WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.810 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to try to
be more uplifting now.

00:00:01.810 --> 00:00:02.310 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:02.310 --> 00:00:04.140 align:middle line:84%
But thank god Nikki
took care of that.

00:00:04.140 --> 00:00:07.170 align:middle line:90%


00:00:07.170 --> 00:00:09.990 align:middle line:84%
It was really great that I
was able to come and read

00:00:09.990 --> 00:00:12.180 align:middle line:84%
alongside her, because
she's the bomb.com.

00:00:12.180 --> 00:00:12.720 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:84%
So I've been following
her work for a long time.

00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:18.930 align:middle line:90%


00:00:18.930 --> 00:00:19.935 align:middle line:90%
"The Bells of Prague."

00:00:19.935 --> 00:00:22.640 align:middle line:90%


00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.160 align:middle line:90%
I never meant to break.

00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:28.470 align:middle line:84%
But street lights
dressed her gold.

00:00:28.470 --> 00:00:31.310 align:middle line:84%
The curve and curve
of her shoulders--

00:00:31.310 --> 00:00:34.910 align:middle line:84%
the hum and hive of
them, moonglossed pillory

00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:38.660 align:middle line:84%
of them-- nearly
felled me to my knees.

00:00:38.660 --> 00:00:40.640 align:middle line:90%
How can I tell you--

00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:42.620 align:middle line:90%
the amber of her.

00:00:42.620 --> 00:00:44.090 align:middle line:90%
The body of honey--

00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:46.250 align:middle line:90%
that I took it in my hands.

00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:49.490 align:middle line:84%
Oh, City-- where
hands turned holy--

00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:52.910 align:middle line:84%
her city, where my
hands went undone--

00:00:52.910 --> 00:00:56.420 align:middle line:84%
gone to ravel, to
silhouette-- to moths

00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:59.360 align:middle line:84%
at the mercy of the
pale of her hips.

00:00:59.360 --> 00:01:02.150 align:middle line:84%
Hips in that early
night to light

00:01:02.150 --> 00:01:05.360 align:middle line:84%
lit up-- to shining
sweet electricus,

00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:08.900 align:middle line:84%
to luminous and lamp--
where ached to drink I

00:01:08.900 --> 00:01:10.280 align:middle line:90%
did 'til drunk.

00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:13.280 align:middle line:84%
Where in her rocked
the dark Zikmund--

00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:15.920 align:middle line:90%
her, by then, a cathedral tower.

00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:17.990 align:middle line:90%
One breast, rose window.

00:01:17.990 --> 00:01:20.390 align:middle line:90%
One breast, room of alchemists.

00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:24.560 align:middle line:84%
Where from her mouth came
tolling the music of yolk

00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:28.460 align:middle line:90%
and crown, of waist and sway.

00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:31.700 align:middle line:84%
Wanting her was so
close to prayer--

00:01:31.700 --> 00:01:33.240 align:middle line:90%
I should not--

00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:37.190 align:middle line:84%
But it was July, and in a
city where desire means,

00:01:37.190 --> 00:01:40.190 align:middle line:84%
upstairs we can break
each other open,

00:01:40.190 --> 00:01:43.610 align:middle line:84%
the single blessing I
had to give was mouth--

00:01:43.610 --> 00:01:47.030 align:middle line:90%
so gave and gave I did.

00:01:47.030 --> 00:01:49.760 align:middle line:84%
Every night has a
woman for temptation.

00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.460 align:middle line:84%
Every city has a
fable for fruit--

00:01:52.460 --> 00:01:55.490 align:middle line:84%
like in the castle gardens,
where jackdaws waited

00:01:55.490 --> 00:01:58.610 align:middle line:84%
glaze-eyed along the
walls for a taste of new--

00:01:58.610 --> 00:02:03.650 align:middle line:84%
of figs unsweet yet, yet
beryl-bright enough for wonder.

00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:06.155 align:middle line:84%
Not jackdaw, but
not different, I--

00:02:06.155 --> 00:02:11.120 align:middle line:84%
how I destroy myself on even the
least of the sweetest things--

00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:16.190 align:middle line:84%
the salt of her burned not long
on my tongue, but like stars.

00:02:16.190 --> 00:02:18.080 align:middle line:90%
I never meant to break--

00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.350 align:middle line:84%
but love, the hymn
and bells of her.

00:02:21.350 --> 00:02:24.650 align:middle line:84%
Even now, there are nights
I climb the narrow stairway

00:02:24.650 --> 00:02:27.410 align:middle line:84%
to an apartment at
Hradcany Square, where

00:02:27.410 --> 00:02:31.460 align:middle line:84%
a door opens to a room and the
shadowed fig of her mouth--

00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:34.910 align:middle line:84%
split sweet open,
and in me ringing."

00:02:34.910 --> 00:02:38.260 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:38.260 --> 00:02:44.000 align:middle line:90%