WEBVTT

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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When you walk in the door,
something strikes you.

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When I walked in,
I thought, I must

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have to have some
kind of card, or maybe

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I would have to pay something.

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And when I realized
that it was free

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and that I could
come any time, it's

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one of the things I tell people
about when I talk about Tucson.

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The Poetry Center could
be anywhere in the world.

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And we are so lucky
to have it here

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on the University of Arizona
campus and in Tucson.

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Well, Ruth was a
very elegant woman.

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And she was very well read.

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And she wrote poetry.

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She and her husband
had put out a magazine

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called The Tiger's Eye.

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But she felt that she
wanted to create a place

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and this would be a
kind of poetry refuge.

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That little house
was so wonderful.

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Everybody loved staying there.

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It was such a joy.

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Robert Frost came out
with a graduate student

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to dedicate the center in 1960.

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I met him at the train station.

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I had the great
fortune of introducing

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Robert Frost at his
presentation at what

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was then our auditorium, someday
to become Centennial Hall.

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I came to the Poetry
Center in 1990.

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It was clear to me that
the history of the center

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was so remarkable, that there
was nothing like this anywhere

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in the country, and it
deserved the kind of home

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that Ruth Stephan had
originally imagined for it.

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The collection was growing
faster than the space

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we had to accommodate it.

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We had a lot of
books in storage.

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It was very clear that we needed
to have a large and permanent

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space so that we
could have these works

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available to the general
public, as well as to students

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and faculty at the University.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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It was quite a challenge.

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We have the collections.

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We have readings.

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There's the humanity
seminars program,

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so there's a lot of different
aspects and functions

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to this building.

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That's one thing that's just
marvelous about this place

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is the diversity,
the prose series.

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It's a joy to walk in and
see little kids playing

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and writing.

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We really feel at home here.

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This feels like a place
where I've come home.

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You meet fellow writers.

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And there's a
place for you here.

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I'm excited about the program
you have with your book club.

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One of the things
that sets it apart

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is its inclusiveness
of more than just

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having books on the shelves.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Along the slim body of
the light, the narrow body

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that would otherwise--

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It is hard going to the door,
cut so small in the wall

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where the vision, which
echoes loneliness,

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brings a scent of wild flowers--

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Whatever it was, that
night in my dream--

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First love lies
deep in the graves--

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Won't you celebrate with me--

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If the heart had
a brain, there we

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would find it eating its plain--

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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--is the only tangible hope.

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The blistering
blitzkrieg ignites--

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--Sunday edition,
while they lie around

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on their couches like poets
and study the human condition.

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What I'm excited about
this audio video library

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project is that not only have
we been able to preserve all

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of these recordings,
we've also been

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able to make them available
to anyone in the world.

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You can search by author,
by date, by title poem.

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So you can either hear a
reading that took place

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in the 1960s or '70s or
watch a video that we

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recorded in 2000 or beyond.

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So this really
transforms the idea

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of what a poetry library is.

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This was, from the
beginning, a collaboration

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between the university and a
private donor who had a vision

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and wanted to do
something for poetry.

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And that relationship
between private resources,

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people who have passionate
concern for the arts

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and for poetry, and the public
resources of education that

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want to bring these great
artists to the community

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will continue to keep
us vital and strong.

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Students share,
the parents share,

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the people coming
in to learn, it

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gives you a lift for living
more vibrantly in the world.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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