WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.820 align:middle line:84% Hard to follow up such a gorgeous introduction. 00:00:03.820 --> 00:00:07.710 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much though, that was lovely. 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:09.390 align:middle line:84% And thank you to the Poetry Center 00:00:09.390 --> 00:00:13.860 align:middle line:84% for hosting this alumni series, and congratulations especially 00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:18.900 align:middle line:84% Gail Browne on 50 years, hard to believe. 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:21.300 align:middle line:84% When I was here in the early 90s, 00:00:21.300 --> 00:00:24.445 align:middle line:84% I attended classes of Jane Miller and the old-- 00:00:24.445 --> 00:00:26.070 align:middle line:84% I guess, iteration of the Poetry Center 00:00:26.070 --> 00:00:28.950 align:middle line:84% which was maybe its second iteration. 00:00:28.950 --> 00:00:31.770 align:middle line:84% And, I remember we used to check our books out of that library 00:00:31.770 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% by signing our names on the little spiral notebook, 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:38.857 align:middle line:84% and then maybe, made their way back or they didn't. 00:00:38.857 --> 00:00:41.190 align:middle line:84% But I have such fond memories of sitting on this couches 00:00:41.190 --> 00:00:43.140 align:middle line:84% and talking about writing and art 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:46.140 align:middle line:90% with so many incredible people. 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:49.670 align:middle line:84% When I got here in the 90s, I had no idea what I was doing. 00:00:49.670 --> 00:00:52.740 align:middle line:84% And, I'd never taken a writing workshop in my life, 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:56.790 align:middle line:84% I just knew that I had a love of reading, and a fairy tales. 00:00:56.790 --> 00:00:59.413 align:middle line:84% It was sort of astonishing and somewhat shocking to show up 00:00:59.413 --> 00:01:01.080 align:middle line:84% in a writing workshop for the first time 00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:02.970 align:middle line:84% and, discover that there actually 00:01:02.970 --> 00:01:05.250 align:middle line:84% readers in the world who might say to somebody, 00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:07.710 align:middle line:90% "You can't do that in a story." 00:01:07.710 --> 00:01:09.900 align:middle line:84% But thankfully, there weren't that many people 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:12.465 align:middle line:84% who did that, I was so lucky to be surrounded by supportive 00:01:12.465 --> 00:01:13.878 align:middle line:90% faculty and peers. 00:01:13.878 --> 00:01:16.170 align:middle line:84% Probably, I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing. 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:19.200 align:middle line:84% I was writing stories where a white horse would 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:24.270 align:middle line:84% show up at the end and take the main character up into the sky. 00:01:24.270 --> 00:01:28.440 align:middle line:84% Like, it wouldn't be a unicorn, that wouldn't have wings. 00:01:28.440 --> 00:01:31.740 align:middle line:84% It probably wasn't the greatest idea but, for that reason 00:01:31.740 --> 00:01:33.600 align:middle line:84% alone, I was just so lucky to be surrounded 00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:37.530 align:middle line:84% by so many incredible people, many of them here tonight. 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:41.070 align:middle line:84% And one of them who's so supported me especially 00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:45.600 align:middle line:84% in my folkloric tendencies, so recently gone, Steve Orlen. 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:52.590 align:middle line:84% He was so supportive and magical in his own humble and non-needy 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:55.590 align:middle line:84% way, and he even let me in a poetry workshop 00:01:55.590 --> 00:01:59.550 align:middle line:84% do a final project, where I poorly illustrated 00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:03.630 align:middle line:84% my own children's book about a very old man sitting on a park 00:02:03.630 --> 00:02:07.800 align:middle line:84% bench, who slowly became an old man version of himself 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:12.300 align:middle line:84% as a baby, and sang himself nursery rhymes, 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:15.280 align:middle line:90% it was terrible. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.880 align:middle line:84% But he let me do it, and he just said you know-- he just said, 00:02:17.880 --> 00:02:18.547 align:middle line:90% can't you do it? 00:02:18.547 --> 00:02:19.220 align:middle line:90% You have to do. 00:02:19.220 --> 00:02:21.885 align:middle line:90% You're not normal. 00:02:21.885 --> 00:02:24.750 align:middle line:84% And he just added, I'm not normal either but you know, 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:26.760 align:middle line:90% so what? 00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:29.520 align:middle line:84% I think that he's mainly known in the poetry world 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.430 align:middle line:84% although, I haven't read that much about his work, I mean, 00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:34.620 align:middle line:84% I just read his work as a realist, 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:38.910 align:middle line:84% but I think he's a great fabulist, teller of myths, 00:02:38.910 --> 00:02:42.600 align:middle line:84% and I wanted to just read a little homage to him, 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:44.790 align:middle line:84% one of his poems, because he's so 00:02:44.790 --> 00:02:49.890 align:middle line:84% influenced me and allowed me to do this folkloric thing before. 00:02:49.890 --> 00:02:51.372 align:middle line:90% Its time I think. 00:02:51.372 --> 00:02:53.580 align:middle line:84% And this is a poem called "Lewis Carroll Thinks About 00:02:53.580 --> 00:02:56.100 align:middle line:84% Time" by Steve, and it's in his great book 00:02:56.100 --> 00:02:59.790 align:middle line:90% The Elephant's Child. 00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:02.280 align:middle line:84% After a while, the days have a way 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:04.440 align:middle line:90% of looking after themselves. 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:07.770 align:middle line:84% Things are ugly turning under the left hand, 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:11.040 align:middle line:84% while the right has been tooled into efficient turning 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:12.570 align:middle line:90% toward goals. 00:03:12.570 --> 00:03:14.400 align:middle line:90% Time drifts. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:18.730 align:middle line:84% Today is Monday, and tomorrow will be Monday too. 00:03:18.730 --> 00:03:20.560 align:middle line:90% Alice turns 11. 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:24.250 align:middle line:84% Yesterday she was seven, though what I remember of 7 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:27.640 align:middle line:84% is a flock of photos which have waited for years to fly out 00:03:27.640 --> 00:03:29.200 align:middle line:90% of their box. 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:32.890 align:middle line:84% I can't sleep and I can't stay awake, and the sun's coming up. 00:03:32.890 --> 00:03:35.980 align:middle line:84% So I lift the lid of the box and watch the two worlds 00:03:35.980 --> 00:03:39.010 align:middle line:84% collide, softly as dust particles 00:03:39.010 --> 00:03:41.450 align:middle line:90% in the first shaft of light. 00:03:41.450 --> 00:03:45.610 align:middle line:84% I took those photographs, one river is forever running down, 00:03:45.610 --> 00:03:48.550 align:middle line:84% and the other upstream, and the children in one boat 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:51.370 align:middle line:84% are always waving hello, and in the other, 00:03:51.370 --> 00:03:54.730 align:middle line:90% no one waves goodbye, no one. 00:03:54.730 --> 00:03:59.440 align:middle line:84% Their faces are stilled as photographs can make them, 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:01.360 align:middle line:84% the leisurely oars of the boatmen 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:04.840 align:middle line:84% are taking them toward and away from that zone. 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:07.810 align:middle line:84% Alice tumbled down, startled and bemused, 00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:13.060 align:middle line:84% and I'm the Reverend Dodgson on the shores of Eden. 00:04:13.060 --> 00:04:17.019 align:middle line:84% My hair is brown and curly, my eyes are blue. 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:21.930 align:middle line:90% 00:04:21.930 --> 00:04:24.890 align:middle line:84% So I am dedicating this evening to Steve.