:19.460 --> 00:37:25.758 - your absence, as real and permanent as the loss of the alms 00:37:26.274 --> 00:37:51.267 - at the end of the garden. Thank you. Thank you. It's so wonderful to see you all out here and for you 00:37:51.267 --> 00:37:54.942 - to be sharing. 00:37:55.138 --> 00:38:02.807 - in this special time for us, where before we take our ten-minute intermission, there are a few brief 00:38:02.807 --> 00:38:10.780 - announcements and acknowledgments. What would be a torture for you? You've got to do it. Nancy, I should 00:38:10.780 --> 00:38:17.918 - have asked you to burst into song. Would you like to sing? There was one about Frere Jacques. 00:38:20.194 --> 00:38:29.711 - The women's copy house, we have little rude rhymes we sing before the announcements. Stupid announcements, 00:38:29.711 --> 00:38:36.382 - get them over with, get them over with. However, these are genuine thanks. 00:38:37.058 --> 00:38:42.688 - Thank you to the staff of the John Walton Arts Centre for their help, especially Carol North, who started 00:38:42.688 --> 00:38:48.159 - the booking process for us, and Louise Roncaiola, who carried it on. Laura Green, who had an unfailing 00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:53.470 - cheer, answered questions and took messages, and E.J., who worked very hard on the lighting for us. 00:38:53.634 --> 00:39:00.352 - Thanks also to Fiona Stoner who has taped two of our readings. We're grateful for her expertise. Annette 00:39:00.352 --> 00:39:07.390 - who has been our ticket taker not only once but I think before and Jennifer Cash who today is our bookseller. 00:39:08.162 --> 00:39:13.746 - Special thanks to the two newest members of the group, Heather Good and Carrie Spatter. Heather put 00:39:13.746 --> 00:39:19.442 - the chat book together and dealt with all the emails and with kinkos. And Heather is being a gypsy at 00:39:19.442 --> 00:39:25.138 - the moment, so this may very well be the last time that she reads with us, and she's been a wonderful 00:39:25.138 --> 00:39:30.833 - addition. Carrie, who is our newest member, handled all the PR and the program, and we could not have 00:39:30.833 --> 00:39:32.062 - managed without them. 00:39:32.578 --> 00:39:39.493 - And while we're mentioning the book, many, many thanks to Nancy Quen, who has been designing our flyers 00:39:39.493 --> 00:39:46.675 - for several years, and this year also designed the cover for Choice Words. We love her unique creativeness, 00:39:46.675 --> 00:39:53.856 - and we hope that you'll buy copies of the book. When we first started, Jean Elchamont designed our original 00:39:53.856 --> 00:39:59.774 - poster with the mother of us all, Susan B. Anthony, exhorting you to attend our reading. 00:40:00.002 --> 00:40:06.416 - Carol Pye, Varsheri Wreath and Anya Peterson-Royce have also done designing. And talking about Mothers 00:40:06.416 --> 00:40:12.642 - of Us All, a tribute to Sandra Gilbert, who inspired and still inspires many students to type it up 00:40:12.642 --> 00:40:18.558 - and send it out, and without whose energetic teaching this group would never have got started. 00:40:19.298 --> 00:40:25.818 - We also have been inspired by other teachers, among them for myself, Roger Mitchell, Terry Wisniewski, 00:40:25.818 --> 00:40:32.212 - Chris Green, Jean Myers, Shana Ritter, Hannah Haas, all the women of FW3 from Ithaca, and the Memoir 00:40:32.212 --> 00:40:34.174 - Writing Group from Roamington. 00:40:34.274 --> 00:40:40.436 - And by other poets, especially source women writers, I know that at least three of them are here, and 00:40:40.436 --> 00:40:46.659 - other writers and performers who have shared our stage, Val Cuevin, Donna Faye Reeves, Janice Bagwell, 00:40:46.659 --> 00:40:52.821 - and Deborah Phelps. And of course, all the women who have been part of Five Women Poets over the last 00:40:52.821 --> 00:40:55.358 - 25 years, thank you all wherever you are. 00:40:56.066 --> 00:41:02.756 - We regret that Nikki Nicholas and George L. O'Lian, who have poems in the chapbook, could not attend 00:41:02.756 --> 00:41:09.446 - the reading, and that Onus Sipporan was not able to contribute or come and read. If there are any of 00:41:09.446 --> 00:41:16.202 - you who remember the group reading of her, Girl on a White Gate at the Unitarian Church will know why 00:41:16.202 --> 00:41:23.422 - we miss her. Special thanks to Helen, who has been a steady and wonderful writing companion all these years. 00:41:23.554 --> 00:41:30.545 - and to our faithful audiences, old and new. And it's been especially exciting to have some members from 00:41:30.545 --> 00:41:37.267 - Collins Living Learning Center here, because they do such wonderful things and they bring with them 00:41:37.267 --> 00:41:42.174 - a special sort of energy. Two upcoming events that might be of interest. 00:41:42.338 --> 00:41:48.929 - Saturday, October the 9th, the Bloomington Poetry Society has its first reading here in the Rose Fire 00:41:48.929 --> 00:41:55.842 - Bay, and there's a poster outside about it. Saturday, November 6th, there's a women's coffee house, 8 p.m. 00:41:55.842 --> 00:42:02.304 - at the Unitarian Church. And now comes the intermission. We hope that you will take a bagel offered 00:42:02.304 --> 00:42:08.830 - in celebration by the Bloomington Bagel Company. If you don't feel like eating it now, take it home. 00:42:09.186 --> 00:42:16.101 - You will also look at our scrapbook. You will also look at our 25 Years of Awesome Babes cake. And at 00:42:16.101 --> 00:42:23.017 - the end of the reading, you will enjoy having a piece with us. So now about a 10 minute intermission, 00:42:23.017 --> 00:42:23.966 - please enjoy. 00:42:42.626 --> 00:42:49.518 - So again, is the sound turned off? I would like, well now I have to get out notes to make sure I take 00:42:49.518 --> 00:42:56.343 - the right thing, which is kind of sad because this is a self-brandizing sort of an announcement. I'm 00:42:56.343 --> 00:43:03.168 - going to be doing the full length one woman presentation of Dear Mrs. Roosevelt on Saturday, October 00:43:03.168 --> 00:43:07.966 - 16th at the Unitarian Universalist Church. It starts at eight o'clock. 00:43:08.258 --> 00:43:16.132 - Thank you. Tickets are available at the door, seven o'clock, five, seven, eight o'clock performance. 00:43:16.132 --> 00:43:23.928 - Tickets at the door, five dollars for students, seven dollars for the rest of us. Our next poet has 00:43:23.928 --> 00:43:32.036 - a place in my memory, not necessarily as a member of Five Women Poets, so I'm grateful to her for being 00:43:32.036 --> 00:43:35.934 - one of the spirits that kept it going, certainly. 00:43:36.514 --> 00:43:43.656 - But also because years ago, Womenshine Theater did a production called Miss Lily Jane Babbitt Hates 00:43:43.656 --> 00:43:50.797 - Poetry. And we had such a wonderful time with her words and with her sensibility. So I'm very happy 00:43:50.797 --> 00:43:55.582 - to turn the evening over for a little while here to Bonnie Maurer. 00:44:04.258 --> 00:44:11.584 - That was a great time in Bloomington when we did that woman shine happening. Also, it's been great to 00:44:11.584 --> 00:44:18.767 - be part of Five Woman Poets. And the last time I was here is in 84 when we did this reading. And so 00:44:18.767 --> 00:44:26.524 - I was just thrilled that Tony got in touch with me to come back again. Since then, I moved to Indianapolis, 00:44:26.524 --> 00:44:32.126 - and I got married, and I had two kids, and I'm on my second pair of bifocals. 00:44:34.114 --> 00:44:44.348 - But poetry has always sustained me through all the ups and downs and thick and thin. I was lucky in 00:44:44.348 --> 00:44:54.684 - 1997 to go to the Mary Anderson Center. It's in southern Indiana. It's a retreat for the arts. And I 00:44:54.684 --> 00:45:02.462 - was sitting at the lake, and there was a sign there that said, no swimming. 00:45:02.722 --> 00:45:12.788 - except with the Franciscan friar. And so that became my inspiration. And not only, I haven't stopped 00:45:12.788 --> 00:45:23.252 - with that one. I have a series now of swimming with religious leaders. But I actually think I'm skimming 00:45:23.252 --> 00:45:32.222 - on the surface of religious cliche, but we'll see. I'm having fun anyway. So this one is, 00:45:32.482 --> 00:45:42.430 - No swimming except with a Franciscan friar. A water spider is too single-minded. The dragonfly dips 00:45:42.430 --> 00:45:52.478 - and departs. And the lily pads, floating hearts, don't reach far on their separate stems. What calls 00:45:52.478 --> 00:45:57.950 - a Franciscan friar to the water? Does he shed his garb 00:45:58.274 --> 00:46:06.685 - Or let his brown habit spread before you as a watery pasture? And what kind of companion in the lake 00:46:06.685 --> 00:46:15.097 - is the Franciscan friar? Do you near his strokes? Does he lead you to the other side and back again? 00:46:15.097 --> 00:46:23.674 - Do you walk to the end of the brick red dock, talk of weathered boards, sage old knob holes, then dive 00:46:23.674 --> 00:46:27.422 - in? Or begin your journey one step at a time 00:46:27.650 --> 00:46:35.205 - down the dream ladder. How deep do you go at first? Do you free float with him through the shadows, 00:46:35.205 --> 00:46:42.988 - black as names you don't recall? Does he lose himself in sister water? Would he lead you toward heaven 00:46:42.988 --> 00:46:50.770 - on earth, billowing parachute of clouds on water, diamond glitter of brother sun? Would he explain the 00:46:50.770 --> 00:46:55.454 - insistent opportunity the woodpecker confirms from the maple? 00:46:55.938 --> 00:47:04.334 - the persistent swim from your old life tangle, the taste of water pure and chaste. Would you emerge 00:47:04.334 --> 00:47:12.815 - clear and reflective as water and stand by the bones of the dead catfish on the bank, spine and bony 00:47:12.815 --> 00:47:21.547 - whiskers, tail fin still intact, skin, parchment thin, soggy white flesh, fine and delicate as milkweed 00:47:21.547 --> 00:47:22.974 - blossoms and ask 00:47:23.778 --> 00:47:31.378 - Where does the spirit of the catfish sail? And would he have asked the sacred catfish to intercede for 00:47:31.378 --> 00:47:38.756 - us in our holy swim? Would he stand dripping, opalescent as rain holds to the poke fairy and preach 00:47:38.756 --> 00:47:46.356 - the fish's story? Could we all curve back, our spine as gracefully arranged, our tail fins splayed for 00:47:46.356 --> 00:47:52.702 - balance, our head laid low, humble dead on those mud laden rocks at the water's edge? 00:47:53.282 --> 00:48:02.570 - The ripples find this old carcass and accept this design on the water, sure as faith. Then would we 00:48:02.570 --> 00:48:11.858 - lift our eyes to the three young swallows darting a new maze over the water and call it a day? This 00:48:11.858 --> 00:48:15.294 - one is swimming with the zen master. 00:48:20.194 --> 00:48:31.829 - How long would we sit before we are ready? We are one rock in 1,000 ripples. The pair of goldfinch, 00:48:31.829 --> 00:48:44.278 - excuse me, the pair of goldfinch dip in and brush the answer, spin water and sky. We are one mind swimming 00:48:44.278 --> 00:48:48.350 - in the universe. We emerge, merge. 00:48:48.482 --> 00:48:57.764 - The water spider is always in us. The next one is a little bit different, Swimming with the Poet. And 00:48:57.764 --> 00:49:07.410 - it's very much influenced by living in Bloomington close to Griffey Reservoir. I never could spend enough 00:49:07.410 --> 00:49:16.510 - time there. Swimming with the Poet. It is dark. The stars are silver. You wish it were that simple. 00:49:17.474 --> 00:49:26.528 - At night you say the moon's surface grows colder than any place on earth. You step into the warm reservoir. 00:49:26.528 --> 00:49:34.994 - He takes the straps off your shoulders. He is naked but guilty of more, swimming in the moonlight of 00:49:34.994 --> 00:49:43.377 - more than a half million craters. The kiss will last 1,000 years. The water spider swims in circles 00:49:43.377 --> 00:49:45.054 - around your elbows. 00:49:45.634 --> 00:49:55.456 - You have seduced the poet in your own neighborhood. The water is dark. The Luna Moth emerges translucent 00:49:55.456 --> 00:50:05.184 - green. It is summer, and the reservoir satisfies the thirst of the city. I think I'll just quickly read 00:50:05.184 --> 00:50:12.574 - one more that's rather new. It's the first time I've read this to an audience, 00:50:12.898 --> 00:50:23.231 - Ironically, it involves swimming, but I didn't intend it to be part of the series. It's actually a little 00:50:23.231 --> 00:50:32.492 - more serious, but maybe it will be part of it eventually. The answer, stereotactic cryobiopsy, 00:50:32.492 --> 00:50:42.046 - July 15th, 1998. Specks of light prove suspicious. Melon moon, geologic wonder of areola, nipple, 00:50:42.210 --> 00:50:50.432 - ancient mesa for his lips, milk trees and sea of sponge that shimmies its own earth-shaped dance they 00:50:50.432 --> 00:50:58.654 - see in the x-ray. Nurse, surgeon, radiologist, I am a mountain target, their fingers climb, my breast 00:50:58.654 --> 00:51:07.037 - in black and white and gray. They compress against the glass, numb, probe with the needle and pull out, 00:51:07.037 --> 00:51:11.390 - shining like mica, small as grains of salt, the cells 00:51:11.714 --> 00:51:20.108 - the secrets of the world, benign or otherwise. Cells that make me think of my daughter's question as 00:51:20.108 --> 00:51:28.586 - we swim. How did the world begin, Mama? And I tell her, in water it all began. Lightning hit the skin 00:51:28.586 --> 00:51:37.396 - of the sea, and I show her the backs of my old hands. Specks of light danced on the water. First oneself, 00:51:37.396 --> 00:51:40.222 - then two, then fish of all kinds. 00:51:41.058 --> 00:51:50.420 - And one day a creature climbs out of the water. And I held you to my breast, milk spout, berry and plum. 00:51:50.420 --> 00:51:58.622 - And now you swim at my feet through the tunnel of my legs, swimming like a fish. Thank you. 00:52:27.138 --> 00:52:40.042 - I'm working on my MFA and I didn't have any job and she helped me. Thank you, Bonnie. I have some very 00:52:40.042 --> 00:52:52.820 - short poems tonight. I have also written a 1974 poem. We'll start with that one. October, 1974. Maple 00:52:52.820 --> 00:52:55.326 - leaves burn summer. 00:52:55.586 --> 00:53:04.816 - bearing the world for winter. Rain-wet sidewalks are glazed with autumn light, the leaves lacquered 00:53:04.816 --> 00:53:14.416 - on them shining from within. It is October, once again. A year ago, my mother died. Too soon, too slow, 00:53:14.416 --> 00:53:23.646 - and that October was no conflagration. Dullness was on everything. The world subdued with mourning. 00:53:24.930 --> 00:53:37.462 - But this year, trees glow like lanterns. Leaves swirl, gypsy dances with the wind. Too soon. Too soon 00:53:37.462 --> 00:53:49.871 - to find maple so fickle. These shallow-roofed trees forget too soon." And this has to do with living 00:53:49.871 --> 00:53:52.574 - in the limestone area 00:53:56.546 --> 00:54:05.755 - Fossils. Standing in a limestone-bedded creek, water flowing over my bare toes, recognition as I bend, 00:54:05.755 --> 00:54:14.963 - pick up a small doughnut of stone, a bit of fossil crinoid stem, remains of a creature that lived when 00:54:14.963 --> 00:54:24.798 - this creek bed was the floor of a summer sea. I hold it up, look through it at the sky, and laugh, nearly 60, 00:54:25.442 --> 00:54:37.282 - a potential fossil, I salute the real thing. The Crow. A crow strutted his patent leather shine along 00:54:37.282 --> 00:54:49.006 - the length of my garden wall. He took up all the room like a chains and leather biker on a sidewalk. 00:54:49.006 --> 00:54:54.462 - The gimlet look he threw in my direction said, 00:54:55.618 --> 00:55:08.727 - I know you, I know all about you. Down in the dungeon, all my sins rattle their chains. And this is 00:55:08.727 --> 00:55:22.230 - about, Paul again for some reason, ricking wood. The sun's weight on my back and shoulders, sour smell 00:55:22.230 --> 00:55:23.934 - of sawn oak, 00:55:24.514 --> 00:55:34.127 - Heavy green wood pulling at hands and forearms, coarse comfort of canvas gloves between skin and splinters, 00:55:34.127 --> 00:55:43.206 - the chunk as wood meets wood. The company of my shadow bending and lifting beside me, satisfaction of 00:55:43.206 --> 00:55:50.238 - neat stacking, anticipation of winter nights beside the fire, I began to sing. 00:56:10.018 --> 00:56:21.923 - Our next reader is Carolina Capito. She's been gone a long time. We miss her still, and we're awfully 00:56:21.923 --> 00:56:33.829 - glad she could come back tonight. Thank you, Ellen. I was part of the group when I lived here between 00:56:33.829 --> 00:56:39.198 - 1970 and 1980, and it was always a source for 00:56:41.090 --> 00:56:48.993 - Learning, really, friendship, and plus we had a very good time. Which kept people there. Now I live 00:56:48.993 --> 00:56:57.291 - in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I teach poetry in the schools for the Arts Council there. And I've really 00:56:57.291 --> 00:57:05.273 - enjoyed that. I've gone around to all over the state, really, to public, private, parochial schools. 00:57:05.273 --> 00:57:07.486 - It's been very interesting. 00:57:10.658 --> 00:57:19.326 - I continue writing poetry and publishing. And this first poem is about the area where I now live. In 00:57:19.326 --> 00:57:28.165 - Baton Rouge, we're about 60 miles from New Orleans. I enjoy going there. This is about a jazz funeral, 00:57:28.165 --> 00:57:36.919 - which is a custom when a good musician dies there. They prayed along the street, taking the casket to 00:57:36.919 --> 00:57:38.206 - the graveyard. 00:57:38.722 --> 00:57:46.782 - playing music fellow musicians come and play and they play very solemn music until at some point as 00:57:46.782 --> 00:57:54.843 - they get near the graveyard they cut them loose and they cut loose with their music also and that's 00:57:54.843 --> 00:58:02.984 - when they play the things like when the Saints come marching in all the wonderful tunes. This is New 00:58:02.984 --> 00:58:08.062 - Orleans Jazz Funeral. Spring comes rollicking in hot and brass 00:58:08.642 --> 00:58:18.209 - hits the streets. People swarm and bare their skin, mopping sweat, hurry to bury the body. Blue shadow 00:58:18.209 --> 00:58:27.497 - in a silk lined box. First blast of the trumpet cuts you loose. The sax gets inside your head, dyes 00:58:27.497 --> 00:58:33.534 - your clothes, crimps your hair, sets you tapping in the streets. 00:58:39.042 --> 00:58:48.014 - The other poem I wrote during the time I was here, and in the 70s, as we were reminded through the group 00:58:48.014 --> 00:58:56.815 - poem, was the time of feminism, and this was my feminist poem. Up till now. Later, she saved for later 00:58:56.815 --> 00:59:05.531 - her lament. I was the only woman alcoholic in Paoli, Indiana. At first, she only let you know she was 00:59:05.531 --> 00:59:07.582 - a journalist beginning. 00:59:08.642 --> 00:59:19.316 - Now she finds herself behind glasses, clipboard, pencil, digital watch, siren. Her body, a nervous dirigible, 00:59:19.316 --> 00:59:29.311 - scrapes uneasily, table edges, chair backs. Not yet likable, she carries too much heavy stuff. To quit 00:59:29.311 --> 00:59:38.142 - drinking, do it all cold sober. He was never even mentioned, so an imagination grew large. 00:59:39.458 --> 00:59:48.414 - ogreish, threw plates against the wall if he disliked the meal, and gave her a shiner the day before 00:59:48.414 --> 00:59:57.636 - her sister's wedding. Told everyone the can opener is her best friend. But in Paoli, you've had to keep 00:59:57.636 --> 01:00:06.238 - up a front, and it was all so sad and distracting. Until now, she lives in a tiny place but her. 01:00:09.826 --> 01:00:22.266 - Okay, our next poet reading is going to be Anya Pearson Rice, right? Or are you going to read poems 01:00:22.266 --> 01:00:34.954 - by Sherry Reed? Okay, all right. Okay, Helen May will read some poems by Sherry Reed. I just have two 01:00:34.954 --> 01:00:38.686 - very short poems of Sherry's. 01:00:39.266 --> 01:00:48.998 - We're sorry she couldn't make it. We hoped to the last minute that she would be here. Masks. 01:00:48.998 --> 01:00:59.567 - Lack of space, lack of time, superior convergence, inferior convergence. From where I stand hanging, 01:00:59.567 --> 01:01:07.102 - I'm a heavy load. Letter. Delivered into my hands from the sea of life, 01:01:08.482 --> 01:01:24.714 - living silver fishes in a net of words. And that's all she said. Our next reader is Ami Royce. She's 01:01:24.714 --> 01:01:36.286 - been with our group several years now. And we just find her invaluable. 01:01:42.274 --> 01:01:49.503 - I used to have the distinction of being the newest one and I don't have that anymore. So it's actually 01:01:49.503 --> 01:01:56.663 - been about eight years I think. But once a month when we get together it's a very special time for me 01:01:56.663 --> 01:02:03.822 - and I really appreciate the support and the warmth and the humor and the laughing of this group. It's 01:02:03.822 --> 01:02:09.086 - been wonderful. Like Heather, my first mode of expression was dance and so 01:02:09.186 --> 01:02:18.006 - I began to say to myself the challenge of trying to talk about what it feels to move in words. So this 01:02:18.006 --> 01:02:26.826 - is one of those poems, The Waltz. His gloved hand on the small of your back, insulated by white cotton 01:02:26.826 --> 01:02:35.731 - and heavy brushed satin. There were the back tapers, narrow and concave, just before the flare of hips. 01:02:35.731 --> 01:02:38.814 - All command and abandon, distilled, 01:02:39.202 --> 01:02:46.986 - in this isthmus of the body as the shifting pressure of his fingers directs your figures in the waltz. 01:02:46.986 --> 01:02:54.694 - Lean into the cup of his hand, feel the pull of whipping turns and the belling of your skirt. Beneath 01:02:54.694 --> 01:03:02.478 - the satin, the white kid gloves, the long arched back and sleek coiffed hair. Your muscles melt, bones 01:03:02.478 --> 01:03:08.222 - flow like water, a thousand butterflies beat against the cage of your ribs. 01:03:08.674 --> 01:03:18.641 - release they and you cry. It is too sweet, this subterfuge of the waltz. This next poem is the first 01:03:18.641 --> 01:03:28.706 - time I've ever written anything to order. I was asked this year as the 75th birthday celebration, the 01:03:28.706 --> 01:03:35.614 - whole year, of Janos Starker. And I was asked if I would write a poem 01:03:35.970 --> 01:03:44.238 - for the book that they were publishing for him. And I said, no, I can't. I can't write to order. And 01:03:44.238 --> 01:03:52.587 - I just put it aside. And then this poem came, like they often do, although not always in time for our 01:03:52.587 --> 01:04:01.182 - monthly meetings. So this is called The Cellist, and it's for Janos Starker on his 75th birthday. Hands. 01:04:01.634 --> 01:04:10.888 - Inviting, connecting, coaxing, embroidering, caressing, demanding, enfolding, resting, releasing. Hands, 01:04:10.888 --> 01:04:20.494 - magical in flight, in repose, still hovering. They pluck images out of the air whose echoes lodge themselves 01:04:20.494 --> 01:04:29.307 - in our imagination. Hands, wedded to the wood, it and they sing as one and fill all the silences we 01:04:29.307 --> 01:04:31.070 - hide in our hearts. 01:04:33.154 --> 01:04:42.137 - Head, inventing, probing, imagining, questioning, reflecting, resolving, pushing, pushing, pushing, 01:04:42.137 --> 01:04:51.210 - stop. Head, what if and why? The restless questions that give us bath like strings of jewels, joyous 01:04:51.210 --> 01:05:00.283 - and no two alike. Head, escape to the edge, a landscape polished by the courage of those who dare to 01:05:00.283 --> 01:05:01.630 - come and taste 01:05:01.826 --> 01:05:11.467 - the universe condensed. Heart, strong, willing us to hear, faithful, weaving the inevitable, cascades 01:05:11.467 --> 01:05:21.203 - of sound like water in the desert, fearless, desired and exiled because it throws our timidity up like 01:05:21.203 --> 01:05:30.750 - huge shadows on a wall. Heart, winging straight, it brings the whisper of imagined eternity as gifts 01:05:31.330 --> 01:05:43.206 - from the edge, which we can neither claim nor lose. Heart, impeccable, unstained by sentiment, passion, 01:05:43.206 --> 01:05:54.740 - rather, that suspends constraints of time and place and lets us, wingless, grounded creatures, soar. 01:05:54.740 --> 01:05:59.422 - The last one I want to read comes from a 01:06:00.642 --> 01:06:10.624 - A 3,000-mile car trip I took through New Mexico and Arizona at the beginning of the summer to photograph 01:06:10.624 --> 01:06:20.322 - places where Apache and Navajo and Hopi live. And I was there on Memorial Day. Memorial Day in Indian 01:06:20.322 --> 01:06:30.494 - Country. American flags sprout overnight like red, white, and blue flowers bowled against gray headstones. 01:06:31.010 --> 01:06:38.659 - Yellow rabbit brush and dry Johnson grass. Families begin arriving at dawn. Women's shawls whipping 01:06:38.659 --> 01:06:46.385 - in the wind off the mesa. Grandmothers tell stories. Men clear the brush on the tombs. Women arrange 01:06:46.385 --> 01:06:54.264 - plastic flowers and mugs filled with boiled coffee. The dead get thirsty. Children race around playing 01:06:54.264 --> 01:07:00.766 - with the cemetery puppy. In silence, they assemble by the graves to place the flags. 01:07:02.114 --> 01:07:10.540 - It is Memorial Day in Indian country. The older dead here volunteered to fight before they had the right 01:07:10.540 --> 01:07:18.806 - to vote, gave their lives, valueless to most white eyes, were called chief by their buddies, whom they 01:07:18.806 --> 01:07:27.071 - carried wounded away from death. Biker vets on their pilgrimage to the Vietnam Memorial stop at Window 01:07:27.071 --> 01:07:31.806 - Rock, seat of the Navajo Nation. Bikers and Navajo embrace 01:07:32.546 --> 01:07:41.858 - Fears flowing freely and remember friends of all colors, outcasts like them. Another memorial day in 01:07:41.858 --> 01:07:51.723 - Indian country. Dead from many wars honored every powwow by flag songs. Their names kept alive in memorial 01:07:51.723 --> 01:08:02.142 - parks and highways. A marker on Zuni Road 4 reads, the Zuni people thank you for your faithful diligent service. 01:08:02.850 --> 01:08:12.005 - to make our country a place of peace and freedom for everyone to enjoy. Freedom for everyone this Memorial 01:08:12.005 --> 01:08:13.374 - Day in Indiana. 01:08:34.370 --> 01:08:45.700 - My last poet is the newest one in the group, Carrie Spader, but she's brought wonderful gifts to us, 01:08:45.700 --> 01:08:57.591 - and we hope that you will stay or stop through. Hi. I am the newest member of the group, as you've heard. 01:08:57.591 --> 01:09:01.630 - And you'd think that they fixed it, 01:09:01.762 --> 01:09:12.315 - The first initial of my last name was S so that I could go last and be even more intimidated about this 01:09:12.315 --> 01:09:22.563 - thing. Tonya asked us to write a poem about 1974, but 1970 was a very tumultuous year in my family's 01:09:22.563 --> 01:09:30.782 - life, so I wrote a poem about 1970. It's called Downpour. 1970, early afternoon. 01:09:31.522 --> 01:09:38.239 - One temper tantrum would change their lives forever. She just wanted to go to the park to play on the 01:09:38.239 --> 01:09:44.956 - big silver monkey bars that looked like a giant spider, to swing above mud puddles made from dragging 01:09:44.956 --> 01:09:52.002 - feet, to ride red and blue seesaws that always gave splinters. The pain was a part of the fun. She doesn't 01:09:52.002 --> 01:09:56.414 - remember being driven to the park or saying goodbye to her mother, 01:09:56.546 --> 01:10:02.230 - Only the horrible thunder and lightning, only the cracks in the sidewalk as she fled down the street 01:10:02.230 --> 01:10:08.027 - in the rain with her sister, cutting through the backyard of a family friend, running up cement stairs 01:10:08.027 --> 01:10:13.936 - into the kitchen, wet, out of breath. A neighbor burst in and said at first something about an accident, 01:10:13.936 --> 01:10:19.733 - someone dead, their mother's name in the same sentence. The temperature of the air changed. Everything 01:10:19.733 --> 01:10:23.166 - in her view looked as if heat was rising straight out of it. 01:10:23.458 --> 01:10:30.234 - She tried to speak, but no sound came. Grandma's car pulling in the driveway. Daddy home from work in 01:10:30.234 --> 01:10:36.878 - the middle of the day. Neighbors running around and screaming. Sirens blaring. The sun drying drops 01:10:36.878 --> 01:10:43.521 - of rain off the window pane. Someone was shouting, keep the girls away from the windows. She ran to 01:10:43.521 --> 01:10:50.231 - the familiar front room. It was just the same as always. Board games, Crayola crayons, freshly glued 01:10:50.231 --> 01:10:52.158 - models of cars and monsters. 01:10:52.898 --> 01:11:03.318 - From the window, her father on his knees, fire trucks, ambulances, red, red, red, red, red, red, red. 01:11:03.318 --> 01:11:14.148 - 1970, late afternoon, a pan of bloated hot dogs on the stove, paper plates and napkins on the countertop, 01:11:14.148 --> 01:11:22.014 - stale rolls split open and waiting. The promise of lunch spoiled and rotten. 01:11:22.914 --> 01:11:31.895 - She and her sister sitting on the blue shag carpeting of their den, grandfather sitting on the couch 01:11:31.895 --> 01:11:41.143 - above them, his hands twisting and turning around each other, around and around, thick old fingers damp 01:11:41.143 --> 01:11:50.302 - with sweat. She sat there watching his hands move, imagining even then, her penance. The viewing room. 01:11:51.906 --> 01:11:59.576 - The line of mourners twists out into the quiet parking lot. Drops of rain streak against an ornate window, 01:11:59.576 --> 01:12:06.888 - shadows revealed through panes of green and yellow glass. Near the doorway, our family name stands in 01:12:06.888 --> 01:12:14.128 - black letters on a dimly lighted sign, a last confirmation. We gather around your body. The color of 01:12:14.128 --> 01:12:21.726 - your skin stops our breathing for a moment, each one of us alone with memories of you. The kitchen table, 01:12:22.082 --> 01:12:29.468 - Heavy ceramic bowls filled with saucy pasta, bread being passed and torn, ideas discussed over raised 01:12:29.468 --> 01:12:36.710 - voices and Italian wine. My sisters struggled to compose themselves, standing in line for the third 01:12:36.710 --> 01:12:44.024 - time in less than as many years. Their ivory silk blouses dotted with dark mascara and the lipsticks 01:12:44.024 --> 01:12:52.062 - of neighbors. Mary places an uneasy hand on Christine's arm. They turn and look at each other, saying nothing. 01:12:53.026 --> 01:13:00.430 - The nephews stand around in borrowed death suits, hair combed for the first time in weeks, faces streaming 01:13:00.430 --> 01:13:07.558 - confusion. Tomorrow, they will balance the weight of your casket on their boyish shoulders. Your poker 01:13:07.558 --> 01:13:14.962 - buddies are here, gaunt and worn and sharing stories. Promises of get-togethers are spoken over cigarettes 01:13:14.962 --> 01:13:22.021 - in a room just past the vinyl kneeling rail. Even my high school boyfriend is here, wrapping his arms 01:13:22.021 --> 01:13:22.782 - around me. 01:13:23.106 --> 01:13:31.365 - just like on that first date. Now we're hushed and ancient. A final prayer is spoken. I stare at the 01:13:31.365 --> 01:13:39.870 - sculptured veins of gold in the carpet under my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, floral arrangements, 01:13:39.870 --> 01:13:48.375 - white and red carnations jammed into unnatural shapes. Ribbons across them read brother, father, uncle, 01:13:48.375 --> 01:13:49.438 - grandfather, 01:13:50.850 --> 01:14:00.239 - The fragrant smell reminds me of Nana's backyard. That of poppies on fire in the July sunshine. Sticky 01:14:00.239 --> 01:14:09.811 - green juice of tomato vines on my hands. Aqua blue barn where the stray cat had her kittens. If I listen 01:14:09.811 --> 01:14:19.838 - hard enough, I can hear them crying. Okay. Get a little break after that one. The last poem I'm going to read 01:14:20.162 --> 01:14:29.170 - I thought would be appropriate for tonight's event. It's called How to be a Woman. Be prepared for anything. 01:14:29.170 --> 01:14:37.764 - Store aspirin, tropical flavored antacid tablets, tissues, and a knife in your glove compartment. Place 01:14:37.764 --> 01:14:46.028 - flares, blanket, flashlight, picnic basket, and crowbar in the trunk of your car. Carry cell phone, 01:14:46.028 --> 01:14:49.086 - mace, pen, and paper on your person. 01:14:49.698 --> 01:14:57.601 - A good book of poetry could also come in handy in case of an emergency. Create your own definition of 01:14:57.601 --> 01:15:05.349 - beauty. Acknowledge the beauty in other women. Accept your own beauty. You are beautiful. Avoid the 01:15:05.349 --> 01:15:13.252 - exploitation of your beauty at the hands of others, but especially your own. Your beauty is as tender 01:15:13.252 --> 01:15:16.894 - as a new bud on a sweet pea plant. Nourish it. 01:15:17.954 --> 01:15:26.062 - Share your most intense experiences with the ones you love. The rape, the eating disorder, the betrayal, 01:15:26.062 --> 01:15:34.093 - the loss, the birth, the joy. Speak the truth in all of them. You know what truth is. Speak out against 01:15:34.093 --> 01:15:42.046 - what hurts you, what hurts all women. When you look in the mirror, tell yourself you are a woman until 01:16:05.698 --> 01:16:16.495 - one more thank you before we get to the cake. Tonya Matthew stood here and thanked so many people, and 01:16:16.495 --> 01:16:27.082 - we want to thank her for 25 years of service to her art, to other women, to all her many causes, and 01:16:27.082 --> 01:16:35.678 - her diligent attendance to every detail of this evening, and many other evenings. 01:16:35.970 --> 01:16:44.190 - for her hospitality, for her devotion to this work. Thank you, Tom. 01:17:03.554 --> 01:17:12.811 - There's an old joke about two people in a rowboat and having your cake and Edith, too, but I can't remember 01:17:12.811 --> 01:17:21.467 - it. Except punchline, of course. There's plenty of cake here. Please enjoy it. And lots of bagels to 01:17:21.467 --> 01:17:29.438 - keep. Oh, yes. Fistfuls of bagels. Fistfuls, pocketfuls, pursesful, take the bagels. Please. 01:17:30.146 --> 01:17:36.432 - Please join us, enjoy some carrot cake, have a little time to talk, and thank you very much for helping 01:17:36.432 --> 01:17:37.278 - us celebrate.