WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:03.090 align:middle line:84%
Just as a change of
pace, I sometimes

00:00:03.090 --> 00:00:06.420 align:middle line:90%
read this as a keynote poem.

00:00:06.420 --> 00:00:10.380 align:middle line:84%
And it's been on the page
that some of you have seen.

00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:16.410 align:middle line:84%
I wasn't going to read it but
just as enlightening for us

00:00:16.410 --> 00:00:17.760 align:middle line:90%
I'm going to read a little poem.

00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.730 align:middle line:90%
A very simple piece of verse.

00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:24.150 align:middle line:84%
I once got a fellowship
from the government

00:00:24.150 --> 00:00:26.280 align:middle line:90%
to travel around the country.

00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:31.230 align:middle line:84%
And in doing so, I had
the unusual opportunity

00:00:31.230 --> 00:00:36.340 align:middle line:84%
to use an unusual number
of public facilities.

00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:40.680 align:middle line:84%
And when I went into
them or used them,

00:00:40.680 --> 00:00:44.550 align:middle line:84%
I noticed of course
all the obscenities.

00:00:44.550 --> 00:00:47.580 align:middle line:90%
Which were all around me.

00:00:47.580 --> 00:00:52.440 align:middle line:84%
But I also noticed the
extraordinary number of hearts

00:00:52.440 --> 00:00:56.040 align:middle line:84%
with the names of lovers
or the initials of lovers

00:00:56.040 --> 00:00:57.930 align:middle line:90%
and loved ones inside them.

00:00:57.930 --> 00:01:00.450 align:middle line:84%
And I thought, how curious
the human creature that

00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:07.240 align:middle line:84%
in such circumstances can think
of love or she I should say.

00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:12.300 align:middle line:84%
And so I wrote this little
verse called Open Letter

00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:16.320 align:middle line:90%
From A Constant Reader.

00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:20.220 align:middle line:84%
To all who curve their love on
a picnic table or scratch it on

00:01:20.220 --> 00:01:23.310 align:middle line:84%
smoked glass panes
of a public toilet.

00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:27.300 align:middle line:84%
I send my thanks for each
plain and perfect fable.

00:01:27.300 --> 00:01:31.860 align:middle line:84%
Of how the three panes of the
body surface hunger and chill

00:01:31.860 --> 00:01:33.660 align:middle line:90%
or loneliness.

00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:38.310 align:middle line:84%
Create a furniture and
art of their own evening.

00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:40.620 align:middle line:90%
And I blessed two public sites.

00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:43.200 align:middle line:84%
And like Yates, two
private sites where

00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.170 align:middle line:90%
the body receives its blessing.

00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:49.320 align:middle line:84%
Nothing as banel or
lowly that tells us

00:01:49.320 --> 00:01:52.860 align:middle line:84%
how well the world, whose
highways proper table

00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:56.310 align:middle line:84%
and toilet as signs and
occasions of comfort

00:01:56.310 --> 00:02:00.390 align:middle line:84%
for belly and bowel, can
comfort the heart to somewhere

00:02:00.390 --> 00:02:02.700 align:middle line:90%
in secret.

00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:06.900 align:middle line:84%
Where so much constant
news of good has been put.

00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:11.100 align:middle line:84%
Well fleeting and lasting
lines compel believe.

00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:13.530 align:middle line:84%
Not by talent or
riches, or beauty,

00:02:13.530 --> 00:02:15.450 align:middle line:90%
but by the world's grace.

00:02:15.450 --> 00:02:18.870 align:middle line:84%
People found relief
from the worst pain

00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:21.450 align:middle line:90%
of the body, loneliness.

00:02:21.450 --> 00:02:26.100 align:middle line:84%
And say so, with a
simple heart as they sit.

00:02:26.100 --> 00:02:29.370 align:middle line:84%
Being relieved of
one of the others.

00:02:29.370 --> 00:02:35.270 align:middle line:84%
I bless our knowledge of
love, always a publishing it.

00:02:35.270 --> 00:02:36.082 align:middle line:90%