WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.419 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.419 --> 00:00:05.208 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.208 --> 00:00:05.750 align:middle line:90% David Wojahn. 00:00:05.750 --> 00:00:18.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:23.180 align:middle line:84% Well, this is a wonderful and humbling event. 00:00:23.180 --> 00:00:26.210 align:middle line:84% I was so lucky when I came down here 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:30.650 align:middle line:84% to have two immensely gifted teachers, Jon 00:00:30.650 --> 00:00:32.390 align:middle line:90% Anderson and Steve Orlen. 00:00:32.390 --> 00:00:37.460 align:middle line:84% And I remember after I'd show poems to Jon, 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:39.050 align:middle line:84% I'd talk to my friends, and I'd say, 00:00:39.050 --> 00:00:41.420 align:middle line:84% I love hearing him talk about my poems. 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:44.420 align:middle line:84% They make me feel like the center of the universe. 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:47.120 align:middle line:90% And I often show-- 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:49.520 align:middle line:84% or almost always show the same poems to Steve, 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.340 align:middle line:84% and I remember the first time I went into his office, 00:00:53.340 --> 00:00:55.880 align:middle line:84% He looked at the poems and said, these are-- 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:59.000 align:middle line:84% he paused and said, reasonably good. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:01.580 align:middle line:90% But you can get better. 00:01:01.580 --> 00:01:07.010 align:middle line:84% And I remember after doing this dozens and dozens of times, 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:09.560 align:middle line:90% over a couple of years. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:12.200 align:middle line:84% Having wonderful conference again, 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.270 align:middle line:90% with Jon about my poems. 00:01:14.270 --> 00:01:17.630 align:middle line:84% And walking out of the Modern Languages Building 00:01:17.630 --> 00:01:20.540 align:middle line:84% and again, Jon was a great teacher, 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:22.850 align:middle line:84% and I said to myself, yeah, I really 00:01:22.850 --> 00:01:25.550 align:middle line:84% feel like the center of the universe now. 00:01:25.550 --> 00:01:29.600 align:middle line:84% And then it occurred to me that I'd always 00:01:29.600 --> 00:01:32.450 align:middle line:84% felt like the center of the universe, 00:01:32.450 --> 00:01:38.600 align:middle line:84% and that maybe what I'd better do is start getting better. 00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:44.150 align:middle line:84% As a teacher, I think that was the most valuable lesson 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:45.650 align:middle line:90% that anyone has ever taught me. 00:01:45.650 --> 00:01:49.700 align:middle line:84% That you want to tell someone they're good. 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:51.620 align:middle line:84% You want to tell someone they're good. 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:55.190 align:middle line:84% That you want to tell someone that they can also get better, 00:01:55.190 --> 00:01:57.470 align:middle line:84% and you want to help to show them that way, 00:01:57.470 --> 00:02:00.230 align:middle line:90% and Steve taught me that. 00:02:00.230 --> 00:02:03.110 align:middle line:84% It's a poem by Steve, called "Monkey Mind." 00:02:03.110 --> 00:02:09.240 align:middle line:90% 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:13.290 align:middle line:84% "When I was a child, I had what is called an inner life. 00:02:13.290 --> 00:02:15.750 align:middle line:84% For example, I looked at the girl over there 00:02:15.750 --> 00:02:18.330 align:middle line:84% in the second aisle of seats and wondered 00:02:18.330 --> 00:02:21.240 align:middle line:84% what it was like to have buck teeth pushing out 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:22.440 align:middle line:90% your upper lip. 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:25.680 align:middle line:84% And how it felt to have those little florets of breasts 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:29.760 align:middle line:84% swelling her pajama top before she went to sleep. 00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:32.500 align:middle line:84% Walking home, I asked her both questions, 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:35.610 align:middle line:84% and instead of answering, she told 00:02:35.610 --> 00:02:40.110 align:middle line:84% her mother, who told the teacher, who told my father. 00:02:40.110 --> 00:02:43.410 align:middle line:84% After these years, I can still feel his hand 00:02:43.410 --> 00:02:47.610 align:middle line:84% rising in the room, the moment in the air of his decision, 00:02:47.610 --> 00:02:51.480 align:middle line:84% then coming down so hard it took my breath away, 00:02:51.480 --> 00:02:54.480 align:middle line:84% and up again in that small arc to smack 00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:58.080 align:middle line:90% is open palm against my butt. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.870 align:middle line:84% I'm a slow learner, and sometimes 00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:04.140 align:middle line:84% I'm sitting here wondering what my father is thinking, 00:03:04.140 --> 00:03:08.970 align:middle line:84% blind and frail and 85, plunged down into his easy chair 00:03:08.970 --> 00:03:13.080 align:middle line:84% half the night, listening to Bach cantatas. 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:16.350 align:middle line:84% I know he knows that every minute of every hour 00:03:16.350 --> 00:03:19.620 align:middle line:84% that is going to die because he told my mother 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:22.260 align:middle line:90% and my mother told me. 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:26.730 align:middle line:84% I didn't cry or cry out or say I'm sorry. 00:03:26.730 --> 00:03:28.950 align:middle line:84% I lay across his lap and wondered 00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:33.330 align:middle line:84% what he could be thinking to hit a kid like that." 00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:34.530 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:03:34.530 --> 00:03:36.680 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:39.000 align:middle line:90%