WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.140 --> 00:00:03.490 align:middle line:90% A little sequel I wrote-- 00:00:03.490 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:84% it's called "The Lost Angel," it's a little poem 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:10.530 align:middle line:90% that I had a lot of fun with. 00:00:10.530 --> 00:00:12.390 align:middle line:84% I wrote it very easily and I liked it, 00:00:12.390 --> 00:00:13.510 align:middle line:90% I liked the way it moved. 00:00:13.510 --> 00:00:15.427 align:middle line:84% I don't know if I like anything else about it, 00:00:15.427 --> 00:00:18.990 align:middle line:84% but I l I love the way I got it to move, 00:00:18.990 --> 00:00:21.990 align:middle line:84% and I was very pleased, because it moves so well. 00:00:21.990 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:84% And I sent it to the New Yorker, which 00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:31.200 align:middle line:84% is a magazine in which I published quite frequently 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:34.620 align:middle line:90% and which I hate. 00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:37.650 align:middle line:84% But I'm an American I love money, 00:00:37.650 --> 00:00:41.850 align:middle line:84% and I hate it, because it's such a snotty snobby. 00:00:41.850 --> 00:00:44.340 align:middle line:84% I mean, I have a feeling if I ever walked 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:46.950 align:middle line:84% into the pages of the New Yorker, would just all turn, 00:00:46.950 --> 00:00:49.080 align:middle line:90% the lights would go out. 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:51.930 align:middle line:84% And I would hear a voice say, get him off the page. 00:00:51.930 --> 00:01:01.020 align:middle line:84% He's too short, he's too clumsy, he's got the wrong accent, 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:03.750 align:middle line:84% he doesn't dress right, he's just not right 00:01:03.750 --> 00:01:06.390 align:middle line:90% get him off the page. 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:11.340 align:middle line:84% And I would wake up in oh I don't know, 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:15.570 align:middle line:90% Ring or Motorcycle Digest. 00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:22.250 align:middle line:90% 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:27.650 align:middle line:84% Almost any other magazine except Screen, 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:29.270 align:middle line:90% but never in the New Yorker. 00:01:29.270 --> 00:01:31.078 align:middle line:84% And when I sent him this poem and they 00:01:31.078 --> 00:01:33.620 align:middle line:84% wanted me to change the ending they said, get the last stanza 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:37.010 align:middle line:90% off and we'll publish it. 00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:40.000 align:middle line:90% 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.400 align:middle line:84% And I didn't do it, it's one of the few times in my life 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:45.805 align:middle line:84% I was ever stubborn for the right reasons. 00:01:45.805 --> 00:01:48.735 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.735 --> 00:01:50.860 align:middle line:84% I started trying some of the other day about that-- 00:01:50.860 --> 00:01:54.880 align:middle line:84% I had this long poem, my wife and I were in Spain living 00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:58.870 align:middle line:84% and we want to go to Italy and we didn't have enough money. 00:01:58.870 --> 00:02:01.240 align:middle line:84% So I had this long poem and I sent it to the New Yorker, 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:03.617 align:middle line:84% there was an outhouse in the first stanza 00:02:03.617 --> 00:02:04.450 align:middle line:90% and they wrote back. 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:05.908 align:middle line:84% And said, we really like this poem, 00:02:05.908 --> 00:02:07.960 align:middle line:90% but we don't like the outhouse. 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:11.140 align:middle line:84% He said, there are no outhouses in the New Yorker. 00:02:11.140 --> 00:02:14.700 align:middle line:90% 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:17.290 align:middle line:84% And I thought about that for a long time. 00:02:17.290 --> 00:02:22.410 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:22.410 --> 00:02:25.740 align:middle line:84% Well, I thought about all the ads in the magazine for wine, 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:28.802 align:middle line:84% and whiskey, and cheese and good restaurants, 00:02:28.802 --> 00:02:30.510 align:middle line:84% and I thought about how perfectly willing 00:02:30.510 --> 00:02:32.340 align:middle line:84% they were to initiate a process-- 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:36.390 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:36.390 --> 00:02:38.385 align:middle line:84% They were unwilling to see to its fruition. 00:02:38.385 --> 00:02:41.020 align:middle line:90% 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:43.290 align:middle line:84% I know it's a sick goddam magazine. 00:02:43.290 --> 00:02:45.180 align:middle line:84% I bet everybody on Wall Street, greed 00:02:45.180 --> 00:02:48.480 align:middle line:84% that's why the country is so fucked up. 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:51.510 align:middle line:84% Why capitalists are so mean, because there are 00:02:51.510 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:90% no outhouses on Wall Street. 00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:57.985 align:middle line:90% 00:02:57.985 --> 00:03:00.360 align:middle line:84% Let me read a little-- this poem is so innocent that when 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:04.260 align:middle line:84% I returned to it with all that it just quakes. 00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:08.310 align:middle line:84% It's just about a little angel coming to the door. 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:11.820 align:middle line:84% The speaker in a poem doesn't-- the speaker is me and the New 00:03:11.820 --> 00:03:14.640 align:middle line:84% Yorker, and we don't expect angels and we ain't going 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:17.220 align:middle line:90% to have them. 00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:19.650 align:middle line:90% "The Lost Angel." 00:03:19.650 --> 00:03:21.645 align:middle line:84% Four little children in winged costumes. 00:03:21.645 --> 00:03:24.290 align:middle line:90% 00:03:24.290 --> 00:03:28.460 align:middle line:84% It has something to do with raising money. 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:34.040 align:middle line:84% Children are hungry, the one says, the one who can talk. 00:03:34.040 --> 00:03:37.880 align:middle line:84% And they go down the drive in the driving rain 00:03:37.880 --> 00:03:41.630 align:middle line:84% and there is no car to collect them, no one 00:03:41.630 --> 00:03:48.170 align:middle line:84% waiting and the bills and coins spill from his trailing hand 00:03:48.170 --> 00:03:52.190 align:middle line:90% and float like pieces of light. 00:03:52.190 --> 00:04:00.110 align:middle line:84% Wait, wait I yell and run to gather what I can and he turns, 00:04:00.110 --> 00:04:08.600 align:middle line:84% the one who can talk, holding his empty fists as offerings, 00:04:08.600 --> 00:04:14.890 align:middle line:84% two shaking hammers, and gives me back my life. 00:04:14.890 --> 00:04:19.000 align:middle line:90%