WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:05.570 align:middle line:90% I'm going to read-- 00:00:05.570 --> 00:00:08.270 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read the Wordsworthian poem 00:00:08.270 --> 00:00:11.120 align:middle line:90% that Alison was referring to. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:19.130 align:middle line:84% And this is a poem that takes place 00:00:19.130 --> 00:00:21.140 align:middle line:84% in the neighborhood in which I live. 00:00:21.140 --> 00:00:23.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:27.260 align:middle line:84% My daughter-- I live in Cambridge in Massachusetts 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:30.470 align:middle line:84% on the other side of the Charles River from Boston. 00:00:30.470 --> 00:00:33.600 align:middle line:90% It's very much an urban place. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:34.580 align:middle line:90% It's very much a city. 00:00:34.580 --> 00:00:37.010 align:middle line:84% But it also has a kind of village quality. 00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:42.410 align:middle line:84% And East Cambridge, which is close to where I live and 00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:45.530 align:middle line:84% is where my daughter went to elementary school-- 00:00:45.530 --> 00:00:50.090 align:middle line:84% and so as a consequence, I'd walk through a lot every day 00:00:50.090 --> 00:00:52.820 align:middle line:84% on the way to bring her and get her from school-- 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:55.880 align:middle line:90% 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:58.760 align:middle line:84% was a kind of, in a way, almost a 00:00:58.760 --> 00:01:02.240 align:middle line:84% returning to a certain element of my childhood. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.700 align:middle line:84% It's very much-- it's a Portuguese neighborhood. 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:06.500 align:middle line:90% My mom's family is Portuguese. 00:01:06.500 --> 00:01:10.698 align:middle line:84% And I grew up in the Portuguese part of Fall River. 00:01:10.698 --> 00:01:12.740 align:middle line:84% But it's also-- because it's Cambridge, it's kind 00:01:12.740 --> 00:01:14.030 align:middle line:90% of a very international place. 00:01:14.030 --> 00:01:17.780 align:middle line:84% So there's like admixtures of other ethnicities. 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:20.390 align:middle line:84% And there's just a great street life there. 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:24.860 align:middle line:84% And I feel like at a certain point in my writing, 00:01:24.860 --> 00:01:32.030 align:middle line:84% that street life became a real important part of existence 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:32.750 align:middle line:90% for me. 00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:36.230 align:middle line:84% It became much more interesting than the I 00:01:36.230 --> 00:01:39.350 align:middle line:90% that Alison was talking about. 00:01:39.350 --> 00:01:43.420 align:middle line:84% And it became a place to go and to be absorbed by, 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:46.620 align:middle line:84% to be taken out of one's self by it. 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:48.780 align:middle line:84% So I think that's sort of what this is about. 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:53.040 align:middle line:84% So there is a subway stop in East Cambridge. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.730 align:middle line:84% It is the end of the green line, the so-called green line 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:58.140 align:middle line:90% of the MBTA. 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:01.050 align:middle line:84% And it is called the Lechmere Station. 00:02:01.050 --> 00:02:07.560 align:middle line:84% And I always felt that somehow, the idea of Wordsworth writing 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.830 align:middle line:84% about the leech gatherers in the pub somehow 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:13.050 align:middle line:84% attached itself to that subway station. 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:15.850 align:middle line:90% 00:02:15.850 --> 00:02:18.030 align:middle line:90% "Wordsworthian." 00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:21.690 align:middle line:84% "The brain bounces forward too, right? 00:02:21.690 --> 00:02:25.980 align:middle line:84% So why return to what yesterday seemed to be becoming 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:28.990 align:middle line:90% before it became today? 00:02:28.990 --> 00:02:32.520 align:middle line:90% No need for meanness or envy. 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:36.120 align:middle line:84% No reasons for fear when waking in the morning. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:41.160 align:middle line:84% Just an unlikely Rose of Sharon blooming by the branch library 00:02:41.160 --> 00:02:43.620 align:middle line:84% and the balanced light of a warming 00:02:43.620 --> 00:02:46.560 align:middle line:84% late October as it shines on a sheet 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:52.080 align:middle line:84% of weak-old social studies homework dropped only recently 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:57.990 align:middle line:84% from the book bag of a wandering Violet Neff. 00:02:57.990 --> 00:03:00.720 align:middle line:90% 5 points extra credit-- 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:07.230 align:middle line:84% according to Ms. Dinardo, a nice job. 00:03:07.230 --> 00:03:11.730 align:middle line:84% 'Nice job,' said the Tibetans by lugging the rolled up rugs 00:03:11.730 --> 00:03:14.250 align:middle line:84% to air in front of Yayla Carpets, 00:03:14.250 --> 00:03:17.700 align:middle line:84% mostly the smaller prayer mats that are colored with 00:03:17.700 --> 00:03:19.770 align:middle line:90% clairvoyant vegetable dyes. 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:24.270 align:middle line:84% 'Nice job,' says the scent of heavenly inventions like 00:03:24.270 --> 00:03:27.090 align:middle line:90% the breakfast plantains frying. 00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:32.460 align:middle line:84% 'Well done,' says the toddler with the jellyfish haircut. 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:37.770 align:middle line:84% 'All answers perfect,' say the hedgerows of boxwood left 00:03:37.770 --> 00:03:42.240 align:middle line:84% untrimmed by the vestry at St. Augustine's, a coven 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:48.540 align:middle line:84% of swallows with ADD muttering one-liners within. 00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:53.010 align:middle line:84% 'Perfect,' say the chicken legs in the freezer case at Fresh 00:03:53.010 --> 00:03:59.340 align:middle line:84% Killed Poultry while you wait for the 91 to the green line 00:03:59.340 --> 00:04:03.990 align:middle line:84% at Lechmere, a vaguely Wordsworthian subway stop, 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:08.520 align:middle line:84% you think, because the brain knows it's well within its 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:13.590 align:middle line:84% rights to do so, a second or two before it occurs to you 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:20.089 align:middle line:84% to wonder if Ms. Dinardo's grading is strict. 00:04:20.089 --> 00:04:21.440 align:middle line:90% 'So what if it is?' 00:04:21.440 --> 00:04:23.590 align:middle line:90% thinks the brain. 00:04:23.590 --> 00:04:27.970 align:middle line:84% 'I can still imagine her first name is Julie whenever 00:04:27.970 --> 00:04:28.750 align:middle line:90% I'd like.' 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:32.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:39.550 align:middle line:90% 00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:42.670 align:middle line:84% Violet Neff, the girl who dropped-- 00:04:42.670 --> 00:04:44.800 align:middle line:84% there is a Violet Neff, actually. 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:46.870 align:middle line:84% And she's a friend of my daughter's. 00:04:46.870 --> 00:04:49.690 align:middle line:84% And she knows she's in the poem, but she's never-- 00:04:49.690 --> 00:04:54.248 align:middle line:84% and I've never wanted to be like, hey, did you notice that? 00:04:54.248 --> 00:04:55.540 align:middle line:90% What do you think of that, huh? 00:04:55.540 --> 00:04:58.420 align:middle line:90% 00:04:58.420 --> 00:05:00.750 align:middle line:90% And she's never said anything.