WEBVTT

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Thank you, Joel, for such
a thoughtful introduction.

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I appreciate it.

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And thank you, Gayle.

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Thank you, everyone
at the Poetry Center,

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for bringing me out again.

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When I was out here
five years ago,

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it seemed to me, even early
on in my poetry reading

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life, a remarkable
evening, a remarkable time.

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And that has not
diminished, but only gained

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in that recognition.

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So it feels like a
very remarkable thing

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to be invited back.

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And thank you all for coming.

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Oh, right.

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I'm not good with these things.

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

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I always feel like they're
aggressive towards me,

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and I should--

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like, I'm trying to avoid it--

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

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--rather than address it.

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As Joel mentioned, much of my
work over my entire writing

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life has involved itself,
in one way or another,

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with my reading life to the
point where, in some ways,

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I've ceased to be able to
tell apart the difference,

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creatively, of an act of
reading and an act of writing.

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And I thought
tonight, maybe I would

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focus on works that
sort of emerge out

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of that complication.

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And I'll start with
reading a few short pieces

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from this long book of essays
about Moby Dick, pieces

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that sort of merge this
difference between prose

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and poetry.

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But I'll begin
with a little poem

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that preface the book, a
poem I wrote for my daughter

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five years ago when I was
out here last just after she

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was born.

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Little whale, little
ghost, the world

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grows quiet when
you speak it most.

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When you see it
most, it grows blank,

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as ocean grows blank at
noon, no boat but a coffin

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and horizon for a coast.

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I try not to talk to my daughter
too much about Moby Dick, but--

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

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--she knows all the
main characters names.

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And my wife and I are expecting,
and whenever we discuss names,

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even though we're
expecting a girl, she says,

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what about Ahab?

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And sadly, I think,
what about it?

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

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It could work.

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