WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.720 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:03.600 align:middle line:84% The next reading will be by Howard Altmann. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.540 align:middle line:90% Proud poet and playwright-- 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:11.130 align:middle line:84% Howard Altmann traveled all the way from New York City, 00:00:11.130 --> 00:00:16.020 align:middle line:84% to escape the turning leaves, to be with us this afternoon. 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:18.680 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.680 --> 00:00:22.670 align:middle line:84% His recent book, a book of poems, is called In This House. 00:00:22.670 --> 00:00:26.540 align:middle line:84% He will read his own poetry, tomorrow evening at 8:00 PM, 00:00:26.540 --> 00:00:28.910 align:middle line:90% in our wonderful Poetry Center. 00:00:28.910 --> 00:00:30.230 align:middle line:90% Mr. Howard Altmann 00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:33.646 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:33.646 --> 00:00:41.322 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.322 --> 00:00:42.030 align:middle line:90% Thank you, David. 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:44.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:44.900 --> 00:00:47.270 align:middle line:84% I can't make Arizona or Tucson jokes. 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:50.420 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:50.420 --> 00:00:51.370 align:middle line:90% 00:00:51.370 --> 00:00:57.520 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read three poems, and I chose these poems-- 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:00.970 align:middle line:84% I like poetry that's full bodied, that either 00:01:00.970 --> 00:01:04.569 align:middle line:84% begins in the mind and leaves through the heart, or begins 00:01:04.569 --> 00:01:06.730 align:middle line:84% in the heart and leaves through the mind, 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:09.010 align:middle line:90% but it has to do both. 00:01:09.010 --> 00:01:12.040 align:middle line:84% And I think the three that I'm going 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:14.530 align:middle line:90% to read do that really well. 00:01:14.530 --> 00:01:18.100 align:middle line:90% 00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:22.097 align:middle line:84% The first poem is called "Elegy" by Natasha Trethewey. 00:01:22.097 --> 00:01:26.480 align:middle line:90% 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:31.490 align:middle line:84% I think by now the river must be thick with salmon. 00:01:31.490 --> 00:01:35.900 align:middle line:84% Late August, I imagine it as it was that morning-- 00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:39.050 align:middle line:84% drizzle needling the surface, mist at the banks 00:01:39.050 --> 00:01:42.170 align:middle line:90% like a net settling around us-- 00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:45.680 align:middle line:90% everything damp and shining. 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:49.700 align:middle line:84% That morning, awkward and heavy in our hip waders, 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:54.170 align:middle line:84% we stalked into the current and found our places-- 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:59.570 align:middle line:84% you upstream a few yards and out far deeper. 00:01:59.570 --> 00:02:04.340 align:middle line:84% You must remember how the river seeped in over your boots 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:08.479 align:middle line:84% and you grew heavy with that defeat. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:12.530 align:middle line:84% All day I kept turning to watch you, how first you mimed 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:16.070 align:middle line:84% our guides casting then cast your invisible line, 00:02:16.070 --> 00:02:18.080 align:middle line:90% slicing the sky between us. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.080 align:middle line:84% And later, rod in hand, how you tried-- 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:24.410 align:middle line:84% again and again-- to find that perfect arc, 00:02:24.410 --> 00:02:28.040 align:middle line:84% flight of an insect skimming the river surface. 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:31.940 align:middle line:84% Perhaps you recall I cast my line 00:02:31.940 --> 00:02:36.290 align:middle line:84% and reeled in two small trout we could not keep. 00:02:36.290 --> 00:02:41.300 align:middle line:84% Because I had to release them, I confess, 00:02:41.300 --> 00:02:44.810 align:middle line:90% I thought about the past-- 00:02:44.810 --> 00:02:46.670 align:middle line:84% working the hooks loose, the fish 00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:49.940 align:middle line:84% writhing in my hands, each one slipping away 00:02:49.940 --> 00:02:52.380 align:middle line:90% before I could let go. 00:02:52.380 --> 00:02:57.860 align:middle line:84% I can tell you now that I tried to take it all in, 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:01.850 align:middle line:84% record it for an elegy I'd write-- 00:03:01.850 --> 00:03:05.780 align:middle line:90% one day-- when the time came. 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:10.040 align:middle line:84% Your daughter, I was that ruthless. 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:14.760 align:middle line:84% What does it matter if I tell you I learned to be? 00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:17.450 align:middle line:84% You kept casting your line, and when 00:03:17.450 --> 00:03:21.620 align:middle line:84% it did not come back empty, it was tangled with mine. 00:03:21.620 --> 00:03:24.380 align:middle line:84% Some nights, dreaming, I step again 00:03:24.380 --> 00:03:29.930 align:middle line:84% into the small boat that carried us out and watch the bank 00:03:29.930 --> 00:03:31.280 align:middle line:90% receding-- 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:36.855 align:middle line:84% my back to where I know we are headed. 00:03:36.855 --> 00:03:40.334 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:40.334 --> 00:03:45.310 align:middle line:90% 00:03:45.310 --> 00:03:48.330 align:middle line:84% I think I might have changed the tenor of the afternoon. 00:03:48.330 --> 00:03:50.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER]