she's a retired psychotherapist. >> go to her. this was a scene of a romantic comedy. i had to catch her at the airport before she left me forever. she was stopped by audience member after audience member. iment to talk to her but what would i say? well, what are you trying to get from her. her question was koejent for someone who had polished off her third drink. i want to come out of retirement and i want her to help me. i don't think it's realistic. you keep thinking i need to find the restroom. i wasn't listening to the reader on stage. she was talking to 3-20

something women. she back and grabbing at my arm. we need to leave now. why? >> dustin is here and he is with someone and she's cute. >> did he see you? >> no. i can't talk to him i'm a mess. are you sure he's really with her and they are not friends. >> she's hanging all over him and i didn't get to pee. >> let's go, then. we fought our way out the door. i cast the last look with senora it was just as well i hasn't found anything to say. i tried to calm aguilarissa, she schemed in terror.

i can't go in there what if kevin is in there with his wife. what if i keep seeing them. >> she leaned on the door of the laundry mat. the asian woman looked at us and resumed folding. your ex's will not be there they are ill literate. >> i bet justin is engaged to that girl. she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket except for the cancer part. >> i'm never getting married. she sank to the ground her back pressed against the glass. who says that's the meaning of life. it was a beautiful story but if you think about it it's hoeky. there is nothing hoeky about loving someone with your heart and having them love you the

same way. that's how everyone doesn't love me. i didn't know what to say. there was nothing hoeky about a great love. yeary 3, 712 and 23 had been painful. some had been bory put it together and it was a life of great love. that was the only way it could be done. empty sidewalk was jammed with people. i held her as they streamed by. thank you. >> from the last 2 pages i wrote in my novel. after the events in entertainment room number 17. with the man who had been pretending to be her husband. the imposter didn't have his own name. he used ga as he wore ga's

clothes and slept as her husband hadoth passing through the park they saw families in the dark steeling chest nuts from the trees. at dinner everyone called him commander ga even though he didn't look like commander ga. see knew that this man was not going to leave that her husband was not coming back be and from now on this man wouldn't be wished away. he would have to be dealt with as her husband had to be dealt with. they crossed the river the bridge lights showing the color of his bruises. they drove through the cemetery and the amusement park. she asked about the vehicle they were driving. he turned side ways in the road.

the headlights was a man running from the zoo with an oan egg in his hand. do you feel the man hungry enough to steel or for the man who must hunt him down. >> is that the bird who suffers? >> thwhere did you get this ca? he didn't answer. you know it's a fake; right . this car, he said is revered in america. they are quite rare much i recognize this car it was a prop in one of my movies. this was the car he was escaping i saw kissed a trader in the back seat. how did you get this thing off

the property lot? one switch in the road above the gardens and they were at her house. inside the children were asleep and he pulled a bottle of [inaudible] from the cool place under the sink he held it with a hand who's combukelled fanned yellow. you have chosen to become a man born to violence. he answered it was the commander who chose me. okay sun moon said i will turn down the sheets for us much the bed faced a balcony over looking the mountain. across the river was a glow much the 2 disrobed and entered where they lay awake waiting until 10 o'clock. it's a common misconception that listening devices turn off in

the power. with a can of peaches the kalt rad had given them. when the house and city below went dark moon spoke, here are the rules she said. children will reveal their names to you when they decide to do so. you will never use ta eshe k wo on them. you will never touch me. she said. from below they heard dogs bang in the zoo. wait, i take that back. you are allowed to touch me only if i touch you first. are there more rules? i'm thinking she said. a quick blue flash filled the room and all was dark again. in prison he said, so many people through themselves at the electric fence they had to build another fence to keep them off of it.

thanks.

>> one of the most extraordinary things to me about this program is we are going to be treat todd an extraordinary

panorama of style and diversity. we will start off with mr. james cagney. please, welcome the poet james cagney. [applause] >> there is sun. there is sun. there is a snake on the path sunning. there is sun. there is water in the stream, there are daisies, there are sun. there is a snake on the path sunning, there is sun. there are trees, there are daisies there is a feather there is sun. there is the feather that she gave me there is a feather there is sun. there are daisies there are words trees things there are more things than words, there is sun, there is sun. there are fox tails there are blank there are irises that are blank there is a snake on the path in the path sunning. there is a squirrel in the trash, there is sun. there is water in the stream,

there is a squirrel in the strash, there is a snake in the path on the sun sunning. there is is sun. there is song, there is a song being sung by the birds in the sun. there is flavor, there is a feather. there is hair in my mouth from her hug in the sun. there is sun. there is flavor on my tongue. there is singing there is sun. there is a snake on the path singing in the sun. there is song, there is sun. on the path there is a squirrel in the daisies there is blank in the trash there is a song, there is sun. on the snake there is a squirrel on the blank there are daisies in the trash, there is a snake in the stream singing, there is sun. there is sun. there is a path in the trash, there is hair in the feathers, singing, there is song, there is song, there are birds there is hair in my mouth there is a

snake on the path sunning, there is sun, there is sun, there is hair, in my mouth there is singing on the path there is a snake in the trash singing, there is song, there is sun. there are feathers in her hair. there is flavor in the stream, there is a snake on my tongue in the sun, sunning. there is sun. there is sun, there is sing on the sun. there are birds on the grass, there are squirrels in the trash, there are trees with feathers singing. there is sun. there is a snake on the pass sunning. there is sun. all right. [applause] >> this past saturday at the farmer's market. >> an african brother shoved a basket of boysenberies as if paying a debt they bleed on our finger tips the man smiles

proper his hand a gift says too complicated we buy 9 dollars in cherries quite and red and spotd and sweet and sour too, flavors turning in our ouths anxious as police lights we trip over the sister pushing a baby carriage. we know her but couldn't pull her name from nothing. baby sleeping cheeks soft with petals. 3 year old son digs into our kettle corn sack. later. fish tacos for her. him layian curry chicken for me. watching children bounce in the fountain. pickled cool in water, giggles going off like chinese fire crackers. tiny teeth grudge mashing. 5 you want to fried chicken

bites so golden brown. pity another poor mother her catfish, mango shake shook every wrchlt the little girl on the straw never blinked channelling opiuman cesters through the ecstasy of fruit sures. this is us at farmer's market. brother too complicate who had offers an arm for her and me. a chain of chins along his shoulders. where have you been and why has it taken you so long to come back? >> the piece dedicated to my foster father and cousin on my adopted side. 1, daddy. old crow, jack dan jells understood my father mouthfuls at a time. jim beam and old forester where uncles rolled up in the

sufficiented hennesy take it's first breath and hound dog laughter and dominos falling like hail on the dining table. relatives existed through stories and memory ease in like zombies on ropes of camel smoke and demand a texas holdum. no wonder they call it spirits. spirits vad my father with cower vas yea. spirits made him burn rubber screaming in the driveway. the marianet and tongue were skillets at mid night. i wouldn't see his ass again until the next afternoon. twoshgs johnnie. gee my cousin john edwards volunteered for possession every week. he was certified.

ex exor citizenim did nothing. colt 45, crazy horse they demand the sacrifices in blood so bottles would go to the couch friday night. walls kicked until straight jackets lay waiting on the lawn. mama would site visions of gang boys with metal vent as if it explained anything. it didn't between dusk from the and dawn saturday he was ready to blow the -- up. do you want some of this? oh , no, yes oh , noy ll goes off the page's edge. he smiles. he's surprised to hear when his mouth opens. that's mine. so, this really lovely book that georgia put together for me has great painting on the cover.

a painting of mcintosh street in georgia painted in the 1940's by a man, frank stanley herring. i saw this painting after i had written this next poem and after i talked to my grand mother and she mentioned this street to me. i didn't know it existed because by the time i was coming up the black business district was gone. and the past few years i think they erected a monument to it. nigger street. 1937. mcintosh street the sign reads like the apple. red but not red delicious red but like red on red eyes gravy on grit the and stop lights and green and yellow.

and red like those powders and syrups kept behind the counter at blocks pharmacy. red. and red like the stripe on richard's barb bar pole and the stitches on button holes on over alls of those coming to down on saturday. solid red at the blue moon and red like the eyes of the late staying patrons on sunday mornings. and in church the red of the edge of white pages in a black bound bible coming together, closing. red as a congregation rises. [applause]. >> this references a lynching. the lynching of 2 couples in monroe, georgia occurred july 25, 1946. it's now referred to has the morris ford lynching.

insurance man, 1946. silos you might not be here april. ain't none of us never promise said tomorrow. if you died you would need a will. that way you control your nickel when you are gone. get your ducks in a row you might not be here come april. yeah, your policy is up-to-date and we will pay say if you lose an arm at the elbow at the mill. if you died you need a will. double pay for accidental deaths we have you down. your wife will not need to borrowo. you might not be here come april. being alive is enough to get you killed. do you hear about the folks in monroe? if they hang you from a tree you need a will. your folks won't have to worry about a meal with this insurance when that day of sorrow come.

silos you might not be here april. if you died right sudden you'd need a will. >> this next is titled no one's real high button. >> beat, beat, beats here the sound of the train on the georgia road the claps of wheels at the gaps of the joints of the rails the beat of the hammer on iron andan vil at the smithing. shaping shoes for mules and horses and the red metal and water is the train's wiftel. the last word returns like watermelons here with summer heat. beat with the hammer. beat when he, a boy, broke to the garden at the county jail at night when the beat men were asleep. there's were the sweetest. the dull that you had before the crack beneath the heart and move

on to the next. he moveod to woman and settled on one. and busted her with finality. he measured time raising the sweetest watermelons for a time and time served he returned. a man. and he lay on the tracks of the georgia road cradled by the rails. heart stopped. >> all railroad abandoned. between across ties. trees grow. a fairel pig roots below branches. [applause]. >> poem is about a ham. >> uncle john. that was the year grand daddy thomas died. left the family worse than broke. uncle john stole a ham from the meat market. he was 17.

lost his taste for it locked up 14 years. ham, cured and earth bred sliced with the fat hanging on. yellow sunshine on a white plate. the ham bone cuts crosswise. a dark eye all in the skillet making aggressive for grits. lost his taste for all things salt much the ocean he has not seen. woman and man. he don't ever want to see no more ham on his plate. hates pigs. hard for him. time off for good behavior. they didn't hold him to the last 6. he is a hog farmer. only eats beef and chicken and turkey. fish, turtle and rabbit. squirrel, possum and coon and seasons greens with smoked ox tails. can't raise white folks for

slaughter. [applause] >> for those of you who have not heard this in person a big beautiful surprises, she speaks at tremendous authority of feeling. and very uniquely agile intelligence. >> we are the memory ofthat place without measure. that filled all space that never was and ever will be. that place existing as the