"Notes for a Lecture."
I'm back to the theme of writing poetry.
I will teach you to become American, my students.
Take a turn at being enigmatic to yourselves especially.
You work at a job and write poetry at night.
You write about working, married, you write about love.
I speak of kisses.
I mean, quarrels.
The quick kiss brings the quarrel
to mind of differences for their own sakes.
Did I ever think, going to bed, a woman beside me
would be no more uplifting than a $5 raise?
Since then, I've been uplifted in bed 100 times,
and but once raised in pay.
[LAUGHTER]
And that once has not been forgotten.
Take a broken whiskey bottle, set it on top of your head,
and dance.
You have a costume.
You have meaning.