WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.750 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to skip reading any
points through my first two

00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:10.800 align:middle line:84%
books, and read some
from the latest book.

00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.270 align:middle line:90%
And then read some newer poems.

00:00:12.270 --> 00:00:18.210 align:middle line:90%


00:00:18.210 --> 00:00:22.580 align:middle line:84%
It's a tough act to
follow up, I think.

00:00:22.580 --> 00:00:25.520 align:middle line:84%
I hope my poems are a little
more accessible than that.

00:00:25.520 --> 00:00:28.430 align:middle line:90%
I wish they were 1/10 as good.

00:00:28.430 --> 00:00:31.650 align:middle line:90%


00:00:31.650 --> 00:00:34.020 align:middle line:84%
Here's a poem, sort of
a what do you call--

00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:37.260 align:middle line:84%
I guess a literary poem, or
based on literary history.

00:00:37.260 --> 00:00:39.000 align:middle line:90%
It's called "Rilke and Lou."

00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.900 align:middle line:84%
And it's about Rilke,
the great German poet,

00:00:42.900 --> 00:00:46.800 align:middle line:84%
and Lou Andreas-Salomé,
who was a lover of Rilke's.

00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:49.290 align:middle line:84%
It's really about Lou
Andreas-Salomé who was

00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:51.090 align:middle line:90%
a writer.

00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:55.050 align:middle line:84%
Brilliant writer, actually,
a brilliant woman.

00:00:55.050 --> 00:00:57.360 align:middle line:90%
Very well known in her time.

00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:00.600 align:middle line:84%
Later in her life, a
student of Freud's.

00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:05.129 align:middle line:84%
Became a psychoanalyst
later in her life.

00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:09.100 align:middle line:84%
It mentions Nietzsche, who
was also in love with Salomé.

00:01:09.100 --> 00:01:12.120 align:middle line:90%
She didn't love him.

00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:14.130 align:middle line:90%
A few other people.

00:01:14.130 --> 00:01:16.230 align:middle line:84%
There's been some
confusion about this poem.

00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:17.670 align:middle line:90%
There's angels at the beginning.

00:01:17.670 --> 00:01:19.920 align:middle line:84%
And to me, those
are the good angels.

00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.950 align:middle line:84%
The angels of poetry, and
life, and affirmation.

00:01:22.950 --> 00:01:24.450 align:middle line:84%
And then there's
angels at the end.

00:01:24.450 --> 00:01:25.450 align:middle line:90%
They come in at the end.

00:01:25.450 --> 00:01:28.170 align:middle line:90%
Those are the angels of death.

00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:28.950 align:middle line:90%
"Rilke and Lou."

00:01:28.950 --> 00:01:31.980 align:middle line:84%
And it has an epigraph
from her journals,

00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:34.110 align:middle line:90%
that goes "Rainer must go."

00:01:34.110 --> 00:01:37.480 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:37.980 align:middle line:90%


00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:41.640 align:middle line:84%
"Of course, Lou
noticed the angels

00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.040 align:middle line:90%
in Rilke's pockets and hat.

00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:48.990 align:middle line:84%
But wondered, does he have
to be a poet all of the time?

00:01:48.990 --> 00:01:50.730 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:53.670 align:middle line:84%
That actually wasn't
the real problem.

00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:56.640 align:middle line:84%
Rainer was a
sweetheart, too sweet.

00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:58.560 align:middle line:90%
Hanging around too much.

00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.710 align:middle line:84%
Besides he practically
wept every time

00:02:01.710 --> 00:02:03.150 align:middle line:90%
a leaf fell off a tree.

00:02:03.150 --> 00:02:05.160 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:07.440 align:middle line:90%
Jesus, thought Lou.

00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:11.009 align:middle line:84%
This guy will devour
me, or try at least.

00:02:11.009 --> 00:02:16.170 align:middle line:84%
He's rather frail, so
let's unload him fast.

00:02:16.170 --> 00:02:19.110 align:middle line:84%
Only because she
had bigger genius,

00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:23.370 align:middle line:84%
you understand, than any
poet, any philosopher.

00:02:23.370 --> 00:02:25.590 align:middle line:90%
Nietzsche is a good example.

00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:30.030 align:middle line:84%
And certainly up there
in insights with Freud.

00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:36.270 align:middle line:84%
And as we have come to
expect from all Illuminati,

00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:40.020 align:middle line:84%
she was angry when she
saw the other angels.

00:02:40.020 --> 00:02:45.600 align:middle line:84%
Angry at the end that
they were coming."

00:02:45.600 --> 00:02:48.020 align:middle line:84%
The poem came out of
reading a biography for her.

00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:50.150 align:middle line:84%
I forget the author, but
it's published by Norton

00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:51.500 align:middle line:90%
in paperback.

00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:53.220 align:middle line:84%
And that last--
those last sentences.

00:02:53.220 --> 00:02:54.380 align:middle line:90%
She was pissed off when--

00:02:54.380 --> 00:02:55.500 align:middle line:90%
She was very old.

00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:57.020 align:middle line:90%
She was well into her 80s.

00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:00.140 align:middle line:84%
And she was dying, and she
was mad that she was dying.

00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:01.170 align:middle line:90%
She was pissed off.

00:03:01.170 --> 00:03:01.700 align:middle line:90%
I like that.

00:03:01.700 --> 00:03:04.710 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:03:04.710 --> 00:03:05.210 align:middle line:90%


00:03:05.210 --> 00:03:12.500 align:middle line:84%
Not afraid, or anything, but
mad because she had to die.

00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:13.000 align:middle line:90%