WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.250 align:middle line:84%
The three books that I was
writing in self-defense

00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:07.920 align:middle line:84%
that I mentioned are
the basic three books

00:00:07.920 --> 00:00:10.080 align:middle line:90%
that are in this one book.

00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:17.430 align:middle line:84%
But at the end, I decided to put
in another shorter poem, which

00:00:17.430 --> 00:00:21.090 align:middle line:84%
is not really the
same sort of thing.

00:00:21.090 --> 00:00:25.170 align:middle line:84%
But I thought that for
some reason or other sort

00:00:25.170 --> 00:00:30.450 align:middle line:84%
of satisfied something that
the three volumes hadn't.

00:00:30.450 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84%
And it's a poem
that deals with one

00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:40.950 align:middle line:84%
of the cemeteries in Providence,
in which there are many statues

00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:48.300 align:middle line:84%
most of them quite hideous, a
few interesting ones and this

00:00:48.300 --> 00:00:52.570 align:middle line:84%
is simply a poem
about those statues,

00:00:52.570 --> 00:00:56.260 align:middle line:84%
and it's called epilogue
that was put on after it

00:00:56.260 --> 00:00:58.000 align:middle line:90%
got into this book obviously.

00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.970 align:middle line:84%
Epilogue stone angels
and as a subtitle

00:01:03.970 --> 00:01:07.240 align:middle line:84%
to clarify that it says,
Swan point cemetery

00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:10.340 align:middle line:90%
Providence, Rhode Island.

00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:14.480 align:middle line:84%
These statues of course
are basically of angels.

00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:19.430 align:middle line:84%
A few of them seemed
to be presumably

00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:22.670 align:middle line:84%
statues of the
person who's buried,

00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:28.040 align:middle line:84%
but basically
they're all angels.

00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:32.220 align:middle line:84%
And people when they're
buried become angels

00:01:32.220 --> 00:01:33.470 align:middle line:90%
as soon as you're rid of them.

00:01:33.470 --> 00:01:38.120 align:middle line:90%


00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.460 align:middle line:90%
Angels go.

00:01:40.460 --> 00:01:48.170 align:middle line:84%
We merely stray image of a
wandering deity searching

00:01:48.170 --> 00:01:53.170 align:middle line:90%
for wells or for work.

00:01:53.170 --> 00:01:58.510 align:middle line:84%
They scale rungs of air
ascending and descending we

00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:05.320 align:middle line:84%
are a little lower
the grass covers us.

00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:15.790 align:middle line:84%
But statues here, they stand
simple as horizon statements.

00:02:15.790 --> 00:02:22.050 align:middle line:84%
Yes, but what they stand
for is long fallen.

00:02:22.050 --> 00:02:25.500 align:middle line:84%
Angels of memory, they
point to the death of time

00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:28.710 align:middle line:90%
not themselves timeless.

00:02:28.710 --> 00:02:31.740 align:middle line:84%
And without recall,
their strength

00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:37.645 align:middle line:84%
is to stand still after
glow of an old religion.

00:02:37.645 --> 00:02:40.220 align:middle line:90%


00:02:40.220 --> 00:02:42.650 align:middle line:90%
One can imagine them sentient.

00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:46.460 align:middle line:84%
That is to say we may
attribute to stone hardness

00:02:46.460 --> 00:02:51.590 align:middle line:84%
one after the other, our own
five senses, until it springs

00:02:51.590 --> 00:02:58.810 align:middle line:84%
to life and breathe and
sneeze and step down among us.

00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:04.810 align:middle line:84%
But in fact, they are the
opposite of perception.

00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:09.100 align:middle line:90%
We bury our gaze in them.

00:03:09.100 --> 00:03:15.580 align:middle line:84%
For all my sympathy, I suppose
they see nothing at all.

00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:19.750 align:middle line:84%
eyeless to indicate
our calamity breathless

00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:23.425 align:middle line:84%
and graceful above the
ruins they inspire.

00:03:23.425 --> 00:03:26.670 align:middle line:90%


00:03:26.670 --> 00:03:32.790 align:middle line:84%
I could close my eyes now,
and evade maybe the blind fear

00:03:32.790 --> 00:03:36.200 align:middle line:90%
that their wings hold.

00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:39.590 align:middle line:84%
The visible body
expresses our body

00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:45.590 align:middle line:84%
as a whole, its internal
asymmetries, and also,

00:03:45.590 --> 00:03:48.980 align:middle line:84%
the broken symmetry
we wander through.

00:03:48.980 --> 00:03:52.030 align:middle line:90%


00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:55.750 align:middle line:84%
With practice, I might
regard people and things,

00:03:55.750 --> 00:04:02.120 align:middle line:84%
the field around me as
lots, objects for fantasy

00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:05.810 align:middle line:90%
shadowy but legible.

00:04:05.810 --> 00:04:10.780 align:middle line:84%
All these words
have other meanings,

00:04:10.780 --> 00:04:16.709 align:middle line:84%
a little written maybe
far too much to read.

00:04:16.709 --> 00:04:22.980 align:middle line:84%
A while and a while and
a while after a while

00:04:22.980 --> 00:04:27.080 align:middle line:90%
make something like forever.

00:04:27.080 --> 00:04:31.760 align:middle line:84%
From ontological bric a brac,
and without knowing quite

00:04:31.760 --> 00:04:36.380 align:middle line:84%
what they mean, I select
my four ambassadors,

00:04:36.380 --> 00:04:42.770 align:middle line:84%
my double, my shadow, my
shining covering, my name.

00:04:42.770 --> 00:04:45.810 align:middle line:90%


00:04:45.810 --> 00:04:49.200 align:middle line:84%
The graven names are not
their names but ours.

00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:52.240 align:middle line:90%


00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:57.730 align:middle line:84%
Expectation endlessly
engraved is a question to beg.

00:04:57.730 --> 00:05:02.620 align:middle line:84%
Blemishes on exposed
surfaces perpetual

00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:09.370 align:middle line:84%
contusions enlivens features
fastened to the stone.

00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:13.510 align:middle line:84%
Expecting nothing
without struggle,

00:05:13.510 --> 00:05:16.720 align:middle line:84%
I come to expect
nothing but struggle.

00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:19.540 align:middle line:90%


00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:23.620 align:middle line:84%
The primal Adam,
our archetype light

00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:28.180 align:middle line:84%
at his back heavy substance
below him glanced down

00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:31.360 align:middle line:84%
into uncertain depths
fell in love with,

00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.360 align:middle line:90%
and fell into his own shadow.

00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:37.680 align:middle line:90%


00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:43.500 align:middle line:84%
Legend or history footprints
of passing events.

00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:50.480 align:middle line:84%
Lord how our
information increases.

00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:54.980 align:middle line:84%
I see only a surface
complex enough.

00:05:54.980 --> 00:05:57.830 align:middle line:84%
Its interruptions of
deep blue suggesting

00:05:57.830 --> 00:06:02.120 align:middle line:84%
that the Earth is
hollow stretched around

00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:07.020 align:middle line:90%
what must be all the rest.

00:06:07.020 --> 00:06:12.810 align:middle line:84%
My world is parsimonious,
a few elements which

00:06:12.810 --> 00:06:17.910 align:middle line:84%
combine like tricks of light
to sketch the barest outline. /

00:06:17.910 --> 00:06:24.900 align:middle line:84%
But my void is lavish, breaking
its frame, tempting me always

00:06:24.900 --> 00:06:26.300 align:middle line:90%
to turn again.

00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:29.730 align:middle line:84%
Again, for each glimpse
suggests more and more

00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:33.870 align:middle line:90%
in some other farther emptiness.

00:06:33.870 --> 00:06:37.260 align:middle line:90%


00:06:37.260 --> 00:06:44.350 align:middle line:84%
To reach empty space,
think away each object

00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:48.160 align:middle line:90%
without destroying its position.

00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:52.960 align:middle line:84%
Ghostly then with contents
gone, the vacuum will

00:06:52.960 --> 00:07:00.830 align:middle line:84%
not as you might expect collapse
but hang there vacant, waiting

00:07:00.830 --> 00:07:06.140 align:middle line:84%
and in rush of reappointment
seven times worse than anything

00:07:06.140 --> 00:07:12.050 align:middle line:84%
you know, even seven
other dimensions curled

00:07:12.050 --> 00:07:13.085 align:middle line:90%
into our three.

00:07:13.085 --> 00:07:15.920 align:middle line:90%


00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:21.590 align:middle line:84%
But time empties on occasion
more quickly than that breathe

00:07:21.590 --> 00:07:24.785 align:middle line:90%
in or out no motion, moves.

00:07:24.785 --> 00:07:28.140 align:middle line:90%


00:07:28.140 --> 00:07:34.650 align:middle line:84%
Trees go down random and
planned the way we think.

00:07:34.650 --> 00:07:40.690 align:middle line:84%
The artificial, the sacrificial
animal is consumed by fire.

00:07:40.690 --> 00:07:45.060 align:middle line:84%
Ascends in greasy smoke
and offering to the sky.

00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:49.320 align:middle line:84%
Earthly refuge assaults
heaven as we are contaminated

00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:53.130 align:middle line:90%
by notions of eternity.

00:07:53.130 --> 00:07:59.370 align:middle line:84%
It is as if a love letter
or everything I have written

00:07:59.370 --> 00:08:03.870 align:middle line:84%
were to be torn up and the
pieces scattered in order

00:08:03.870 --> 00:08:06.990 align:middle line:90%
to reach the beloved.

00:08:06.990 --> 00:08:12.920 align:middle line:84%
No entrance after
sundown under how vast

00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:17.390 align:middle line:90%
a night what we call day.

00:08:17.390 --> 00:08:24.610 align:middle line:84%
Well, it stands still
is merely extended.

00:08:24.610 --> 00:08:29.160 align:middle line:90%
What moves is in space.

00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:33.120 align:middle line:84%
Immobile figures here in
a race with death gloom

00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:35.850 align:middle line:84%
about their heads
like a dark nimbus.

00:08:35.850 --> 00:08:41.250 align:middle line:90%
Still they do while standing.

00:08:41.250 --> 00:08:47.830 align:middle line:84%
Go a motion like the
flow of water like ice

00:08:47.830 --> 00:08:52.380 align:middle line:90%
only slower our time is a river.

00:08:52.380 --> 00:08:56.880 align:middle line:90%
There's the glassy sea.

00:08:56.880 --> 00:09:02.550 align:middle line:84%
They drift as we do in
this garden so swank.

00:09:02.550 --> 00:09:05.580 align:middle line:90%
So grandly indiscriminate.

00:09:05.580 --> 00:09:09.210 align:middle line:84%
Frail, wings,
fingers too fragile.

00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:15.400 align:middle line:90%
Their faces freckle weathering.

00:09:15.400 --> 00:09:21.820 align:middle line:84%
Pure spirit set the angelic
doctor, but not these angels.

00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:27.520 align:middle line:84%
Pure visibility
hovering, lifting,

00:09:27.520 --> 00:09:34.380 align:middle line:84%
horror into the day to
cancel and preserve it.

00:09:34.380 --> 00:09:39.930 align:middle line:84%
The worst death,
worse than death

00:09:39.930 --> 00:09:44.330 align:middle line:84%
would be to die leaving
nothing unfinished.

00:09:44.330 --> 00:09:48.360 align:middle line:90%


00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:55.420 align:middle line:84%
Somewhere in my life, there must
have been buried now under long

00:09:55.420 --> 00:10:02.620 align:middle line:84%
accumulations some extreme
joy which never spoken,

00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:06.380 align:middle line:90%
cannot be brought to mind.

00:10:06.380 --> 00:10:10.400 align:middle line:84%
How else in this
unconscious city

00:10:10.400 --> 00:10:13.355 align:middle line:84%
could I have such a
sense of dwelling?

00:10:13.355 --> 00:10:16.710 align:middle line:90%


00:10:16.710 --> 00:10:22.670 align:middle line:84%
I would raise-- what's
the opposite of Ebenezer?

00:10:22.670 --> 00:10:25.710 align:middle line:90%


00:10:25.710 --> 00:10:28.950 align:middle line:90%
Night with its gripped.

00:10:28.950 --> 00:10:34.980 align:middle line:84%
Its cradle song rage
for days end impatience

00:10:34.980 --> 00:10:41.670 align:middle line:84%
like a boat in the evening
towards the horizon as down

00:10:41.670 --> 00:10:49.250 align:middle line:84%
a sounding line barker
all, funeral march,

00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:53.400 align:middle line:90%
nocturne at high noon.

00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:55.190 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:10:55.190 --> 00:11:08.000 align:middle line:90%