WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:04.530 align:middle line:84% In a second poem that in many ways 00:00:04.530 --> 00:00:06.600 align:middle line:84% is my favorite of Wright's poem-- 00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:08.880 align:middle line:84% although, part of the reason for it 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.610 align:middle line:84% is when I remember when I first read the poem in the New Yorker 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:17.190 align:middle line:84% about six years ago, it was so surprisingly close to prose, 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:19.860 align:middle line:90% and yet, so obviously poetry. 00:00:19.860 --> 00:00:23.190 align:middle line:84% That it startled me, as if some sort of a new language 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.140 align:middle line:90% were being spoken. 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:28.710 align:middle line:84% Some sort of a perfect aesthetic balance between the two 00:00:28.710 --> 00:00:30.930 align:middle line:90% were there. 00:00:30.930 --> 00:00:34.500 align:middle line:84% It's a poem about passing things down, as many of his poems 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:84% are, from father to son from mother to son. 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:39.660 align:middle line:84% The father in this case, his own father, 00:00:39.660 --> 00:00:42.240 align:middle line:84% but he mentions also within the poem his own son, 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:47.970 align:middle line:84% and the Roman poet, Horace, who the poem is addressed to, 00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:51.840 align:middle line:90% Quintus Horatius Flaccus. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:56.440 align:middle line:84% It's entitled Prayer to the Good Poet. 00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:59.260 align:middle line:84% Quintus Horatius Flaccus, my good secret. 00:00:59.260 --> 00:01:03.760 align:middle line:84% Now my father, a good man in Ohio, lies alone in pain. 00:01:03.760 --> 00:01:07.120 align:middle line:84% And I scarcely know where to turn now. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.390 align:middle line:84% 50 years he worked in that bitter factory. 00:01:10.390 --> 00:01:14.080 align:middle line:84% He learned how to love what I found so ugly. 00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:16.450 align:middle line:90% Ugliness, what is it? 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:19.600 align:middle line:90% A bitter taste of one body. 00:01:19.600 --> 00:01:22.270 align:middle line:84% Now if I ask anything, I would ask you 00:01:22.270 --> 00:01:24.820 align:middle line:84% how to gather my father to your bosom. 00:01:24.820 --> 00:01:28.480 align:middle line:84% He knew, after all, how to love Italians. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.880 align:middle line:90% Others said Dagos. 00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:33.580 align:middle line:84% One good friend of mine, Benny Capuletti, 00:01:33.580 --> 00:01:36.550 align:middle line:84% told me how in a basketball game one person 00:01:36.550 --> 00:01:40.990 align:middle line:84% called him a dirty Guinea, and Benny did not even slug him. 00:01:40.990 --> 00:01:44.590 align:middle line:84% Quintus Horatius Flaccus, my good secret. 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:49.600 align:middle line:84% Benny Capuletti had the fastest hands in that fast Ohio Valley. 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:52.150 align:middle line:90% He could have killed him. 00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:55.780 align:middle line:84% More than love, my father knew how to bear love. 00:01:55.780 --> 00:01:59.440 align:middle line:84% One quick woman, a dark river of labor, 00:01:59.440 --> 00:02:02.620 align:middle line:84% he led me and my two good brothers to gather 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:04.600 align:middle line:90% and swim there. 00:02:04.600 --> 00:02:07.540 align:middle line:84% I still love the fine beauty of his body. 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:10.330 align:middle line:84% He could pitch a very good Sunday baseball. 00:02:10.330 --> 00:02:12.400 align:middle line:84% One afternoon, he shifted to left hand 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.040 align:middle line:90% and struck out three men. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:19.360 align:middle line:84% Every time I go back home to Ohio, he sits down and tells me 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:21.730 align:middle line:90% he loves Italians. 00:02:21.730 --> 00:02:26.260 align:middle line:84% How can I tell you why he loves you, Quintus Horatius? 00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:29.860 align:middle line:84% I worked once in the factory that he worked in. 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:32.920 align:middle line:84% Now I work in that factory that you live in. 00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:38.170 align:middle line:84% Some people think poetry is easy, but you two didn't. 00:02:38.170 --> 00:02:42.430 align:middle line:84% Easy, easy, I ask you, easy, easy. 00:02:42.430 --> 00:02:47.200 align:middle line:84% Early evening by Tiber, by Ohio, give the gift 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:49.090 align:middle line:90% to each lovely other. 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:51.370 align:middle line:90% I would be happy. 00:02:51.370 --> 00:02:53.190 align:middle line:90% Now my son is another poet. 00:02:53.190 --> 00:02:56.200 align:middle line:90% Fathers, I can go on living. 00:02:56.200 --> 00:03:00.310 align:middle line:84% I was afraid once four loving fathers meeting together 00:03:00.310 --> 00:03:03.580 align:middle line:90% would be a cold day in hell. 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:07.660 align:middle line:84% Quintus Horatius Flaccus, my good father, 00:03:07.660 --> 00:03:09.630 align:middle line:90% you were just the beginning. 00:03:09.630 --> 00:03:15.040 align:middle line:84% You quick, and lonely, metrical crystals of February, 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:17.400 align:middle line:90% it is just snow. 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:20.000 align:middle line:90%