WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.260 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.260 --> 00:00:03.760 align:middle line:90% Dave Rivard. 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:11.700 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:13.940 align:middle line:84% So wonderful, so wonderful to be here. 00:00:13.940 --> 00:00:18.110 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.110 --> 00:00:23.320 align:middle line:84% I saw Steve mostly after I left Tucson in Boston 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:27.220 align:middle line:84% when he and Gail would come to visit in the summers. 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:32.320 align:middle line:84% And we didn't talk a lot on the phone, actually. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.560 align:middle line:84% I wasn't one of those people who had a real phone 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:37.840 align:middle line:90% relationship with him. 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:42.190 align:middle line:84% But I talked to Steve constantly in my head. 00:00:42.190 --> 00:00:46.120 align:middle line:84% And so whenever I saw him, in Boston, oftentimes 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:51.160 align:middle line:84% it would be a year or so after the previous time, 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:53.410 align:middle line:84% I really felt like the conversation would just sort of 00:00:53.410 --> 00:00:54.670 align:middle line:90% continue normally. 00:00:54.670 --> 00:00:56.980 align:middle line:84% It wasn't as if it had ever been interrupted. 00:00:56.980 --> 00:00:58.840 align:middle line:84% And I can't think of anyone else who I'm 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:05.800 align:middle line:84% friends with who I felt that way about or feel that way about. 00:01:05.800 --> 00:01:08.880 align:middle line:84% And the last time I saw Steve in Boston 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:13.130 align:middle line:84% we were walking down Mass Ave, we'd had lunch in Cambridge. 00:01:13.130 --> 00:01:17.390 align:middle line:84% And we were walking down Mass Ave towards Harvard Square. 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:20.275 align:middle line:84% And he said, as a couple of people have mentioned, 00:01:20.275 --> 00:01:22.025 align:middle line:84% he said, "Let's sit down on the sidewalk." 00:01:22.025 --> 00:01:23.210 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:23.210 --> 00:01:23.840 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:25.423 align:middle line:84% He said, "I want to smoke a cigarette. 00:01:25.423 --> 00:01:27.800 align:middle line:90% And let's watch people go by." 00:01:27.800 --> 00:01:29.540 align:middle line:90% And I said, "OK." 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:32.990 align:middle line:84% So we sat there, and we'd been there for about 20 minutes. 00:01:32.990 --> 00:01:35.670 align:middle line:84% And I looked down the street, and I saw my daughter-- 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:36.170 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:37.440 align:middle line:90% --coming down the street. 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:39.500 align:middle line:84% She was 15 years old, at the time. 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:41.220 align:middle line:90% She was with a friend. 00:01:41.220 --> 00:01:45.080 align:middle line:84% And I saw her friend turn to her and mouth, "Is that your dad?" 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:46.484 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:46.484 --> 00:01:49.640 align:middle line:84% And then Simone, my daughter, got this horrified look 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.240 align:middle line:84% on her face, but I called them over. 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:56.770 align:middle line:84% And I said Simone, you remember Steve from Tucson, my teacher 00:01:56.770 --> 00:01:58.640 align:middle line:90% and my dear friend, right? 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.160 align:middle line:84% And Simone just kind of nodded silently. 00:02:01.160 --> 00:02:03.830 align:middle line:84% And Steve said, "Simone, it's so great to see you. 00:02:03.830 --> 00:02:05.615 align:middle line:84% Look, I'm teaching your dad to beg." 00:02:05.615 --> 00:02:08.834 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:08.834 --> 00:02:13.780 align:middle line:90% 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:15.010 align:middle line:90% And then Simone ran away. 00:02:15.010 --> 00:02:17.860 align:middle line:90% 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:21.910 align:middle line:84% And then after she'd gone 10 paces down the street, 00:02:21.910 --> 00:02:25.222 align:middle line:84% Steve turned to me, and said, "God, she's so beautiful." 00:02:25.222 --> 00:02:27.430 align:middle line:84% And I thought that is something that you could depend 00:02:27.430 --> 00:02:29.440 align:middle line:90% on Steve to say to you, too. 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:32.650 align:middle line:84% That your children were beautiful. 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:38.290 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a poem of Steve's called "The Acrobat." 00:02:38.290 --> 00:02:41.560 align:middle line:84% It's, as far as I know, the last poem that 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:46.450 align:middle line:84% was written for his book, A Place at the Table. 00:02:46.450 --> 00:02:48.400 align:middle line:84% And it is the last poem in the book. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:51.340 align:middle line:90% 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:55.420 align:middle line:84% The poem alludes in a very bleak way 00:02:55.420 --> 00:02:57.730 align:middle line:90% to the murder of John Lennon. 00:02:57.730 --> 00:03:01.970 align:middle line:84% It was-- the poem was written 30 years ago. 00:03:01.970 --> 00:03:07.310 align:middle line:84% And I first heard the poem not from Steve 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:11.810 align:middle line:84% but from Jon who brought it in to workshop that we were in. 00:03:11.810 --> 00:03:13.760 align:middle line:90% Tony was in it, as well. 00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:19.280 align:middle line:84% And read the poem to us, because he was thrilled by it. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:24.230 align:middle line:84% And for me, one of the things about both Jon and Steve 00:03:24.230 --> 00:03:27.230 align:middle line:84% and their friendship was that willingness 00:03:27.230 --> 00:03:32.250 align:middle line:84% to be enthused and thrilled by each other's work. 00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:37.610 align:middle line:84% And I think for all of us who were students of them-- 00:03:37.610 --> 00:03:41.000 align:middle line:84% and particularly of Steve, because you would show him 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:42.620 align:middle line:90% these things over the years. 00:03:42.620 --> 00:03:46.500 align:middle line:84% And no matter what you were doing that was new 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:49.220 align:middle line:84% he would-- it's not that he would praise it automatically. 00:03:49.220 --> 00:03:53.060 align:middle line:84% But that he would bring a kind of appreciation to it 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:57.950 align:middle line:84% that was based on friendship, and a friendship in the art. 00:03:57.950 --> 00:04:01.310 align:middle line:84% And that seems to me an incredibly rare thing 00:04:01.310 --> 00:04:02.960 align:middle line:90% after all these years. 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:05.920 align:middle line:84% I'm so grateful for it in my life. 00:04:05.920 --> 00:04:09.280 align:middle line:90% 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:09.911 align:middle line:90% "The Acrobat." 00:04:09.911 --> 00:04:14.240 align:middle line:90% 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:15.810 align:middle line:84% It's a little bit of a longish poem. 00:04:15.810 --> 00:04:19.029 align:middle line:90% 00:04:19.029 --> 00:04:24.130 align:middle line:84% I was digging in the yard, pure kantha, lady banksia, drought 00:04:24.130 --> 00:04:27.490 align:middle line:90% loving thorny Chilean mesquite-- 00:04:27.490 --> 00:04:31.360 align:middle line:84% a tree against the next year and the next, 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:36.830 align:middle line:84% as though each green thing out there awaited my decision. 00:04:36.830 --> 00:04:39.550 align:middle line:90% I really thought that. 00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:41.410 align:middle line:84% My wife, watching from the porch, 00:04:41.410 --> 00:04:44.980 align:middle line:84% was glad for this something to do. 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:49.300 align:middle line:84% All afternoon on the radio echoing from wall to wall we 00:04:49.300 --> 00:04:51.430 align:middle line:84% heard the old songs that shaped us 00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:57.970 align:middle line:84% into one young couple dancing in a crowd 10 or so years ago. 00:04:57.970 --> 00:05:01.870 align:middle line:84% Later, after supper, my wife curled up on the couch 00:05:01.870 --> 00:05:05.440 align:middle line:84% and cried for all that had lately gone wrong-- 00:05:05.440 --> 00:05:10.240 align:middle line:84% a long marriage broken, another, a friend who felt her work 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:12.070 align:middle line:90% had come to nothing. 00:05:12.070 --> 00:05:13.450 align:middle line:90% And then a baby. 00:05:13.450 --> 00:05:18.550 align:middle line:84% A friend's, born into this world only partway. 00:05:18.550 --> 00:05:21.340 align:middle line:84% What we had valued falling away-- 00:05:21.340 --> 00:05:27.910 align:middle line:84% friendship, work, love, our own stalled in its passions, 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:31.480 align:middle line:84% and the small remembered songs of anybody's life-- 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:35.830 align:middle line:84% all that is daily, like brushing the hair, like doves 00:05:35.830 --> 00:05:38.380 align:middle line:90% on the telephone wires. 00:05:38.380 --> 00:05:40.600 align:middle line:90% She looked out the window. 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.450 align:middle line:90% Lights of the city came on. 00:05:43.450 --> 00:05:46.120 align:middle line:90% The house seemed to float. 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.030 align:middle line:84% I wanted to hold her crying, but she looked so frail. 00:05:49.030 --> 00:05:51.280 align:middle line:84% I thought that if I touched her face 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:56.230 align:middle line:84% or spoke the wrong transparent words she might lose all hope. 00:05:56.230 --> 00:05:58.900 align:middle line:90% 00:05:58.900 --> 00:06:01.300 align:middle line:84% When I was a child I thought first 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:04.000 align:middle line:84% there came the feelings then the words 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:09.250 align:middle line:84% that told us what the feelings meant and what we ought to do. 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:11.410 align:middle line:84% And then everything got confused. 00:06:11.410 --> 00:06:16.150 align:middle line:84% Someone told me a story first, and then the feelings came-- 00:06:16.150 --> 00:06:18.730 align:middle line:90% sad ones, happy ones. 00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:21.160 align:middle line:90% It didn't matter which. 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:24.010 align:middle line:84% I thought all the feelings waited out there 00:06:24.010 --> 00:06:26.050 align:middle line:90% for our decisions. 00:06:26.050 --> 00:06:30.175 align:middle line:84% Or, all the words strung out into their many letters waited. 00:06:30.175 --> 00:06:33.300 align:middle line:90% 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:36.690 align:middle line:84% She kissed me on the cheek, and said goodnight. 00:06:36.690 --> 00:06:39.000 align:middle line:90% I drank some whiskey. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:42.260 align:middle line:84% I thought about my habit of hope. 00:06:42.260 --> 00:06:45.470 align:middle line:84% I heard my wife's deep steady breathing 00:06:45.470 --> 00:06:49.550 align:middle line:90% and the gas heaters long hiss. 00:06:49.550 --> 00:06:53.710 align:middle line:84% I knew my wife could not be argued with. 00:06:53.710 --> 00:06:57.640 align:middle line:84% I thought about one teenage summer I lay in a hospital bed 00:06:57.640 --> 00:06:59.710 align:middle line:90% in fever. 00:06:59.710 --> 00:07:04.350 align:middle line:84% The doctors listened to my heart and clucked. 00:07:04.350 --> 00:07:08.470 align:middle line:84% Relatives, friends, people I did not even know 00:07:08.470 --> 00:07:11.680 align:middle line:90% sent me greeting cards. 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:16.900 align:middle line:84% Our high school football hero, a boy perfect in his public life, 00:07:16.900 --> 00:07:24.480 align:middle line:84% came with his lonely duty to say how lucky I was to be alive. 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:28.350 align:middle line:84% One night, I twisted in chills and squinted at the cards 00:07:28.350 --> 00:07:36.010 align:middle line:84% strung over my head, and asked myself, again, how I was lucky? 00:07:36.010 --> 00:07:38.310 align:middle line:90% Then I saw the acrobat-- 00:07:38.310 --> 00:07:43.800 align:middle line:84% a slim marionette dressed in a shiny leotard. 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:47.460 align:middle line:84% He paced the string between two walls. 00:07:47.460 --> 00:07:50.160 align:middle line:84% In the middle words from the cards 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.010 align:middle line:84% slumped in shy groups like children 00:07:53.010 --> 00:07:57.180 align:middle line:84% at a pickup game waiting to be chosen. 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:02.040 align:middle line:84% At one end in a small box nailed to the wall 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:08.680 align:middle line:84% my heart whose pumping I had been warned not to listen to. 00:08:08.680 --> 00:08:15.160 align:middle line:84% Slowly, back and forth, the acrobat, his balance wove. 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:16.710 align:middle line:90% Lucky. 00:08:16.710 --> 00:08:19.860 align:middle line:90% Lucky I was for such a friend. 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:24.810 align:middle line:84% His only job in this world was not to fall. 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:28.160 align:middle line:90% [AUDIENCE APPLAUSE] 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:31.000 align:middle line:90%