Transcript: Poems on Air, Episode 9 - Victoria Chang

[Music intro]

LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Among the many laureled poets of Los Angeles, one of the best of them is Victoria Chang. This isn’t merely my opinion. Chang is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellow-ship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Lannan Residency, among other awards. Her most recent poetry collection, Obit, a New York Times Notable Book, received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, PEN Voeckler Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. She is the Program Chair of Antioch University’s low-residency MFA Program and lives in Los Angeles with her family. A friend to many, I’m happy to count among them.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poems is “Friendships ” by Victoria Chang.

Friendships

Friendships—died a slow death after
August 3, 2015. The friends visited my
father. They sat in chairs and spoke
Chinese. Wore dictionaries for coats.
Strange looks between spouses. The
friends went home feeling good that
they had done their duty, picked up
odds and ends of words. Each had
memories of offices, of seeing the other
side of the sun. The visits lessened and
lessened. They were being pursued by
their own deaths. I wonder about the
leaves and their relationship with fruit.
Do the leaves care about the swelling
of the fruit? Does the fruit consider the
leaves while it expands? Maybe the
leaves shade the fruit as it grows and

the fruit emits fragrance for the leaves.
But eventually, each must face its own
falling alone.

LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast will be available on the Library’s website. In the future, episodes will be available on iTunes, Google, and Spotify. Thanks for listening!

[Music outro]

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    • DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.

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