WEBVTT

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It's frequently said
in poetry classes

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that one of the reasons
that most people aren't

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interested in poetry
is that a lot of poetry

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is about the subject
of writing poetry,

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and therefore only people who
practice it are interested.

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But I think that
there's something

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to be investigated in that
truth that's more real,

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and that is when we use the
term "poet" about somebody,

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we mean something more
than that he writes verse.

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We usually mean
that he's a man who

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lives with a kind of
commitment and purpose.

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And when we use the
adjective "poetic,"

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we usually mean that
that's something

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that's as important and as
beautiful as anything in life

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can be.

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Poetic.

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And so I think it's
very reasonable

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that in those simple terms, when
people are talking about poetry

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or the creation of it, perhaps
what they're talking about

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is life--

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trying to find that commitment
and duty in living those lives.

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That this is all my way of--

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not apology, but
self-consciousness

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about this poem, which
is about writing poetry.

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It's called "With Words," and I
guess the only thing I can say

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is that I see my poetry as a
kind of metaphor for my life,

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and vice versa.

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And this poem somewhat
explains why I write

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the kind of poetry I write.

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"With Words," for Tony.

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"Poems come from
incomplete knowledge.

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From the sense of seeing
an unfinished steel bridge

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that you'd like to walk across,
your imaginary footprints

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floating like pieces of
paper, where the metal ends,

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on the cold water far below.

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Or the moon disappearing
behind a cloud

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just when you could almost see
the face of the man standing

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next to you in the olive trees.

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And consequently,
I write about those

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whose hands I've
touched once, trying

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to remember which fingers
had the rings on them,

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speculating from a few words
what the dialogue of a lifetime

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would have been,
making the facts up

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out of the clouds of breath
we release on a winter night.

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How can I then make
a poem for you?

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Whose skillful hands could
make expert blueprints

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of all my bones?

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There's no need for
a bridge between us.

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We sleep on the same
side of the bed.

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Your mustache, inherited from
some stealthy Cossack who

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kissed your
great-great-great-grandmother

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and slid his icy cock between
her warm legs one night is no

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mystery to me.

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I can relive its history,
drawing lines all over my body.

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I have no questions either
about your powerful legs,

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arms, back, or the quick mind
which leads the body around

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on a leash.

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Forgive me then, if
the poems I write

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are about the fragments,
the broken bridges,

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and unlit fences in my life.

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For the poet, the poem is
not the measure of his love.

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It is the measure of all
he's lost, or never seen,

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or what has no life, unless
he gives it life with words."

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Actually, I frequently
get asked the question,

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why do I write poems about
the sad things in life

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much more than I do about
the pleasures and joy.

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And I suppose, simply
because I think

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that what is important
to talk about

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is trying to solve
the problems in life

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and trying to find some joy
and some beauty in what's ugly

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and what you can
possibly change,

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if you want, by
seriously considering it.

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