WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.670 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.670 --> 00:00:01.170 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:01.170 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90% I have one. 00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:01.940 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:02.962 align:middle line:90% One second. 00:00:02.962 --> 00:00:03.944 align:middle line:90% We need to-- 00:00:03.944 --> 00:00:13.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.780 --> 00:00:16.660 align:middle line:84% Would you mind free associating on the word trees? 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:20.790 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:20.790 --> 00:00:23.410 align:middle line:84% Look, there are to be no jokes in the Q&A. 00:00:23.410 --> 00:00:25.690 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:25.690 --> 00:00:28.540 align:middle line:84% I thought that was established here and we agreed on that. 00:00:28.540 --> 00:00:32.250 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:33.700 align:middle line:90% I mean, I could do it in Yiddish 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:38.740 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:38.740 --> 00:00:41.740 align:middle line:84% Are you suggesting or implying that there are too many trees 00:00:41.740 --> 00:00:44.110 align:middle line:90% in my poems hence-- 00:00:44.110 --> 00:00:45.430 align:middle line:90% I mean, what are you saying? 00:00:45.430 --> 00:00:51.010 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHTER] Well, trees is metaphor trees, you know. 00:00:51.010 --> 00:00:51.580 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:51.580 --> 00:00:58.560 align:middle line:84% I mean and all of their activities that they engage in 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:00.060 align:middle line:90% are interesting to me. 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:03.540 align:middle line:84% Getting up and moving around, sympathizing with birds, 00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:04.800 align:middle line:90% various things like that. 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:05.770 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:05.770 --> 00:01:06.410 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:06.410 --> 00:01:07.770 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:07.770 --> 00:01:09.930 align:middle line:84% It was once asked of me you know how could it 00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:15.330 align:middle line:84% be that nature is figure so prominently in your poetry. 00:01:15.330 --> 00:01:18.660 align:middle line:84% You grew up in a boring street in a boring city-- 00:01:18.660 --> 00:01:20.940 align:middle line:84% in a boring suburb not a boring city 00:01:20.940 --> 00:01:27.480 align:middle line:84% with 12 cars and 12 driveways, it was just 12 houses. 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:31.200 align:middle line:90% Where did it come from? 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:32.700 align:middle line:90% I guess it was the imagination. 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:35.970 align:middle line:84% We did have a tree in our front yard. 00:01:35.970 --> 00:01:37.410 align:middle line:90% There you go. 00:01:37.410 --> 00:01:39.660 align:middle line:84% It all goes back to the primal tree. 00:01:39.660 --> 00:01:45.720 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:45.720 --> 00:01:47.488 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:01:47.488 --> 00:01:48.030 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:48.840 align:middle line:90% I do love trees. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:49.380 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:01:49.380 --> 00:01:50.820 align:middle line:90% As we all do. 00:01:50.820 --> 00:01:53.130 align:middle line:84% Can you tell us a little bit about how 00:01:53.130 --> 00:01:57.660 align:middle line:84% you fell in love with poetry and then how you 00:01:57.660 --> 00:01:59.340 align:middle line:90% became a writer of poetry? 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.740 align:middle line:90% Sure. 00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:08.789 align:middle line:84% My route to writing has been is odd, having studied business 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:10.889 align:middle line:90% and left it really cold turkey. 00:02:10.889 --> 00:02:12.810 align:middle line:90% It was 180 degree turn. 00:02:12.810 --> 00:02:14.790 align:middle line:84% I entered writing through playwriting 00:02:14.790 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84% and I entered playwriting through Harold Pinter. 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:22.590 align:middle line:84% And between writing plays, I started to play at the poem. 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:27.900 align:middle line:84% And I entered poetry through the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:84% And that appealed to me because he 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:35.340 align:middle line:84% was expressing large ideas for lack of a better 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:38.550 align:middle line:90% term with simple language. 00:02:38.550 --> 00:02:43.770 align:middle line:84% And I thought I could enter that world perhaps. 00:02:43.770 --> 00:02:49.710 align:middle line:84% So much poetry is hard to enter and I was able to enter that. 00:02:49.710 --> 00:02:54.720 align:middle line:84% And that was kind of my path and I just played it in and fell 00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:57.030 align:middle line:90% in love with the floor. 00:02:57.030 --> 00:02:59.120 align:middle line:90% So yeah. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:02.630 align:middle line:90% 00:03:02.630 --> 00:03:03.222 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:03:03.222 --> 00:03:05.180 align:middle line:84% Will you talk a little bit about the last lines 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:06.013 align:middle line:90% of the poem "Stone?" 00:03:06.013 --> 00:03:09.890 align:middle line:90% 00:03:09.890 --> 00:03:12.990 align:middle line:90% What does it mean you mean? 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:18.970 align:middle line:84% Well, in the-- and on my stone both stones 00:03:18.970 --> 00:03:22.810 align:middle line:90% please is the last line. 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:27.070 align:middle line:84% Stone it refers to-- and on my stone refers to a headstone. 00:03:27.070 --> 00:03:30.340 align:middle line:84% And the custom at least the Jewish tradition 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:38.110 align:middle line:84% is when you visit a burial you will put stones 00:03:38.110 --> 00:03:40.270 align:middle line:90% on the headstone. 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:45.410 align:middle line:90% So that that's the reference. 00:03:45.410 --> 00:03:49.490 align:middle line:84% I was dating a woman who was into Jungian 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:52.190 align:middle line:84% Everything was Jungian I mean it didn't matter, you know. 00:03:52.190 --> 00:03:56.030 align:middle line:84% Breakfast was Jungian So this poem was Jungian too. 00:03:56.030 --> 00:04:00.140 align:middle line:84% It was the one plus two everything is the three. 00:04:00.140 --> 00:04:03.470 align:middle line:84% One plus two equals the third stone. 00:04:03.470 --> 00:04:07.440 align:middle line:84% I don't know what she was talking about. 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:10.311 align:middle line:84% But I wasn't Jungian enough for her anyways since she-- 00:04:10.311 --> 00:04:13.680 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:14.900 align:middle line:90% --she was done with me. 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:16.670 align:middle line:90% So yeah. 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:21.253 align:middle line:90% 00:04:21.253 --> 00:04:23.170 align:middle line:84% Ernesto do you want to read a poem in Yiddish? 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:25.150 align:middle line:90% I mean, are you itching? 00:04:25.150 --> 00:04:26.068 align:middle line:90% No, not the nephew. 00:04:26.068 --> 00:04:27.610 align:middle line:84% Why don't you read a poem in Yiddish? 00:04:27.610 --> 00:04:28.750 align:middle line:90% Because I can't speak it. 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:30.010 align:middle line:90% I would love to. 00:04:30.010 --> 00:04:32.230 align:middle line:84% I would love to read a poem in Yiddish. 00:04:32.230 --> 00:04:33.625 align:middle line:84% It's such an expressive language. 00:04:33.625 --> 00:04:36.720 align:middle line:90% 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:44.750 align:middle line:90% So yeah. 00:04:44.750 --> 00:04:45.350 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:47.975 align:middle line:84% How would you describe the form you use? 00:04:47.975 --> 00:04:51.100 align:middle line:90% 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:52.780 align:middle line:90% Lyric. 00:04:52.780 --> 00:04:53.530 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:04:53.530 --> 00:04:55.285 align:middle line:90% These are generally lyric poems. 00:04:55.285 --> 00:04:57.870 align:middle line:90% 00:04:57.870 --> 00:05:00.690 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:00.690 --> 00:05:01.500 align:middle line:90% Yes, Eric. 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:05.670 align:middle line:84% What advice would you give to a young poet or somebody 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:06.840 align:middle line:90% is starting to write poetry? 00:05:06.840 --> 00:05:09.606 align:middle line:90% 00:05:09.606 --> 00:05:13.242 align:middle line:84% How did you write what you write about those kinds of things 00:05:13.242 --> 00:05:15.890 align:middle line:90% You know, I think it's cliche. 00:05:15.890 --> 00:05:18.170 align:middle line:84% Every poet says you have to read, you have to read, 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:22.880 align:middle line:84% you have to read, and I share that sentiment. 00:05:22.880 --> 00:05:25.490 align:middle line:90% 00:05:25.490 --> 00:05:26.930 align:middle line:90% It's important to read a lot. 00:05:26.930 --> 00:05:33.430 align:middle line:90% 00:05:33.430 --> 00:05:36.850 align:middle line:84% As we were talking over dinner I think much of writing 00:05:36.850 --> 00:05:38.140 align:middle line:90% is images. 00:05:38.140 --> 00:05:40.870 align:middle line:90% Images, images, images, images. 00:05:40.870 --> 00:05:50.030 align:middle line:84% And you have to try and capture the world with images, 00:05:50.030 --> 00:05:53.140 align:middle line:84% whether you're writing prose or poetry. 00:05:53.140 --> 00:05:55.540 align:middle line:84% And they should focus specifically 00:05:55.540 --> 00:05:58.360 align:middle line:84% on trying to create arresting images, things 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:00.230 align:middle line:90% we haven't seen before. 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:09.070 align:middle line:84% So you know it's a specific tool to focus on images. 00:06:09.070 --> 00:06:11.260 align:middle line:84% If it's not an image we're not going to remember it. 00:06:11.260 --> 00:06:16.450 align:middle line:84% One of the things my limited experience teaching is I 00:06:16.450 --> 00:06:21.850 align:middle line:84% often ask the students what they remember from poems 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:23.080 align:middle line:90% that were read in class. 00:06:23.080 --> 00:06:26.900 align:middle line:84% And they all remembered the same things nine times out of 10. 00:06:26.900 --> 00:06:28.780 align:middle line:84% And it was the images in the poem. 00:06:28.780 --> 00:06:30.760 align:middle line:90% That's all we remember. 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:36.310 align:middle line:84% Whatever those who were at the celebration yesterday-- 00:06:36.310 --> 00:06:40.750 align:middle line:84% if you think back to Billy Collins reading of his poems, 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:42.400 align:middle line:84% the poems that you likely remember 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:45.660 align:middle line:84% are the ones where the images were most powerful to you, 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:46.660 align:middle line:90% that's what we remember. 00:06:46.660 --> 00:06:49.030 align:middle line:84% We don't remember the feelings, love, hate. 00:06:49.030 --> 00:06:53.450 align:middle line:90% It's just the image that stays. 00:06:53.450 --> 00:06:55.580 align:middle line:90% That's my you know. 00:06:55.580 --> 00:06:57.409 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:06:57.409 --> 00:06:59.804 align:middle line:84% So who else has influenced your work? 00:06:59.804 --> 00:07:01.699 align:middle line:90% You mentioned Yehuda Amichai. 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:02.199 align:middle line:90% Who else? 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:07.470 align:middle line:90% 00:07:07.470 --> 00:07:08.580 align:middle line:90% A good number of poets. 00:07:08.580 --> 00:07:11.310 align:middle line:90% 00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:13.770 align:middle line:90% A good number of poets. 00:07:13.770 --> 00:07:16.020 align:middle line:90% Mark Strand, Wallace Stevens. 00:07:16.020 --> 00:07:17.980 align:middle line:84% I go back to Wallace Stevens a lot. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:19.770 align:middle line:84% A lot of his poems don't necessarily 00:07:19.770 --> 00:07:22.800 align:middle line:84% make sense to me at times but I still go back there. 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:26.440 align:middle line:90% 00:07:26.440 --> 00:07:28.075 align:middle line:90% I like Howard Moss very much. 00:07:28.075 --> 00:07:30.830 align:middle line:90% 00:07:30.830 --> 00:07:31.565 align:middle line:90% Stanley Kunitz. 00:07:31.565 --> 00:07:35.870 align:middle line:90% 00:07:35.870 --> 00:07:38.700 align:middle line:84% I don't think I've had one particular influence per se 00:07:38.700 --> 00:07:39.200 align:middle line:90% you know. 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:45.370 align:middle line:84% It's been a conflation of much of what 00:07:45.370 --> 00:07:48.620 align:middle line:90% I've picked up over the years. 00:07:48.620 --> 00:07:51.820 align:middle line:90% So yeah. 00:07:51.820 --> 00:07:52.920 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:57.980 align:middle line:84% Have you ever tried to blend poetry and poet playwriting? 00:07:57.980 --> 00:07:59.540 align:middle line:90% Not really, no. 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:02.720 align:middle line:84% I would like to think that the plays I've written 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:06.560 align:middle line:90% have some poetic muscle to them. 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:12.180 align:middle line:90% But I don't think there's-- 00:08:12.180 --> 00:08:12.680 align:middle line:90% no. 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:13.520 align:middle line:90% The answer is no. 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:19.770 align:middle line:84% I mean it's a dialogue and all of it is it can be poetry. 00:08:19.770 --> 00:08:23.000 align:middle line:84% Prose can be poetry, playwriting can be poetry. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:28.970 align:middle line:84% But to actually insert poetry into a play no. 00:08:28.970 --> 00:08:31.850 align:middle line:84% Or to do it in rhyme or anything like that no. 00:08:31.850 --> 00:08:36.320 align:middle line:84% The plays I've written the ones that interest me are Here 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:39.919 align:middle line:90% and Now and Fire and Ice. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.950 align:middle line:90% 00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:43.460 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:48.080 align:middle line:90% I have another remark to make. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:52.430 align:middle line:84% I think some literature prose has 00:08:52.430 --> 00:08:59.180 align:middle line:84% such musical cadence that it could be your lyric poetry. 00:08:59.180 --> 00:09:04.224 align:middle line:84% But of course it has a plot, has a beginning and an end 00:09:04.224 --> 00:09:06.560 align:middle line:90% because it's more clear. 00:09:06.560 --> 00:09:11.480 align:middle line:84% But the music of the phrasing can be extraordinary. 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:18.910 align:middle line:84% It takes a great writer I think to accomplish that. 00:09:18.910 --> 00:09:21.490 align:middle line:90% I think all writing is musical. 00:09:21.490 --> 00:09:24.700 align:middle line:84% Whether you're writing plays or poetry or 00:09:24.700 --> 00:09:26.890 align:middle line:90% prose there is music-- 00:09:26.890 --> 00:09:33.420 align:middle line:84% there's a musicality to it and great writing has it. 00:09:33.420 --> 00:09:38.640 align:middle line:90% So yes, the cadence you know. 00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:42.150 align:middle line:90% And in great fiction has it. 00:09:42.150 --> 00:09:44.400 align:middle line:90% I think it's there. 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:47.820 align:middle line:84% And the elements that make effective prose also 00:09:47.820 --> 00:09:55.320 align:middle line:84% work for I mean surprise, drama, strong images. 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:58.080 align:middle line:84% Those are true in poetry and prose. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:03.330 align:middle line:84% I mean there's-- playwriting it's all very similar 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:04.980 align:middle line:90% in certain ways. 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:06.905 align:middle line:90% The structures are different. 00:10:06.905 --> 00:10:10.090 align:middle line:90% 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:13.995 align:middle line:84% One more question before I start really spewing nonsense, 00:10:13.995 --> 00:10:16.810 align:middle line:90% you know what I mean? 00:10:16.810 --> 00:10:19.180 align:middle line:84% Rambling out of control the poet from New York 00:10:19.180 --> 00:10:20.260 align:middle line:90% is never coming back. 00:10:20.260 --> 00:10:21.575 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:10:21.575 --> 00:10:22.075 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:10:22.075 --> 00:10:26.180 align:middle line:84% I'm just curious about your children's project. 00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:26.680 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:10:26.680 --> 00:10:29.170 align:middle line:84% I've written a couple of children's stories 00:10:29.170 --> 00:10:31.970 align:middle line:84% that they haven't been published yet. 00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:35.500 align:middle line:84% Gina was very kind to use the word in process. 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:38.680 align:middle line:84% They're represented by a wonderful agent in New York 00:10:38.680 --> 00:10:42.190 align:middle line:84% and they're similar in spirit to the Giving Tree. 00:10:42.190 --> 00:10:44.320 align:middle line:90% They're for kids and for adults. 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:47.830 align:middle line:84% And thus far we've had a bit of a struggle finding 00:10:47.830 --> 00:10:48.980 align:middle line:90% the right market for them. 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:53.020 align:middle line:84% But one of them is called "When a Feeling Came to Town." 00:10:53.020 --> 00:10:55.420 align:middle line:84% And the other is the "Wish Maker's Wish." 00:10:55.420 --> 00:11:02.180 align:middle line:84% So it's been a real treat, real honor to be here. 00:11:02.180 --> 00:11:04.960 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much Gail and to the Poetry Center, 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:07.120 align:middle line:84% to everyone who's involved with the Poetry Center 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.290 align:middle line:90% for having me. 00:11:09.290 --> 00:11:10.570 align:middle line:90% And thank you all for coming. 00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:12.420 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:11:12.420 --> 00:11:17.000 align:middle line:90%