WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:07.440 align:middle line:84%
When my wife was pregnant
with our first son,

00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:12.030 align:middle line:84%
I had a dream that I was
summoned by a character out

00:00:12.030 --> 00:00:16.360 align:middle line:84%
of a Kafka novel,
and I was to appear

00:00:16.360 --> 00:00:24.630 align:middle line:84%
at the New York House of
Justice, and I wasn't told why.

00:00:24.630 --> 00:00:28.620 align:middle line:84%
And when I arrived there, there
were long row of stone steps.

00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:31.320 align:middle line:84%
When I arrived there,
there were millions

00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:34.620 align:middle line:84%
of people on the steps,
and I could see no way

00:00:34.620 --> 00:00:36.690 align:middle line:90%
to get up to the courthouse.

00:00:36.690 --> 00:00:39.700 align:middle line:84%
But I started walking
to the courthouse.

00:00:39.700 --> 00:00:42.810 align:middle line:84%
And as I started walking to the
courthouse, like the Red Sea,

00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:45.840 align:middle line:84%
the crowd parted,
left the path for me

00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.240 align:middle line:90%
to walk up to the courthouse.

00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:52.020 align:middle line:84%
I walked up the steps, and when
I got to the top of the steps,

00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:54.060 align:middle line:84%
a nurse came out
of the courthouse

00:00:54.060 --> 00:00:56.910 align:middle line:84%
and handed me a baby,
and all the people

00:00:56.910 --> 00:00:58.980 align:middle line:90%
applauded while I was--

00:00:58.980 --> 00:01:02.256 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:02.256 --> 00:01:03.660 align:middle line:90%


00:01:03.660 --> 00:01:09.900 align:middle line:84%
And this next poem bears
only a slight resemblance

00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:13.830 align:middle line:84%
to the dream, but I think
you'll see it there.

00:01:13.830 --> 00:01:16.800 align:middle line:84%
It's called "Welcoming Poem
for the Birth of My Son."

00:01:16.800 --> 00:01:19.490 align:middle line:90%


00:01:19.490 --> 00:01:22.910 align:middle line:84%
"Bubbling and
bouncing, lumbering

00:01:22.910 --> 00:01:29.090 align:middle line:84%
amid the tickle of little
fishes, whales jostle the sea.

00:01:29.090 --> 00:01:33.740 align:middle line:84%
They are blubber balloons
sailing their bodies happiness,

00:01:33.740 --> 00:01:38.570 align:middle line:84%
spouting hallelujah to
the surmise of seals,

00:01:38.570 --> 00:01:44.720 align:middle line:84%
the memoranda of walruses, while
in the daft radiance of Arctic

00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:90%
noon.

00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:48.830 align:middle line:84%
Emperor penguins
gather for whom,

00:01:48.830 --> 00:01:52.670 align:middle line:90%
as always, it is opening night.

00:01:52.670 --> 00:01:57.530 align:middle line:84%
Again, this blazing
noon, the play begins.

00:01:57.530 --> 00:02:04.370 align:middle line:84%
Reindeer grazing eastward,
raise their dazed eyes,

00:02:04.370 --> 00:02:10.639 align:middle line:84%
jaws and their poised heads
still sluicing lichen juices.

00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:16.130 align:middle line:84%
They gaze beyond hunger in
first wonder of wet light,

00:02:16.130 --> 00:02:20.840 align:middle line:84%
dreaming what is there,
while whales are blooming,

00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:24.740 align:middle line:84%
while walruses are making
lists for Christmas,

00:02:24.740 --> 00:02:30.140 align:middle line:84%
and emperor penguins parade new
clothes through white meadows,

00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:33.500 align:middle line:90%
the sun struck kingdom.

00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:36.620 align:middle line:84%
Up from the horizon
and purple depth,

00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:41.180 align:middle line:84%
humped with porpoises,
over the frozen sea where

00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:44.810 align:middle line:84%
whales bodies are
blossoming games,

00:02:44.810 --> 00:02:50.390 align:middle line:84%
past walruses puckered to blow
kisses, whiskered like Santa

00:02:50.390 --> 00:02:56.120 align:middle line:84%
Claus, to the applause of seals,
fanning with their flippers

00:02:56.120 --> 00:03:00.530 align:middle line:84%
the hot glaciers in the
zeal of their unbounded,

00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:05.660 align:middle line:84%
bounding hearts, he
comes, all spirit,

00:03:05.660 --> 00:03:08.570 align:middle line:90%
dressed in flesh and blood.

00:03:08.570 --> 00:03:12.710 align:middle line:84%
He comes crowned in
his cheeks and fuzz,

00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:17.720 align:middle line:84%
in a dazzle of fingers
and toes, making miracles

00:03:17.720 --> 00:03:19.610 align:middle line:90%
with his glad eyes.

00:03:19.610 --> 00:03:24.380 align:middle line:84%
He walks in a garden
of penguins, enraptured

00:03:24.380 --> 00:03:30.740 align:middle line:84%
on their eggs, crying goodwill
to that far city where

00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:33.130 align:middle line:90%
my fears hide."