WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.700 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:04.430 align:middle line:90% Here's a poem. 00:00:04.430 --> 00:00:07.970 align:middle line:84% The title of this poem is better than the poem unfortunately. 00:00:07.970 --> 00:00:13.280 align:middle line:84% The poem is essentially just rather a strained comic poem. 00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:16.340 align:middle line:84% And I guess the title explains the poem pretty well. 00:00:16.340 --> 00:00:18.440 align:middle line:90% It was dedicated to Robert Bly. 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:22.460 align:middle line:84% Partly in support and in satire of the kind of poetry 00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:23.150 align:middle line:90% that he was-- 00:00:23.150 --> 00:00:26.970 align:middle line:84% that he was writing at the time that I wrote this poem. 00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:30.410 align:middle line:84% It's called "On a Rainy Night, an Ape in Scarsdale, 00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:32.420 align:middle line:84% New York Returns a Library Book." 00:00:32.420 --> 00:00:35.300 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:37.730 align:middle line:84% "He pulls his car under the running street 00:00:37.730 --> 00:00:40.280 align:middle line:90% lit leaves, 2:00 AM. 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:44.360 align:middle line:84% The dash light reddens his jaw and his eyes like thunder 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:48.140 align:middle line:84% disappear or I think that about apes. 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:51.440 align:middle line:90% He gets out and slams the door. 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:55.670 align:middle line:84% Hand in hand over the olive lawn. 00:00:55.670 --> 00:00:58.430 align:middle line:84% Will his wife in New Jersey worry 00:00:58.430 --> 00:01:02.660 align:middle line:84% about the lateness of the hour with a dark invitation of trees 00:01:02.660 --> 00:01:06.170 align:middle line:90% lining roads all the way home? 00:01:06.170 --> 00:01:08.810 align:middle line:84% The lawn sighs beneath his weight. 00:01:08.810 --> 00:01:12.500 align:middle line:84% Damp circle start under his elbows and knees. 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:14.960 align:middle line:90% At a darkened doorway he stops. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:16.520 align:middle line:90% He cools his head on a stone. 00:01:16.520 --> 00:01:19.700 align:middle line:90% 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.210 align:middle line:90% A book whistles down the chute. 00:01:23.210 --> 00:01:25.010 align:middle line:90% That's all. 00:01:25.010 --> 00:01:27.890 align:middle line:84% Back over the lawn, the trees look down. 00:01:27.890 --> 00:01:30.200 align:middle line:90% The moon frankly looks at this. 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:33.980 align:middle line:84% Low moans circle his sweaty head and fly away. 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:35.690 align:middle line:90% What if he sang? 00:01:35.690 --> 00:01:37.700 align:middle line:90% Robert, I mean this. 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:41.600 align:middle line:84% He carried the moon like a book beneath his left arm. 00:01:41.600 --> 00:01:44.510 align:middle line:84% And before we could speak, he drives away." 00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:47.680 align:middle line:90% 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:49.460 align:middle line:84% That might be in great retrospect, 00:01:49.460 --> 00:01:54.310 align:middle line:84% I just realized about some kind of simian 00:01:54.310 --> 00:01:58.300 align:middle line:84% rejecting becoming human, rejecting Darwin's theory. 00:01:58.300 --> 00:02:00.180 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE] 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:02.380 align:middle line:84% Oh I did send that poem to Robert Bly 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:06.382 align:middle line:84% and he sent back and no, he did not accept the poem. 00:02:06.382 --> 00:02:07.840 align:middle line:84% But he sent back a note and I think 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.240 align:middle line:84% it said something like very interesting 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:11.650 align:middle line:90% although I do not understand it. 00:02:11.650 --> 00:02:13.500 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:17.000 align:middle line:90%