[APPLAUSE]
It's really amazing to be back.
And thank you, dear, brilliant Karen
for that generous introduction.
Thank you to the Poetry Center.
I think that I only truly appreciated
what you all do here--
the community you have, what is offered by the Poetry
Center and the creative writing program
and the English department, and what you gave me--
when I left.
I kind of took it for granted while I was here.
But you are a beacon and you are an inspiration.
And you've changed my life.
And I have tried to take some of what you gave me out
into the world.
And I think a lot of people have done that.
You send generation after generation
out to give a little bit back, so thank you.
It's very humbling to be back among people whose work
I admire so much.
Thank you.
I wanted to read a few poems that really
are organized around study of voice,
in all senses of that term--
poetic method, poetic approach, literal voices.
And in honor of wonderful, wonderful Kate,
this first poem functions as a fable that actually
was a real conversation.
But once I transposed it out of context,
it became a fable of morality and power.
It has an epigraph from Aubyn.
"The universe is stone, but we are not."
"'Stones.'
I have a friend who imprisons stones.
How do you do that I ask?
I build little cages and put them in.
And why do you imprison these stones?
They are immoral stones.
I oversee the purification of petrified beings.
Where do you find these immoral stones?
I find them in the river, which is low in the summer drought.
Are all the stones you see immoral?
No, only the ones I imprison.
Can you tell which stones are immoral?
Yes, I can tell which ones are immoral, and which are not.
And where do you keep the cages?
I keep them on a shelf near the window.
And do you keep them by the window
so they see their old abode and know what they have lost?
I keep them by the window because that
is where I have room.
[LAUGHTER]
Will you free these stones?
Yes, when they have learned morality and are
purified of being petrified.
[LAUGHTER]
Will you teach them morality and courage?
No, morality and courage cannot be taught but they can be
learned.
How will imprisoned stones learn?
They will learn because I have moved them
and that is what they feared most.
When will they know they have learned?
I will know when they know."
[LAUGHTER]
So.
Yes, over lunch.
[LAUGHTER]