Dick Shelton asked me to read this.
It's a poem called "I Dream I'm the Death of Orpheus."
And it's based on a dream which came out
of a film-- which came out of Cocteau's Orpheus film.
And I think those of you who have
seen the film will know how it comes out of that,
but I don't think the poem ultimately depends
on a knowledge of the film.
But there is, for me, a very strong relationship
between poetry, dream, and film.
And I find myself, well, obviously very involved
with dreams, and very much attracted
to film, as the other medium besides poetry
which I learn from.
"I Dream I'm the Death of Orpheus."
"I am walking rapidly through striations of light and dark
thrown under an arcade.
I am a woman in the prime of life, with certain powers,
and those powers severely limited by authorities
whose faces I rarely see.
I am a woman in the prime of life,
driving her dead poet in a black Rolls-Royce
through a landscape of twilight and thorns.
A woman with a certain mission which, if obeyed to the letter,
will leave her intact.
A woman with the nerves of a panther.
A woman with contacts among Hell's Angels.
A woman feeling the fullness of her powers
at the precise moment when she must not use them.
A woman sworn to lucidity, who sees through the mayhem,
the smoky fires of these underground streets,
her dead poet learning to walk backward
against the wind on the wrong side of the mirror."