WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:05.010 align:middle line:84% And the last of these poems from Japan that I'll read 00:00:05.010 --> 00:00:06.930 align:middle line:90% is called "The Firing." 00:00:06.930 --> 00:00:09.930 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.930 --> 00:00:14.580 align:middle line:84% For Les Blakebrough and the memory of John Chappell. 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:19.500 align:middle line:84% Now, this poem refers to potting-- 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:20.460 align:middle line:90% firing a kiln. 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:23.010 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.010 --> 00:00:25.230 align:middle line:84% Two of my best friends in Japan were potters-- 00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:30.090 align:middle line:84% Les Blakebrough's an Australian, and John Chappell was English. 00:00:30.090 --> 00:00:34.440 align:middle line:84% They were working on the traditional foot pottery 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:35.670 align:middle line:90% techniques of Japan. 00:00:35.670 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:84% And Japan was the center of real pottery-- 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:40.110 align:middle line:90% ceramics. 00:00:40.110 --> 00:00:42.060 align:middle line:84% Les Blakebrough is now back in Australia 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:44.220 align:middle line:90% where he's running his own kiln. 00:00:44.220 --> 00:00:48.150 align:middle line:84% And John Chappell was killed in a motorcycle accident 00:00:48.150 --> 00:00:52.770 align:middle line:84% this February in Australia when he went down there from Japan 00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:54.920 align:middle line:90% to give a show. 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:58.410 align:middle line:84% I wrote this poem a week before John was killed and sent it 00:00:58.410 --> 00:01:01.830 align:middle line:84% to him, not knowing, of course, that he was going to be killed. 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:08.072 align:middle line:84% But the poem, curiously, stands in front of his death. 00:01:08.072 --> 00:01:11.240 align:middle line:90% 00:01:11.240 --> 00:01:12.650 align:middle line:90% Technical words. 00:01:12.650 --> 00:01:18.350 align:middle line:84% Saggars are cylindrical fire clay units 00:01:18.350 --> 00:01:22.070 align:middle line:84% used for stacking up whatever you're going to fire. 00:01:22.070 --> 00:01:26.780 align:middle line:84% And segers are special fire clay combs 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:29.670 align:middle line:84% which will melt at different temperatures 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.535 align:middle line:84% so that you lay them out inside the kiln on a ledge. 00:01:32.535 --> 00:01:34.160 align:middle line:84% And then you look through the peephole. 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:38.420 align:middle line:84% And when you see seger number one bending at the top, 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:40.340 align:middle line:84% you know that you've reached 1200 degrees. 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:42.590 align:middle line:84% And once seger number two bends at the top, 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:45.620 align:middle line:84% you know you've reached 1500 degrees and so forth, 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:50.630 align:middle line:90% establishing your temperatures. 00:01:50.630 --> 00:01:58.100 align:middle line:84% "Bitter blue fingers, winter 1963 AD, showa 38. 00:01:58.100 --> 00:02:03.320 align:middle line:84% Over a low pine-covered splay of hills in Shiga, west-southwest 00:02:03.320 --> 00:02:06.530 align:middle line:84% of the outlet of Lake Biwa, Domura village 00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:10.820 align:middle line:84% set on sandy fans of the sweep and turn of a river, 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:15.200 align:middle line:84% draining the rotten granite heels up Shigaraki. 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:21.090 align:middle line:84% On a 1957 Honda cycle model C, I rode with some Yamanashi wine, 00:02:21.090 --> 00:02:26.030 align:middle line:84% 'St Neige,' into the farmyard and the bellowing kiln. 00:02:26.030 --> 00:02:30.500 align:middle line:84% Les and John, in ragged shirts and pants, 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:35.660 align:middle line:84% dried slip stuck to with pineneedle, pitch, dust, hair, 00:02:35.660 --> 00:02:40.280 align:middle line:84% woodchips, sending the final slivers of yellowy pine 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.940 align:middle line:84% through peephole white blast glow. 00:02:43.940 --> 00:02:49.580 align:middle line:84% No saggars tilting yet and segers bending neatly in a row. 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:53.150 align:middle line:84% Even their beards caked up with mud and soot, 00:02:53.150 --> 00:02:55.820 align:middle line:90% firing for 14 hours. 00:02:55.820 --> 00:02:57.860 align:middle line:90% How does she go? 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:03.740 align:middle line:84% Porcelain and stoneware-- cheese dish, 20 cups, tokuri, vases, 00:03:03.740 --> 00:03:06.200 align:middle line:90% black chawan. 00:03:06.200 --> 00:03:11.900 align:middle line:84% Cross-legged rest on the dirt, eye cockt to smoke. 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:17.150 align:middle line:84% The hands you layed on clay, kickwheeld, curling, 00:03:17.150 --> 00:03:21.380 align:middle line:84% creamd to the lip of nothing, and coaxt to a white dancing 00:03:21.380 --> 00:03:24.920 align:middle line:84% heat that day will linger centuries 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:30.590 align:middle line:84% in these towns and loams and speak to men and beasts 00:03:30.590 --> 00:03:35.200 align:middle line:84% when Japanese or English are dead tongues."