WEBVTT

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We have some time for
questions, and if you can,

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speak into the mic or
just speak really loud.

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People are left
speechless I can see that.

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Do you write your
poems longhand?

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Uh-oh, one of those
kind of questions.

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A variety of modes.

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I grew up before the
age of computers,

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and so I have learned to
begin with handwriting

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and then going back and forth
between one desk and another.

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But listen, if anybody
has a question, that's

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too personal to ask to a
group, come right up after,

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and you could ask me directly.

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Oh, OK.

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I like how the poems that
you read tonight focus

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on the lives of other
people as opposed

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to say focusing
exclusively on your life.

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And I'm curious to know has
the way you approach writing

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about other people
or how you choose

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other people as a subject--

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has that-- do you think that's
changed throughout your work?

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Has that always been
a concern for you?

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Has it grown over time?

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Has it shifted?

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I like to believe
it's grown over time,

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but I think it's
always been there.

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I think it has to do with my
feeling that I cannot write

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a poem of inner turmoil.

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I mean, I occasionally
do, but mainly I don't.

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And I don't think
anybody's individual life

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is rich enough or
interesting enough,

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if it's like mine, to
provide all the material that

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engages you.

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So I think-- and
I admire fiction

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for including the
world so directly,

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and I try to get that
sense in my own work.

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That extra room, in this case,
of the title of this manuscript

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is making room in part.

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One of the means is
making part for people

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who are very different from
me, and I hope as I've aged,

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I become more tolerant
a variety than I

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was when I was a Young Turk
and thought I knew everything.

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I have another
question, actually.

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OK.

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Your poems also--
you're very peaceful.

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Like I had a really nice
feeling of peacefulness

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throughout your reading, and
I was curious if that is just

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happens, because this is
what you're writing about,

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this is how you're writing,
or if it's an effect

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that you try to achieve.

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You say that I would like to
write poetry that leaves people

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with a peaceful feeling.

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It's not the second
certainly, and I

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get worried when you say that.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Not that peaceful.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Just peaceful enough.

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We want-- I mean,
you like to believe

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that the poet is open to
the troubles of the world.

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And if a poet is open to
troubles to the world--

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if the poet is peaceful,
it's not open wide enough.

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And so it's funny, because
I think these poems are

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full of raw feeling.

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Other people say,
oh, it's so tranquil.

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So maybe there's a kind of
a dialogue between that.

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I certainly don't
try to write poems

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that I think are
going to be pleasing,

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but I don't think I'm
happy with the poem

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until I've found a way
through the material.

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And it doesn't mean that
things are neatly closed off,

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but it means that I've come
to some position of acceptance

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or accommodation
some of the time.

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I didn't read any of
my angry poems tonight.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Mr. Dennis?

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Yes.

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That poem about the hotel, is
that based on a real hotel?

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No, no it wasn't.

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It seemed very real.

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Well, good.

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No, I was just thinking
about walking past a hotel.

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Clearly it wasn't the first rank
and how one could defend it.

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Will be the best defense you
could give a hotel like that.

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This is what I came up with.

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I have a question over here.

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Oh.

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I have a question about--

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I really like the title of your
new book and the theme of it,

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and it's something I feel like
I think about all the time.

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I wonder if you would just
talk a bit about if you just

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came to the title after
writing some poems

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or if this was something that
you had been thinking about

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that you wanted to write about.

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I had many other titles
that fell by the wayside.

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I thought this was the
title that you could--

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all the poems seem
to fit in the rubric,

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because it was so broad.

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And it suggested
something of what

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I was trying to do in
terms of accommodation.

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I think-- look,
there are a couple

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of different types of
poets in the world.

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Emily Dickinson and
Walt Whitman are

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two great American masters--

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our 19th century mother and
father who hover over us.

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You can never entitle a book
of Emily Dickinson Extra Room,

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because she's an a
moral aristocrat,

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and she works by fine
gradations and distinctions

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and subtle demarcations.

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And anything so gross in
general as Extra Room--

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But Whitman would love
that title, wouldn't he?

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Extra Room, yeah.

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Whitman is-- there's nothing
outside of Whitman's prospect.

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So it's not a title for every
mood and every occasion,

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but I'm glad it
resonates with you.

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Well, that's a good
question to end on now.

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Really, I'll be
here for a while,

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and anybody who wants to come
up and talk is welcome to.

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Thank you so much Carl.

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Thank you all--

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[APPLAUSE]

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