WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.850 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.850 --> 00:00:14.110 align:middle line:84% Thank you very much, President Shelton, and thank you all. 00:00:14.110 --> 00:00:17.020 align:middle line:84% I was asked to talk a little bit about poetry 00:00:17.020 --> 00:00:21.160 align:middle line:90% and the Center, which I will do. 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:22.870 align:middle line:84% And, first of all, I just want to thank 00:00:22.870 --> 00:00:26.230 align:middle line:84% everyone for their-- everyone present for their support. 00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:30.340 align:middle line:84% There's a Chinese saying that goes, 00:00:30.340 --> 00:00:34.464 align:middle line:84% those who have the free seats, are the first ones to boo. 00:00:34.464 --> 00:00:38.500 align:middle line:84% So I'm assuming we will have a very respectful audience 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:39.000 align:middle line:90% tonight. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.700 align:middle line:90% 00:00:42.700 --> 00:00:44.740 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to talk about myself a little bit 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:48.100 align:middle line:84% and then talk about poetry and the Poetry Center. 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:52.090 align:middle line:84% I'm an only child, so I might never get to the Poetry Center. 00:00:52.090 --> 00:00:57.223 align:middle line:84% But when I was poet laureate, one 00:00:57.223 --> 00:00:59.390 align:middle line:84% of the things that happens when you're poet laureate 00:00:59.390 --> 00:01:04.160 align:middle line:84% is that you're interviewed left and right. 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:06.230 align:middle line:84% And I thought for a while that I would 00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:09.050 align:middle line:84% be sort of the first Christian martyr 00:01:09.050 --> 00:01:14.040 align:middle line:84% to be interviewed to death instead of being stoned. 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:17.610 align:middle line:84% And I started to think that instead of the poet 00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:20.280 align:middle line:84% laureateship being an honor, I started 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:24.810 align:middle line:84% to suspect that it was a government plot to silence 00:01:24.810 --> 00:01:29.000 align:middle line:90% a poet for two years. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:30.890 align:middle line:84% So the Library of Congress will identify 00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:32.870 align:middle line:84% a poet who seemed to be doing well, 00:01:32.870 --> 00:01:34.840 align:middle line:84% appoint that person poet laureate, and then 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:36.570 align:middle line:84% they wouldn't write poems for two years. 00:01:36.570 --> 00:01:40.210 align:middle line:90% 00:01:40.210 --> 00:01:42.010 align:middle line:90% I mean, the office is wonderful. 00:01:42.010 --> 00:01:46.990 align:middle line:84% And, of course, we have things like poetry month in April. 00:01:46.990 --> 00:01:49.710 align:middle line:84% But we also we should be a little wary of that 00:01:49.710 --> 00:01:52.560 align:middle line:84% because, to me, it seems that anything 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:56.310 align:middle line:84% that has a month or a week is basically 00:01:56.310 --> 00:01:58.680 align:middle line:90% a sign of its neglect-- 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:03.310 align:middle line:84% Mother's Day being the prime example, 00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:07.460 align:middle line:84% followed by national secretary's week. 00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:10.859 align:middle line:84% You will never have a national television month. 00:02:10.859 --> 00:02:14.990 align:middle line:90% So no worry about that. 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:20.400 align:middle line:84% But when I was in these interviews, as I was saying, 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.320 align:middle line:84% the two most frequently asked questions 00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:25.830 align:middle line:84% were the following-- one, how do you account 00:02:25.830 --> 00:02:30.330 align:middle line:84% for this incredible poetry Renaissance in America 00:02:30.330 --> 00:02:34.070 align:middle line:84% with open mic readings and magazines beginning and MFA 00:02:34.070 --> 00:02:35.510 align:middle line:90% programs? 00:02:35.510 --> 00:02:37.520 align:middle line:84% And the second question was, how come 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.305 align:middle line:90% nobody reads poetry anymore? 00:02:41.305 --> 00:02:45.730 align:middle line:84% Well, there was a way to answer these two seemingly 00:02:45.730 --> 00:02:48.190 align:middle line:90% contradictory questions. 00:02:48.190 --> 00:02:49.750 align:middle line:84% And the answer was more or less that, 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:54.070 align:middle line:84% yes, there is all this activity taking place, 00:02:54.070 --> 00:02:58.660 align:middle line:84% but the audience for poetry tended to be poets, 00:02:58.660 --> 00:03:02.650 align:middle line:84% tended to be a kind of closed-circuit of activity. 00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:05.633 align:middle line:84% Many people at poetry readings are poets themselves. 00:03:05.633 --> 00:03:07.300 align:middle line:84% And, often, poetry readings are followed 00:03:07.300 --> 00:03:10.750 align:middle line:84% by an open mic where the good news is anybody can read 00:03:10.750 --> 00:03:13.705 align:middle line:84% and the bad news is anybody can read. 00:03:13.705 --> 00:03:16.990 align:middle line:84% And often at these readings, one will 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:19.750 align:middle line:84% see that people waiting for the open mic 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:23.464 align:middle line:84% are revising their poems instead of listening to the poem. 00:03:23.464 --> 00:03:26.700 align:middle line:90% 00:03:26.700 --> 00:03:30.820 align:middle line:84% But in spite of all that activity, 00:03:30.820 --> 00:03:32.880 align:middle line:84% it seemed that poets were the main audience. 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:39.060 align:middle line:84% It would be like sort of going to a ballet in this auditorium 00:03:39.060 --> 00:03:41.010 align:middle line:84% and noticing that everyone was wearing 00:03:41.010 --> 00:03:42.810 align:middle line:90% leotards in the audience. 00:03:42.810 --> 00:03:45.590 align:middle line:90% 00:03:45.590 --> 00:03:47.510 align:middle line:84% So I'll just addressed the question 00:03:47.510 --> 00:03:51.920 align:middle line:84% kind of briefly about why a lot of people don't read poetry. 00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:57.950 align:middle line:84% And the reason usually is tied up with the word difficulty. 00:03:57.950 --> 00:04:00.860 align:middle line:90% Poetry is difficult. 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:02.810 align:middle line:84% Someone commented that it's not so much 00:04:02.810 --> 00:04:06.350 align:middle line:84% that poetry is difficult and that's why nobody reads it, 00:04:06.350 --> 00:04:09.230 align:middle line:84% it's that it's difficult because nobody reads. 00:04:09.230 --> 00:04:12.440 align:middle line:84% It in other words, the more poetry you read, 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:15.110 align:middle line:84% the less difficult it will become, right? 00:04:15.110 --> 00:04:17.510 align:middle line:84% It's hard to just go into it without reading a lot of it 00:04:17.510 --> 00:04:22.460 align:middle line:90% and expect ease. 00:04:22.460 --> 00:04:24.500 align:middle line:90% And there are, I think-- 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:28.490 align:middle line:84% we love difficulty in so many aspects of our life. 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:31.850 align:middle line:84% John Ciardi once commented-- when he was talking about form 00:04:31.850 --> 00:04:33.050 align:middle line:90% in poetry-- 00:04:33.050 --> 00:04:38.840 align:middle line:84% he said, even in our games, we expect difficulty. 00:04:38.840 --> 00:04:43.160 align:middle line:84% I mean, that is why in chess you don't have two queens just 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:44.990 align:middle line:84% running around the board after each other 00:04:44.990 --> 00:04:49.250 align:middle line:84% or in basketball, that's why the hoop is four feet high. 00:04:49.250 --> 00:04:51.080 align:middle line:90% I mean the fun-- 00:04:51.080 --> 00:04:55.310 align:middle line:84% and that's why people do crossword puzzles or labor 00:04:55.310 --> 00:04:57.560 align:middle line:90% over a Sudoku. 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:01.350 align:middle line:84% I mean, there's a self-imposed level of difficulty. 00:05:01.350 --> 00:05:05.270 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure what the point of that is but. 00:05:05.270 --> 00:05:07.250 align:middle line:90% You know, I've noticed in-- 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:09.620 align:middle line:84% flying around the country, there are 00:05:09.620 --> 00:05:14.782 align:middle line:84% kind of different levels of literary activity going on. 00:05:14.782 --> 00:05:16.490 align:middle line:84% There's a very small percentage of people 00:05:16.490 --> 00:05:19.850 align:middle line:84% are reading what I would consider literature, 00:05:19.850 --> 00:05:21.560 align:middle line:84% and then there's another class of people 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:24.740 align:middle line:90% reading James Patterson. 00:05:24.740 --> 00:05:26.240 align:middle line:90% And God bless him. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:28.940 align:middle line:84% And then there's the crossword people and then 00:05:28.940 --> 00:05:34.430 align:middle line:84% the Sudoku people, and then there's the SkyMall people. 00:05:34.430 --> 00:05:38.800 align:middle line:90% 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.160 align:middle line:84% It is astounding that someone would 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:42.900 align:middle line:84% be on an airplane for three hours, 00:05:42.900 --> 00:05:44.640 align:middle line:84% not even bring a newspaper, and just 00:05:44.640 --> 00:05:51.275 align:middle line:84% look at like doggie doors and lawn furniture. 00:05:51.275 --> 00:05:52.205 align:middle line:90% I don't get it. 00:05:52.205 --> 00:05:55.930 align:middle line:90% 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:58.600 align:middle line:84% One thing the Poetry Center does, 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:02.860 align:middle line:90% and it is completely unique-- 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:06.820 align:middle line:84% maybe not a unique institution, but certainly unique housing 00:06:06.820 --> 00:06:08.430 align:middle line:90% for such an institution. 00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:11.710 align:middle line:84% But one thing the Poetry Center does, just by the look and feel 00:06:11.710 --> 00:06:16.308 align:middle line:84% of it, is remove that false sense of difficulty. 00:06:16.308 --> 00:06:18.100 align:middle line:84% I mean, there are-- it's not there anymore. 00:06:18.100 --> 00:06:21.640 align:middle line:84% But it looks like there are doors to walk through. 00:06:21.640 --> 00:06:22.960 align:middle line:90% There is space. 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:27.160 align:middle line:90% There is light and air. 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:32.380 align:middle line:84% There are photographs of the poets which you saw earlier. 00:06:32.380 --> 00:06:36.940 align:middle line:84% It wasn't until I think the '40s, when Oscar Williams put 00:06:36.940 --> 00:06:39.580 align:middle line:84% together a little anthology of American poetry, 00:06:39.580 --> 00:06:42.970 align:middle line:84% and he had tiny postage stamp sized 00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:47.380 align:middle line:84% pictures, photographs of the poets on the cover. 00:06:47.380 --> 00:06:49.570 align:middle line:84% Most people had never seen what these people 00:06:49.570 --> 00:06:51.130 align:middle line:90% looked like before. 00:06:51.130 --> 00:06:52.270 align:middle line:90% It really demystified. 00:06:52.270 --> 00:06:55.720 align:middle line:84% I remember one of the reasons I'm a poet today 00:06:55.720 --> 00:06:57.660 align:middle line:84% is because I came across a photograph. 00:06:57.660 --> 00:06:59.343 align:middle line:90% Well, not a photograph, but a-- 00:06:59.343 --> 00:07:00.760 align:middle line:84% well, I guess it was a photograph. 00:07:00.760 --> 00:07:03.340 align:middle line:90% A photograph of Edgar Allan Poe. 00:07:03.340 --> 00:07:06.080 align:middle line:84% I couldn't believe what I was looking at. 00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:09.980 align:middle line:84% I've never seen anyone who looked like that. 00:07:09.980 --> 00:07:13.060 align:middle line:84% My parents didn't look like that. 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.520 align:middle line:84% The people they had over to play bridge didn't look like that, 00:07:16.520 --> 00:07:20.286 align:middle line:84% and I want them to be one of those guys. 00:07:20.286 --> 00:07:25.420 align:middle line:84% And so there you have something like 17,000 square feet of hair 00:07:25.420 --> 00:07:28.300 align:middle line:90% and light and open shelves. 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:31.150 align:middle line:84% And, surely, with 17,000 square feet, 00:07:31.150 --> 00:07:35.000 align:middle line:84% you can find a spot to sit down and read something. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.070 align:middle line:84% There's lots of opportunities there. 00:07:37.070 --> 00:07:40.285 align:middle line:84% So that's one thing I love about the center is 00:07:40.285 --> 00:07:47.440 align:middle line:84% its sense of openness and availability to everyone. 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:49.180 align:middle line:84% One other point I would like to make 00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:53.680 align:middle line:84% is that the odd thing about poetry 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:56.110 align:middle line:84% or the special thing about poetry I think 00:07:56.110 --> 00:07:59.260 align:middle line:84% is that as wonderful as this space is, 00:07:59.260 --> 00:08:03.250 align:middle line:84% poetry does not require a space in the way 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:07.390 align:middle line:84% that symphonic performance does, in the way that ballet does, 00:08:07.390 --> 00:08:13.630 align:middle line:84% or painting needing galleries and museums 00:08:13.630 --> 00:08:19.810 align:middle line:84% and auditoriums because poetry can be carried in the mind 00:08:19.810 --> 00:08:22.360 align:middle line:90% through memorization. 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:26.950 align:middle line:84% It's the most portable and invisibly portable 00:08:26.950 --> 00:08:28.980 align:middle line:90% of all the arts. 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:30.790 align:middle line:90% One of the-- 00:08:30.790 --> 00:08:35.559 align:middle line:84% I was over in England last week and this insensitive Englishman 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:38.659 align:middle line:84% was interviewing me to death again. 00:08:38.659 --> 00:08:42.100 align:middle line:84% And he said, you know, is it part of being Irish-American? 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:45.610 align:middle line:84% Is that why you're a poet because the Irish are 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:46.570 align:middle line:90% so poetic? 00:08:46.570 --> 00:08:50.930 align:middle line:90% And-- strangling this guy. 00:08:50.930 --> 00:08:53.860 align:middle line:90% 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:58.810 align:middle line:84% But he was responding to the romantic view 00:08:58.810 --> 00:09:03.760 align:middle line:84% of why Ireland is so connected in its culture 00:09:03.760 --> 00:09:07.870 align:middle line:84% and so identifiable, almost uniquely, with poetry. 00:09:07.870 --> 00:09:10.450 align:middle line:84% The real reason is that it has to do 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:13.000 align:middle line:90% with 600 years of colonization. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:14.890 align:middle line:90% There was no wherewithal. 00:09:14.890 --> 00:09:19.660 align:middle line:84% There was not the material resources to buy a cello. 00:09:19.660 --> 00:09:21.820 align:middle line:84% I mean, the Irish weren't allowed 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.070 align:middle line:84% to buy a horse that was worth more than 2 pounds 00:09:24.070 --> 00:09:25.400 align:middle line:90% or something. 00:09:25.400 --> 00:09:27.665 align:middle line:90% So there weren't museums. 00:09:27.665 --> 00:09:29.540 align:middle line:84% There wasn't the wherewithal for architecture 00:09:29.540 --> 00:09:31.450 align:middle line:84% or symphonic performance and the rest of it. 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:35.020 align:middle line:84% But you can't take poetry away from a disenfranchised people 00:09:35.020 --> 00:09:38.170 align:middle line:84% because you can carry poetry in your head. 00:09:38.170 --> 00:09:42.340 align:middle line:84% You can memorize it and install it in your consciousness 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:44.710 align:middle line:84% and in your body in a way and take it 00:09:44.710 --> 00:09:46.990 align:middle line:90% with you wherever you go. 00:09:46.990 --> 00:09:52.990 align:middle line:90% 00:09:52.990 --> 00:09:57.550 align:middle line:84% Anyway, it's great to be part of this long parade of poets 00:09:57.550 --> 00:09:59.665 align:middle line:90% that began 50 years ago. 00:09:59.665 --> 00:10:03.370 align:middle line:90% 00:10:03.370 --> 00:10:07.420 align:middle line:84% I looked at the list that our noble director Gail Browne 00:10:07.420 --> 00:10:10.150 align:middle line:84% gave me the other day of all the poets that have ever been here. 00:10:10.150 --> 00:10:14.740 align:middle line:84% And it seems to me if you sat on the steps of the Poetry 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:19.973 align:middle line:84% Center for 50 years, you would not get much accomplished 00:10:19.973 --> 00:10:26.660 align:middle line:84% in your life but you would have seen every major American poet 00:10:26.660 --> 00:10:29.690 align:middle line:90% pass through those doors. 00:10:29.690 --> 00:10:31.767 align:middle line:90% So that's it for me. 00:10:31.767 --> 00:10:34.100 align:middle line:84% I'm going to continue-- we're going to kind of introduce 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:34.800 align:middle line:90% each other. 00:10:34.800 --> 00:10:36.640 align:middle line:90% In this program.