Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hello and welcome to write on radio.
[00:00:04] This presentation, entitled do not forget us took place on February 29, Leap Day, at 07:00 p.m. poet James Lanfesty and musician Tim Franzitch present their annual benefit in words and music for the victims of wars on the earth, remembering this year the artist activist legacy of Robert and Ruth Bly, whose work inspired this event.
[00:00:30] The title quotes a young Minneapolis ukrainian singer early in Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, who was asked by a despairing audience member, what can we do? She answered, do not forget us.
[00:00:46] This episode was recorded by Josh Weber and played on the program in March of 2024.
[00:00:56] Welcome to a program we started in 2018, modeled after a program begun by Robert Bly and his friends in the era of the Vietnam war. It was poets and writers against the era of Vietnam. And many of us concerned, as all of us in this room, about the lack of action on climate, we started poets and writers against the war on the earth. And of course, since the astonishing Hitler esque attack on the peaceful neighbor of Ukraine, we've added to our benefit here the people of Ukraine, who are suffering greatly and fighting extremely bravely for all of us. So it's an honor to be here in front of you. My name is Jim Lenfesty, and of course, we always start with the pledge of allegiance, Gary Snyder's pledge of allegiance. Stan, if you're able, and repeat after me.
[00:01:50] I pledge allegiance to the soil of Turtle island and to all the beings who thereon dwell one ecosystem in diversity under the sun with joyful interpenetration for all.
[00:02:22] Hey there, my buddy Jim Lenfesty and myself. I'm Timothy Franzic, and it's such a pleasure to be here again. I think this is our 8th one of these, and we're missing Ruth Bly. She's somewhere out in California listening to the ocean. So we send her our love. And we were singing. This is our little singing group called Perfection Free Singers. You're welcome to join us. Just come over the city of Lakes Waldorf school on 24th in Nicollet at 10:00 on Saturday mornings. We sing there and we love if you join us, la la la is just fine. Listening is just fine. We're happy that you're here. All right, welcome, welcome.
[00:03:05] Tim, obviously, is the music man, so we dedicate this also to Robert and Ruth Bly. You know, you might have noticed a little lessening of the energy. We have lived in Minnesota for decades and felt this incredible energy of Robert Bly setting out in the middle of the continent, this world powerful poetry of our inner lives that got away from most of us most of the time. And just this year, Ruthenhouse, who broke her hip and sold her house and moved to California. And so the bligh energy is really lessened in our community, and it's our job to keep it alive. So that's been added to this group as well. We have about twelve to 14 poets who are going to come up here, and each one's going to do a Robert Bly poem that interspersed with the program. Thank you for being here. Okay, now, so we're opening with my pal Jamie Andrus. Jamie is from Mackinac Island, Michigan, spoken word artist. I heard him in a public forum and went, whoa, who's this guy? And now he's here to show you who he is. He's just been appointed poet Morris of eastern upper Peninsula, Michigan. He's on his way. We're going to hear about this kid a lot. He's a young man only in his thirties and one of my great pals and an honor to have him here with us. Jamie Anderson, two pieces. Come on up, Jamie.
[00:04:40] Wow. Miigwech. Thank you.
[00:04:43] Thank you.
[00:04:45] Wasse, Anna McKee. Indigenous cars, McInnok and Doe Dam, McEnan Island, Michigan. And Doan Jabbar.
[00:04:52] That was Ojibwe.
[00:04:54] Translation is my name is Wasse on a maki, which can be translated to the Thunderer. I'm of the Turtle clan and I'm from Mackinac Island, Michigan. And I have to say that I'm overwhelmingly excited and grateful to be here for a great cause. And also, this is my first time in Minneapolis.
[00:05:22] And it's very surreal because one of my biggest inspirations and influences is atmosphere of rhyme Sayers entertainment. Yes. Yes. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[00:05:37] Wow. I started listening to them in 2004. A friend of mine turned me onto their music, and it was really, you know, listening to slug. Slug as the MC, aka Sean Daly, listening to his lyrics, that really sparked the thought in my mind that, wow, I think I can do that. And really gave me that urge to want to do that. Like the passion and.
[00:06:09] Yeah, and I mean, Anthony Davis, the beat maker, he just loved the beat. Sometimes I'll just repeat the instrumentals listening to him, you know, getting in the groove with the metronome. But there was an interview that I saw on YouTube 20 years ago or something where Slug was being interviewed, and it was, you know, he said many awesome things. And a few things that really stuck with me was he said, find your truth, because that exists. In all of us. There's truth in all of us. And one other thing he said that really stuck with me was, you know, he said, I'm trying to give the world something that they can hold. That way, when I'm gone, it won't just be like, yeah, you know, that guy was a nice guy. It'll be like, yeah, he was a nice guy. And he actually added something to the planet to balance what he took away from the planet. And that really, you know, got me right in the heart. That really spoke to me and that really, you know, is a big part of what fueled my style and my lyrics and just helped me feel very confident to speak from the heart. And so, yeah, so I'm going to share my first Megwich for atmosphere's contributions. I'm very grateful.
[00:07:43] So the first poem wrap that I'm going to share is called blessed rhyme quest.
[00:07:55] Get a little drink of water, quick.
[00:07:57] I remember back before I was an artist, before I learned how to take that first step toward those targets, before I learned how to reflect on those hardships and do my best to express the words I wanted to harvest.
[00:08:13] Way back in my younger years, many times my mind would overrun with fears. I had a hunger for cheers and love for my peers, but it was unclear why. My mind was a struggle to steer. Worry, anxiety, stress and depression would often deprive me of my sense of direction.
[00:08:30] From hindsight, now, I see those tensions were teaching me a lesson of what it takes to rise up and harness my intention.
[00:08:37] In 2008, I made a choice to pursue this art form that elevated my voice. It was a slow start, but once my inhibitions broke apart, I spoke from the heart. Then the momentum got me in the zone where I felt like a poet version of Mozart made me want to grow, to be a lyrical flow shark. And so it sparked and magically, my passion for these masterpieces started to glow in the dark, embracing creative ways to deflate this anguish and paint this display of being grateful and capable. Instead of anxious, flip these verbal breakdances and take advantage of these amazing chances to create vibrations that can take your angst and make it vanish. I'm feeling blessed by this quest of trying to find, collect, align, connect and shine these complex designs aiming to make you positively affected by these intensified eccentric vibes. Eyes wide, dedication to follow through to find the smoothest, clueless way to do this exuberant, therapeutic music for you to groove with, a fusion you can get in tune with as you listen to the movements of my intuitive blueprints. Without a doubt. This outlet brings out the best in me, like my buddy Jim Lenfesty. Impressively, it keeps testing me to seize the excellence we all possess, essentially, affectionately opens up the mind and lets it breathe. The message I hope you accept from these sentences is quite simply, don't waste your energy on worries or reliving negative memories that make you surly, because all that does is kick up squirrely insecurities. Instead, turn the key to ignite your inner Hercules and work with these mental resources purposefully, so your thoughts and feelings become less like absurd circus freaks and more like worker bees.
[00:10:29] Embrace yourself artistically. Tap that potential in your mental circuitry and embrace this marvelous journey with certainty.
[00:10:47] Big rich, thank you.
[00:10:57] So this next one, got one more for you.
[00:11:01] It's called attempt to be greater.
[00:11:04] It's about lessons I learned caretaking from my dad. He passed in 2018, stage four cancer, and he taught me a lot of good things.
[00:11:18] But in life, life will break you down. And the reason why you work out is because your muscles get broken down and then grows back stronger. And that's our purpose here. You know, that's one of our purposes here, to allow that to happen, so that, you know, you don't let hardships really ruin you, but to make you stronger, so that way you can contribute better, your best.
[00:11:48] So attempt to be greater.
[00:11:54] In 2018, I learned a lesson that turned into pure obsession, made me observe and question how I invest my intentions.
[00:12:05] My dad passed on.
[00:12:08] It hurt so bad to cope with the fact that every other chance to chat was gone.
[00:12:13] Without that bond, it felt like I was stuck in a sad song, had to move on. But the harsh dissonance made my art seem frivolous. But I knew that was wrong.
[00:12:25] All I knew was I had to be strong.
[00:12:28] Fortunately, from that pain, somehow, a map was drawn within my intuition to listen to my visions and make it my mission to embrace my art in a way that makes a difference.
[00:12:39] Challenges like these help me reach to make peace with the grief that seems to bleed from my weaknesses. Fortunately, I find therapy within these sequences when I speak with this open heart to grow my art and let my mind release a bit.
[00:12:54] Take my favorite outlet, create shapes with the Alphabet, make waves that might make others say it helped a bit.
[00:13:02] So this is dedicated to anyone grieving the death of a loved one, whether it be a friend, parent, wife, daughter, husband or son.
[00:13:12] I give you my condolences, because I know it's just not fun to live with that loneliness when it feels like part of your heart's destroyed. From that void and it toys with your joy and you can hear it in your voice. I can remember so many times I felt like a wreckage because for me personally, the hardest part was acceptance. When I finally found a way to accept it, I started to see more clearly how much I've been blessed with.
[00:13:37] Honestly, this loss has taught me to embrace life and do what it takes to make it bright.
[00:13:44] The essence of this message is to articulate the evidence of how I have found peace within artistic expressions, relieves the heaviness, frees the tensions. I recommend art to anyone who's got pain that seems to be weakening their attention.
[00:14:01] I've realized that grief is not a sprint or a marathon.
[00:14:08] It's a lifelong lesson that teaches you to carry on realizing that grief is the flip side of love.
[00:14:16] The reason we feel it is because we love them so much. Feels like focusing on that love is the medicine that will help us adjust, help us trust that we're healing.
[00:14:27] It's a difficult topic to talk about, but I hope it helps to know there's someone out there who can relate. Without a doubt, all I can do is share my own experience.
[00:14:38] Hope you can feel the sincereness in my heart when you're hearing this. As a lyricist, I've decided to commit my life to write what I feel is right, to ignite the light within us. Now, every second of the day, I attempt to be greater, projecting my essential nature with a pencil and paper. No matter how deep the pain goes, I'm so grateful that my brain shows it's still capable of insane flows. As this creative flame grows, I do my best to verbally paint those pictures of dark clouds mixed with rainbows.
[00:15:12] I'm thankful for this opportunity to follow through with these lyrics so lucidly. It's truly the key to keep my mental agility so I can shine my light bright instead of feeling gloomy. Do my best to practice these passions free from distractions so my thoughts and actions reflect what truly moves me.
[00:15:31] We're all here on this magical, awesome planet. Imagine all the strong potential waiting for us to grab it. Took this inspiration and ran with it, channeled it, started to stack legit words like acrobats and crafted it to be fantastic. Feel free to bob your head to the rhythm and relax a bit. Moments like these are why I'm so passionate about aiming to take these feelings and accurately package it. Stack it in my memory so I can grab that energy and flash it like magic. For this last bit, I just want to encourage you to nourish your purpose so you can flourish in this life and thrive on this wild ride with courage. You're worth it.
[00:16:39] Thank you so much. So glad to be here.
[00:16:44] Make witch to Jim Lenfest. Mike and Phil, come on up.
[00:16:48] Get it.
[00:16:56] So you heard what I'm talking about with that kid.
[00:16:59] Everybody's got this. Wait until you hear the rest of everybody here. The program is between those two people. Come up, one or two, depending on the group, to do a poem by Robert Glye. These are two.
[00:17:17] Thanks, Jim.
[00:17:19] Thank you, Jamie. Wow.
[00:17:23] Yeah.
[00:17:25] Jim told me I could only read one poem.
[00:17:28] I'm reading five. Haiku by the japanese poet Isae lived 200 years ago.
[00:17:40] The japanese poet Esau, who lived 200 years ago. Speak up, Mike.
[00:17:47] Speak up, Mike. Okay.
[00:17:51] Esau wrote many poems championing small and little things, and I'm going to read five poems about insects.
[00:18:06] I look in a dragonfly's eye and see the mountains over my shoulder.
[00:18:16] I look at a dragonfly's eye and see the mountains over my shoulder.
[00:18:26] The old dog cocks her head, listening.
[00:18:34] I guess the singing of the earthworms gets to her.
[00:18:42] The old dog cocks her head, listening. I guess the singing of the earthworms gets to her.
[00:18:54] Yeah. These were all translated by Robert, who gave us so many gifts. Esau, this line of black ants, maybe it goes all the way up to that white cloud.
[00:19:17] This line of black ants, maybe it goes all the way up to that white cloud.
[00:19:28] Cricket, be careful.
[00:19:32] I'm rolling over.
[00:19:38] Cricket, be careful.
[00:19:41] I'm rolling over.
[00:19:43] He loved everything and everyone, even those little bugs. Those insects, why cry?
[00:19:56] We all go that way.
[00:20:01] Insects, why cry?
[00:20:05] We all go that way. Thank you.
[00:20:23] Good evening, everybody hear me okay? I guess. Okay. Can you hear me now?
[00:20:33] All right, closer still.
[00:20:36] I'm Phil Bryant, teach at Gustavus Adolphus College. And this is Kirsten Moody, who also teaches scandinavian studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. And for this occasion, remembering Robert Bly. Thought we'd go into my DeLorean and go back into time, about more than 50 years to 1971, October 26. And Robert Bly came to Gustavus with Thomas Tronstormer and gave a reading.
[00:21:18] It was the first time that I saw Thomas Tronstormer, and the first time I saw Robert Bly was a student then at Gustavus, about 1819 years old. And it was very strange. Robert had this kind of mexican Sarabi, and he had this kind of long green hair that was kind of flying all over the place. And I remember Tronstorm, it was just quiet. He had, like, an Oxford button down shirt. And he was just sitting there. And Robert would. Tomas would read his poem, poems in Swedish. And then Robert would get up and just do these translations of his. Of Thomas, you know, kind of waving his arm and then reading it over again, you know, in English. So we get to see it. So there is one poem that I would like to share with you that was. That was read at that reading. And it was after a death, and it was written by Tron Stormer, kind of memorializing the assassination of Robert, of JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. So Kirsten is going to read it in Swedish, and then I will read it in English after Norgon's dread devouring gong and shock. Some lemnade after, say, and long black whimrander. Comet swans.
[00:23:07] Den he soros den jor te veljennae.
[00:24:08] Once there was a shock that left behind. A long shimmering comet tail keeps us inside.
[00:24:18] It makes the tv picture snowy. It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.
[00:24:27] One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun, through brush where a few leaves hang on.
[00:24:37] They resemble pages torn from an old telephone directory, names swallowed by the code.
[00:24:47] It's still beautiful to hear the heartbeat, but often the shadow seems more real than the body.
[00:24:57] The samurai looks insignificant beside his armor of black dragon scales.
[00:25:23] And this is a music stand.
[00:25:27] Thank God for music stands.
[00:25:47] And this is the mic stand for some body six, too.
[00:25:50] My name is Pierre Foford. This is my friend Abraham. And we will be presenting a piece called Jojo is laughing.
[00:26:01] We had the pleasure of presenting this piece, and brother Jim was in the audience. And our friend Seth was actually.
[00:26:10] Our friend Seth was actually given a message where he invited us to partner with him. And the message was about how do we hold grief and joy in this sacred body?
[00:26:23] So as my friend starts playing, we are glad to present Jojo's last name.
[00:26:40] Mean well.
[00:26:46] And are we fighting for peace?
[00:26:55] And do we really love each other?
[00:27:04] Are we doing this ourselves?
[00:27:13] And when does the darkness end?
[00:27:21] And when is the day that we'll be free?
[00:27:30] Cause I can't sit here in the skyd just knowing these chains old me but if you just hold on, we can touch the sky we can change the world one day at a time. Don't you dare give up. Don't you dare give it.
[00:27:59] See, your eyes are shining whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm shining?
[00:28:13] Whoa, whoa, I'm shining right now. I bet you my nephew is laughing.
[00:28:26] His name is Jojo.
[00:28:29] There's a moment I'm thinking about, though.
[00:28:31] Jojo, we're at grandma's house. My grandma, his great grandma.
[00:28:38] Praise God for grandmas who are great. And he's laughing.
[00:28:42] I come downstairs to meet my brother, his dad. We're going off to run a birthday clinic at his job. Basketball, soccer, pizza, cheese pizza.
[00:28:51] So Jojo got to stay with grandma, great grandma. Grandmas are great. And he's laughing. He's all over the place. But Jojo is still laughing. Don't touch that. Jojo's laughing. Boy, put that down. Auntie's voice. Yes, aunties are great too. Guess what? Jojo's laughing. We're going outside now. Jojo's laughing. We're going back inside now. Jojo's laughing. Hey, here's some toys. Now. Jojo's laughing. Alright, time for you to take a note and that. Put those toys away now. And Jo Jo's laughing.
[00:29:21] His dad and I come back about 3 hours later. And Jojo's laughing. His dad is holding him in his arms, saying goodbye to grandma, great grandma. Grandmas are great, aunties are too. And so our uncles. And Jojo is laughing.
[00:29:35] He puts Jojo down.
[00:29:37] He's holding him by the hand. They're walking down the stone pathway. And Jojo laughing. He says, say bye to Uncle P, Jojo. And Jojo says, bye, uncle Per.
[00:29:49] And he's laughing.
[00:29:51] My brother has a bright yellow charger. And Jojo is in the backseat as they drive away.
[00:29:58] Yeah, he's laughing.
[00:30:02] He's such a happy child.
[00:30:04] It's so beautiful. Out of all the things that are going on in the world, to see a child laugh like. No, no, no, you really don't get it, it's beautiful. But we're so caught up with the explosions going off in our minds. Our minds have become a landfill of mind anxiety. Boom. Stress, boom. Shame, boom. Depression, boom. Even our triggers are triggered and boom.
[00:30:37] And all the while there's a vessel on earth laughing.
[00:30:41] He is laughing for every reason imaginable. He makes a mistake, he laughs. He does something great and he laughs. He falls and he laughs. He makes a mess and he laughs. He eats and he laughs. He sleeps and he laughs. He has his toys and he laughs. He gets scared and he laughs. He gets in trouble and then he laughs. I love it when he gets in trouble.
[00:31:00] And he laughs. Like all bombs now disarm. Cause he has to nerve not to let you get on his. Like he's in trouble. But it doesn't trouble him. For us adults that so troubles some.
[00:31:15] And he laughs like you can't get him to care. He's a child. He's not supposed to care. He's just laughing.
[00:31:24] Thank you, Jojo, for reminding us. We need to laugh. Laugh through the tears laugh through the pain laugh through the divorce laugh through the. Never mind here to stay laugh to the golf laugh through the bridge laugh through the reception laugh through the disconnecting laugh through the goodbye now laugh through the high now laugh through the. Do I know you, complete stranger? Maybe another day. But for now, I'll say I love you on good faith. Laugh through it all.
[00:31:50] Thank you, Jojo, for reminding us to laugh. You are a splitting image of your dad, you, a benevolent reflector of your mom. You hail from a house full of joy and love, and you can't help it. My brother is your father, and you laugh just like him. Wow. While making mess in playpen, I remember mother cleaning everything while he was laughing. Prophecy. While making mess that holy parent will eventually clean up. Don't forget to laugh.
[00:32:26] Our father, like mother cleaning brother's playpen, wants you to laugh. I don't know. So I can only assume once upon a time, your laugh was as free as jojo's. Until that moment, and consequently many more after. But that initial was the criminal that stole such an incredible gift. Your laugh.
[00:32:50] Well, here's the prophecy from a vessel only age three. Those criminals will eventually face justice. But right now, your holy parent wants your face to laugh.
[00:33:03] Face that anxiety and laugh. Face that stress and laugh. Face that shame and laugh. Face that depression and laugh. Face those triggered triggers and laugh.
[00:33:15] It's okay.
[00:33:17] Even if you're not okay, it's gonna be okay. Mind a field full of mind so explosive bombs with no alarms, palms can't carry gape up trying to disarm, and still, holy parent wants you to face them all in laugh. So again, face that anxiety, and laugh. Face that stressed and laugh. Face that shame and laugh. Face that depression and laugh. Face your triggered triggers and laugh. It's okay. Even if you're not okay. It's gonna be okay.
[00:33:52] Holy family picture fractured. See how one son crucifix via joyful lenses. Yes. Impressive. The playpens of our souls a mess. But take lesson from my joyful adolescence. You can laugh because holy parent doesn't leave us alone in it. It's okay.
[00:34:11] Even if you're not okay, it's gonna be okay. You can laugh. So face it and laugh and see what happens.
[00:34:24] I saw Jojo the other day in passing auntie's house. Thanksgiving dinner, late arrival. Where's the food? In the fridge. Wash your hands first adulting is tragic and Jojo's laughing children lies parents crying at their feet it's crazy how this world is changing will this violence ever cease?
[00:35:19] But if you just hold on we can touch the sky we can change the world one day at a time don't you dare give up don't you dare give in I can see your eyes are shining whoa, whoa, whoa we're shining, whoa, whoa and I just want to say this over everybody in here tonight we're the leaders and thinkers and dreamers can sit around waiting for change we will rise with the curse I'm telling you things going to change we're the leaders and the thinkers can sit around waiting for change we will rise up with the current cause if we just hold on we can touch the sky we can change the world one day at a time don't you dare give up don't you dare giving I can see your eyes are shining thanks for inviting me here, and thanks for all of you for being here.
[00:37:28] Just real quick. When I moved to Minnesota 25 years ago, I knew nothing about Robert Bly because I had an academic education. I came here to teach poetry, and I didn't know anything about Robert Blythe.
[00:37:40] I would go every week or so every year to the lake Superior because I'm a Michigan boy. So Lake Superior is kind of touchstone for me. And I would bring along a stack of poetry books, and I got Robert Blythe's morning poems, and that changed everything for me. And I worked my way back and I worked my way forward. And I will say that my work, especially in this stuff I'm going to read tonight, is deeply infused with Robert Bly.
[00:38:06] His ability to do the political and put it in a spiritual framework is extremely powerful model for me. This first poem, we're thinking about guns and men with guns, and that's one of the reasons we're in the trouble we're in, right?
[00:38:27] Laid on the wind, some of you may recognize the poem, what Jesus said. The Robert Bly poem, what Jesus said. So that's kind of a model for this poem. Late on the wind for Robert Blythe, a boy carries an automatic rifle into town and shoots three people.
[00:38:45] He's cheered on by old men who have decided, why not make a television show out of hatred? There's money in it.
[00:38:55] We came here a long time ago on wooden ships. We longed for a clearing without privilege.
[00:39:05] On the wall in my basement, I have hung the rusting pieces of an iron musket. My great, great, great grandfather shouldered when he walked into the wilderness.
[00:39:16] His trust was in the Bible, but his God was in the powder horn.
[00:39:23] Jim, you ask, and that's the chuzzle move, right? The poem turns to interrogate the poet. Jim, you ask, why is the musket in pieces?
[00:39:34] Jesus said, the world will eat a gun if you leave it out in the rain.
[00:39:46] The tragedy of our time is that everything is disconnected.
[00:39:50] The tragedy of our time is that everything is connected.
[00:39:55] Every vote, every cup of coffee, every drop of rain, every word, spoken or unspoken.
[00:40:04] You remember October 2020, when we were all locked in our houses and all the animals were free.
[00:40:15] October 2020. Yesterday, my birthday. Sudden snow, fine grained and wet, blurred the leaves of the Norway maple and slicked the sidewalk. A mixed message in a difficult season, should I linger, press right on into the dark?
[00:40:34] This was the fall we heard, the white throats tuning up before sunrise in the reeds on Highway 61.
[00:40:42] Flutes only orchestra, silent road.
[00:40:48] This was the fall we saw the beaver slowly swimming west just offshore, etching the lake in a Widening v.
[00:40:58] This was the fall we saw a wolf cross the median.
[00:41:02] This was the fall we nervously counted yard signs and face masks lying among the fallen leaves.
[00:41:16] This poem, unfortunately, just keeps resonating more and more for me. I don't know if it will for you, but it's called Requiem. It was written in the height of the Gulf War or the the Iraq war. It's hard to keep these wars straight, isn't it? And they keep coming.
[00:41:35] I get up and put on my war pajamas and go downstairs. The coffee is black as war. The oatmeal is warm as a small local war. In the paper they are advertising a war sale. The clothes of war are half off. There are coupons you can cut along the dotted line for canned war, for frozen war. I brush my teeth with the paste of war and shower in a barrage of war water. I drive to work, the fumes of heroic sacrifice rising from my exhaust pipe. All day long I am doing war work. At night I relax with a shot of war on ice.
[00:42:20] In my dreams. The war is never over.
[00:42:33] This last poem is if you've been to two harbors. That's where my wife and I spent many happy hours, at Bob's cabins. Anybody been to Bob's cabins? Yes.
[00:42:44] All right. As you know, things are changing, unlike here, my sacred place.
[00:42:50] So this is about the weather and about a lot of other things.
[00:42:54] The union. And I will say this, nature in nature, predation is endemic. In nature so is solidarity.
[00:43:05] The world is held together by threads we do not see the union along the low shore at two harbors, the high waves bit and hard rain drained until red mud coated the beach stones.
[00:43:23] A line of birches leaned precariously. Now and then one fell with a green crash and lay in the surf head first. But if you looked under the torn bank, you saw intestinal cables, thick, imprehensible, sprouting new saplings cantilevered over the void.
[00:43:42] Who knew that underground serpent life? Who thought that every old birch rough and lichen fissured, and every pale sapling raising its insignia against the dawn, all clasped each other in the ochre underground, all locked, muscular legs together, braced each other against the iron waves.
[00:44:13] Thank you.
[00:44:33] So I'm watching these three young men, and they're beautiful, man. I mean, the job you guys did tonight.
[00:44:43] Mister Lemfesi, thanks for bringing some youth to the program.
[00:44:47] But you know, the part that's. Yeah, the part that's crazy is these cats are gonna get better, right?
[00:45:03] My name is Kleko and I bring you glad tidings from the capital city.
[00:45:11] For those of you who are from the capital city, you know, there's not a lot of reasons why we even come to Minneapolis. But Robert, you're one of them. But it is. It's an honor to be here. I'm going to read a poem tonight. I want you to think a little bit about Abraham Lincoln when you're hearing this. This is a poem. The first time I heard it, I was fortunate for you older hippie guys, you had Woodstock, but for us young St. Paul poets, we went to the university club and we saw the greatest show of poetry that ever took place. It was the entourage consisting of Robert Bly, Jim Lemfesty, Thomas r. Sde Smith and Freya Manfred. And some of you are probably at that show. But this was the piece that Robert read. Just blew me away.
[00:46:04] Snowbanks north of the house.
[00:46:11] Those great sweeps of snow that stops suddenly 6ft from the house.
[00:46:21] Thoughts that go so far.
[00:46:24] The boy gets out of high school and reads no more books. The son stops calling home.
[00:46:35] The mother puts down a rolling pin and makes no more bread. And the wife looks at the husband one night at the party and loves him no more.
[00:46:51] The energy leaves the wine and the minister falls, leaving the church. It will not come closer. The one inside moves back and the hands touch nothing and are safe.
[00:47:11] The father grieves for his son and will not leave the room where the coffin stands. He turns away from his wife and she sleeps alone.
[00:47:23] And the sea lifts and falls all night and the moon goes on through the unattached heavens alone.
[00:47:32] The toe of the shoe pivots in the dust and the man in a black coat goes back down the hill. Nobody knows why he came or why he turned away and did not climb the hill.
[00:47:52] Thank you.
[00:48:10] So Robert would write poems near the end of his life that were Gasol. Someone mentioned that earlier, and it had a number of different traits, but one of them was that each stanza had to talk about something else but end with the same word.
[00:48:27] And for a guy that was.
[00:48:30] Well, I'll just bring this poem, stealing sugar from the castle, see if I can remember it.
[00:48:39] I'll tell the sound guy.
[00:48:47] I'm a fifth grade teacher, so that starts this.
[00:48:50] We are poor students who stay after school to study joy.
[00:48:58] We are like those birds in the India mountains.
[00:49:03] I am a widow whose child is her only child.
[00:49:08] The only thing I hold in my aunt like head is the plans, is the builder's plans of the castle of sugar. Just to steal one grain of sugar is a joy.
[00:49:25] Like a bird, we fly out of darkness into a hall that is lit with singing and fly out again.
[00:49:33] Being shut out of the warm hall is also a joy.
[00:49:39] I am a laggarde, a loafer, and an idiot.
[00:49:45] But I love to read about those who caught one glimpse of the face and died 20 years later in joy.
[00:49:56] I don't mind your saying I'll die soon.
[00:50:00] Even in the sound of the word soon, even in the sound of the words soon, I hear the word you, which starts every sentence of joy.
[00:50:15] You're a thief. The judge said, let's see your hands.
[00:50:19] I showed my calloused hands in court.
[00:50:23] My sentence was a thousand years of joyous.
[00:50:42] We didn't polish this too well, so we'll see how it comes up. Yeah, come on, bring it. We decided to start with what I do, which is my quote, day job, which is it's always a night job, which is looking at stars and galaxies. And so the specific thing that I do is looking at neutron star collisions. Actually, our prototype telescope is in St. Paul in a field in the capital city.
[00:51:06] Major telescopes. We go in New Mexico and Greece, and we're looking at these collisions of things that are. The closest one that we saw in 2017 that we were very excited about was 130 million light years away. And that's close for us because sometimes they're billions of light years away. And that's how we usually start, which is that excites us and everyone. You know, there's sort of this romance about looking at the sky all the time. I started, actually, as a particle physicist, but it's less exciting for most people, less exciting to think about stuff way under the ground or gliding things like that. But everyone likes the night sky. But then I. You know what? I. Although that's great, and I'm excited about it, and I sometimes give talks on that, and you're welcome to come to one of those. What I do here in Minneapolis, I've been here a couple of years, is. And then I'm also part of Unidos. The Minneapolis climate action person who spoke at the beginning knows that there was a big lobbying day in the Capitol a couple weeks ago where there were a lot of bills that are being pushed. Actually, the last legislature worked on a lot of climate action bills and equity bills. Equity and climate action, because that stuff matters. And even in my astronomy class, I taught last quarter, last semester on campus, I give a whole unit on climate change, because this is our only planet, and we're not. None of us are getting off to another planet within our lives. Maybe our kids will. And even then, it's forbidden. 10 miles above the earth, the universe becomes, for a while at least, very inimical to our existence. It doesn't want us to be alive out there. We've all done this earth, and as we all see, very rapidly, things are changing, and very rapidly. And I don't get that down on it, because I do feel. I always say that we have to go down. We have to get down at some point, because this earth, we all grew up in this biosphere. We all know it. And so you say it is going to get worse before you get greater. That is the way to put it. That's the way that I like to think of it, because, you know, what I say to people in our, in, in the class is we just have to. We have to bend that curve. It's Minnesota looking different than the other 50 states. All right. Well, it's. It's little. Are we looking a little beautiful in the other 50 states right now?
[00:53:30] Yes. No.
[00:53:33] What I would say is that things are changing in not just Minnesota, but everywhere on the earth, every cubic centimeter of the atmosphere, all the water, all the, all the land. And it's never binary when people say, oh, we got to do. We got to do it. By this time, things are going to change. Things are changing, and they are changing in our lives. And so I always, you know, in my course, and I'm also part of astronomers for planet Earth, which work for. I say there's three biggest things that we do that can change things, and then there's many. So we've also, we've already heard about electric cars, solar on your roof, and actually eating less beef in particular, because it's far worse than all your diet things. And even those are not binary. There's hybrid, you know, plug in electric cars. There's getting solar from solar farms versus just putting it on your roof. So there's many choices, many choices there and many changes, choices we can make in other parts of our lives. But even as astronomers, we care about our planet because it's the only one that we live on to do our astronomy. So I don't know if I want to intro that. Oh, yes. So I'm going to introduce this video, and then we're going to have a song. I think it'll play. So brother Sagan, as I like to call him, a lot of people have heard about him. He inspired us. And this is done from the perspective of us having actually made it through our infancy and gone out and being in the rest of the universe. And of course, there's controversy about that. But I do think that if we make it through this time, we will go to other planets and other star systems eventually. And some people may have heard of the pale blue dot, which was done before this. This, I find an even more poetic poem, lyrical poem and music set to it. So let's see if it works.
[00:55:21] Just a few minutes and we'll end with that.
[00:55:38] We were hunters and foragers.
[00:55:42] The frontier was everywhere.
[00:55:46] We were bounded only by the earth and the ocean and the sky.
[00:55:53] The open road still softly calls.
[00:55:58] Our little terraqueous globe is the madhouse of those hundred thousand millions of worlds.
[00:56:08] We, who cannot even put our own planetary home in order, riven with rivalries and hatreds. Are we to venture out into space?
[00:56:19] By the time we're ready to settle even the nearest other planetary systems, we will have changed.
[00:56:26] The simple passage of so many generations will have changed us. Necessity will have changed us.
[00:56:32] We're an adaptable species.
[00:56:37] It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses. More confident, farseeing, capable and prudenthenne all our failings.
[00:57:00] Despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness.
[00:57:09] What new wonders undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation and another?
[00:57:18] How far will our nomadic species have wandered by the end of the next century, the next millennium, our remote descendants, safely arrayed on many worlds through the solar system and beyond, will be unified by their common heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by the knowledge that whatever other life may be, the only humans in all the universe come from Earth.
[00:57:54] They will gaze up and stream to find the blue dot in their skies.
[00:58:00] They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings, how many rivers we had to cross before we found our way.
[00:58:27] Thanks. Yeah, I was.
[00:58:30] Well, he inspired many of us to go into science, and he talked about climate change in the 1980s. He testified in front of Congress. That video is called the frontier is everywhere. And it's easy to find YouTube. So just pull it up. And I think we're all going to sing a song here. I know we're still dealing with wars on the earth, and some of them we need to fight back the ukrainians all the way. I have since the beginning, but hopefully we move beyond war someday.
[00:59:06] So this next, it's good community song that I'd love for people to sing. I just wanted to bring up the quote that it came from. This is a Wendell Berry quote. We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong.
[00:59:28] We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us.
[00:59:40] And that requires that we make an effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it.
[00:59:47] So there's a up here and sing with me. That would be great. We created a song just last summer with a community out to the west.
[01:00:00] We do a planet care road show. And this is a song.
[01:00:05] There's one part that will be over. Here goes. Strong hands wide heart? Clear mind? Strong hands wide heart? Clear mind? Strong hands wide heart? Clear mind?
[01:00:18] You might ever you want to be for us?
[01:01:18] What is good for the world will be good for us want what is good for the world?
[01:02:18] What is good for the world will be good for us well, that should be easy to follow.
[01:03:05] Jim always makes me promise that I won't tell any stories or any Robert stories, but I have to say I got tell Jim's story, which is simply that asking me to do this and then giving us almost no instructions has been like this great knuckleball in my life. And I spent way too much time trying to figure out what I'm gonna do to the point that while Cleco was going, I was still trying to figure out what bone to read.
[01:03:39] And actually, I don't know.
[01:03:42] Fortunately, as you can see, there's this big old book with lots of Robert Blythe poems in.
[01:03:50] Unfortunately, I've known the guy. I was just counting. I think it's been 54 years I met him. I think it's cloudy, but I might have met him in 70.
[01:04:04] So I decided that what I do is read the last poem because nobody else read it. Me.
[01:04:18] This is called what the old poets failed to say. Oh, my name's Dougie Padilla, by the way.
[01:04:26] What the old poets failed to say, the sunlight on wheat heads in August holds me firmly, for I'm in love with the Wheatley soon to be cut.
[01:04:44] Let's thank whoever it was who kept sorrow alive.
[01:04:51] Tell me who brought Hafez out of the grave?
[01:04:55] Who brings us news of the 30th kingdom?
[01:05:01] I can't stop clapping my hands over this question.
[01:05:07] Even though we know God lays our head on the block, we thank him for it all and remember the loving we have enjoyed at night.
[01:05:18] Tell me why the suffering of the violin string goes on for years why the coyote calls at night and why the bird never settles down on one bird.
[01:05:35] Tell me why my titles are so often sad and why cattle keep on going every day to the slaughterhouse and why wars go on so long night after night goes bye in the old man's head we try to ask new questions, but whatever the old bio poets failed to say will never be said.
[01:06:30] Hi. Good evening.
[01:06:33] So I came to.
[01:06:35] I lived. Before I came to Minnesota. I lived in New York for 13 years, got my PhD. And I thought, New York is the center of the world or the universe. And my partner lured me to Minnesota was a promise. Two years maximum. Then we moved back to New York. So the first thing we stopped was the midway parking lot. As soon as my first time ever saw a gigantic parking lot. And I look at him, I said, can we go back to New York now?
[01:07:12] So that night, I went to the reading, poetry reading, and I walked in the big auditorium, and I saw a white haired man.
[01:07:23] And he. I was late, and I was wearing my New York fancy leather pants, right? And it was really cold. And he said, is that one pin? Come back here. And I was so embarrassed. But as the same time, I thought, oh, maybe it's not so bad. I can stay on. And I've been staying on since 1998.
[01:07:51] And thanks to Robert Blanche, he welcomed me the first night with poetry. And I really loved his poetry.
[01:08:02] So I have been with her. I sing first soprano.
[01:08:09] We've been rehearsing Brahm's requiem, so. And this is also Robert Bly's, my favorite poem by Robert Bly. It's called Requiem Bronze. So I will read this in chinese version. I translate it into Chinese, then I will read English.
[01:08:34] Brahmuzu naidin shiyo yi wa artong shibai total the kenya shuih shun flung xis ba arto yo gulam buddha xinjiang Jingjamin woman Ye Hui Shou Dao Shui Sho Man Jali Wu Ji zhongda jinji Sha zhida Fern Shobi Tongyang Xiao Shuho Jiang Zhan Xi in Yue De Jong Chen by the way, Robert Bly is a very popular. Chinese poets love him.
[01:09:58] This will be published in China Poetry magazine broms it must be that my early friendship with defeat has given me affection for the month of August. The potato fields belong to us.
[01:10:15] Night.
[01:10:16] So many times as a boy, I sat in the dirt among dry corn stalks that gave assurances every hour that Francis has his ear to the night.
[01:10:31] Columbus letters tell us that we will receive the gifts that mariners all receive at the end.
[01:10:41] Memories of gold and a grave in the sand.
[01:10:47] The shadows of a friend's hand gave us something similar to those we received from the light under the door as our mother came near each of us is a Jacob weeping for Joseph. We are the sparrow that flies through the warriors hall and back out into the falling snow.
[01:11:15] I don't know why these images should please me so much. An angel said in the last moment before night. Brahms will show you how loyal the notes are. Thank you.
[01:11:47] I want to invite my friend Serena Partridge up. She is a true treasure here in Minnesota and beyond. One of the great creators and helpers for all of us to sing together. And it's a real honor that you're here.
[01:12:11] Thank you for all of the beautiful offerings we've had and the beautiful offerings to come.
[01:12:17] I want to share a song that I really hope you'll sing with me. Please don't make me sing aloud.
[01:12:23] And this song came through me as I thought about one of my favorite writing based teachers, Robin Wall Kimmerer. Any other fangirls out there?
[01:12:36] Fanboys welcome as well.
[01:12:39] And one of the pieces of her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, that just rang me like a bella was this idea that from a healthy sense of belonging to place, that's where a healthy sense of responsibility for place flows out of. And doesn't it make so much sense that we're in all of these crises of disconnection, extraction, occupation, colonization, war, using this planet like a resource, using each other like a resource. We don't feel like we belong so much of the time. And maybe instead of, you know, banging people over the head with, you should feel responsible for this place, which doesn't seem to be, you know, that, effective.
[01:13:29] How can we help each other? Cultivate a sense of belonging to this land, to each other, and let the sense of I want to take care of. Of you because you are me. Let that flow on its own.
[01:13:44] And that really speaks to me. And I was out walking on a frozen lake.
[01:13:49] Not this winter. Didn't get to do that that many times this winter. And this little song came to me, and actually this winter I was singing it on a frozen lake at the art shanties, and my friend Amanda, who was back there at some. Hey.
[01:14:04] Showed me some sign language to help show them the meaning of the words, and I'd love to teach that to you, too. So we're just going to do it words first and give you a chance. And please remember, you already know this. You're smart. Listening is part of the music.
[01:14:21] You don't have to sing if you don't want to. You're a part of the music just by being here already. So the words are, I belong. Give that a try. I belong to the woods and the water to the woods and the water let's put that together. I belong to the woods and the water then I belong to the sky and the snow try that. I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the root and the seedling try that. I belong to the root and the seedling and I am coming home and I am coming home and we'll say that twice. It feels good. Let's do that one more time. And I am coming home sing this back to me, if you would.
[01:15:24] I belong to the woods and the water I belong to the woods and the water.
[01:15:38] You sound beautiful. Let's do that one more time. I belong to the woods and the water here's my turn. I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the root and the seedling I belong to the root and the seedling let's go back to the beginning and see if we can get there. And if, you know, the holy choir is present and harmonies start coming in, I won't be mad. Just saying. Okay. I belong to the woods here we go. I belong to the woods and the water I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the root and the seedling and here's the last line. And I am coming home let's sing that. And I am coming home one more time and I am coming home now we're going to sing it a few times, but before we do, I just invite you to bring into your heart your imagination, a place that makes you feel a really strong sense of belonging.
[01:17:31] I belong to the woods and the water I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the roof and the seedling and I am coming home and I am coming I belong to the woods and the water I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the roots and the sea and I am coming home and I am coming home holding one more time I belong to the woods and the water I belong to the sky and the snow I belong to the root and the seedling and I am coming home and I am coming home I am coming home and I am coming home I'm coming home and I am coming home hi, everyone. My name is Joshua Preston. I'm an attorney and writer based here in Minneapolis.
[01:20:09] We are told no speeches. This poem is called hatred of men with black hair. It's from Robert Blythe's second book of poems called the light around the body, which came out in 1967. This would have been one of the poems he would have been reading. These original read ins, the sit ins of poets and writers against the Vietnam War.
[01:20:29] Hatred of men with black hair.
[01:20:33] I hear voices praising to chombe and the Portuguese in Angola. These are the men who skinned little crowd. We are older sons skulking in back rooms selling nails with trembling hands.
[01:20:51] We distrust every person on earth with black hair. We send teams to overthrow Chief Joseph's government. We train natives to kill presidents with blow darts. We have men loosening the nails on Noah's ark.
[01:21:09] The state Department floats in the heavy jellies near the bottom like exhausted crustaceans, like squids who are confused, sending out beams of black light to the open sea, fighting their fraternal feeling for the great landlords.
[01:21:26] We have violet rays that light up the jungles at night, showing the friendly populations.
[01:21:32] We are teaching the children of ritual to overcome their longing for life. And we send sparks of black light that fit the holes in the general's eyes.
[01:21:45] Underneath all the cement of the Pentagon, there is a drop of indian blood preserved in snow, preserved from a trail of blood that once led away from the stockade over the snow, the trail now lost.
[01:22:06] Thank you.
[01:22:17] Well, I like that. Josh went in that direction. Robert Bly had an incredible ability to get underneath the skin, underneath the psyche of what is going on in the world. He was a psycho. Historian of the first water.
[01:22:34] That poem. Closer. Okay. Is that better? Yeah. So, this poem follows a poem that Josh wrote by a few years.
[01:22:46] And I'd like to dedicate this poem to Aaron Bushnell. One more good life gone.
[01:22:59] It's so easy to give in.
[01:23:02] I've been thinking about the man who gives in.
[01:23:05] Have you heard about him? In this story, a 28 foot pine meets a small wind, and the pine bends all the way over to the ground.
[01:23:18] I was persuaded. The pine said it was convincing.
[01:23:25] A mouse visits a cat, and the cat agrees to drown all her children.
[01:23:32] What could I do? The cat said, the mouse needed that.
[01:23:40] It's strange.
[01:23:42] I've heard that some people conspire in their own ruin.
[01:23:47] A fool says, you don't deserve to live.
[01:23:52] The man says, I'll string this rope over that branch. Maybe you can find a box.
[01:24:01] The great one with her necklace of skulls says, I need 20,000 corpses.
[01:24:11] Tell you what, the general says, we have an extra battalion over there on the hill.
[01:24:19] We don't need all these, Mendez.
[01:25:00] So it's a treat to have Robert Robinson here, a friend of mine. And, Robert, I'm going to move the mic down here, and you can introduce the two songs.
[01:25:12] I love that Robert is one of the great treasures around here.
[01:25:19] Don't hear enough of him, even though he sings all the time.
[01:25:57] Right in close. Probably have to go. You pretty close to it there.
[01:26:30] Did you see how I was supposed to say something?
[01:26:34] Sorry.
[01:26:36] All right, we want to start out with a song that is inspired by Langston Hughes.
[01:26:50] From his works, the Negro speaks of rivers.
[01:26:55] We call it.
[01:26:57] My soul has grown my soul has grown deep like the river like those ancient river rivers I've known my soul has grown like those ancient rivers those ancient rivers my soul has grown through I've known rivers ancient as the world they were older I then the flow I bathed in the Euphrates river when dawned when dawns were young said I built my hut built it to build it near the congo and it love it, love me to sleep my soul has grown deep like a river like those ancient river my soul has grown I looked up looked up upon the moon lion and raised the pyramid high above it well, I said I heard singing, singing, singing the Mississippi when Lincoln went down yes, my soul has grown deep like the river those muddy rivers turn all to gold soul has grown deep like the rivers.
[01:31:42] Like those muddy rivers.
[01:31:57] Golden heaven.
[01:32:37] This is a song that my brother Tim wrote. It is taken from the mountaintop speech that Doctor King did.
[01:32:53] 1968, I believe.
[01:32:56] And I think I'll just let it speak for itself.
[01:33:13] I don't know what will happen now.
[01:33:22] We've got some difficult days ahead.
[01:33:33] But it really doesn't matter with me now.
[01:33:42] Cause I've been to the mountaintop.
[01:33:57] I would have to leave. Live a long life.
[01:34:07] But I'm not.
[01:34:11] I'm not concerned with that now.
[01:34:17] I just want to do God's will.
[01:34:26] Cause I to the mountaintop and I've looked.
[01:34:41] I've looked out over and I've seen the promise.
[01:34:55] I have been to the mountaintop and I see the promised land.
[01:35:23] I may not get there with you oh, but I want you.
[01:35:37] I want you to know tonight that we as a people, we will. We'll get through.
[01:35:51] We'll get through to the promised land.
[01:36:01] And I've looked, I looked down, over and I have seen the promised land mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming, the coming of the Lord and I'm nothing fearing any man.
[01:36:45] Cause I have seen the promised land.
[01:36:56] I have been to the monks and tongue and I have seen the promised land.
[01:38:07] This will be fun. Maybe we're doing the same poem. I doubt it.
[01:38:12] You know, that was so beautiful. And Ruth, I know. Just. Yeah, she could feel that one.
[01:38:19] And I believe in my heart that Robert and Thomas Stromster were this kind of music.
[01:38:26] They're hearing it now.
[01:38:28] I'm tingling it. So, good timing.
[01:38:31] Well, we know that Robert was an activist in the outer world.
[01:38:37] And I'm sure that many of us in this room were arrested with him at one time or another.
[01:38:45] But he was also an activist of the inner world.
[01:38:50] He went down into the inner world, and he got all of these wild poets from the east and from the north and from south, from all over the world.
[01:39:03] He was the activists on the inside. So I decided I picked one of his translations of kabir, the simple purification.
[01:39:16] Student, do the simple purification.
[01:39:22] You know that the seed is inside the horse chestnut tree.
[01:39:27] And inside the seed, there are the horse chestnut blossoms and the chestnuts and the shades of.
[01:39:37] So, inside the human body, there is the seed. And inside the seed, there is the human body. Again.
[01:39:49] Fire, air, earth, water and space.
[01:39:54] If you don't want the secret one, you can't have these either.
[01:40:01] Thinkers. Listen, tell me what you know of that is not inside the soul.
[01:40:13] Take a pitcher full of water and set it down on the water.
[01:40:18] Now it has water inside and water outside.
[01:40:25] We mustn't give it a name lest silly people start talking again about the body and the soul.
[01:40:34] If you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth.
[01:40:40] Listen to the secret sound, the real sound which is inside of you.
[01:40:50] The one no one talks of speaks the secret sound to himself.
[01:40:58] And he's the one who has made it all.
[01:41:02] Kabir by Robert Flydenne.
