WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.440 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.440 --> 00:00:03.380 align:middle line:84%
"How I Happened to
Write," originally, this

00:00:03.380 --> 00:00:05.130 align:middle line:84%
was to tell how I
happened to write novels

00:00:05.130 --> 00:00:06.310 align:middle line:90%
but now I'm writing poetry.

00:00:06.310 --> 00:00:09.411 align:middle line:84%
So it's now how I
happened to write poetry

00:00:09.411 --> 00:00:10.890 align:middle line:90%
or whatever you like.

00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:12.890 align:middle line:84%
Make yourselves
comfortable with it.

00:00:12.890 --> 00:00:17.640 align:middle line:84%
So they come at me like vengeful
children toward the drowsy wife

00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:22.560 align:middle line:84%
beater father sitting helpless
in his favorite chair.

00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:25.860 align:middle line:84%
The newspaper dead at
his side, his supper

00:00:25.860 --> 00:00:29.300 align:middle line:84%
stained shirt
miss-buttoned baggy

00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:32.840 align:middle line:84%
pants unzipped,
his eyes widening

00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.990 align:middle line:90%
like cracks in yellow plaster.

00:00:35.990 --> 00:00:39.070 align:middle line:84%
They come quicker
now, I have to stand

00:00:39.070 --> 00:00:42.450 align:middle line:90%
on the lid to keep them down.

00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:48.270 align:middle line:84%
No longer is it a matter
of months, days, hours,

00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:53.780 align:middle line:84%
the last one took a minute
to write, a second to stop.

00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:56.870 align:middle line:84%
It hurts to write like
this, with words falling

00:00:56.870 --> 00:00:59.750 align:middle line:84%
against my head
like steel mallets

00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:02.630 align:middle line:84%
and the scrawny fists
of starving children

00:01:02.630 --> 00:01:05.570 align:middle line:84%
who stare out from
eyes at my hands,

00:01:05.570 --> 00:01:08.500 align:middle line:90%
asleep and empty pockets.

00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:09.000 align:middle line:90%