WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:04.700 align:middle line:84% Two more poems-- the first one is a prose poem. 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:06.075 align:middle line:84% It's called "Each Day Does That." 00:00:06.075 --> 00:00:08.480 align:middle line:90% 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:10.230 align:middle line:84% What I wanted to do in this poem, I think, 00:00:10.230 --> 00:00:14.130 align:middle line:84% is something I eventually want to be able to do in my poetry. 00:00:14.130 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:84% And something it takes some time, I guess, 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:18.390 align:middle line:84% and a certain kind of sophisticated innocence, 00:00:18.390 --> 00:00:21.570 align:middle line:84% was to treat the subject matter in the poem 00:00:21.570 --> 00:00:23.400 align:middle line:84% somewhat ironically, but come out 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:26.790 align:middle line:84% by the end of the poem speaking fairly openly and frankly, 00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:32.430 align:middle line:84% and if the case was that kind of a case, speaking sentimentally. 00:00:32.430 --> 00:00:35.166 align:middle line:90% "Each Day Does That"-- 00:00:35.166 --> 00:00:39.570 align:middle line:84% It seems before sleep, something has been dishonest. 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.870 align:middle line:84% I'd like it to have been the day. 00:00:42.870 --> 00:00:46.590 align:middle line:84% It's the recognition of a circle, some mild agreement 00:00:46.590 --> 00:00:49.830 align:middle line:84% I made as a child to behave by which 00:00:49.830 --> 00:00:52.950 align:middle line:84% I could assign myself the center of all things, 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:55.950 align:middle line:90% a passive nature. 00:00:55.950 --> 00:00:58.560 align:middle line:84% I sometimes write from an occupation-- 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.920 align:middle line:84% mailman, a cardiac, those whose lives 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:05.459 align:middle line:84% are honest, because without perspective, they begin 00:01:05.459 --> 00:01:07.320 align:middle line:90% to value their loneliness. 00:01:07.320 --> 00:01:11.730 align:middle line:84% They grow tragic and beautifully antique. 00:01:11.730 --> 00:01:16.500 align:middle line:84% If these could meet, say in a conspiracy designed to fail, 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.710 align:middle line:84% they might agree I never met a man I didn't like, 00:01:19.710 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:90% of all confessions the worst. 00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:84% Had I arrived, I'd say resignation, 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:29.880 align:middle line:84% the acceptance of the reasonably tragic is why I made you. 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:34.320 align:middle line:84% And they tear up their former maxims and begin to compete. 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:36.180 align:middle line:90% Once I wanted my readers to cry. 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.160 align:middle line:90% Now it's my persona. 00:01:38.160 --> 00:01:40.290 align:middle line:90% Things are getting hot. 00:01:40.290 --> 00:01:43.170 align:middle line:84% But the truth is I'm getting older. 00:01:43.170 --> 00:01:46.860 align:middle line:84% Most of my definitions turn out to have been early promises, 00:01:46.860 --> 00:01:49.980 align:middle line:90% now more and more forgettable. 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:53.820 align:middle line:84% Just before sleep, when I'm afraid, a few of those 00:01:53.820 --> 00:01:56.790 align:middle line:84% poems which I had thought to be distant turn 00:01:56.790 --> 00:02:00.960 align:middle line:84% their small, interested faces, never plain 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:02.940 align:middle line:90% enough or true enough. 00:02:02.940 --> 00:02:05.590 align:middle line:84% But their intention turns my body, 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:09.900 align:middle line:84% which had been weak with stubbornness, toward home. 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:13.860 align:middle line:84% My parents lie like children in the dark. 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.680 align:middle line:84% I'm not close enough to hear them speak. 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:20.910 align:middle line:84% But their love for each other, which once seemed small to me, 00:02:20.910 --> 00:02:22.380 align:middle line:90% is there. 00:02:22.380 --> 00:02:24.350 align:middle line:90% And I can sleep.