WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.260 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.260 --> 00:00:09.850 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read something more lyrical now perhaps too. 00:00:09.850 --> 00:00:15.720 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that I wrote a long time ago, 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.980 align:middle line:84% in which is my favorite poem to read aloud, 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.190 align:middle line:84% because it's like singing a song for me. 00:00:29.190 --> 00:00:32.460 align:middle line:84% It's called "Blue Monday," and it was an attempt 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:84% to write a blues, a poem in which 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:40.890 align:middle line:90% a woman spoke of her blues. 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:45.600 align:middle line:84% The traditional ill of having lost the man she loves. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.000 align:middle line:84% And the device for doing this was simply 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.950 align:middle line:84% to use over and over again, the imagery of blue things. 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:56.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:56.990 --> 00:01:03.220 align:middle line:84% Blue Monday, blue of the heaps of beads 00:01:03.220 --> 00:01:06.130 align:middle line:84% poured into her breasts, and clacking together 00:01:06.130 --> 00:01:08.200 align:middle line:90% in her elbows. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.010 align:middle line:84% Blue of the silk that covers Lily Town at night. 00:01:12.010 --> 00:01:14.560 align:middle line:84% Blue of her teeth that bite cold toast, 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:16.840 align:middle line:90% and shudder on the streets. 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:19.990 align:middle line:84% Blue of the dried flower petals with gold stamens, 00:01:19.990 --> 00:01:23.260 align:middle line:84% hanging like tongues over the fence of her dress. 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:27.370 align:middle line:84% At the opera, opals clasped under her lips. 00:01:27.370 --> 00:01:31.210 align:middle line:84% And the moon breaking over her head, a gush of blood red 00:01:31.210 --> 00:01:33.010 align:middle line:90% lizards. 00:01:33.010 --> 00:01:37.930 align:middle line:84% Blue Monday, Monday at 3 o'clock and Monday at 5:00. 00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:41.860 align:middle line:84% Monday at 7:30 and Monday at 10 o'clock. 00:01:41.860 --> 00:01:45.910 align:middle line:84% Monday passed under the rippling California fountain. 00:01:45.910 --> 00:01:52.840 align:middle line:84% Monday alone, a shark in the cold blue waters. 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:58.390 align:middle line:84% You are a dead, wound round like a paisley shawl. 00:01:58.390 --> 00:02:01.360 align:middle line:84% I cannot shake you out of the sheets. 00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:06.430 align:middle line:84% Your name is still wedged in every corner of the sofa. 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:12.430 align:middle line:84% Monday is the first of the week, and I think of you all week. 00:02:12.430 --> 00:02:15.010 align:middle line:84% I beg Monday not to come, so that I will not 00:02:15.010 --> 00:02:17.830 align:middle line:90% think of you all week. 00:02:17.830 --> 00:02:20.020 align:middle line:90% You paint my body blue. 00:02:20.020 --> 00:02:22.090 align:middle line:84% On the balcony and the soft muddy 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:24.370 align:middle line:84% night, you paint me with bat wings 00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:29.320 align:middle line:84% and the crystal, the crystal, the crystal, the crystal. 00:02:29.320 --> 00:02:31.960 align:middle line:84% In your arm, cuts away the night. 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:34.450 align:middle line:90% Folds back ebony whale skin. 00:02:34.450 --> 00:02:37.840 align:middle line:84% And my face, the blue of new rifles. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:40.330 align:middle line:90% And my neck, the blue of Egypt. 00:02:40.330 --> 00:02:42.850 align:middle line:90% And my breast, the blue of sand. 00:02:42.850 --> 00:02:48.190 align:middle line:84% And my arms, best blue and my stomach, arsenic. 00:02:48.190 --> 00:02:52.030 align:middle line:84% There is electricity dripping from me like cream. 00:02:52.030 --> 00:02:54.850 align:middle line:84% There is love dripping from me I cannot use, 00:02:54.850 --> 00:02:57.160 align:middle line:90% like a acacia or jacaranda. 00:02:57.160 --> 00:03:02.860 align:middle line:84% Fallen blue and gold flowers crushed into the street. 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:06.310 align:middle line:84% Love passed me in a blue business suit and fedora. 00:03:06.310 --> 00:03:10.510 align:middle line:84% His glass cane hollow, and filled the sharks and whales. 00:03:10.510 --> 00:03:14.050 align:middle line:84% He wore black patented leather shoes and had a mustache. 00:03:14.050 --> 00:03:17.830 align:middle line:84% His hair was so black, it was almost blue. 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:20.630 align:middle line:90% Love, I said. 00:03:20.630 --> 00:03:23.200 align:middle line:90% I beg your pardon, he said. 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:25.880 align:middle line:90% Mr. love, I said. 00:03:25.880 --> 00:03:27.550 align:middle line:90% I beg your pardon, he said. 00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:29.680 align:middle line:84% So I saw there was no use bothering him 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:33.160 align:middle line:84% on the street, love passed me on the street in a blue business 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:34.060 align:middle line:90% suit. 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:37.810 align:middle line:90% He was a banker, I could tell. 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:40.810 align:middle line:84% So blue trains rush by in my sleep. 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:42.940 align:middle line:90% Blue herons fly overhead. 00:03:42.940 --> 00:03:45.010 align:middle line:84% Blue paint cracks in my arteries, 00:03:45.010 --> 00:03:48.550 align:middle line:84% and sends titanium floating into my bones. 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:51.520 align:middle line:84% Blue liquid pours down my poisoned throat, 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:54.940 align:middle line:84% and blue veins rip open my breast. 00:03:54.940 --> 00:03:58.450 align:middle line:84% Blue daggers tip and are juggled on my palms. 00:03:58.450 --> 00:04:01.840 align:middle line:84% Blue death lives in my fingernails. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:04.480 align:middle line:84% If I could sing one last song with water 00:04:04.480 --> 00:04:06.520 align:middle line:84% bubbling through my lips, I would 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:08.890 align:middle line:90% sing with my throat torn open. 00:04:08.890 --> 00:04:12.580 align:middle line:84% The blue jugular spouting that black shadow pulse. 00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:16.300 align:middle line:84% And on my lips, I would balance volcanic rock emptied out 00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:17.529 align:middle line:90% of my veins. 00:04:17.529 --> 00:04:21.490 align:middle line:84% At last, my children strained out of my body. 00:04:21.490 --> 00:04:25.480 align:middle line:84% At last, my blood solidified and tumbling into the ocean. 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:26.890 align:middle line:90% It is blue. 00:04:26.890 --> 00:04:28.300 align:middle line:90% It is blue. 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:30.360 align:middle line:90% It is blue. 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:42.000 align:middle line:90%