WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.078 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.078 --> 00:00:14.620 align:middle line:84% I'm glad you could come this evening. 00:00:14.620 --> 00:00:17.500 align:middle line:90% You have a great treat in store. 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:20.800 align:middle line:84% I wish you could have spent the last three days with us. 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.920 align:middle line:84% We've done the grand Arizona tour. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:26.410 align:middle line:84% Which I know some people have lived here for years 00:00:26.410 --> 00:00:30.010 align:middle line:84% and not seen what these three citizens of Great Britain 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:33.010 align:middle line:84% have seen in the last three days. 00:00:33.010 --> 00:00:35.800 align:middle line:84% And it's all been great fun for me. 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:37.930 align:middle line:90% We have three readers tonight. 00:00:37.930 --> 00:00:42.580 align:middle line:84% Adrian Henry, Patricia Beer, and Pete Morgan. 00:00:42.580 --> 00:00:45.220 align:middle line:84% I hope that you can come to the Terrace Room in the Student 00:00:45.220 --> 00:00:50.770 align:middle line:84% Union to meet them and have some punch and cookies afterwards. 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:54.430 align:middle line:84% Our next reading is one week from tomorrow. 00:00:54.430 --> 00:00:59.770 align:middle line:84% The third of November, and the reader is Primus St. John. 00:00:59.770 --> 00:01:01.480 align:middle line:90% Young Black poets from Oregon. 00:01:01.480 --> 00:01:05.069 align:middle line:90% 00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:09.390 align:middle line:84% Adrian Henry was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, 00:01:09.390 --> 00:01:12.090 align:middle line:90% and educated in North Wales. 00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:15.540 align:middle line:84% His first book is Tonight At Noon, 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:18.960 align:middle line:84% and it established him as one of the strongest young voices 00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:23.950 align:middle line:84% to come out of the Liverpool scene of the 1960s. 00:01:23.950 --> 00:01:29.990 align:middle line:84% He's a poet, a musician, and award winning painter. 00:01:29.990 --> 00:01:34.210 align:middle line:84% His books of poetry, his recordings, his plays, 00:01:34.210 --> 00:01:38.860 align:middle line:84% and his performances have all explored the sound and pace 00:01:38.860 --> 00:01:42.590 align:middle line:90% of modern life and speech. 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:49.990 align:middle line:84% His books of poetry are City, Talking After Christmas Blues, 00:01:49.990 --> 00:01:53.790 align:middle line:84% Poems for Wales, Sick Landscapes for Susan, 00:01:53.790 --> 00:02:01.040 align:middle line:84% an Autobiography, America, and The Best of Henry. 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:04.110 align:middle line:84% I'm very happy to welcome Adrian Henry. 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:07.020 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:07.020 --> 00:02:15.280 align:middle line:90% 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.390 align:middle line:84% I've been told to move it, you see. 00:02:18.390 --> 00:02:20.770 align:middle line:84% I feel like an oldest inhabitant of Tucson. 00:02:20.770 --> 00:02:23.400 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:26.705 align:middle line:84% I feel like I've been here for months and it's three days, 00:02:26.705 --> 00:02:28.080 align:middle line:84% and it's very sad because we have 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:29.715 align:middle line:90% to be leaving in the morning. 00:02:29.715 --> 00:02:32.920 align:middle line:90% 00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:36.430 align:middle line:84% But it's probably very difficult for you 00:02:36.430 --> 00:02:39.790 align:middle line:84% to imagine what it means for someone from England 00:02:39.790 --> 00:02:45.160 align:middle line:84% to come to this particular town, because this 00:02:45.160 --> 00:02:48.010 align:middle line:84% is the kind of thing which from the age of five 00:02:48.010 --> 00:02:51.720 align:middle line:84% when you're taken by a mother to a Saturday morning movie, 00:02:51.720 --> 00:02:53.470 align:middle line:84% and left there while she does the shopping 00:02:53.470 --> 00:02:56.860 align:middle line:84% and then she collects you again, all these names are 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:59.650 align:middle line:84% burned into your consciousness, you see. 00:02:59.650 --> 00:03:02.770 align:middle line:84% So to actually go to the place that you've heard about all 00:03:02.770 --> 00:03:05.860 align:middle line:90% these years is very amazing. 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:07.900 align:middle line:84% And I swear the best thing I can say 00:03:07.900 --> 00:03:09.550 align:middle line:90% is that it's not an anti-climax. 00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:16.790 align:middle line:84% It has lived up to everything I ever thought it might be. 00:03:16.790 --> 00:03:22.080 align:middle line:90% And anyway, lovely be here. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.860 align:middle line:84% So I will start by reading a very old poem which 00:03:25.860 --> 00:03:28.730 align:middle line:84% was printed-- you've all got your little printed hand out, 00:03:28.730 --> 00:03:33.840 align:middle line:90% no doubt from the Poetry Center. 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:35.240 align:middle line:90% It has to be [INAUDIBLE] gone. 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:40.800 align:middle line:90% 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:46.080 align:middle line:84% This is a very old poem that is a much anthologized poem, 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:48.990 align:middle line:90% and I'll start with this one. 00:03:48.990 --> 00:03:51.280 align:middle line:90% It's called Tonight at Noon. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.920 align:middle line:90% 00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:58.970 align:middle line:84% Tonight at noon supermarkets will advertise three pence 00:03:58.970 --> 00:04:01.280 align:middle line:90% extra on everything. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.860 align:middle line:84% Tonight at noon children from happy families 00:04:03.860 --> 00:04:06.110 align:middle line:90% will be sent to live in a home. 00:04:06.110 --> 00:04:09.950 align:middle line:84% Elephants will tell each other human jokes. 00:04:09.950 --> 00:04:12.830 align:middle line:84% America will declare peace on Russia. 00:04:12.830 --> 00:04:15.290 align:middle line:84% World War I generals will sell poppies 00:04:15.290 --> 00:04:18.019 align:middle line:90% in the streets on November 11. 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.269 align:middle line:84% The first daffodils of autumn will 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:25.690 align:middle line:84% appear when the leaves fall upwards to the trees. 00:04:25.690 --> 00:04:28.930 align:middle line:84% Tonight at noon pigeons will hunt cats 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:31.060 align:middle line:90% through city backyards. 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.240 align:middle line:84% Hitler will tell us to fight on the beaches, 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:36.610 align:middle line:90% and on the landing fields. 00:04:36.610 --> 00:04:39.640 align:middle line:84% The temple of water will be built in Liverpool. 00:04:39.640 --> 00:04:43.480 align:middle line:84% Pigs will be sited flying in formation over Wootton, 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.630 align:middle line:84% and Nelson will not only get his eye back, but his arm as well. 00:04:47.630 --> 00:04:51.550 align:middle line:84% White Americans will demonstrate for equal rights. 00:04:51.550 --> 00:04:54.570 align:middle line:90% In terms of the blackouts. 00:04:54.570 --> 00:04:58.530 align:middle line:84% And the monster has just created Dr. Frankenstein. 00:04:58.530 --> 00:05:02.790 align:middle line:84% Girls in bikinis are moon bathing. 00:05:02.790 --> 00:05:06.180 align:middle line:84% Folk songs are being sung by real folk. 00:05:06.180 --> 00:05:08.910 align:middle line:90% 00:05:08.910 --> 00:05:12.180 align:middle line:84% Art galleries are closed to people over 21. 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:14.190 align:middle line:90% Their poems in the top 20. 00:05:14.190 --> 00:05:16.970 align:middle line:84% Politicians are elected to insane asylums. 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:19.710 align:middle line:90% 00:05:19.710 --> 00:05:23.070 align:middle line:84% There's jobs for everyone, and nobody wants them. 00:05:23.070 --> 00:05:25.710 align:middle line:90% 00:05:25.710 --> 00:05:29.580 align:middle line:84% In back alleys everywhere, teenage lovers 00:05:29.580 --> 00:05:32.610 align:middle line:90% are kissing in broad daylight. 00:05:32.610 --> 00:05:36.780 align:middle line:84% In forgotten graveyards everywhere 00:05:36.780 --> 00:05:43.370 align:middle line:84% the dead will quietly bury the living. 00:05:43.370 --> 00:05:51.900 align:middle line:84% And you will tell me you love me tonight at noon. 00:05:51.900 --> 00:05:55.379 align:middle line:90% 00:05:55.379 --> 00:05:57.864 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:57.864 --> 00:06:02.840 align:middle line:90% 00:06:02.840 --> 00:06:06.500 align:middle line:84% This one is a ballad, and it's just a little cautionary tale. 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:11.790 align:middle line:90% 00:06:11.790 --> 00:06:13.850 align:middle line:84% If it's about anything it's about 00:06:13.850 --> 00:06:18.170 align:middle line:90% pupil-teacher relationships. 00:06:18.170 --> 00:06:19.820 align:middle line:84% Since you're all pupils or teachers, 00:06:19.820 --> 00:06:23.450 align:middle line:90% I'm sure you understand. 00:06:23.450 --> 00:06:28.350 align:middle line:84% This is called-- do come and sit down, boys. 00:06:28.350 --> 00:06:33.220 align:middle line:90% 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:48.600 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] This is called Love from Arthur Rainbow. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:53.460 align:middle line:84% In a villa called "Much Bickering," in a street called 00:06:53.460 --> 00:06:58.030 align:middle line:84% Pleasant Street, living with her wicked parents 00:06:58.030 --> 00:07:01.440 align:middle line:90% was a princess, small and neat. 00:07:01.440 --> 00:07:05.250 align:middle line:84% She wanted to be an artist so off to a college she went. 00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:08.850 align:middle line:84% And as long as she got her diploma they considered it 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.110 align:middle line:90% money well spent. 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:17.440 align:middle line:84% One day she met a poet who taught her all about life. 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:19.840 align:middle line:84% He went down to the station, then 00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:22.240 align:middle line:90% went back home to his wife. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.460 align:middle line:84% He came from the end of the rainbow, 00:07:24.460 --> 00:07:26.620 align:middle line:84% at least that's what she thought. 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:31.660 align:middle line:84% The kind of love she wanted, the kind that can't be bought. 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:35.530 align:middle line:84% The time and the last train to the suburbs 00:07:35.530 --> 00:07:38.110 align:middle line:84% killed the love that would never die, 00:07:38.110 --> 00:07:43.500 align:middle line:84% and she'll find another lover, and she'll sit at home and cry. 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.930 align:middle line:84% Now she's reading through his letters 00:07:45.930 --> 00:07:49.050 align:middle line:84% in her small school teacher flat. 00:07:49.050 --> 00:07:55.830 align:middle line:84% Dusty paint tubes in the corner, worn out welcome on the mat. 00:07:55.830 --> 00:07:59.220 align:middle line:84% On the day she met Arthur Rainbow there 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:01.950 align:middle line:90% were roses all over the town. 00:08:01.950 --> 00:08:05.760 align:middle line:84% There were angels in all the shop windows, 00:08:05.760 --> 00:08:10.110 align:middle line:84% and kisses, not rain, coming down. 00:08:10.110 --> 00:08:15.660 align:middle line:84% Now it's off out to work every morning, and back 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:17.820 align:middle line:90% home for dinner at eight. 00:08:17.820 --> 00:08:21.570 align:middle line:84% For the gold at the end of the rainbow 00:08:21.570 --> 00:08:29.158 align:middle line:84% lies buried beneath that front gate. 00:08:29.158 --> 00:08:32.116 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:08:32.116 --> 00:08:36.559 align:middle line:90% 00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:39.080 align:middle line:90% This is very different. 00:08:39.080 --> 00:08:44.150 align:middle line:90% 00:08:44.150 --> 00:08:46.780 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] This one's for Lois. 00:08:46.780 --> 00:08:53.900 align:middle line:84% She's lovely and she's been universal provider for us 00:08:53.900 --> 00:08:55.040 align:middle line:90% for a few days. 00:08:55.040 --> 00:08:57.470 align:middle line:84% And she told me she liked this poem, so I'll read it. 00:08:57.470 --> 00:09:02.270 align:middle line:90% 00:09:02.270 --> 00:09:04.100 align:middle line:84% It comes out of my last book, which 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:06.285 align:middle line:84% is a kind of collected poems thing. 00:09:06.285 --> 00:09:07.910 align:middle line:84% It's called The Best of Henry, and when 00:09:07.910 --> 00:09:10.040 align:middle line:84% I was in Nashville somebody said it sounds 00:09:10.040 --> 00:09:13.070 align:middle line:90% like a country western album. 00:09:13.070 --> 00:09:14.953 align:middle line:84% And I said, well, yes, because I want 00:09:14.953 --> 00:09:17.120 align:middle line:84% to try and get out of that English literature thing. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:20.330 align:middle line:90% 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:22.390 align:middle line:84% To say the collected poems of Adrian-- 00:09:22.390 --> 00:09:24.632 align:middle line:84% I mean it sounds like [INAUDIBLE].. 00:09:24.632 --> 00:09:28.539 align:middle line:90% 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:35.737 align:middle line:84% Anyway, what follows is an old Irish folk song, actually, 00:09:35.737 --> 00:09:36.320 align:middle line:90% which I wrote. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:41.150 align:middle line:90% 00:09:41.150 --> 00:09:44.090 align:middle line:84% It's all about the fact that there are certain people who 00:09:44.090 --> 00:09:46.760 align:middle line:84% affect you and you live your life by 00:09:46.760 --> 00:09:53.190 align:middle line:84% and you look up to and influence you and revere. 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:55.584 align:middle line:90% And it's called Me. 00:09:55.584 --> 00:10:04.610 align:middle line:90% 00:10:04.610 --> 00:10:10.040 align:middle line:84% If you weren't you, who would you like to be? 00:10:10.040 --> 00:10:13.250 align:middle line:84% Paul McCartney, Gustav Mahler, Alfred Jarry, John Coltrane, 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:15.890 align:middle line:84% Charlie Mingus, Claude Debussy, Wordsworth, Monet, Bach 00:10:15.890 --> 00:10:16.490 align:middle line:90% and Blake. 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:19.760 align:middle line:84% Charlie Parker, Pierre Bonnard Leonardo, Bessie Smith, 00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:23.180 align:middle line:84% Fidel Castro, Jackson Pollock, Gaudi Milton Munch and Berg, 00:10:23.180 --> 00:10:26.240 align:middle line:84% Bela Bartok Henri Rousseau, Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.700 align:middle line:84% Lukas Cranach Shostakovich, Kropotkin, Ringo, George, 00:10:28.700 --> 00:10:29.840 align:middle line:90% and John. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.180 align:middle line:84% William Burroughs, Francis Bacon, Dillon Thomas, 00:10:32.180 --> 00:10:35.009 align:middle line:84% Luther King, HP Lovecraft, T.S. Eliot, D.H. 00:10:35.009 --> 00:10:38.300 align:middle line:84% Lawrence, Robin Kirk, Salvatore, Giuliano, Andy Warhol, 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:41.315 align:middle line:84% Paul Uzanne, Kafka, Camus, Ensor Rothko, Jacques Prevert 00:10:41.315 --> 00:10:44.600 align:middle line:90% and Manfred Mann. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:45.620 align:middle line:90% Change of rhythm. 00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:49.700 align:middle line:84% Marx, Dostoevsky, Bakunin, Ray Bradberry, Miles Davis Trotsky, 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:51.250 align:middle line:90% Stravinsky, and Poe. 00:10:51.250 --> 00:10:54.290 align:middle line:84% Danilo Dolci, Napoleon, Saint John of the Cross 00:10:54.290 --> 00:10:55.580 align:middle line:90% in the Marquis de Sade. 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:58.250 align:middle line:84% Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Rimbaud Claes Oldenburg, 00:10:58.250 --> 00:11:00.230 align:middle line:90% Adrian Mitchell, Marcel Duchamp. 00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:02.750 align:middle line:84% James Riswick, Hemingway, Hitchcock, Antonio, Donald 00:11:02.750 --> 00:11:04.460 align:middle line:90% McKinlay Thelonious Monk. 00:11:04.460 --> 00:11:07.920 align:middle line:84% Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Matthias Grunewald, Philip Jones Grifths 00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:10.250 align:middle line:84% and Roger McGough, Guillaume Apollinaire, 00:11:10.250 --> 00:11:12.600 align:middle line:84% Cannonball Adderley, Rene Magritte, Hieronymus Bosch, 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:14.510 align:middle line:84% Stephane Mallarme, Alfred de Vigny, 00:11:14.510 --> 00:11:18.410 align:middle line:84% Ernst Mayakovsky and Nicholas de Stael, Hindemith Mick Jagger, 00:11:18.410 --> 00:11:23.240 align:middle line:84% Durer and Schwitters, Garcia Lorca, and last of all, me. 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:27.064 align:middle line:90% 00:11:27.064 --> 00:11:29.932 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:11:29.932 --> 00:11:32.800 align:middle line:90% 00:11:32.800 --> 00:11:36.950 align:middle line:90% This is-- where am I? 00:11:36.950 --> 00:11:40.780 align:middle line:84% More recent poem that is a visionary poem, 00:11:40.780 --> 00:11:43.240 align:middle line:90% I suppose you might say. 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:47.170 align:middle line:84% Actually what it is, it's a tribute to a painter. 00:11:47.170 --> 00:11:49.540 align:middle line:84% As you gathered that I have lots of heroes, 00:11:49.540 --> 00:11:53.810 align:middle line:84% and I really write two kinds of poetry. 00:11:53.810 --> 00:11:58.700 align:middle line:84% I write love poems, but ladies and gentlemen, 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:04.730 align:middle line:84% and I write occasional poems which kind of come out 00:12:04.730 --> 00:12:08.510 align:middle line:84% of my admiration for a particular artist's work. 00:12:08.510 --> 00:12:10.340 align:middle line:84% I can't write poems about nothing. 00:12:10.340 --> 00:12:11.450 align:middle line:90% Do you know what I mean? 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:14.480 align:middle line:84% I have to be, in some sense, involved in what I'm doing. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:20.690 align:middle line:84% This one is a strange poem that came to me literally 00:12:20.690 --> 00:12:23.720 align:middle line:84% in a vision, in that I was in bed ill 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:29.760 align:middle line:84% and I saw just one little image, which is part of this. 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:33.110 align:middle line:84% And a vision at the end of the world, and it 00:12:33.110 --> 00:12:34.850 align:middle line:90% takes place in Liverpool. 00:12:34.850 --> 00:12:36.890 align:middle line:84% And you have to forgive that, because it's 00:12:36.890 --> 00:12:39.950 align:middle line:84% just I don't know anywhere else that well. 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:42.260 align:middle line:84% And I couldn't be at the end of the world in Tucson. 00:12:42.260 --> 00:12:46.440 align:middle line:90% 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:49.440 align:middle line:84% Anyway, it's more-- it actually came from the thing 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.920 align:middle line:84% where I had a kind of daydream in the middle of the day 00:12:52.920 --> 00:12:55.050 align:middle line:84% when I went out the door and looked downhill 00:12:55.050 --> 00:12:58.140 align:middle line:84% and there was a skeleton peeking up there 00:12:58.140 --> 00:13:00.520 align:middle line:90% on the street corner looking up. 00:13:00.520 --> 00:13:03.070 align:middle line:84% And the view from my front door is 00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:10.080 align:middle line:84% down into a kind of down a hill, the local stockyards, 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.070 align:middle line:90% shipyards. 00:13:12.070 --> 00:13:16.030 align:middle line:84% And when I came to work on this about six months later, 00:13:16.030 --> 00:13:18.730 align:middle line:84% I remembered this Bruegel painting 00:13:18.730 --> 00:13:22.720 align:middle line:84% called The Triumph of Death which is-- you do know it? 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:28.000 align:middle line:84% It's a view over the harbor, and it's all these death figures. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:29.110 align:middle line:90% And so this is it. 00:13:29.110 --> 00:13:32.340 align:middle line:84% And the reason I'm reading this actually 00:13:32.340 --> 00:13:34.985 align:middle line:84% is that this morning we went out to a mission, 00:13:34.985 --> 00:13:37.110 align:middle line:84% and we're talking about this Day of the Dead thing, 00:13:37.110 --> 00:13:39.450 align:middle line:84% and this whole business, the fact that 00:13:39.450 --> 00:13:42.390 align:middle line:84% Mexican how people in this part of the world 00:13:42.390 --> 00:13:44.110 align:middle line:90% make a big thing out of dying. 00:13:44.110 --> 00:13:46.410 align:middle line:90% And the Day of the Dead. 00:13:46.410 --> 00:13:50.684 align:middle line:84% This is my little contribution to that [INAUDIBLE].. 00:13:50.684 --> 00:13:54.480 align:middle line:84% It's called The Triumph of Death. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:59.800 align:middle line:84% Birdsong dropping into the space between the sodium lights. 00:13:59.800 --> 00:14:03.400 align:middle line:84% Footsteps echo on the wet yellow pavement. 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:06.625 align:middle line:84% Down the hill, lights from the unknown hometown, 00:14:06.625 --> 00:14:10.210 align:middle line:90% bright across the river. 00:14:10.210 --> 00:14:13.780 align:middle line:84% First faint chords drift into the orchestra. 00:14:13.780 --> 00:14:17.650 align:middle line:84% Woodwinds high in the air, light from the evening sun 00:14:17.650 --> 00:14:21.580 align:middle line:84% catching the river, dockyards at the end of the street flicker 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:25.510 align:middle line:84% with the first images of flame, certain skull head peering 00:14:25.510 --> 00:14:27.730 align:middle line:84% from around the street corner, seen 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:31.330 align:middle line:84% for a moment in the top of the street, shopping bag in hand, 00:14:31.330 --> 00:14:34.000 align:middle line:84% white beckoning skeleton hand and noticed 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.270 align:middle line:84% beyond the parked cars, darkening sky, 00:14:37.270 --> 00:14:40.810 align:middle line:90% clouding the silver water. 00:14:40.810 --> 00:14:43.220 align:middle line:90% Fanfare of French horns. 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:46.930 align:middle line:84% Cars pile relentless into each other at traffic lights, 00:14:46.930 --> 00:14:51.250 align:middle line:84% grinning skeletal policemen ride ambulances and pedestrians, 00:14:51.250 --> 00:14:53.410 align:middle line:90% klaxon horns blaring. 00:14:53.410 --> 00:14:58.090 align:middle line:84% Music full of strings, brass, timpane, hoarse screams 00:14:58.090 --> 00:15:02.980 align:middle line:84% of owls from parks, despairing wail of sirens from sinking 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:07.660 align:middle line:84% ferry boats, roar of exploding oil tanks, walls of flame 00:15:07.660 --> 00:15:10.480 align:middle line:84% and abandoned tankers, figures of men 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:13.510 align:middle line:84% broken on wheels against a lurid sky. 00:15:13.510 --> 00:15:17.560 align:middle line:84% High above squadron upon squadron of dark figures 00:15:17.560 --> 00:15:19.630 align:middle line:84% wheeled triumphantly, [INAUDIBLE] 00:15:19.630 --> 00:15:22.060 align:middle line:90% derisively amongst the carnage. 00:15:22.060 --> 00:15:26.740 align:middle line:84% Fish leap despairingly from the boiling waters. 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:31.240 align:middle line:84% In the deserted cinema, a trap, a charrette smashes 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:34.780 align:middle line:84% shattering the waxen mask, grinning hideous face 00:15:34.780 --> 00:15:38.140 align:middle line:84% beneath football crowds, melting like waxworks, 00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:42.340 align:middle line:84% faces running marble eyeball and from sockets, rooftops 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:46.330 align:middle line:84% of crazy angled, dark figure in the bedroom window. 00:15:46.330 --> 00:15:48.580 align:middle line:90% Classrooms burst into flame. 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:51.730 align:middle line:84% A skeleton explodes with rotting pelvis 00:15:51.730 --> 00:15:55.090 align:middle line:84% to the helpless gaze of a class of schoolgirls. 00:15:55.090 --> 00:15:59.230 align:middle line:84% Typists, shop girls and boys scream helplessly 00:15:59.230 --> 00:16:03.025 align:middle line:84% run toward ornamental gardens from appalling buildings, 00:16:03.025 --> 00:16:07.270 align:middle line:84% bright mocking figures insistently riding the debris. 00:16:07.270 --> 00:16:11.530 align:middle line:84% Meat gardens in St. James's cemetery torn apart. 00:16:11.530 --> 00:16:16.180 align:middle line:84% Wreathed in cellophane, flowers tumble the side of gray plots, 00:16:16.180 --> 00:16:17.770 align:middle line:90% burst into the light. 00:16:17.770 --> 00:16:20.410 align:middle line:84% White pink blinking stumbling figures 00:16:20.410 --> 00:16:22.090 align:middle line:90% queue at the grave mouth. 00:16:22.090 --> 00:16:26.020 align:middle line:84% Black crows perch on the remains of department stores. 00:16:26.020 --> 00:16:29.830 align:middle line:84% Dying seagulls fluttered helpless against the sky. 00:16:29.830 --> 00:16:32.560 align:middle line:84% Vultures wait at the cathedral tower. 00:16:32.560 --> 00:16:34.870 align:middle line:84% Just loads of dark robed skeleton 00:16:34.870 --> 00:16:38.170 align:middle line:84% figures raping, laughing, dancing, singing. 00:16:38.170 --> 00:16:42.187 align:middle line:84% A revolving door spins unheeded, the hotel lounge 00:16:42.187 --> 00:16:43.270 align:middle line:90% littered with [INAUDIBLE]. 00:16:43.270 --> 00:16:47.890 align:middle line:84% Gibbets long as birming poles down the middle of streets, 00:16:47.890 --> 00:16:50.950 align:middle line:84% mocking roar of music behind the explosions, 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:54.670 align:middle line:84% thundering in the dark, light only from the burning earth, 00:16:54.670 --> 00:16:58.180 align:middle line:84% dark, dark, dark, dark, white vermin mocking 00:16:58.180 --> 00:16:59.680 align:middle line:90% faces everywhere. 00:16:59.680 --> 00:17:02.370 align:middle line:90% 00:17:02.370 --> 00:17:07.680 align:middle line:84% And you beside me, my morning girl of the shadows. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:12.450 align:middle line:84% The inscrutable nurse always at the morning bedside. 00:17:12.450 --> 00:17:17.190 align:middle line:84% What breast sprouting naked beneath your black cloak. 00:17:17.190 --> 00:17:22.400 align:middle line:84% Head thrown back, swirls of river mist in your hair. 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:23.910 align:middle line:90% Take me. 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:27.300 align:middle line:84% Fold me forever in your warm darkness. 00:17:27.300 --> 00:17:31.950 align:middle line:84% Suck the cold light from my willing veins. 00:17:31.950 --> 00:17:35.320 align:middle line:90% Lost in a final dark embrace. 00:17:35.320 --> 00:17:38.060 align:middle line:90% 00:17:38.060 --> 00:17:46.855 align:middle line:84% Black barge, straining, waiting at the riverbank. 00:17:46.855 --> 00:17:49.330 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:17:49.330 --> 00:17:55.770 align:middle line:90% 00:17:55.770 --> 00:17:57.130 align:middle line:90% That's very dismal. 00:17:57.130 --> 00:18:02.730 align:middle line:84% So I'll give you something slightly less dismal. 00:18:02.730 --> 00:18:04.020 align:middle line:90% This one's another fancy poem. 00:18:04.020 --> 00:18:06.660 align:middle line:84% A lot of fancy poems in Liverpool, 00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:10.710 align:middle line:84% and I have great temerity about reading this, but will. 00:18:10.710 --> 00:18:13.830 align:middle line:84% Because if I don't read it here, where should I? 00:18:13.830 --> 00:18:17.190 align:middle line:90% 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.590 align:middle line:84% Like I said, ever since I was five or something 00:18:19.590 --> 00:18:25.560 align:middle line:84% I've been aware of Tucson as a legendary place. 00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:28.980 align:middle line:84% It's where cowboys walk up and down Main Street, wearing 00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:31.530 align:middle line:90% these big leather things. 00:18:31.530 --> 00:18:37.160 align:middle line:84% And people kind of challenge with the gunfights and things. 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:39.940 align:middle line:84% And I always wanted to be a cowboy, you see. 00:18:39.940 --> 00:18:42.970 align:middle line:84% And I spent the day shopping [INAUDIBLE] 00:18:42.970 --> 00:18:46.340 align:middle line:84% I'm going to go back to England an outfit. 00:18:46.340 --> 00:18:53.270 align:middle line:84% But anyway, the thing is there's not 00:18:53.270 --> 00:18:54.870 align:middle line:84% a lot of call for cowboys in England. 00:18:54.870 --> 00:18:59.540 align:middle line:90% 00:18:59.540 --> 00:19:03.740 align:middle line:84% My-- so I never got to be one, but I always 00:19:03.740 --> 00:19:05.685 align:middle line:84% had this idea-- that I think is very unfair, 00:19:05.685 --> 00:19:07.310 align:middle line:84% you have a lovely place names, and it's 00:19:07.310 --> 00:19:12.680 align:middle line:84% always like Tuscon, and Black Rock and Tombstone and places, 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:14.120 align:middle line:90% you see? 00:19:14.120 --> 00:19:15.260 align:middle line:90% And Yuma. 00:19:15.260 --> 00:19:19.790 align:middle line:84% And we have places like Wigan, and Burton Hampton, 00:19:19.790 --> 00:19:21.280 align:middle line:90% and Rochdale. 00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:26.330 align:middle line:84% And you can't-- say, well, this is a western movie set 00:19:26.330 --> 00:19:27.170 align:middle line:90% in Liverpool. 00:19:27.170 --> 00:19:29.810 align:middle line:90% 00:19:29.810 --> 00:19:32.820 align:middle line:84% It's called, you have to forgive the accent, 00:19:32.820 --> 00:19:36.740 align:middle line:90% because I can't do it but I try. 00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:38.867 align:middle line:90% Wild West. 00:19:38.867 --> 00:19:45.540 align:middle line:90% 00:19:45.540 --> 00:19:46.040 align:middle line:90% Noon. 00:19:46.040 --> 00:19:53.860 align:middle line:90% 00:19:53.860 --> 00:19:55.510 align:middle line:90% Try it again. 00:19:55.510 --> 00:19:57.730 align:middle line:90% Noon. 00:19:57.730 --> 00:20:08.270 align:middle line:84% Two tall gunmen walking slowly towards each other down Matthew 00:20:08.270 --> 00:20:11.090 align:middle line:90% Street. 00:20:11.090 --> 00:20:14.690 align:middle line:84% And then he grabbed her, and then he tied her up, 00:20:14.690 --> 00:20:18.080 align:middle line:84% and then he lit the fuse to the dynamite, 00:20:18.080 --> 00:20:23.150 align:middle line:84% and then, and then, and then along came Jones. 00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:28.610 align:middle line:90% 00:20:28.610 --> 00:20:33.380 align:middle line:84% William H. Bonney alias Billy the Kid hitches his horse 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:37.040 align:middle line:84% to a parking meter, strides through the swing doors 00:20:37.040 --> 00:20:40.670 align:middle line:90% into Yates's wine lodge. 00:20:40.670 --> 00:20:43.400 align:middle line:84% Bar maids slowly back away from the counter. 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:46.760 align:middle line:84% Drunks rush out into Charlotte Street. 00:20:46.760 --> 00:20:52.830 align:middle line:84% He drinks a glass of Australian white wine and strides 00:20:52.830 --> 00:20:56.140 align:middle line:90% out, silent as he came. 00:20:56.140 --> 00:20:58.860 align:middle line:90% The next bit needs a footnote. 00:20:58.860 --> 00:21:01.410 align:middle line:84% Black Bart you may or may not have heard of that, 00:21:01.410 --> 00:21:04.650 align:middle line:84% was an early highwayman, and he used 00:21:04.650 --> 00:21:08.240 align:middle line:84% to rob stagecoaches with the poem behind the exchange. 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:13.200 align:middle line:84% And when I wrote this I'd never actually read a Black Bart 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:16.790 align:middle line:84% poem, but I was told they were very bad. 00:21:16.790 --> 00:21:21.250 align:middle line:84% And so I just saw myself as him, you so. 00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:24.610 align:middle line:90% So I wrote this one for him. 00:21:24.610 --> 00:21:28.530 align:middle line:84% And I also, Black Bart is being played by the late Gabby Hayes. 00:21:28.530 --> 00:21:33.870 align:middle line:90% So this is really a [INAUDIBLE]. 00:21:33.870 --> 00:21:39.300 align:middle line:84% This is called Poem for Black Bart 00:21:39.300 --> 00:21:44.460 align:middle line:84% to Leave Behind on the Stagecoach. 00:21:44.460 --> 00:21:51.300 align:middle line:84% I hope you ladies ain't afraid of the wicked men who've 00:21:51.300 --> 00:21:52.655 align:middle line:90% made this range. 00:21:52.655 --> 00:21:55.120 align:middle line:90% 00:21:55.120 --> 00:21:55.620 align:middle line:90% Yup. 00:21:55.620 --> 00:21:58.710 align:middle line:90% 00:21:58.710 --> 00:22:03.360 align:middle line:84% But I'm like nature, quick and cruel. 00:22:03.360 --> 00:22:08.910 align:middle line:84% Believe me gals, I need them jewels. 00:22:08.910 --> 00:22:11.940 align:middle line:84% The Daltons riding down Church Street, 00:22:11.940 --> 00:22:14.160 align:middle line:84% bullets ricochet off street signs, 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:16.590 align:middle line:84% shop windows full of cardboard walkers, 00:22:16.590 --> 00:22:19.500 align:middle line:84% bottles shatter, Bob, Grant, Emmet, 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:23.520 align:middle line:84% thunder across traffic lights at red, shootin' down traffic 00:22:23.520 --> 00:22:24.540 align:middle line:90% wardens. 00:22:24.540 --> 00:22:30.855 align:middle line:84% Hoof beats die away, slowly clattering down Lord Street. 00:22:30.855 --> 00:22:34.164 align:middle line:90% 00:22:34.164 --> 00:22:36.634 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:22:36.634 --> 00:22:40.100 align:middle line:90% 00:22:40.100 --> 00:22:43.770 align:middle line:90% And why should I read this? 00:22:43.770 --> 00:22:46.220 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:48.200 align:middle line:84% Again, it's quite an old poem, and it 00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:53.360 align:middle line:84% has very beautiful music, and if you're over 40 00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:56.840 align:middle line:84% I used to be part of a kind of very strange rock group called 00:22:56.840 --> 00:23:00.440 align:middle line:84% Liverpool Scene, and the very marvelous guy, 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:02.160 align:middle line:84% and he did lovely music for this. 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:04.790 align:middle line:84% The poem isn't very good, but the music's nice. 00:23:04.790 --> 00:23:07.940 align:middle line:90% And I just happened upon it. 00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:09.770 align:middle line:84% If you look around, it used to be on RCA, 00:23:09.770 --> 00:23:12.290 align:middle line:84% and if you look in the discount bit in record shops, 00:23:12.290 --> 00:23:17.740 align:middle line:84% you probably find one for $0.60 if you try very hard. 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:26.352 align:middle line:84% Anyway, this is [INAUDIBLE] And as I say, it had a nice music, 00:23:26.352 --> 00:23:28.310 align:middle line:84% and I don't know why I thought of this tonight, 00:23:28.310 --> 00:23:30.740 align:middle line:84% because it just came into my head 00:23:30.740 --> 00:23:34.410 align:middle line:84% as I was sitting waiting to go [INAUDIBLE].. 00:23:34.410 --> 00:23:38.610 align:middle line:84% So the only thing that I regret about it at all is 00:23:38.610 --> 00:23:41.490 align:middle line:84% a title, because I wrote this poem and a couple of years 00:23:41.490 --> 00:23:43.770 align:middle line:84% later, a really awful book came out, 00:23:43.770 --> 00:23:48.440 align:middle line:84% and it was followed by an even worse film called Love Story. 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:55.900 align:middle line:84% And I wrote it first, and I'm not going to change my mind. 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:56.996 align:middle line:90% Love Story. 00:23:56.996 --> 00:24:01.960 align:middle line:90% 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:07.260 align:middle line:84% You keep our love hidden, like the nightdress 00:24:07.260 --> 00:24:10.620 align:middle line:90% you keep under your pillow. 00:24:10.620 --> 00:24:15.220 align:middle line:90% No word, none at all. 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:22.800 align:middle line:84% But one, sun-filled day, you took me to your magic room 00:24:22.800 --> 00:24:25.260 align:middle line:84% at the end of the yellow corridor 00:24:25.260 --> 00:24:29.600 align:middle line:84% and showed me enchanted still lifes, 00:24:29.600 --> 00:24:33.710 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] body mist sprays, cold cream jars glowing 00:24:33.710 --> 00:24:35.330 align:middle line:90% like jewels. 00:24:35.330 --> 00:24:38.840 align:middle line:84% Your body singing pink in the sunlight, 00:24:38.840 --> 00:24:41.720 align:middle line:84% opening to me like the red pulsing 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:46.220 align:middle line:84% heart of a flower in public garden 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:50.690 align:middle line:84% where peacocks open their thousand eyes for us, 00:24:50.690 --> 00:24:54.470 align:middle line:84% and bird people move noiselessly through the dripping palm 00:24:54.470 --> 00:25:01.010 align:middle line:84% house, feeling your body under me, warm and alive 00:25:01.010 --> 00:25:03.530 align:middle line:90% as the grass under us. 00:25:03.530 --> 00:25:06.380 align:middle line:90% 00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:08.090 align:middle line:90% I love you. 00:25:08.090 --> 00:25:11.900 align:middle line:84% When listening to Bruckner in the sunlit bathroom, 00:25:11.900 --> 00:25:15.320 align:middle line:84% from the hills and valleys of your morning body 00:25:15.320 --> 00:25:19.450 align:middle line:84% are hidden from my gaze by body mist. 00:25:19.450 --> 00:25:22.600 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't have to ask who it is on the telephone. 00:25:22.600 --> 00:25:25.720 align:middle line:84% When we can't wait till the program finishes. 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:28.900 align:middle line:84% When I slip out quietly, leaving you to sleep 00:25:28.900 --> 00:25:33.040 align:middle line:84% and certain dreams till morning in your darkened room. 00:25:33.040 --> 00:25:36.550 align:middle line:84% When I walk out into the dark shining street, 00:25:36.550 --> 00:25:38.740 align:middle line:84% bright signs from petrol stations, 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.780 align:middle line:84% lamp light on leaves, hard and yielding lights 00:25:41.780 --> 00:25:44.370 align:middle line:90% from city flats. 00:25:44.370 --> 00:25:45.690 align:middle line:90% I love you. 00:25:45.690 --> 00:25:48.540 align:middle line:84% Walking home, yellow moon over the rooftops, 00:25:48.540 --> 00:25:53.280 align:middle line:84% cars crawling, girls stopping, everywhere smelling of you. 00:25:53.280 --> 00:25:57.000 align:middle line:84% Going up to sleep, still smelling the rich luxury lager 00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.140 align:middle line:90% in your hair. 00:25:58.140 --> 00:26:01.890 align:middle line:84% Walking, holding your mini hand, standing 00:26:01.890 --> 00:26:04.950 align:middle line:84% in the Saturday morning bank hopped with people worrying 00:26:04.950 --> 00:26:09.780 align:middle line:84% about money, walking for the [INAUDIBLE] and winter January 00:26:09.780 --> 00:26:13.740 align:middle line:84% Lancashire park, seeing half a bottle of gin 00:26:13.740 --> 00:26:15.780 align:middle line:90% smashed on the pavement. 00:26:15.780 --> 00:26:21.120 align:middle line:84% Even when seeing schoolgirls on buses, their black stocking 00:26:21.120 --> 00:26:29.390 align:middle line:84% knees in mourning for their lost virginity, I love you. 00:26:29.390 --> 00:26:33.440 align:middle line:84% Dark red door, wave breaking, half step backwards, 00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:35.270 align:middle line:90% laughing invitation. 00:26:35.270 --> 00:26:39.890 align:middle line:84% I love you on trains, in cars, on buses and taxis. 00:26:39.890 --> 00:26:42.600 align:middle line:90% 00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:52.205 align:middle line:84% I love you in the midnight hour when all clocks stop. 00:26:52.205 --> 00:26:55.450 align:middle line:90% 00:26:55.450 --> 00:26:56.425 align:middle line:90% And it was mist. 00:26:56.425 --> 00:26:59.228 align:middle line:90% 00:26:59.228 --> 00:26:59.728 align:middle line:90% Quiet. 00:26:59.728 --> 00:27:04.120 align:middle line:90% 00:27:04.120 --> 00:27:06.560 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:27:06.560 --> 00:27:09.790 align:middle line:90% 00:27:09.790 --> 00:27:11.620 align:middle line:84% This is a poem about a [INAUDIBLE] 00:27:11.620 --> 00:27:16.810 align:middle line:84% for a couple American superheroes. 00:27:16.810 --> 00:27:20.650 align:middle line:84% Some of my heroes already, but these are two more. 00:27:20.650 --> 00:27:26.780 align:middle line:90% They're Batman and Robin. 00:27:26.780 --> 00:27:29.980 align:middle line:84% What it is, you see, that in England we got your television 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:32.320 align:middle line:84% serial, and I really loved the music for it, 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:35.590 align:middle line:90% and I was a Batman fan anyway. 00:27:35.590 --> 00:27:39.190 align:middle line:84% And I wrote my poem to go with the music for the series. 00:27:39.190 --> 00:27:41.750 align:middle line:90% 00:27:41.750 --> 00:27:42.780 align:middle line:90% You remember the music? 00:27:42.780 --> 00:27:44.642 align:middle line:90% Can remember the music? 00:27:44.642 --> 00:27:46.570 align:middle line:90% Da na, da na, da na-- 00:27:46.570 --> 00:27:50.130 align:middle line:84% you don't have to sing along, but just do it in your head. 00:27:50.130 --> 00:27:50.630 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:56.740 align:middle line:90% 00:27:56.740 --> 00:28:01.124 align:middle line:90% This is called, Bat Poem. 00:28:01.124 --> 00:28:05.510 align:middle line:90% 00:28:05.510 --> 00:28:09.950 align:middle line:84% Take me back to Gotham City, Batman. 00:28:09.950 --> 00:28:13.800 align:middle line:84% Take me where the girls are pretty, Batman. 00:28:13.800 --> 00:28:18.950 align:middle line:84% All damsels in distress, half undressed or even less. 00:28:18.950 --> 00:28:23.780 align:middle line:84% The bat pill makes them all say yes. 00:28:23.780 --> 00:28:25.750 align:middle line:90% Batman. 00:28:25.750 --> 00:28:28.190 align:middle line:90% Help us out in Vietnam, Batman. 00:28:28.190 --> 00:28:31.580 align:middle line:84% Help us drop that fat napalm, Batman. 00:28:31.580 --> 00:28:35.360 align:middle line:84% Help us bomb those jungle towns, spreading pain and death 00:28:35.360 --> 00:28:39.830 align:middle line:84% around, coke and candy wins a round, Batman. 00:28:39.830 --> 00:28:42.980 align:middle line:84% Help us smash the Viet Cong, Batman. 00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:46.550 align:middle line:84% Help us show them that they're wrong, Batman. 00:28:46.550 --> 00:28:51.410 align:middle line:84% Help us spread democracy, get them high on LSD, 00:28:51.410 --> 00:28:55.190 align:middle line:84% make them just like you and me, Batman. 00:28:55.190 --> 00:28:58.400 align:middle line:84% Show me what I have to do, Batman. 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:02.990 align:middle line:84% Cause I want to be like you, Batman. 00:29:02.990 --> 00:29:05.660 align:middle line:84% Flash your bat sign over Lime Street, 00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:08.600 align:middle line:84% batmobile's down every crime street. 00:29:08.600 --> 00:29:14.778 align:middle line:84% Happy bat day, that's when I'll meet Batman. 00:29:14.778 --> 00:29:17.213 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:29:17.213 --> 00:29:23.060 align:middle line:90% 00:29:23.060 --> 00:29:24.020 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:29:24.020 --> 00:29:32.660 align:middle line:90% 00:29:32.660 --> 00:29:34.850 align:middle line:84% This one's a poem-- again, it's a love poem, 00:29:34.850 --> 00:29:38.163 align:middle line:90% but it's also a kind of-- 00:29:38.163 --> 00:29:40.080 align:middle line:84% there are some poets who spend all their lives 00:29:40.080 --> 00:29:43.020 align:middle line:90% writing about writing poetry. 00:29:43.020 --> 00:29:45.540 align:middle line:84% I don't ever do that, but this one 00:29:45.540 --> 00:29:48.300 align:middle line:84% is kind of similar in back of it. 00:29:48.300 --> 00:29:54.020 align:middle line:84% It has reference to what one does with love. 00:29:54.020 --> 00:29:56.510 align:middle line:84% And I happen to be a painter, as well. 00:29:56.510 --> 00:30:00.190 align:middle line:84% And this-- I wrote this poem and a kind of vivid image 00:30:00.190 --> 00:30:00.850 align:middle line:90% stayed with me. 00:30:00.850 --> 00:30:04.660 align:middle line:84% That the painting was based on it. 00:30:04.660 --> 00:30:07.450 align:middle line:84% And Louis very kindly said I was an award winning painter, 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:09.970 align:middle line:84% and the award I won actually grew out of the painting. 00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:13.870 align:middle line:90% 00:30:13.870 --> 00:30:15.970 align:middle line:84% You know I got this very large painting came out 00:30:15.970 --> 00:30:19.940 align:middle line:84% in this poem, that went off to competition, 00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:22.320 align:middle line:90% I got all this money. 00:30:22.320 --> 00:30:24.890 align:middle line:84% No doubt of one little idea really, which is just 00:30:24.890 --> 00:30:27.710 align:middle line:90% a kind of opposition thing. 00:30:27.710 --> 00:30:30.520 align:middle line:84% It was really just a poem I wrote for a particular lady. 00:30:30.520 --> 00:30:33.440 align:middle line:90% 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:39.626 align:middle line:84% And although it's [INAUDIBLE] It's called Morning Song. 00:30:39.626 --> 00:30:42.800 align:middle line:90% 00:30:42.800 --> 00:30:47.000 align:middle line:90% Of meat and flowers, I sing. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:50.780 align:middle line:90% Butchers and gardeners. 00:30:50.780 --> 00:30:53.360 align:middle line:84% Well aware of the body's process, 00:30:53.360 --> 00:30:57.680 align:middle line:84% the long journey into red night, the unfamiliar pounding that 00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:00.410 align:middle line:84% may cease at any moment, drift off 00:31:00.410 --> 00:31:05.420 align:middle line:84% into the night full of sounds, tickings and murmurs, whispers 00:31:05.420 --> 00:31:07.830 align:middle line:90% and gurgling. 00:31:07.830 --> 00:31:12.840 align:middle line:84% With my mouth open against the open world of you, 00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:15.270 align:middle line:84% into the darkness of rose petals, 00:31:15.270 --> 00:31:17.730 align:middle line:84% continents against white continent 00:31:17.730 --> 00:31:20.460 align:middle line:90% shudder in perspective. 00:31:20.460 --> 00:31:24.240 align:middle line:84% When the curtains are drawn blossom into morning, 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:27.930 align:middle line:84% eyes unveiled from sleep, flower beds thrown back, 00:31:27.930 --> 00:31:31.470 align:middle line:84% white lilies against your hair, [INAUDIBLE] 00:31:31.470 --> 00:31:37.380 align:middle line:84% I will rise and moisten the warm, wet soil to perfection. 00:31:37.380 --> 00:31:41.070 align:middle line:90% Of meat and flowers I sing. 00:31:41.070 --> 00:31:43.860 align:middle line:90% Butchers and gardeners. 00:31:43.860 --> 00:31:48.540 align:middle line:84% Songs thrown bleeding onto counters, 00:31:48.540 --> 00:31:52.800 align:middle line:84% reaching up to the sun whose city backyard. 00:31:52.800 --> 00:31:57.068 align:middle line:90% 00:31:57.068 --> 00:32:02.540 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:32:02.540 --> 00:32:04.130 align:middle line:90% And I'll finish with this one. 00:32:04.130 --> 00:32:07.340 align:middle line:84% This one is a [INAUDIBLE] auditorium 00:32:07.340 --> 00:32:09.590 align:middle line:84% it's a change, because it's an auditorium poem. 00:32:09.590 --> 00:32:16.260 align:middle line:90% 00:32:16.260 --> 00:32:20.990 align:middle line:84% This again is a visionary poem, and again it 00:32:20.990 --> 00:32:24.180 align:middle line:84% derives from somebody else's work. 00:32:24.180 --> 00:32:26.650 align:middle line:90% This time it's another painting. 00:32:26.650 --> 00:32:29.080 align:middle line:90% In fact, I think-- 00:32:29.080 --> 00:32:31.810 align:middle line:90% no, is not in the next country. 00:32:31.810 --> 00:32:35.530 align:middle line:84% Belgian painter James Ansel who is arguably 00:32:35.530 --> 00:32:40.570 align:middle line:84% my favorite painter, and he did an amazing painting 00:32:40.570 --> 00:32:43.910 align:middle line:84% which is called The Entry of Christ into Brussels. 00:32:43.910 --> 00:32:47.510 align:middle line:84% And he did this painting they started in 1898, 00:32:47.510 --> 00:32:53.360 align:middle line:84% and he did-- it was Palm Sunday, it was a vision of Christ 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:58.220 align:middle line:84% entering Jerusalem, except he did it in his own town, 00:32:58.220 --> 00:33:01.410 align:middle line:84% and his very odd vision of the world. 00:33:01.410 --> 00:33:02.870 align:middle line:84% And part of it was that everybody 00:33:02.870 --> 00:33:04.790 align:middle line:84% was trying to get in on the act, and it 00:33:04.790 --> 00:33:08.990 align:middle line:84% was as if somehow our Lord appeared on November the 1st. 00:33:08.990 --> 00:33:11.355 align:middle line:84% You know, Carter and Ford to be out in the street 00:33:11.355 --> 00:33:12.230 align:middle line:90% campaigning with him. 00:33:12.230 --> 00:33:15.350 align:middle line:90% 00:33:15.350 --> 00:33:17.582 align:middle line:84% So Ansel did it as a political thing, 00:33:17.582 --> 00:33:19.040 align:middle line:84% there were always political parties 00:33:19.040 --> 00:33:22.220 align:middle line:90% out trying to get in on the act. 00:33:22.220 --> 00:33:27.410 align:middle line:84% And partly it was a kind of a nightmare of his own, 00:33:27.410 --> 00:33:29.450 align:middle line:84% because there were crowds and crowds of people 00:33:29.450 --> 00:33:32.510 align:middle line:84% in the streets, and every one of them was wearing a mask. 00:33:32.510 --> 00:33:35.120 align:middle line:90% Like a Halloween mask. 00:33:35.120 --> 00:33:38.450 align:middle line:84% And one person wearing a Halloween mask is funny, 00:33:38.450 --> 00:33:41.090 align:middle line:84% but thousands of people is cumulative effect 00:33:41.090 --> 00:33:42.950 align:middle line:90% of very scary and nasty. 00:33:42.950 --> 00:33:46.550 align:middle line:84% So the strange things are kind of very nightmarish vision 00:33:46.550 --> 00:33:48.690 align:middle line:90% of this thing happening. 00:33:48.690 --> 00:33:51.960 align:middle line:84% So I did my version of it with the poem. 00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:56.050 align:middle line:90% 00:33:56.050 --> 00:33:57.890 align:middle line:90% It's again, in terms of my town. 00:33:57.890 --> 00:33:59.560 align:middle line:90% You don't have to know the town. 00:33:59.560 --> 00:34:02.550 align:middle line:90% You supply your town. 00:34:02.550 --> 00:34:04.080 align:middle line:84% Thank you very much for listening, 00:34:04.080 --> 00:34:12.678 align:middle line:84% and this is called The Entry of Christ into Liverpool. 00:34:12.678 --> 00:34:16.810 align:middle line:90% 00:34:16.810 --> 00:34:21.400 align:middle line:84% City morning, dandelion seeds blowing through moist ground. 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:23.920 align:middle line:84% Smell of overblown privet hedges, 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:28.239 align:middle line:84% children's voices in the distant sounds from the river. 00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:32.139 align:middle line:84% Around the corner into Myrtle Street sunning shoppers, 00:34:32.139 --> 00:34:36.510 align:middle line:84% head scarves, shopping baskets, dogs. 00:34:36.510 --> 00:34:40.320 align:middle line:84% Then down the hill, the sound of trumpets. 00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:42.900 align:middle line:84% Children running, ice cream, bands, 00:34:42.900 --> 00:34:45.360 align:middle line:84% floods breaking out of the buildings, blackened 00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:48.870 align:middle line:84% red, green, and yellow, Union Jacks red end signs, 00:34:48.870 --> 00:34:52.860 align:middle line:84% long live socialism stretched against the blue sky 00:34:52.860 --> 00:34:54.989 align:middle line:90% over St. George's Hall. 00:34:54.989 --> 00:34:59.130 align:middle line:84% Now the procession, the marching drums, 00:34:59.130 --> 00:35:02.070 align:middle line:84% hideous massed royal faces of old ladies 00:35:02.070 --> 00:35:05.670 align:middle line:84% in the crowd, yellow masks of girls in curlers 00:35:05.670 --> 00:35:10.350 align:middle line:84% and headscarves smelling of factories, masks, masks, masks, 00:35:10.350 --> 00:35:13.920 align:middle line:84% red masks, purple masks, pink masks, crushing, surging, 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:16.770 align:middle line:84% carry me along, down the hill past the Philharmonic, 00:35:16.770 --> 00:35:18.090 align:middle line:90% the labor exchange. 00:35:18.090 --> 00:35:20.550 align:middle line:84% Excited feet crushing the geraniums 00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:22.200 align:middle line:90% in St. Luke's gardens. 00:35:22.200 --> 00:35:25.800 align:middle line:84% Placards, banners, posters, keep Britain white, 00:35:25.800 --> 00:35:27.390 align:middle line:90% and the war in Vietnam. 00:35:27.390 --> 00:35:30.450 align:middle line:84% God bless our Pope, long live Ian Paisley. 00:35:30.450 --> 00:35:32.160 align:middle line:90% Words painted on the road. 00:35:32.160 --> 00:35:33.570 align:middle line:90% Words painted on the wall. 00:35:33.570 --> 00:35:36.060 align:middle line:90% Stop, go, halt. 00:35:36.060 --> 00:35:39.030 align:middle line:84% The sound of pipes and drums down the street. 00:35:39.030 --> 00:35:41.730 align:middle line:84% Little girls in yellow and orange dresses, 00:35:41.730 --> 00:35:44.250 align:middle line:84% paper flowers, embroidered banners, 00:35:44.250 --> 00:35:47.020 align:middle line:84% loyal sons of King William Lodge, 00:35:47.020 --> 00:35:50.910 align:middle line:84% Bootle masks, more masks, crowding in offices, 00:35:50.910 --> 00:35:53.400 align:middle line:84% standing on walls, climbing fences, 00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:55.740 align:middle line:84% faces of my friends in the crowd, 00:35:55.740 --> 00:35:59.630 align:middle line:84% familiar faces, the shades of Pierre Bonnard and Guillaume 00:35:59.630 --> 00:36:02.670 align:middle line:84% Apollinarie, Alfred Jarry cycling carefully 00:36:02.670 --> 00:36:03.690 align:middle line:90% through the crowd. 00:36:03.690 --> 00:36:06.120 align:middle line:84% A black cat picking away under foot. 00:36:06.120 --> 00:36:08.910 align:middle line:90% Posters, signs, gleaming salads. 00:36:08.910 --> 00:36:13.770 align:middle line:84% James Ensor, maker of masks, hail Jesus, King of the Jews. 00:36:13.770 --> 00:36:15.660 align:middle line:84% Straining forward to catch a glimpse 00:36:15.660 --> 00:36:20.040 align:middle line:84% through the crowd, red hair, white robe, gray donkey, 00:36:20.040 --> 00:36:22.500 align:middle line:90% familiar face. 00:36:22.500 --> 00:36:24.460 align:middle line:90% Traffic lights, zebra signs. 00:36:24.460 --> 00:36:27.070 align:middle line:90% 00:36:27.070 --> 00:36:30.010 align:middle line:90% Guin-- Guin-- 00:36:30.010 --> 00:36:32.010 align:middle line:90% Guin-- Guin-- 00:36:32.010 --> 00:36:32.974 align:middle line:90% Guinness. 00:36:32.974 --> 00:36:34.830 align:middle line:90% Guin-- Guin-- Guin-- 00:36:34.830 --> 00:36:37.420 align:middle line:90% Guinness, Guinnes is good for-- 00:36:37.420 --> 00:36:39.400 align:middle line:90% Guiness is good for-- 00:36:39.400 --> 00:36:42.010 align:middle line:84% White bird dying unnoticed in a corner. 00:36:42.010 --> 00:36:44.350 align:middle line:84% White feathers dropping, blood running, 00:36:44.350 --> 00:36:47.020 align:middle line:84% mingling with the neon signs in the puddle. 00:36:47.020 --> 00:36:48.767 align:middle line:90% Guinness is-- Guinness is good-- 00:36:48.767 --> 00:36:52.132 align:middle line:84% Guinness is, Guiness is, Guinness is good. 00:36:52.132 --> 00:36:52.840 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good. 00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:53.740 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good. 00:36:53.740 --> 00:36:54.880 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for-- 00:36:54.880 --> 00:36:55.970 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for-- 00:36:55.970 --> 00:36:57.370 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for-- 00:36:57.370 --> 00:36:59.630 align:middle line:84% Mask, mask, mask, mask, mask, mask, mask, 00:36:59.630 --> 00:37:01.090 align:middle line:90% mask, Guinnes is good for-- 00:37:01.090 --> 00:37:02.140 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for-- 00:37:02.140 --> 00:37:03.340 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for-- 00:37:03.340 --> 00:37:05.840 align:middle line:90% Guinness is good for you! 00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:08.990 align:middle line:84% Brass bands cheering, loudspeakers blaring, 00:37:08.990 --> 00:37:11.300 align:middle line:84% cluster of police horses, all parts 00:37:11.300 --> 00:37:14.540 align:middle line:84% of the constituent assembly, masks, cheering, glittering, 00:37:14.540 --> 00:37:16.730 align:middle line:84% teeth, daffodils trodden underfoot, 00:37:16.730 --> 00:37:19.730 align:middle line:84% patches of Jerusalem, banners cheering, 00:37:19.730 --> 00:37:23.960 align:middle line:84% drunks stumbling and singing, masks, masks, masks, masks, 00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:28.194 align:middle line:90% masks, masks, masks, masks! 00:37:28.194 --> 00:37:31.561 align:middle line:90% [YELLS] 00:37:31.561 --> 00:37:39.124 align:middle line:90% 00:37:39.124 --> 00:37:43.270 align:middle line:84% Evening thin sickle moon, pale blue 00:37:43.270 --> 00:37:47.500 align:middle line:84% flocked sky flecked with dark orange clouds. 00:37:47.500 --> 00:37:52.210 align:middle line:84% Streamers, newspapers, discarded paper hats, 00:37:52.210 --> 00:37:55.930 align:middle line:84% blown slowly back up the hill by the evening wind. 00:37:55.930 --> 00:37:59.380 align:middle line:84% Men with big brooms sweeping the gutter. 00:37:59.380 --> 00:38:02.800 align:middle line:84% Last of the crowd waiting at a bus stop. 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:05.420 align:middle line:90% Giggling schoolgirl. 00:38:05.420 --> 00:38:08.350 align:middle line:90% Quiet businessman. 00:38:08.350 --> 00:38:20.110 align:middle line:84% Me, walking home, alone, empty chip-papers 00:38:20.110 --> 00:38:24.796 align:middle line:90% drifting around my feet. 00:38:24.796 --> 00:38:27.784 align:middle line:90% 00:38:27.784 --> 00:38:30.772 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:38:30.772 --> 00:38:39.210 align:middle line:90% 00:38:39.210 --> 00:38:40.178 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:38:40.178 --> 00:38:51.320 align:middle line:90% 00:38:51.320 --> 00:38:56.230 align:middle line:84% Patricia Beer was born and brought up in Devon. 00:38:56.230 --> 00:38:57.940 align:middle line:84% She works full time as a poet now, 00:38:57.940 --> 00:39:03.540 align:middle line:84% but she has taught as a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths college, 00:39:03.540 --> 00:39:07.460 align:middle line:90% and for several years in Italy. 00:39:07.460 --> 00:39:10.810 align:middle line:84% She's written two critical books, Introduction 00:39:10.810 --> 00:39:15.290 align:middle line:84% to the Metaphysical Poet, and a study 00:39:15.290 --> 00:39:18.290 align:middle line:84% of 19th century fictional heroine, 00:39:18.290 --> 00:39:22.080 align:middle line:90% called, Reader, I Married Him. 00:39:22.080 --> 00:39:25.570 align:middle line:84% He has six collections of poetry, 00:39:25.570 --> 00:39:31.160 align:middle line:84% Loss of the Magyars and Other Poems, The Survivors, 00:39:31.160 --> 00:39:37.570 align:middle line:84% Just Like the Resurrection, The Estuary, Spanish Balcony, 00:39:37.570 --> 00:39:40.860 align:middle line:90% and most recently Driving West. 00:39:40.860 --> 00:39:43.080 align:middle line:84% When you come to the reception to meet poets tonight, 00:39:43.080 --> 00:39:45.900 align:middle line:84% I hope you will also meet Patricia's husband, Damian 00:39:45.900 --> 00:39:47.370 align:middle line:90% Parsons. 00:39:47.370 --> 00:39:49.800 align:middle line:84% Since Mr. Parsons is a distinguished architect, 00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:52.140 align:middle line:84% we thought we should take him to see this, 00:39:52.140 --> 00:39:54.270 align:middle line:90% the finest example in town. 00:39:54.270 --> 00:39:56.940 align:middle line:84% So we had lunch today at Bum Steer. 00:39:56.940 --> 00:40:00.300 align:middle line:90% 00:40:00.300 --> 00:40:04.988 align:middle line:84% I'm very happy to introduce to you Patricia Beer. 00:40:04.988 --> 00:40:07.473 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:40:07.473 --> 00:40:18.920 align:middle line:90% 00:40:18.920 --> 00:40:22.835 align:middle line:84% I'd like to start by reading two poems from-- 00:40:22.835 --> 00:40:23.390 align:middle line:90% is this on? 00:40:23.390 --> 00:40:27.354 align:middle line:84% Yes-- from Just Like the Resurrection. 00:40:27.354 --> 00:40:34.130 align:middle line:90% 00:40:34.130 --> 00:40:36.560 align:middle line:84% This poem is called A Visit to Little Getty, 00:40:36.560 --> 00:40:39.470 align:middle line:84% and is exactly what it says it is. 00:40:39.470 --> 00:40:44.870 align:middle line:84% I'd been doing a pious pilgrimage around the places 00:40:44.870 --> 00:40:49.880 align:middle line:84% of the four quartets, and East Coker and Little Getty 00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:53.420 align:middle line:84% and have got no further since then. 00:40:53.420 --> 00:40:56.090 align:middle line:84% Little Getty is a quite extraordinary place, 00:40:56.090 --> 00:40:59.930 align:middle line:84% and I tried to capture something of the atmosphere in this poem. 00:40:59.930 --> 00:41:02.800 align:middle line:90% 00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:06.640 align:middle line:90% A Visit to Little Getty. 00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:11.740 align:middle line:84% This is a place of departure, not of arrival. 00:41:11.740 --> 00:41:17.080 align:middle line:84% Even the signpost saying Little Getty, a shock to any poetry 00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:21.990 align:middle line:84% lover, seems meant to be read retrospectively 00:41:21.990 --> 00:41:25.980 align:middle line:90% by tourists on their way back. 00:41:25.980 --> 00:41:30.870 align:middle line:84% As we rise from the fens to where the hills begin, 00:41:30.870 --> 00:41:33.360 align:middle line:84% the flatlands give the impression 00:41:33.360 --> 00:41:37.380 align:middle line:84% of leaving us rather than being left, 00:41:37.380 --> 00:41:40.290 align:middle line:84% and they carry the sun away on them, 00:41:40.290 --> 00:41:45.090 align:middle line:90% warmth going, not cold coming. 00:41:45.090 --> 00:41:47.910 align:middle line:90% The pilgrims have gone. 00:41:47.910 --> 00:41:50.640 align:middle line:84% They have been here this afternoon with flower 00:41:50.640 --> 00:41:54.270 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] too, so large a wreath 00:41:54.270 --> 00:41:59.160 align:middle line:84% they were either rich or numerous, we do not know which. 00:41:59.160 --> 00:42:05.340 align:middle line:84% They have gone, and their flowers are bright and dying. 00:42:05.340 --> 00:42:08.010 align:middle line:84% The scouts camping in the next field 00:42:08.010 --> 00:42:13.270 align:middle line:84% are lugging tea urns and dismantling trestle tables. 00:42:13.270 --> 00:42:16.440 align:middle line:84% It has been visitors day, but the parents 00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:21.930 align:middle line:84% have gone now, leaving their stalwart sons jesting shakily 00:42:21.930 --> 00:42:25.050 align:middle line:90% like survivors. 00:42:25.050 --> 00:42:29.460 align:middle line:84% And we must go, if we want to be home before dark, 00:42:29.460 --> 00:42:32.310 align:middle line:90% for home is not here. 00:42:32.310 --> 00:42:36.480 align:middle line:84% Less here, in fact, than in most places. 00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:39.480 align:middle line:84% We are visiting the famous poet who 00:42:39.480 --> 00:42:45.990 align:middle line:84% followed a famous king who sought out a famous good man 00:42:45.990 --> 00:42:50.670 align:middle line:84% and so on back to the beginning, which is the end. 00:42:50.670 --> 00:42:56.460 align:middle line:84% Where the line vanishes heroes stop reflecting, 00:42:56.460 --> 00:43:01.620 align:middle line:84% and the prayers, the escape route, and the poem 00:43:01.620 --> 00:43:05.940 align:middle line:84% were perhaps not light coming, but darkness going. 00:43:05.940 --> 00:43:09.270 align:middle line:90% 00:43:09.270 --> 00:43:11.745 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:43:11.745 --> 00:43:17.190 align:middle line:90% 00:43:17.190 --> 00:43:19.800 align:middle line:84% This poem is called Four Years After, 00:43:19.800 --> 00:43:23.460 align:middle line:84% and it was based on the following caption 00:43:23.460 --> 00:43:26.760 align:middle line:84% extract that I found in a newspaper one day. 00:43:26.760 --> 00:43:28.980 align:middle line:84% This is what I saw in the newspaper. 00:43:28.980 --> 00:43:32.250 align:middle line:84% The perfectly preserved body of a British mountaineer 00:43:32.250 --> 00:43:36.450 align:middle line:84% was found near Cormier yesterday more than four years 00:43:36.450 --> 00:43:39.420 align:middle line:84% after he fell to his death on the [INAUDIBLE] glacier. 00:43:39.420 --> 00:43:42.760 align:middle line:90% 00:43:42.760 --> 00:43:46.210 align:middle line:90% Four Years After. 00:43:46.210 --> 00:43:49.420 align:middle line:90% Yes, this was my husband. 00:43:49.420 --> 00:43:55.510 align:middle line:84% I cannot say is, though he has not changed since his dying day 00:43:55.510 --> 00:43:57.520 align:middle line:90% four years ago. 00:43:57.520 --> 00:44:01.450 align:middle line:84% Certainly ice is strong as saintliness 00:44:01.450 --> 00:44:05.560 align:middle line:90% to keep corruption away. 00:44:05.560 --> 00:44:11.920 align:middle line:84% I have altered in these years, better or less rightly wed, 00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:16.420 align:middle line:84% uglier or handsomer than I was then. 00:44:16.420 --> 00:44:21.100 align:middle line:84% All my tears rolled, grief like cargo 00:44:21.100 --> 00:44:25.435 align:middle line:84% shifted, grew and was cut like my hair. 00:44:25.435 --> 00:44:28.030 align:middle line:90% 00:44:28.030 --> 00:44:32.380 align:middle line:90% I have moved, but he not once. 00:44:32.380 --> 00:44:36.970 align:middle line:90% For 50 moons not one cell. 00:44:36.970 --> 00:44:40.150 align:middle line:84% Look at his glassy aplomb which has not 00:44:40.150 --> 00:44:43.300 align:middle line:84% been splintered since out of death and life 00:44:43.300 --> 00:44:45.370 align:middle line:90% he fell to nothing. 00:44:45.370 --> 00:44:48.890 align:middle line:90% I could kill him. 00:44:48.890 --> 00:44:51.340 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:44:51.340 --> 00:44:56.250 align:middle line:90% 00:44:56.250 --> 00:45:00.270 align:middle line:84% And I'll just read one poem from [INAUDIBLE].. 00:45:00.270 --> 00:45:01.830 align:middle line:90% It's called Arms. 00:45:01.830 --> 00:45:04.990 align:middle line:90% 00:45:04.990 --> 00:45:06.880 align:middle line:84% I was very much struck as a child 00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:12.580 align:middle line:84% to hear the story of my Devonian great-grandfather 00:45:12.580 --> 00:45:19.300 align:middle line:84% who was master of a brig that carried anything to anywhere, 00:45:19.300 --> 00:45:21.490 align:middle line:90% a sort of taxi service, really. 00:45:21.490 --> 00:45:28.060 align:middle line:90% And mostly took coal to Naples. 00:45:28.060 --> 00:45:35.860 align:middle line:84% He was-- his brig went down and there was only one survivor. 00:45:35.860 --> 00:45:40.780 align:middle line:84% I wrote about this in my first book, quite a long sequence, 00:45:40.780 --> 00:45:46.210 align:middle line:84% but the subject still seemed to need to be written about. 00:45:46.210 --> 00:45:53.810 align:middle line:90% And so to Naples. 00:45:53.810 --> 00:46:01.430 align:middle line:84% He was-- his brig went down and there was only one survivor. 00:46:01.430 --> 00:46:06.320 align:middle line:84% I wrote about this in my first book, quite a long sequence, 00:46:06.320 --> 00:46:11.630 align:middle line:84% but the subject still seemed to need to be written about. 00:46:11.630 --> 00:46:16.220 align:middle line:84% And so it turned up in this form, a great many years 00:46:16.220 --> 00:46:19.520 align:middle line:84% after the first book linking up with all sorts of things 00:46:19.520 --> 00:46:25.220 align:middle line:84% in my own life like loss of religious faith. 00:46:25.220 --> 00:46:27.620 align:middle line:90% Arms. 00:46:27.620 --> 00:46:32.450 align:middle line:84% I was brought up to believe in the everlasting arms, 00:46:32.450 --> 00:46:36.470 align:middle line:84% and took comfort for some years in the fatherly muscle 00:46:36.470 --> 00:46:41.810 align:middle line:84% and grip, but fell out of them gradually and in slow motion 00:46:41.810 --> 00:46:44.420 align:middle line:90% as God dissolved. 00:46:44.420 --> 00:46:48.080 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] into nightmares about arms 00:46:48.080 --> 00:46:51.410 align:middle line:84% and especially one picture of the world lying 00:46:51.410 --> 00:46:56.600 align:middle line:84% flooded with all the animals drowned, visible still 00:46:56.600 --> 00:47:02.540 align:middle line:84% in one foot of water, frozen, never to wriggle with the tide 00:47:02.540 --> 00:47:05.280 align:middle line:90% or rustle to pieces. 00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:09.330 align:middle line:84% Stiff legged, the sheep who could not embrace and flex 00:47:09.330 --> 00:47:12.840 align:middle line:84% as the lions could, nevertheless lay 00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:18.880 align:middle line:84% in their ramrod protectiveness holding each other like bars. 00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:24.950 align:middle line:84% These limbs were not immortal, and perishing they woke me. 00:47:24.950 --> 00:47:30.120 align:middle line:84% As in a story I heard, when my grandfather went down 00:47:30.120 --> 00:47:35.700 align:middle line:84% with his brig in the North Sea on a calm, clear evening, 00:47:35.700 --> 00:47:40.570 align:middle line:84% there was no wireless to send last love on. 00:47:40.570 --> 00:47:46.150 align:middle line:84% He put his arms around his son and there he stood, protector, 00:47:46.150 --> 00:47:49.750 align:middle line:84% up to his knees in death, and that was the last 00:47:49.750 --> 00:47:52.933 align:middle line:90% that anyone saw of him. 00:47:52.933 --> 00:47:55.879 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:47:55.879 --> 00:48:00.310 align:middle line:90% 00:48:00.310 --> 00:48:03.840 align:middle line:84% And now I'd like to read a group from Driving West, which 00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:06.060 align:middle line:84% is the current book in print, and then I'd 00:48:06.060 --> 00:48:08.160 align:middle line:84% like to finish off with something 00:48:08.160 --> 00:48:09.660 align:middle line:90% from work in progress. 00:48:09.660 --> 00:48:15.160 align:middle line:90% 00:48:15.160 --> 00:48:17.413 align:middle line:90% This poem is called Middle Age. 00:48:17.413 --> 00:48:21.040 align:middle line:90% 00:48:21.040 --> 00:48:26.370 align:middle line:84% Middle age at last declares itself as the time 00:48:26.370 --> 00:48:32.070 align:middle line:84% when could have been is not wishful thinking any more. 00:48:32.070 --> 00:48:35.520 align:middle line:84% Is not, say, I could have been at Oxford 00:48:35.520 --> 00:48:40.260 align:middle line:84% if my parents had been richer, or if the careers mistress had 00:48:40.260 --> 00:48:45.250 align:middle line:84% not thought Exeter was good enough for me. 00:48:45.250 --> 00:48:48.690 align:middle line:84% It is not misunderstanding, either, 00:48:48.690 --> 00:48:51.060 align:middle line:84% as when at night in the first year 00:48:51.060 --> 00:48:57.360 align:middle line:84% war bombs could have been thunder, and later on in peace, 00:48:57.360 --> 00:49:00.590 align:middle line:90% thunder could have been bombs. 00:49:00.590 --> 00:49:05.650 align:middle line:84% Sights and sounds are more themselves now. 00:49:05.650 --> 00:49:08.760 align:middle line:84% There have been real alternatives. 00:49:08.760 --> 00:49:13.480 align:middle line:84% They have put on weight and yet faded. 00:49:13.480 --> 00:49:18.430 align:middle line:84% Evening walks go past where we could have lived. 00:49:18.430 --> 00:49:22.600 align:middle line:84% The coach house that the mortgage company said 00:49:22.600 --> 00:49:27.840 align:middle line:84% had too much charm, and not enough rooms. 00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:31.430 align:middle line:84% Everywhere I look it is the same. 00:49:31.430 --> 00:49:35.830 align:middle line:84% The churchyard or the other side of the bed. 00:49:35.830 --> 00:49:41.834 align:middle line:84% The one who is not lying there could have been. 00:49:41.834 --> 00:49:44.720 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:49:44.720 --> 00:49:50.020 align:middle line:90% 00:49:50.020 --> 00:49:52.540 align:middle line:84% This poem is called Female Extinct 00:49:52.540 --> 00:49:56.890 align:middle line:84% and it's based on the giant sloth in the Natural History 00:49:56.890 --> 00:49:58.780 align:middle line:90% Museum in South Kensington. 00:49:58.780 --> 00:50:01.030 align:middle line:84% The skeleton, I should say, which 00:50:01.030 --> 00:50:04.720 align:middle line:84% is much more like the skeleton of a dinosaur. 00:50:04.720 --> 00:50:10.720 align:middle line:84% I think that's the most helpful visual picture to have. 00:50:10.720 --> 00:50:17.500 align:middle line:84% I started writing the poem as though the giant sloth was 00:50:17.500 --> 00:50:18.550 align:middle line:90% masculine. 00:50:18.550 --> 00:50:21.190 align:middle line:84% In fact, they can't tell because the skeleton is 00:50:21.190 --> 00:50:28.240 align:middle line:84% rather vestigial, and the poem was rather hanging fire. 00:50:28.240 --> 00:50:31.090 align:middle line:84% So then I realized that what I was really afraid of 00:50:31.090 --> 00:50:35.320 align:middle line:84% was the possibility of my own extinction, 00:50:35.320 --> 00:50:39.380 align:middle line:84% either as cosmic extinction or personal extinction or both. 00:50:39.380 --> 00:50:45.130 align:middle line:84% And then when I made the giant sloth into a female, 00:50:45.130 --> 00:50:48.570 align:middle line:90% the poem went forward. 00:50:48.570 --> 00:50:52.030 align:middle line:90% Female Extinct. 00:50:52.030 --> 00:50:56.500 align:middle line:84% Her rib cage is eked out with bits of wire. 00:50:56.500 --> 00:51:00.430 align:middle line:84% Only gloves have no marrow in them. 00:51:00.430 --> 00:51:04.630 align:middle line:84% You can take her home on a postcard separately. 00:51:04.630 --> 00:51:08.920 align:middle line:84% She once stood up with hundreds, as if to bellow the Hallelujah 00:51:08.920 --> 00:51:10.920 align:middle line:90% Chorus. 00:51:10.920 --> 00:51:14.940 align:middle line:84% Her voice fell forward into the mud. 00:51:14.940 --> 00:51:19.530 align:middle line:84% Her sons, little dragons, all lumbered away. 00:51:19.530 --> 00:51:24.240 align:middle line:84% Her skull was probably left out for seasons in a far pasture, 00:51:24.240 --> 00:51:31.830 align:middle line:84% or on a battlefield, to be gathered up by wilier beings. 00:51:31.830 --> 00:51:36.420 align:middle line:84% The air of the museum snuffles in her nose. 00:51:36.420 --> 00:51:40.560 align:middle line:84% Her passionate jaws shout, give me time. 00:51:40.560 --> 00:51:43.944 align:middle line:90% 00:51:43.944 --> 00:51:46.848 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:51:46.848 --> 00:51:53.160 align:middle line:90% 00:51:53.160 --> 00:52:03.100 align:middle line:84% This poem describes a visit to the south of Spain last year, 00:52:03.100 --> 00:52:06.010 align:middle line:84% and why would like to particularly this evening 00:52:06.010 --> 00:52:10.150 align:middle line:84% is that the very high mountains in the south of Spain 00:52:10.150 --> 00:52:14.260 align:middle line:84% towards the evening give very much the same effect 00:52:14.260 --> 00:52:19.910 align:middle line:84% as the mountains that I've seen here over the past three days. 00:52:19.910 --> 00:52:24.570 align:middle line:84% And I felt I would like to read it for that reason. 00:52:24.570 --> 00:52:27.430 align:middle line:90% To the South. 00:52:27.430 --> 00:52:31.090 align:middle line:84% We have seen nobody the whole afternoon. 00:52:31.090 --> 00:52:35.530 align:middle line:84% Nobody picks the olives nor tends the trees. 00:52:35.530 --> 00:52:41.140 align:middle line:84% Grove after striped grove stays neat by magic. 00:52:41.140 --> 00:52:45.340 align:middle line:84% Where could they spring from, in any case, the husbandmen? 00:52:45.340 --> 00:52:50.260 align:middle line:84% This vegetable kingdom is vast and has no creatures. 00:52:50.260 --> 00:52:54.190 align:middle line:90% The water is too far down. 00:52:54.190 --> 00:52:57.580 align:middle line:84% Coming south through La Mancha it was the same. 00:52:57.580 --> 00:53:00.160 align:middle line:84% There were sheep, diligently eating 00:53:00.160 --> 00:53:04.060 align:middle line:84% nothing, each one the [INAUDIBLE] a globe of dust, 00:53:04.060 --> 00:53:08.380 align:middle line:84% but no men, though fires from the stubble fields 00:53:08.380 --> 00:53:11.980 align:middle line:84% stood yellow in the glare and did not walk. 00:53:11.980 --> 00:53:17.590 align:middle line:84% A battleground of sunflowers sagged black and dead. 00:53:17.590 --> 00:53:22.540 align:middle line:84% The sun moves now, and rolls down towards the olive trees. 00:53:22.540 --> 00:53:26.740 align:middle line:84% Ladder rungs of shadow link the rows. 00:53:26.740 --> 00:53:31.000 align:middle line:84% And now at last the mountains rise up blue. 00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:35.170 align:middle line:84% Two dimensional only, but there is ice in them. 00:53:35.170 --> 00:53:39.970 align:middle line:84% Beyond them the works of man wait from supercilious 00:53:39.970 --> 00:53:43.390 align:middle line:84% arches to candied courtyards where 00:53:43.390 --> 00:53:46.930 align:middle line:90% children and dolls look right. 00:53:46.930 --> 00:53:51.040 align:middle line:84% And the white doves will sleep heavy in the palm 00:53:51.040 --> 00:53:54.988 align:middle line:90% trees like fruit. 00:53:54.988 --> 00:53:57.373 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:53:57.373 --> 00:54:03.100 align:middle line:90% 00:54:03.100 --> 00:54:07.060 align:middle line:84% And to conclude the group from this book Driving 00:54:07.060 --> 00:54:11.590 align:middle line:84% West, two poems that I wrote in the Isles of Scilly 00:54:11.590 --> 00:54:13.300 align:middle line:90% when we were there not long ago. 00:54:13.300 --> 00:54:15.100 align:middle line:84% The first one is called The Accident. 00:54:15.100 --> 00:54:18.160 align:middle line:84% It isn't entirely autobiographical. 00:54:18.160 --> 00:54:21.100 align:middle line:84% It's autobiographical to the extent 00:54:21.100 --> 00:54:23.920 align:middle line:84% that the accident I describe was one which 00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:25.810 align:middle line:90% actually happened to myself. 00:54:25.810 --> 00:54:29.080 align:middle line:84% I fell off a rock and hurt my leg rather badly. 00:54:29.080 --> 00:54:36.640 align:middle line:84% But the woman in the poem is speaking to her husband, 00:54:36.640 --> 00:54:39.050 align:middle line:90% who was not there at the time. 00:54:39.050 --> 00:54:44.240 align:middle line:84% Which wasn't so in the case of my accident. 00:54:44.240 --> 00:54:49.030 align:middle line:84% And there's a strong sense of guilt in the poem. 00:54:49.030 --> 00:54:52.120 align:middle line:84% I wondered for some time where it came from, 00:54:52.120 --> 00:55:01.180 align:middle line:84% but I attribute it to childhood guilt. When one falls down, 00:55:01.180 --> 00:55:06.130 align:middle line:84% one is likely to be ticked off rather than consoled for having 00:55:06.130 --> 00:55:09.670 align:middle line:90% not looked where one was going. 00:55:09.670 --> 00:55:12.600 align:middle line:90% The Accident. 00:55:12.600 --> 00:55:16.620 align:middle line:90% Dear husband, please come to me. 00:55:16.620 --> 00:55:22.830 align:middle line:84% Yesterday I fell on these stern rocks and lie in hospital. 00:55:22.830 --> 00:55:26.190 align:middle line:90% I was wrong to walk here alone. 00:55:26.190 --> 00:55:30.670 align:middle line:90% Please come, for both our sakes. 00:55:30.670 --> 00:55:35.370 align:middle line:84% As I fell I noticed the seagulls above me, 00:55:35.370 --> 00:55:38.910 align:middle line:84% legs dangling, wings pumping, they 00:55:38.910 --> 00:55:43.110 align:middle line:84% yelled out of white breast feathers and spotted beaks. 00:55:43.110 --> 00:55:46.790 align:middle line:90% Then their cliff drew them back. 00:55:46.790 --> 00:55:49.610 align:middle line:84% They wheeled over the bay of quiet sails 00:55:49.610 --> 00:55:53.300 align:middle line:84% and outboard motors, over the coarse grass 00:55:53.300 --> 00:55:57.060 align:middle line:84% and the pink flowers, and went home. 00:55:57.060 --> 00:55:59.670 align:middle line:84% I was the subject of these rocks. 00:55:59.670 --> 00:56:02.450 align:middle line:90% They love theirs. 00:56:02.450 --> 00:56:07.370 align:middle line:84% I fell in obedience to a law like any weak citizen. 00:56:07.370 --> 00:56:09.800 align:middle line:90% Sympathy was their metaphor. 00:56:09.800 --> 00:56:12.600 align:middle line:90% Flesh to stone. 00:56:12.600 --> 00:56:15.060 align:middle line:90% Forgive my clumsiness. 00:56:15.060 --> 00:56:16.590 align:middle line:90% Please come to me. 00:56:16.590 --> 00:56:19.446 align:middle line:90% 00:56:19.446 --> 00:56:21.826 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:56:21.826 --> 00:56:26.110 align:middle line:90% 00:56:26.110 --> 00:56:29.706 align:middle line:84% And this poem is called [? Precorus ?] Thompson. 00:56:29.706 --> 00:56:33.990 align:middle line:90% 00:56:33.990 --> 00:56:37.290 align:middle line:90% Notice [? Precorus ?] Thompson. 00:56:37.290 --> 00:56:40.590 align:middle line:84% He has won a competition with the smallest 00:56:40.590 --> 00:56:44.940 align:middle line:84% bones in the whole churchyard, and the man 00:56:44.940 --> 00:56:51.480 align:middle line:84% sized grave he shares with none tops all the tombstones. 00:56:51.480 --> 00:56:57.660 align:middle line:84% Three months of life, 200 years ago. 00:56:57.660 --> 00:57:01.290 align:middle line:84% From harvest time to ailing in November, 00:57:01.290 --> 00:57:04.080 align:middle line:90% he came to nothing much. 00:57:04.080 --> 00:57:10.380 align:middle line:84% Even that Christmas, not much for anybody to remember. 00:57:10.380 --> 00:57:14.550 align:middle line:84% But little [? Precorus ?] Thompson bides his time. 00:57:14.550 --> 00:57:17.790 align:middle line:84% He is the right length for sightseers 00:57:17.790 --> 00:57:23.250 align:middle line:84% who pay no attention to the corpses that lived for 50, 60, 00:57:23.250 --> 00:57:26.640 align:middle line:90% speaking years. 00:57:26.640 --> 00:57:30.990 align:middle line:84% Evergreen and rank are the paths between the ewe trees, 00:57:30.990 --> 00:57:34.410 align:middle line:84% and lichen creeps like evil over men who 00:57:34.410 --> 00:57:37.320 align:middle line:90% worked hard and dropped dead. 00:57:37.320 --> 00:57:41.730 align:middle line:84% Women at menopause who saw the devil. 00:57:41.730 --> 00:57:45.270 align:middle line:84% The balance of the churchyard must be righted. 00:57:45.270 --> 00:57:49.620 align:middle line:84% May the full grown dead seem interesting. 00:57:49.620 --> 00:57:54.710 align:middle line:84% May all children live longer than [? Precorus ?] Thompson. 00:57:54.710 --> 00:58:00.494 align:middle line:84% Strangle the church tower and the passing bell. 00:58:00.494 --> 00:58:02.924 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:58:02.924 --> 00:58:08.280 align:middle line:90% 00:58:08.280 --> 00:58:13.643 align:middle line:84% And now to finish, just two poems from the book 00:58:13.643 --> 00:58:15.060 align:middle line:84% that I'm working on at the moment. 00:58:15.060 --> 00:58:17.700 align:middle line:90% 00:58:17.700 --> 00:58:22.440 align:middle line:84% This poem is called Telling Them. 00:58:22.440 --> 00:58:24.960 align:middle line:84% And I wrote it in connection with the book 00:58:24.960 --> 00:58:27.840 align:middle line:84% I'm working on at the moment, a prose book, 00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:33.120 align:middle line:84% because I found it in a book of old, old Devon legends. 00:58:33.120 --> 00:58:35.800 align:middle line:90% 00:58:35.800 --> 00:58:39.190 align:middle line:90% Telling Them. 00:58:39.190 --> 00:58:44.170 align:middle line:84% Every twilight the old weaver came back to his attic, 00:58:44.170 --> 00:58:50.410 align:middle line:84% worked till the sun rose on medieval dew and hairs. 00:58:50.410 --> 00:58:53.290 align:middle line:84% Never having been told he was dying, 00:58:53.290 --> 00:58:57.100 align:middle line:84% he did not know he was dead, and left always 00:58:57.100 --> 00:59:00.710 align:middle line:90% in the rhythm of returning. 00:59:00.710 --> 00:59:05.090 align:middle line:84% His son, at first touched, later maddened, 00:59:05.090 --> 00:59:09.710 align:middle line:84% called for the parish priest who brought his bell, his book, 00:59:09.710 --> 00:59:12.590 align:middle line:84% his candle to the full house where 00:59:12.590 --> 00:59:16.760 align:middle line:84% he read and he lit and he rang to tell the old man the truth. 00:59:16.760 --> 00:59:19.940 align:middle line:84% To tell him that we were left [INAUDIBLE].. 00:59:19.940 --> 00:59:23.220 align:middle line:90% His son succeeded. 00:59:23.220 --> 00:59:26.190 align:middle line:84% The handloom and the trappings make 00:59:26.190 --> 00:59:29.940 align:middle line:84% it seem like quite enjoyable story, 00:59:29.940 --> 00:59:33.030 align:middle line:84% but today it is no entertainment. 00:59:33.030 --> 00:59:38.430 align:middle line:84% Not to have told your father that he had terminal cancer. 00:59:38.430 --> 00:59:43.440 align:middle line:84% Night after night he innocently bounds into your dreams, 00:59:43.440 --> 00:59:48.180 align:middle line:84% confident as a dog that he exists and is welcome. 00:59:48.180 --> 00:59:52.960 align:middle line:84% You suffer and sweat and cry out, 00:59:52.960 --> 01:00:00.765 align:middle line:84% but at last you suspect that he knew all along, the old ghost. 01:00:00.765 --> 01:00:03.675 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:00:03.675 --> 01:00:07.080 align:middle line:90% 01:00:07.080 --> 01:00:09.780 align:middle line:84% And I'd like to finish with a poem called Parson Hawkers 01:00:09.780 --> 01:00:11.340 align:middle line:90% Farewell. 01:00:11.340 --> 01:00:16.080 align:middle line:84% Parson Hawker was director of the parish of Morgan Stowe 01:00:16.080 --> 01:00:17.910 align:middle line:90% in the 19th century. 01:00:17.910 --> 01:00:22.380 align:middle line:84% Morgan Stowe is a little parish just inside 01:00:22.380 --> 01:00:27.210 align:middle line:90% from the Cornish, Devon border. 01:00:27.210 --> 01:00:30.630 align:middle line:90% He was an eccentric. 01:00:30.630 --> 01:00:34.200 align:middle line:84% From the cradle I would think, but his eccentricity 01:00:34.200 --> 01:00:37.920 align:middle line:84% was greatly intensified by the fact 01:00:37.920 --> 01:00:42.660 align:middle line:84% that he lived so far away from the civilized world which 01:00:42.660 --> 01:00:43.470 align:middle line:90% he loved. 01:00:43.470 --> 01:00:45.360 align:middle line:84% In those days it was quite a common 01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:49.620 align:middle line:84% saying in England that for every 100 miles 01:00:49.620 --> 01:00:53.520 align:middle line:84% you lived away from London, you were a hundred miles back 01:00:53.520 --> 01:00:56.790 align:middle line:84% in time, and I used to think it was very probably true. 01:00:56.790 --> 01:01:00.570 align:middle line:84% What finally-- well, his spirit never broke, 01:01:00.570 --> 01:01:05.220 align:middle line:84% but what made him peculiarly idiosyncratic 01:01:05.220 --> 01:01:08.460 align:middle line:84% towards the last years of his life 01:01:08.460 --> 01:01:11.310 align:middle line:84% was the series of shipwrecks that 01:01:11.310 --> 01:01:15.480 align:middle line:84% took place on that very wicked piece of coast. 01:01:15.480 --> 01:01:18.000 align:middle line:90% It's terrifying even today. 01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:20.490 align:middle line:84% And of course as the clergyman, he 01:01:20.490 --> 01:01:26.350 align:middle line:84% was called in when even a piece of somebody was [INAUDIBLE].. 01:01:26.350 --> 01:01:30.340 align:middle line:84% His anniversary was celebrated in Morgan Stowe parish church 01:01:30.340 --> 01:01:33.280 align:middle line:84% last autumn, and I was commissioned 01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:36.910 align:middle line:84% to write this poem for it, and I read it 01:01:36.910 --> 01:01:39.460 align:middle line:84% from the pulpit, which gave me great pleasure. 01:01:39.460 --> 01:01:43.990 align:middle line:84% And it was written from a spirit of great affection 01:01:43.990 --> 01:01:51.220 align:middle line:84% that I had felt for Parson Hawker in the course of reading 01:01:51.220 --> 01:01:53.260 align:middle line:84% enough about him to be able to write the poem. 01:01:53.260 --> 01:01:56.450 align:middle line:90% 01:01:56.450 --> 01:01:58.710 align:middle line:90% Parson Hawker's Farewell. 01:01:58.710 --> 01:02:01.720 align:middle line:90% 01:02:01.720 --> 01:02:05.350 align:middle line:84% Let no one wear black at my funeral. 01:02:05.350 --> 01:02:08.440 align:middle line:84% I have not let blackness be the friend to me 01:02:08.440 --> 01:02:10.930 align:middle line:90% it could have been. 01:02:10.930 --> 01:02:14.050 align:middle line:84% The black storm crawling with demons 01:02:14.050 --> 01:02:17.500 align:middle line:90% clambered up the sky each day. 01:02:17.500 --> 01:02:19.300 align:middle line:90% My eyes shrank. 01:02:19.300 --> 01:02:23.050 align:middle line:84% I turned away, and the prince daemon 01:02:23.050 --> 01:02:27.190 align:middle line:90% tore the roof off my house. 01:02:27.190 --> 01:02:30.280 align:middle line:84% I have passed purple and gray to white. 01:02:30.280 --> 01:02:34.210 align:middle line:84% I'm as white now as the ship's figurehead the sea spat out 01:02:34.210 --> 01:02:37.090 align:middle line:90% on the shore one day. 01:02:37.090 --> 01:02:41.020 align:middle line:84% All its paint licked off, it had a body still, 01:02:41.020 --> 01:02:45.070 align:middle line:84% better without gaudiness, a face hinting 01:02:45.070 --> 01:02:46.675 align:middle line:90% at what was behind the colors. 01:02:46.675 --> 01:02:49.760 align:middle line:90% 01:02:49.760 --> 01:02:53.450 align:middle line:84% I have been compassionate at the lich gate. 01:02:53.450 --> 01:02:57.950 align:middle line:84% I have been made hateful by drowned sailors brought to me 01:02:57.950 --> 01:03:02.450 align:middle line:84% every one, some in good clothes, others piecemeal 01:03:02.450 --> 01:03:04.850 align:middle line:84% out of the murk of rock pools where 01:03:04.850 --> 01:03:07.520 align:middle line:84% the biting and shaking sea at last 01:03:07.520 --> 01:03:15.440 align:middle line:84% left them, limbs, dispossessed hearts, all begging for burial. 01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:16.760 align:middle line:90% Those stones. 01:03:16.760 --> 01:03:20.270 align:middle line:90% "A corpse ashore, sir." 01:03:20.270 --> 01:03:24.440 align:middle line:84% The words make me cringe even as the gap narrows 01:03:24.440 --> 01:03:29.630 align:middle line:84% between me and the men I every day sent to Resurrection. 01:03:29.630 --> 01:03:33.590 align:middle line:84% All ended with me and I have been alone. 01:03:33.590 --> 01:03:38.580 align:middle line:84% Even my loving wife cannot ward off the blown leaves that 01:03:38.580 --> 01:03:41.900 align:middle line:90% presage storm. 01:03:41.900 --> 01:03:45.620 align:middle line:84% My fellow clerics care mostly about food. 01:03:45.620 --> 01:03:51.110 align:middle line:84% They eat pigs faces, cannibals, narcissists. 01:03:51.110 --> 01:03:55.070 align:middle line:84% With gluttony they disgust their own angels. 01:03:55.070 --> 01:03:56.930 align:middle line:90% What can I call them? 01:03:56.930 --> 01:04:01.460 align:middle line:84% Some Latin name with a prim mouth and filth in the tail. 01:04:01.460 --> 01:04:02.990 align:middle line:90% They know enough for that. 01:04:02.990 --> 01:04:06.410 align:middle line:90% Pig's feces might do. 01:04:06.410 --> 01:04:09.350 align:middle line:90% You see, I have rage still. 01:04:09.350 --> 01:04:12.020 align:middle line:84% At lifeboat men, at coroners I have 01:04:12.020 --> 01:04:15.350 align:middle line:84% raged, at those who stole my books, 01:04:15.350 --> 01:04:20.300 align:middle line:84% at the demons who chewed up my fields, forcing me to buy corn. 01:04:20.300 --> 01:04:24.800 align:middle line:84% I shall always be angry, but perhaps with a white heat 01:04:24.800 --> 01:04:30.070 align:middle line:84% that Seraphim will sociably glare back at. 01:04:30.070 --> 01:04:34.090 align:middle line:84% Farewell to the bad roads and the steep [INAUDIBLE] 01:04:34.090 --> 01:04:36.820 align:middle line:90% and London remote. 01:04:36.820 --> 01:04:40.450 align:middle line:84% I shall never walk on the cliffs alone again. 01:04:40.450 --> 01:04:45.070 align:middle line:84% My last cats, whose language I spoke fluently, 01:04:45.070 --> 01:04:47.650 align:middle line:90% will outlive me. 01:04:47.650 --> 01:04:51.640 align:middle line:84% Peace and defiance be with you all. 01:04:51.640 --> 01:05:00.560 align:middle line:84% What matters is not money or being feasted, but soul safe. 01:05:00.560 --> 01:05:03.500 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:05:03.500 --> 01:05:19.220 align:middle line:90% 01:05:19.220 --> 01:05:22.760 align:middle line:84% Pete Morgan was born in Lancashire, 01:05:22.760 --> 01:05:25.790 align:middle line:84% educated in Derbyshire, and now lives 01:05:25.790 --> 01:05:29.570 align:middle line:84% in York where he's associated with Loughborough University. 01:05:29.570 --> 01:05:32.090 align:middle line:84% He's written four books of poetry. 01:05:32.090 --> 01:05:38.810 align:middle line:84% A Big Hat or What, Loss of Two Anchors, Poems for Shorty, 01:05:38.810 --> 01:05:42.500 align:middle line:84% and The Gray Mare Being the Better Steed. 01:05:42.500 --> 01:05:44.450 align:middle line:84% I don't want to take up any of his time, 01:05:44.450 --> 01:05:48.053 align:middle line:84% I'm very happy to introduce to you Pete Morgan. 01:05:48.053 --> 01:05:50.508 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:05:50.508 --> 01:05:54.440 align:middle line:90% 01:05:54.440 --> 01:05:55.050 align:middle line:90% Right. 01:05:55.050 --> 01:05:55.550 align:middle line:90% Yes. 01:05:55.550 --> 01:05:57.890 align:middle line:84% I want to begin by reading a poem, which 01:05:57.890 --> 01:06:00.980 align:middle line:84% is from my most recent publication, which is the Gray 01:06:00.980 --> 01:06:03.020 align:middle line:84% Mare Being the Better Steed, but I'm not 01:06:03.020 --> 01:06:05.120 align:middle line:84% going to read it from the book because it's not 01:06:05.120 --> 01:06:07.550 align:middle line:84% published in the form I originally 01:06:07.550 --> 01:06:09.380 align:middle line:90% wanted it to be published. 01:06:09.380 --> 01:06:12.440 align:middle line:84% It's called Ring Song and originally it 01:06:12.440 --> 01:06:15.260 align:middle line:90% was to have been like that. 01:06:15.260 --> 01:06:17.060 align:middle line:84% The thing about it is that it was 01:06:17.060 --> 01:06:21.320 align:middle line:84% to have been a limited edition of 100 copies produced 01:06:21.320 --> 01:06:24.590 align:middle line:84% for the Edinburgh Festival in 1971, 01:06:24.590 --> 01:06:28.670 align:middle line:84% but the printer made a mess of it 01:06:28.670 --> 01:06:34.970 align:middle line:84% and it finished up as a limited edition of two copies, signed. 01:06:34.970 --> 01:06:38.678 align:middle line:84% Signed and numbered by the author. 01:06:38.678 --> 01:06:40.467 align:middle line:84% The idea behind the poem was that you 01:06:40.467 --> 01:06:42.050 align:middle line:84% could come into it wherever you wanted 01:06:42.050 --> 01:06:43.850 align:middle line:90% and leave wherever you wanted. 01:06:43.850 --> 01:06:46.430 align:middle line:90% But I know. 01:06:46.430 --> 01:06:49.030 align:middle line:90% Ring Song. 01:06:49.030 --> 01:06:52.210 align:middle line:84% Once upon a time, there was a story. 01:06:52.210 --> 01:06:56.560 align:middle line:84% It was not a long story, it was a short story, a good story. 01:06:56.560 --> 01:07:01.600 align:middle line:84% It had neither a beginning, a middle, or an end. 01:07:01.600 --> 01:07:03.850 align:middle line:84% First of all the story was told to a child. 01:07:03.850 --> 01:07:07.600 align:middle line:84% The child smiled and said, tell me another. 01:07:07.600 --> 01:07:09.760 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a man of influence. 01:07:09.760 --> 01:07:13.720 align:middle line:90% The man of influence ignored it. 01:07:13.720 --> 01:07:15.520 align:middle line:90% The story was told to a critic. 01:07:15.520 --> 01:07:19.090 align:middle line:84% The critic stuffed his shirt with it. 01:07:19.090 --> 01:07:21.250 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a theologian. 01:07:21.250 --> 01:07:24.370 align:middle line:90% The theologian doubted. 01:07:24.370 --> 01:07:25.990 align:middle line:90% The story was told to a soldier. 01:07:25.990 --> 01:07:30.830 align:middle line:84% The soldier tore off its wings and wore them on his helmet. 01:07:30.830 --> 01:07:32.620 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a politician. 01:07:32.620 --> 01:07:37.270 align:middle line:84% The politician also smiled but said nothing. 01:07:37.270 --> 01:07:39.790 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a government who debated it, 01:07:39.790 --> 01:07:43.840 align:middle line:84% amended it, and finally refused to pass it. 01:07:43.840 --> 01:07:45.700 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a policeman. 01:07:45.700 --> 01:07:49.780 align:middle line:84% The policemen took out his notebook. 01:07:49.780 --> 01:07:51.610 align:middle line:90% The story was told to a judge. 01:07:51.610 --> 01:07:54.050 align:middle line:90% "What is a story?" 01:07:54.050 --> 01:07:55.990 align:middle line:90% asked the judge? 01:07:55.990 --> 01:07:59.620 align:middle line:84% The story was told to the hangman who wove it in his rope 01:07:59.620 --> 01:08:00.850 align:middle line:90% like hair. 01:08:00.850 --> 01:08:03.040 align:middle line:84% The story was told to the man in chains 01:08:03.040 --> 01:08:05.560 align:middle line:90% who made good his escape in it. 01:08:05.560 --> 01:08:08.470 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a juggler who threw it in the air 01:08:08.470 --> 01:08:10.570 align:middle line:84% and caught it, and threw it in the air 01:08:10.570 --> 01:08:14.320 align:middle line:84% and caught it, and threw it in the air. 01:08:14.320 --> 01:08:18.460 align:middle line:84% The story was told to an acrobat who suspended it below him. 01:08:18.460 --> 01:08:20.890 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a sculptor who hammered it 01:08:20.890 --> 01:08:23.560 align:middle line:90% into the shape of his mother. 01:08:23.560 --> 01:08:26.649 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a painter who signed it in the corner 01:08:26.649 --> 01:08:28.810 align:middle line:90% and hung it on the wall. 01:08:28.810 --> 01:08:32.260 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a man of the sea who opened the story 01:08:32.260 --> 01:08:34.270 align:middle line:90% and sailed out upon it. 01:08:34.270 --> 01:08:38.620 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a young girl whose mirror it became. 01:08:38.620 --> 01:08:40.390 align:middle line:90% The story was told to a bird. 01:08:40.390 --> 01:08:43.750 align:middle line:84% The bird built a nest in its branches. 01:08:43.750 --> 01:08:48.760 align:middle line:84% The story was told to a poet and the poet passed on the story. 01:08:48.760 --> 01:08:50.960 align:middle line:90% And this was the story. 01:08:50.960 --> 01:08:53.260 align:middle line:84% Once upon a time, there was a story. 01:08:53.260 --> 01:08:55.029 align:middle line:90% It was not a long story. 01:08:55.029 --> 01:08:56.275 align:middle line:90% It was a short story. 01:08:56.275 --> 01:09:04.840 align:middle line:90% 01:09:04.840 --> 01:09:08.609 align:middle line:84% The child smiled and said, tell me another. 01:09:08.609 --> 01:09:10.950 align:middle line:90% You're ahead of me. 01:09:10.950 --> 01:09:14.729 align:middle line:84% What I want to do now actually, because I am out west 01:09:14.729 --> 01:09:18.330 align:middle line:84% where I've never been before, is to read a very old poem that I 01:09:18.330 --> 01:09:20.100 align:middle line:90% have never, ever read before. 01:09:20.100 --> 01:09:22.890 align:middle line:84% And it's a sort of wild west poem 01:09:22.890 --> 01:09:26.430 align:middle line:84% because it must be 14 years ago I 01:09:26.430 --> 01:09:27.990 align:middle line:84% went to live in Glasgow, which is 01:09:27.990 --> 01:09:31.410 align:middle line:84% an industrial city in the south of Scotland, 01:09:31.410 --> 01:09:34.740 align:middle line:84% and not a terribly pleasant city as 01:09:34.740 --> 01:09:38.770 align:middle line:84% far as the aesthetics of architecture, way of life, 01:09:38.770 --> 01:09:40.290 align:middle line:90% et cetera are concerned. 01:09:40.290 --> 01:09:44.430 align:middle line:84% And in Glasgow there are numerous little gangs of 11 01:09:44.430 --> 01:09:48.630 align:middle line:84% to 14-year-olds but who really run rampant through the town. 01:09:48.630 --> 01:09:51.660 align:middle line:90% And one of them is called Cody. 01:09:51.660 --> 01:09:55.140 align:middle line:84% And I didn't know this, and when I first went to live in Glasgow 01:09:55.140 --> 01:09:57.692 align:middle line:84% and I went to Scotland I suddenly saw these signs. 01:09:57.692 --> 01:10:00.150 align:middle line:84% There are all kinds of gangs, some of them are called Tongs 01:10:00.150 --> 01:10:01.525 align:middle line:84% and then there's another gang who 01:10:01.525 --> 01:10:06.330 align:middle line:84% are younger called Tiny Tongs, and they work in aerosol paint 01:10:06.330 --> 01:10:07.620 align:middle line:90% spray and things like that. 01:10:07.620 --> 01:10:13.350 align:middle line:84% But it was the idea of this gang in such an industrial waste 01:10:13.350 --> 01:10:15.810 align:middle line:90% being called Cody. 01:10:15.810 --> 01:10:17.580 align:middle line:84% And also something in which I think 01:10:17.580 --> 01:10:19.950 align:middle line:84% is particularly English, British, Scottish, 01:10:19.950 --> 01:10:23.370 align:middle line:84% in this case, are the words Cody Rules. 01:10:23.370 --> 01:10:27.120 align:middle line:84% Cody Rules OK, and that seems to be something that is spreading. 01:10:27.120 --> 01:10:29.460 align:middle line:84% You see it all around Britain and I've never yet seen it 01:10:29.460 --> 01:10:30.660 align:middle line:90% in America. 01:10:30.660 --> 01:10:37.860 align:middle line:84% And this poem is called Cody Rules, Cody is OK. 01:10:37.860 --> 01:10:40.050 align:middle line:90% A chill wind up gallowgate. 01:10:40.050 --> 01:10:43.320 align:middle line:84% I read your name outside Malachy's bar. 01:10:43.320 --> 01:10:44.580 align:middle line:90% Cody lives. 01:10:44.580 --> 01:10:47.790 align:middle line:90% Cody rules, OK. 01:10:47.790 --> 01:10:49.560 align:middle line:90% Rain on Argyle Street. 01:10:49.560 --> 01:10:52.140 align:middle line:90% I read your undying tenements. 01:10:52.140 --> 01:10:56.400 align:middle line:90% Cody is, Cody is OK. 01:10:56.400 --> 01:11:00.420 align:middle line:84% Cody rules, striding down Sauchiehall Street, 01:11:00.420 --> 01:11:04.410 align:middle line:84% 12 foot tall on his Palomino, bringing down stars 01:11:04.410 --> 01:11:07.650 align:middle line:84% to dance about our heels, watching the children, 01:11:07.650 --> 01:11:11.580 align:middle line:84% doffing his hat to their 10 gallon dreams. 01:11:11.580 --> 01:11:18.870 align:middle line:84% Cody rules, roping the buffalo ghosts on Glasgow green, 01:11:18.870 --> 01:11:21.630 align:middle line:84% riding shotgun on the last late stage 01:11:21.630 --> 01:11:24.540 align:middle line:90% down the great western road. 01:11:24.540 --> 01:11:27.900 align:middle line:84% Cody rules, and little sharp shooter Annie 01:11:27.900 --> 01:11:32.250 align:middle line:84% stands hand in hand in the neon sunset outside the Cosmo 01:11:32.250 --> 01:11:33.930 align:middle line:90% Cinema. 01:11:33.930 --> 01:11:36.870 align:middle line:90% Cody rules OK. 01:11:36.870 --> 01:11:39.960 align:middle line:84% Where are the high heeled buckskin boots? 01:11:39.960 --> 01:11:43.050 align:middle line:84% Where is the $1,000 rhinestone coat? 01:11:43.050 --> 01:11:46.410 align:middle line:84% Where is the blue eyed Colonel now? 01:11:46.410 --> 01:11:49.440 align:middle line:90% Cody lives, Cody OK. 01:11:49.440 --> 01:11:53.610 align:middle line:84% Selling green and white rosettes outside parkhead on [INAUDIBLE] 01:11:53.610 --> 01:11:56.160 align:middle line:84% writing tongues here bass on chromium 01:11:56.160 --> 01:12:00.210 align:middle line:84% plated bingo halls with an aerosol paint spray. 01:12:00.210 --> 01:12:03.180 align:middle line:90% Cody rules, Cody OK. 01:12:03.180 --> 01:12:06.390 align:middle line:84% Shuffling among deserted tenements, 01:12:06.390 --> 01:12:12.386 align:middle line:84% the last blue tier, still wet on his snow white whiskers. 01:12:12.386 --> 01:12:15.254 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:12:15.254 --> 01:12:19.090 align:middle line:90% 01:12:19.090 --> 01:12:22.720 align:middle line:84% I'm going to go back to the book, which is called The Gray 01:12:22.720 --> 01:12:24.197 align:middle line:90% Mare Being the Better Steed. 01:12:24.197 --> 01:12:26.530 align:middle line:84% You can tell I've never read that poem before, actually. 01:12:26.530 --> 01:12:30.340 align:middle line:90% 01:12:30.340 --> 01:12:33.880 align:middle line:84% Some of the poems in this collection 01:12:33.880 --> 01:12:38.200 align:middle line:84% are particularly musical, and I work fairly extensively 01:12:38.200 --> 01:12:39.400 align:middle line:90% with music. 01:12:39.400 --> 01:12:41.950 align:middle line:84% Not as much as Adrian Henry, who you've already heard from, 01:12:41.950 --> 01:12:45.550 align:middle line:84% who at one time was a singer with a Liverpool rock group 01:12:45.550 --> 01:12:49.270 align:middle line:84% called Liverpool Sin, but with a different kind of music. 01:12:49.270 --> 01:12:50.360 align:middle line:90% And this is one poem. 01:12:50.360 --> 01:12:52.060 align:middle line:90% It's called the White Stallion. 01:12:52.060 --> 01:12:55.810 align:middle line:84% There is the word horse, in it and I shall want to say hoss. 01:12:55.810 --> 01:12:58.570 align:middle line:84% I will kindly refrain from doing so. 01:12:58.570 --> 01:13:01.210 align:middle line:90% 01:13:01.210 --> 01:13:04.570 align:middle line:84% It has a lot to do with the title of the collection. 01:13:04.570 --> 01:13:05.650 align:middle line:90% It's an early love poem. 01:13:05.650 --> 01:13:09.250 align:middle line:90% 01:13:09.250 --> 01:13:13.750 align:middle line:84% That was that horse that I found there, my white one, 01:13:13.750 --> 01:13:17.500 align:middle line:84% big, tall, and lean as, and mean as hell. 01:13:17.500 --> 01:13:22.150 align:middle line:84% And people who saw me would stare as I passed them and say, 01:13:22.150 --> 01:13:23.410 align:middle line:90% look at him. 01:13:23.410 --> 01:13:26.200 align:middle line:90% How he rides his cock horse. 01:13:26.200 --> 01:13:28.990 align:middle line:84% But my steed, the white stallion, 01:13:28.990 --> 01:13:34.330 align:middle line:84% stormed into the moonlight, and on it was me. 01:13:34.330 --> 01:13:36.340 align:middle line:84% There were those girls that I found 01:13:36.340 --> 01:13:40.540 align:middle line:84% then, my loved ones, small fat and mean ones and maidens 01:13:40.540 --> 01:13:41.740 align:middle line:90% as well. 01:13:41.740 --> 01:13:44.080 align:middle line:84% And those girls who saw me would weep 01:13:44.080 --> 01:13:47.830 align:middle line:84% as I passed them, and cry, "Look at him. 01:13:47.830 --> 01:13:50.650 align:middle line:90% How he rides his cock horse." 01:13:50.650 --> 01:13:53.410 align:middle line:84% But my steed, the white stallion, 01:13:53.410 --> 01:13:58.690 align:middle line:84% went proud in the still night, and on it was me. 01:13:58.690 --> 01:14:01.090 align:middle line:84% There was one girl that I loved then, 01:14:01.090 --> 01:14:05.200 align:middle line:84% a woman as tall and as light as a woman should be. 01:14:05.200 --> 01:14:09.100 align:middle line:84% And soon as I saw her I dismounted my stallion 01:14:09.100 --> 01:14:13.930 align:middle line:84% to stay by the woman whose love I required. 01:14:13.930 --> 01:14:16.780 align:middle line:84% But my steed, the white stallion, 01:14:16.780 --> 01:14:22.240 align:middle line:84% rode off in the moonlight, and on it was she. 01:14:22.240 --> 01:14:26.020 align:middle line:84% Goodbye to the horse, to the woman and stallion. 01:14:26.020 --> 01:14:29.710 align:middle line:84% Farewell to my cock horse and loving as well. 01:14:29.710 --> 01:14:33.460 align:middle line:84% To people who see me and stare as I pass them, 01:14:33.460 --> 01:14:35.800 align:middle line:90% I wail, "Look at me. 01:14:35.800 --> 01:14:38.680 align:middle line:90% I once rode a cock horse. 01:14:38.680 --> 01:14:43.960 align:middle line:84% But my steed, the white stallion is lost in the moonlight, 01:14:43.960 --> 01:14:47.148 align:middle line:90% and on it rides she." 01:14:47.148 --> 01:14:50.052 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:14:50.052 --> 01:14:51.020 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:14:51.020 --> 01:14:53.930 align:middle line:90% 01:14:53.930 --> 01:14:57.080 align:middle line:84% The first poem in the book is called Disguise. 01:14:57.080 --> 01:14:59.850 align:middle line:84% It really ought to have been dedicated to my parents. 01:14:59.850 --> 01:15:03.470 align:middle line:84% And it's a bit of an oversight that Disguise, 01:15:03.470 --> 01:15:06.260 align:middle line:84% it's a poem that came out on some of the broadsheets 01:15:06.260 --> 01:15:08.150 align:middle line:90% you will have received. 01:15:08.150 --> 01:15:10.820 align:middle line:84% So I don't know whether it will be nice for you having 01:15:10.820 --> 01:15:13.250 align:middle line:90% read it to hear it, but anyway. 01:15:13.250 --> 01:15:16.230 align:middle line:90% 01:15:16.230 --> 01:15:19.680 align:middle line:84% Having penetrated my disguise with lengths 01:15:19.680 --> 01:15:24.210 align:middle line:84% of predictable steel, and not a little wit, 01:15:24.210 --> 01:15:26.940 align:middle line:84% they, in their indefinite wisdom, 01:15:26.940 --> 01:15:32.700 align:middle line:84% scoured my skin with intricate designs of their own choosing. 01:15:32.700 --> 01:15:35.490 align:middle line:84% Having failed to obliterate their scars 01:15:35.490 --> 01:15:38.490 align:middle line:84% with numberless additional disguises, 01:15:38.490 --> 01:15:43.710 align:middle line:84% and frequent unsuccessful experiments with water, fire, 01:15:43.710 --> 01:15:49.560 align:middle line:84% and love, I discovered somewhat later and quite by accident 01:15:49.560 --> 01:15:53.060 align:middle line:90% that each scar was moveable. 01:15:53.060 --> 01:15:54.440 align:middle line:90% Ah-ha. 01:15:54.440 --> 01:15:56.960 align:middle line:84% Carefully, now, and in complete privacy 01:15:56.960 --> 01:16:00.650 align:middle line:84% I move the markings over my body and slid them 01:16:00.650 --> 01:16:06.290 align:middle line:84% one by one into the darkness inside it and very much out 01:16:06.290 --> 01:16:08.140 align:middle line:90% of sight. 01:16:08.140 --> 01:16:12.220 align:middle line:84% Children, you need no longer be afraid. 01:16:12.220 --> 01:16:16.060 align:middle line:84% You can have a laugh with Lumpy now. 01:16:16.060 --> 01:16:17.350 align:middle line:90% Come closer. 01:16:17.350 --> 01:16:19.480 align:middle line:90% Look at my disguise. 01:16:19.480 --> 01:16:23.110 align:middle line:84% Never let me catch you looking in my eyes. 01:16:23.110 --> 01:16:25.920 align:middle line:90% 01:16:25.920 --> 01:16:28.860 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:16:28.860 --> 01:16:32.300 align:middle line:90% 01:16:32.300 --> 01:16:35.360 align:middle line:84% Tell us some water down here if Adrian hasn't [INAUDIBLE].. 01:16:35.360 --> 01:16:38.240 align:middle line:90% 01:16:38.240 --> 01:16:40.340 align:middle line:84% I said that some poems were musical, 01:16:40.340 --> 01:16:43.820 align:middle line:90% and this is one that has been-- 01:16:43.820 --> 01:16:46.490 align:middle line:84% I always want to say that a poem has been set to music, 01:16:46.490 --> 01:16:48.350 align:middle line:84% and then somebody put me wise the other day 01:16:48.350 --> 01:16:52.580 align:middle line:84% and said no, music has been set to the poem, which is 01:16:52.580 --> 01:16:54.200 align:middle line:90% a lot nicer way of putting it. 01:16:54.200 --> 01:16:57.960 align:middle line:84% But this is a poem which originally was in this form, 01:16:57.960 --> 01:16:59.480 align:middle line:84% and then it was a singer-songwriter 01:16:59.480 --> 01:17:03.530 align:middle line:84% called Al Stewart who I believe now lives over here 01:17:03.530 --> 01:17:07.070 align:middle line:84% in the States, has recorded it on one of his album, 01:17:07.070 --> 01:17:08.570 align:middle line:90% called There As She Flies. 01:17:08.570 --> 01:17:11.420 align:middle line:84% And he made it into a song that sounded very much like-- he's 01:17:11.420 --> 01:17:14.210 align:middle line:90% not here, is he? 01:17:14.210 --> 01:17:19.190 align:middle line:84% Which sounded very much like Hit the Road, Jack. 01:17:19.190 --> 01:17:21.770 align:middle line:84% It's very funny actually, why I say is Al Stewart here, 01:17:21.770 --> 01:17:25.430 align:middle line:84% because I was once present at one of Al's concerts 01:17:25.430 --> 01:17:27.500 align:middle line:84% when he didn't know that I was in the audience, 01:17:27.500 --> 01:17:29.390 align:middle line:84% and he told the most terrible lies. 01:17:29.390 --> 01:17:32.690 align:middle line:90% 01:17:32.690 --> 01:17:35.930 align:middle line:84% He said-- I actually was there and he said something about, 01:17:35.930 --> 01:17:39.050 align:middle line:84% this is a poem that was written by a guy called Pete Morgan, 01:17:39.050 --> 01:17:41.780 align:middle line:84% he's on the breadline, I don't know what he's doing now. 01:17:41.780 --> 01:17:44.372 align:middle line:84% He's probably driving a bus in Glasgow. 01:17:44.372 --> 01:17:45.830 align:middle line:84% All this kind of thing, and there I 01:17:45.830 --> 01:17:47.372 align:middle line:84% was at the back of the hall, and when 01:17:47.372 --> 01:17:50.690 align:middle line:84% I went over backstage during the interval and saw him, 01:17:50.690 --> 01:17:51.740 align:middle line:90% he was quite-- 01:17:51.740 --> 01:17:53.660 align:middle line:84% as we say in Yorkshire, gobsmacked. 01:17:53.660 --> 01:17:58.230 align:middle line:90% 01:17:58.230 --> 01:18:01.980 align:middle line:84% Anyway, here's the poem as it was originally intended. 01:18:01.980 --> 01:18:04.180 align:middle line:84% It became a sort of signature tune of mine, 01:18:04.180 --> 01:18:09.700 align:middle line:84% and it's called My Enemies Have Sweet Voices. 01:18:09.700 --> 01:18:14.050 align:middle line:84% A bar called Paradise, the fiddler from the band asked me, 01:18:14.050 --> 01:18:17.440 align:middle line:90% "Why do you stand here crying?" 01:18:17.440 --> 01:18:21.640 align:middle line:84% I answered him, "Musician, this may come as a surprise. 01:18:21.640 --> 01:18:24.280 align:middle line:84% I was trying to split the difference 01:18:24.280 --> 01:18:27.880 align:middle line:90% when it split before my eyes." 01:18:27.880 --> 01:18:30.130 align:middle line:90% My enemies have sweet voices. 01:18:30.130 --> 01:18:32.500 align:middle line:90% Their tones are soft and kind. 01:18:32.500 --> 01:18:39.100 align:middle line:84% When I hear, my heart rejoices, and I do not seem to mind. 01:18:39.100 --> 01:18:41.200 align:middle line:90% I was playing Bragg in bedlam. 01:18:41.200 --> 01:18:43.255 align:middle line:84% The doctor wouldn't deal, asking, 01:18:43.255 --> 01:18:48.790 align:middle line:84% "Why does he kneel down Weeping " I answered him, "Physician, 01:18:48.790 --> 01:18:51.070 align:middle line:90% I think you would have cried. 01:18:51.070 --> 01:18:53.920 align:middle line:84% I was falling back on failure when 01:18:53.920 --> 01:18:57.100 align:middle line:90% the failure stepped aside." 01:18:57.100 --> 01:19:01.900 align:middle line:84% My enemies have sweet voices, their tones are soft and kind. 01:19:01.900 --> 01:19:08.020 align:middle line:84% When I hear my heart rejoices and I do not seem to mind. 01:19:08.020 --> 01:19:12.220 align:middle line:84% I was blind side to the gutter when Merlin happened by, 01:19:12.220 --> 01:19:15.730 align:middle line:84% asking, "Do you lie there bleeding?" 01:19:15.730 --> 01:19:19.940 align:middle line:84% I answered him, "Magician, as a matter of fact, 01:19:19.940 --> 01:19:25.720 align:middle line:84% I was jumping to conclusions, and one of them jumped back." 01:19:25.720 --> 01:19:28.630 align:middle line:90% My enemies have sweet voices. 01:19:28.630 --> 01:19:31.600 align:middle line:90% Their tones are soft and kind. 01:19:31.600 --> 01:19:38.251 align:middle line:84% When I hear, my heart rejoices and I do not seem to mind. 01:19:38.251 --> 01:19:40.736 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:19:40.736 --> 01:19:42.730 align:middle line:90% 01:19:42.730 --> 01:19:43.507 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 01:19:43.507 --> 01:19:46.130 align:middle line:90% 01:19:46.130 --> 01:19:48.980 align:middle line:84% I would like to move on now to something. 01:19:48.980 --> 01:19:53.960 align:middle line:84% I read from this big mouth work in progress. 01:19:53.960 --> 01:19:56.600 align:middle line:84% This is a sequence of nine poems. 01:19:56.600 --> 01:19:58.850 align:middle line:84% You won't realize from out there, but each one of them 01:19:58.850 --> 01:20:03.110 align:middle line:84% is based on a very strict form of 136 syllables, 01:20:03.110 --> 01:20:04.530 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 01:20:04.530 --> 01:20:05.240 align:middle line:90% I can't remember. 01:20:05.240 --> 01:20:07.970 align:middle line:84% I remember when I wrote it, but I can't remember now. 01:20:07.970 --> 01:20:10.578 align:middle line:84% It's called A Poet's Deaths, and there are nine of them. 01:20:10.578 --> 01:20:12.620 align:middle line:84% It's very significant that there are nine of them 01:20:12.620 --> 01:20:15.060 align:middle line:84% because in the way that the cat has nine lives, 01:20:15.060 --> 01:20:17.810 align:middle line:84% so I hope the poet has nine deaths. 01:20:17.810 --> 01:20:21.440 align:middle line:84% In a way the poems are nothing to do with death at all. 01:20:21.440 --> 01:20:24.650 align:middle line:84% They're something to do with the indulgences of being 01:20:24.650 --> 01:20:26.880 align:middle line:84% a poet who earns his living from his writing, 01:20:26.880 --> 01:20:29.960 align:middle line:90% as I do-- as we all do. 01:20:29.960 --> 01:20:32.750 align:middle line:84% All three of us that you've had on tonight. 01:20:32.750 --> 01:20:35.280 align:middle line:84% Some of the poems need a little explanation. 01:20:35.280 --> 01:20:37.880 align:middle line:84% And one or two of them have been Americanized, 01:20:37.880 --> 01:20:41.870 align:middle line:84% because I very quickly ran into a problem of sort of words, 01:20:41.870 --> 01:20:44.990 align:middle line:84% like you don't know what a Foden is. 01:20:44.990 --> 01:20:46.100 align:middle line:90% Yeah, a Foden. 01:20:46.100 --> 01:20:50.480 align:middle line:84% So without interrupting the syllable count 01:20:50.480 --> 01:20:53.210 align:middle line:84% I was able to make that Mack Truck. 01:20:53.210 --> 01:20:55.650 align:middle line:90% Little things like that. 01:20:55.650 --> 01:21:00.395 align:middle line:84% So when I get back home, I revert to Foden. 01:21:00.395 --> 01:21:02.270 align:middle line:84% The thing is, that as I was sort of traveling 01:21:02.270 --> 01:21:03.800 align:middle line:84% around the country doing readings, 01:21:03.800 --> 01:21:07.920 align:middle line:84% I began to think that I wasn't writing very much. 01:21:07.920 --> 01:21:10.130 align:middle line:84% And if I wasn't very careful, I was 01:21:10.130 --> 01:21:14.840 align:middle line:84% going to die before I had done completed my life's work, 01:21:14.840 --> 01:21:17.180 align:middle line:90% you see. 01:21:17.180 --> 01:21:18.260 align:middle line:90% And I got these visions. 01:21:18.260 --> 01:21:21.770 align:middle line:84% Dizzy visions of my own death in the most unlikely 01:21:21.770 --> 01:21:25.340 align:middle line:84% places, and worried about them terribly, and then 01:21:25.340 --> 01:21:27.240 align:middle line:90% began to write about them. 01:21:27.240 --> 01:21:30.718 align:middle line:84% So Adrian mentioned poets who write about writing poems 01:21:30.718 --> 01:21:31.260 align:middle line:90% all the time. 01:21:31.260 --> 01:21:33.740 align:middle line:84% Well, this isn't exactly that, but it's something 01:21:33.740 --> 01:21:37.070 align:middle line:90% fairly closely akin to it. 01:21:37.070 --> 01:21:38.870 align:middle line:90% Explain. 01:21:38.870 --> 01:21:40.040 align:middle line:90% North. 01:21:40.040 --> 01:21:41.630 align:middle line:84% The industrial north of England is 01:21:41.630 --> 01:21:44.120 align:middle line:84% where I live, a Morris convertible, 01:21:44.120 --> 01:21:49.430 align:middle line:84% you probably all know is a small soft top Morris car. 01:21:49.430 --> 01:21:51.500 align:middle line:90% One. 01:21:51.500 --> 01:21:55.100 align:middle line:84% A hay wain trundles from a hay field to a farm. 01:21:55.100 --> 01:21:58.520 align:middle line:84% Two farm workers have been drinking cider. 01:21:58.520 --> 01:22:01.550 align:middle line:90% They are content in evening sun. 01:22:01.550 --> 01:22:05.840 align:middle line:84% They laugh, they point, they block the road. 01:22:05.840 --> 01:22:09.260 align:middle line:84% The poet, the troubadour, returning to the north 01:22:09.260 --> 01:22:11.720 align:middle line:90% has seen it all before. 01:22:11.720 --> 01:22:13.550 align:middle line:90% He waits for change. 01:22:13.550 --> 01:22:16.010 align:middle line:84% His foot is hard down to the floor 01:22:16.010 --> 01:22:18.260 align:middle line:90% of his Morris convertible. 01:22:18.260 --> 01:22:23.450 align:middle line:84% The smell of summer wafts in [INAUDIBLE] Discord blossoms 01:22:23.450 --> 01:22:24.890 align:middle line:90% trouble in the air. 01:22:24.890 --> 01:22:28.070 align:middle line:84% The poet is about to overtake, a pitchfork 01:22:28.070 --> 01:22:34.280 align:middle line:84% pins the canvas of the roof and pins the poet to the door. 01:22:34.280 --> 01:22:37.700 align:middle line:84% Two, the [INAUDIBLE] is a forest in Scotland. 01:22:37.700 --> 01:22:40.620 align:middle line:90% 01:22:40.620 --> 01:22:44.820 align:middle line:84% The poet, the pyromaniac, is impressed by the dry potential 01:22:44.820 --> 01:22:47.190 align:middle line:90% of the [INAUDIBLE]. 01:22:47.190 --> 01:22:50.700 align:middle line:84% His way into the woods is barred by brittle undergrowth 01:22:50.700 --> 01:22:54.300 align:middle line:84% that snaps like sparrow bones behind him. 01:22:54.300 --> 01:22:58.260 align:middle line:84% Already lost, the poet plunders on and somewhere 01:22:58.260 --> 01:23:00.810 align:middle line:84% near the center of the wood he stoops, 01:23:00.810 --> 01:23:03.960 align:middle line:84% and with his fingers rakes the bracken and the touch 01:23:03.960 --> 01:23:05.220 align:middle line:90% dry lichen. 01:23:05.220 --> 01:23:07.560 align:middle line:90% A match spits fire. 01:23:07.560 --> 01:23:09.090 align:middle line:90% The quick flames lick. 01:23:09.090 --> 01:23:11.490 align:middle line:90% A bird breaks cover for the sky. 01:23:11.490 --> 01:23:14.550 align:middle line:90% The [INAUDIBLE] cackles. 01:23:14.550 --> 01:23:17.730 align:middle line:90% The poet sees the final joke. 01:23:17.730 --> 01:23:21.810 align:middle line:84% His eyes at last are full of fire. 01:23:21.810 --> 01:23:24.450 align:middle line:90% 01:23:24.450 --> 01:23:25.680 align:middle line:90% Three. 01:23:25.680 --> 01:23:27.930 align:middle line:84% There's a literary reference in this, and those of you 01:23:27.930 --> 01:23:29.460 align:middle line:84% who know your Kenneth Patch and will 01:23:29.460 --> 01:23:32.190 align:middle line:90% get the literary reference. 01:23:32.190 --> 01:23:35.070 align:middle line:84% The poet, homing in on home at 1:00 AM 01:23:35.070 --> 01:23:37.980 align:middle line:84% is gnawed by guilt. He would have sooner 01:23:37.980 --> 01:23:42.630 align:middle line:84% had an evening with the wife who won't believe him. 01:23:42.630 --> 01:23:47.190 align:middle line:84% Across the street, he watches, young man watching him. 01:23:47.190 --> 01:23:50.580 align:middle line:84% He thinks of lemon colored gloves. 01:23:50.580 --> 01:23:52.590 align:middle line:90% Wait, wait. 01:23:52.590 --> 01:23:55.380 align:middle line:84% He grins at trouble through his teeth. 01:23:55.380 --> 01:23:57.810 align:middle line:90% Wait, wait, now. 01:23:57.810 --> 01:24:00.240 align:middle line:84% Light on the steel is like quick fish at his eyes. 01:24:00.240 --> 01:24:01.770 align:middle line:84% The poet falls, the boots come in. 01:24:01.770 --> 01:24:02.820 align:middle line:90% Crap, run. 01:24:02.820 --> 01:24:06.390 align:middle line:84% From where he lies the poet watches one last street lamp 01:24:06.390 --> 01:24:07.890 align:middle line:90% watching him. 01:24:07.890 --> 01:24:13.560 align:middle line:84% It's flicker cuts on cobbles, then dissolves as on his lips 01:24:13.560 --> 01:24:19.000 align:middle line:90% the dark blood bubbles, bursts. 01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:21.100 align:middle line:90% Four. 01:24:21.100 --> 01:24:25.030 align:middle line:84% The poet, the performer, returning from the festival 01:24:25.030 --> 01:24:28.450 align:middle line:84% where he has told it like it is with his white suit, 01:24:28.450 --> 01:24:31.510 align:middle line:84% his starry shirt, his glitter and mascara, 01:24:31.510 --> 01:24:37.240 align:middle line:84% clicks on the Hitachi ultrasound and swings his Mercedes 2000 SL 01:24:37.240 --> 01:24:42.700 align:middle line:84% into the path of an oncoming Mack truck. 01:24:42.700 --> 01:24:45.850 align:middle line:84% The vehicles clash and bounce like rams. 01:24:45.850 --> 01:24:49.420 align:middle line:84% The glitter of that final night spurts from the poet's head 01:24:49.420 --> 01:24:53.230 align:middle line:90% like water from a dam. 01:24:53.230 --> 01:24:56.890 align:middle line:84% The head is haloed in small stars. 01:24:56.890 --> 01:24:59.320 align:middle line:84% He does not see the glitter fall. 01:24:59.320 --> 01:25:05.050 align:middle line:84% He freezes frame on that and on himself. 01:25:05.050 --> 01:25:06.700 align:middle line:90% Five. 01:25:06.700 --> 01:25:10.240 align:middle line:90% Reluctantly, the poet flies. 01:25:10.240 --> 01:25:15.370 align:middle line:84% Hauled from an age of steam by pride and lust for money, 01:25:15.370 --> 01:25:19.840 align:middle line:84% he fastens the seatbelt and stubs his [INAUDIBLE].. 01:25:19.840 --> 01:25:23.890 align:middle line:84% A fairyland of bright suburbia slips and diminishes 01:25:23.890 --> 01:25:25.360 align:middle line:90% beneath him. 01:25:25.360 --> 01:25:30.010 align:middle line:84% All of altitude has lost authority. 01:25:30.010 --> 01:25:34.000 align:middle line:84% From his window seat the wingtip fold like foil, 01:25:34.000 --> 01:25:37.060 align:middle line:90% spin off slowly into blue. 01:25:37.060 --> 01:25:41.050 align:middle line:84% The poet, falling, wonders if his name will 01:25:41.050 --> 01:25:43.810 align:middle line:84% be noted from the list of passengers, 01:25:43.810 --> 01:25:48.400 align:middle line:84% and if he will rate an obituary, and of how many column inches. 01:25:48.400 --> 01:25:50.970 align:middle line:90% 01:25:50.970 --> 01:25:52.410 align:middle line:90% Six. 01:25:52.410 --> 01:25:55.320 align:middle line:90% The poet is a host to pain. 01:25:55.320 --> 01:26:00.000 align:middle line:84% Pain travels through the poet like a rat through a sewer. 01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:03.780 align:middle line:84% In dark, it visited the wrist, a string of pain like fairy 01:26:03.780 --> 01:26:06.240 align:middle line:90% lights flicked on, flicked off. 01:26:06.240 --> 01:26:11.100 align:middle line:84% In light the poet wakes to find that all that pain packs tight 01:26:11.100 --> 01:26:13.410 align:middle line:84% between the finger and the thumb. 01:26:13.410 --> 01:26:15.510 align:middle line:90% A nub of pain. 01:26:15.510 --> 01:26:18.990 align:middle line:84% Stretching the hand in half light at the window, 01:26:18.990 --> 01:26:20.460 align:middle line:90% he turns the hand. 01:26:20.460 --> 01:26:23.850 align:middle line:90% He graces pain with art. 01:26:23.850 --> 01:26:26.670 align:middle line:90% The poet has his game with pain. 01:26:26.670 --> 01:26:29.910 align:middle line:90% Where will pain next be? 01:26:29.910 --> 01:26:34.710 align:middle line:84% He wavers between the brain, the groin, the heart, 01:26:34.710 --> 01:26:37.995 align:middle line:84% and one day will awaken and be right. 01:26:37.995 --> 01:26:40.850 align:middle line:90% 01:26:40.850 --> 01:26:42.650 align:middle line:90% Seven. 01:26:42.650 --> 01:26:46.580 align:middle line:84% The poet, the gigolo, absent from the wife and the mother, 01:26:46.580 --> 01:26:49.970 align:middle line:84% absent from the black might of the Holy Roman Empire, 01:26:49.970 --> 01:26:54.950 align:middle line:84% somehow keeps his head and holds his vulnerable charm. 01:26:54.950 --> 01:26:57.170 align:middle line:84% Absent from the husband and the father, 01:26:57.170 --> 01:27:01.820 align:middle line:84% and the children sleeping in the next room, she comes to him. 01:27:01.820 --> 01:27:05.420 align:middle line:84% Later, she will tell him he is the first, 01:27:05.420 --> 01:27:10.670 align:middle line:84% and not as he presumed the last of a long, long line of poets 01:27:10.670 --> 01:27:13.460 align:middle line:90% and singers, fellow sufferers. 01:27:13.460 --> 01:27:18.680 align:middle line:84% He will be quickly terrified, as 'round her door there slowly 01:27:18.680 --> 01:27:21.455 align:middle line:84% looms the wrong end of a shotgun. 01:27:21.455 --> 01:27:24.920 align:middle line:90% 01:27:24.920 --> 01:27:28.160 align:middle line:90% Eight, explain Maritza. 01:27:28.160 --> 01:27:32.990 align:middle line:84% It's an all metal American typewriter. 01:27:32.990 --> 01:27:36.830 align:middle line:84% The poet in his garret is by beauty of the quick light 01:27:36.830 --> 01:27:40.640 align:middle line:84% cracking the horizon, closing in and entering. 01:27:40.640 --> 01:27:46.220 align:middle line:84% Entering his window, entering his Maritza, ramming into him. 01:27:46.220 --> 01:27:48.860 align:middle line:84% His white fingers weld to the machine 01:27:48.860 --> 01:27:52.670 align:middle line:84% as the poet is thrown backwards to his books. 01:27:52.670 --> 01:27:58.220 align:middle line:84% About his ears, his friends' slim volumes slide. 01:27:58.220 --> 01:28:01.220 align:middle line:84% He had been contemplating death and will not 01:28:01.220 --> 01:28:06.360 align:middle line:84% crawl from slow flame curling at his heels. 01:28:06.360 --> 01:28:09.410 align:middle line:84% He will lean back and will seem to sleep. 01:28:09.410 --> 01:28:15.500 align:middle line:84% He will slip into that dark like slipping in to water 01:28:15.500 --> 01:28:16.370 align:middle line:90% to the eyes. 01:28:16.370 --> 01:28:19.080 align:middle line:90% 01:28:19.080 --> 01:28:21.090 align:middle line:90% Nine. 01:28:21.090 --> 01:28:24.330 align:middle line:84% It was not that he became a lesser poet, 01:28:24.330 --> 01:28:27.870 align:middle line:84% neither did he consciously stop writing. 01:28:27.870 --> 01:28:30.840 align:middle line:84% Seven years in that same city and he 01:28:30.840 --> 01:28:33.660 align:middle line:90% hightailed out for anywhere. 01:28:33.660 --> 01:28:37.050 align:middle line:84% For 18 months he kept the back door open, 01:28:37.050 --> 01:28:41.790 align:middle line:84% let the task as a bond in case the country palled. 01:28:41.790 --> 01:28:44.280 align:middle line:90% The country was his death. 01:28:44.280 --> 01:28:46.440 align:middle line:90% It did not pall. 01:28:46.440 --> 01:28:51.720 align:middle line:84% 100 miles from the nearest poet, friend, and therefore critic, 01:28:51.720 --> 01:28:54.210 align:middle line:90% he found a new freedom. 01:28:54.210 --> 01:28:58.320 align:middle line:84% A freedom to write what he wanted, when he wanted. 01:28:58.320 --> 01:29:06.280 align:middle line:84% A freedom not to have to write, to keep his poems in his head. 01:29:06.280 --> 01:29:08.232 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 01:29:08.232 --> 01:29:09.696 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 01:29:09.696 --> 01:29:16.060 align:middle line:90% 01:29:16.060 --> 01:29:19.570 align:middle line:84% I'm going to close with this one poem, which 01:29:19.570 --> 01:29:25.270 align:middle line:84% is, I owe you an apology, because I've been reading 01:29:25.270 --> 01:29:29.200 align:middle line:84% this poem some considerable time and it mentions 168 pounds. 01:29:29.200 --> 01:29:31.660 align:middle line:84% If you listen out for it you might hear it. 01:29:31.660 --> 01:29:35.350 align:middle line:84% The thing about 168 pounds, why the apology is due 01:29:35.350 --> 01:29:38.710 align:middle line:84% is because that is the average weight of the American male. 01:29:38.710 --> 01:29:42.400 align:middle line:84% It must be true, I read it in the papers. 01:29:42.400 --> 01:29:44.410 align:middle line:84% We sort of like the New York Times 01:29:44.410 --> 01:29:46.600 align:middle line:84% publishes the rugby league results, 01:29:46.600 --> 01:29:49.540 align:middle line:84% and I was able to read that my home team, which 01:29:49.540 --> 01:29:51.250 align:middle line:84% is a place called Leigh in Lancashire, 01:29:51.250 --> 01:29:54.310 align:middle line:84% drew 12 all with Castleburg when I was flying somewhere 01:29:54.310 --> 01:29:55.340 align:middle line:90% over Florida. 01:29:55.340 --> 01:29:57.880 align:middle line:84% So the English press is full of useless information, 01:29:57.880 --> 01:30:00.190 align:middle line:84% like the average weight of the American male. 01:30:00.190 --> 01:30:02.320 align:middle line:84% But you see, this is supposed to be a poem 01:30:02.320 --> 01:30:04.840 align:middle line:90% about us, and about everybody. 01:30:04.840 --> 01:30:07.630 align:middle line:84% The thing is that we don't produce statistics like that, 01:30:07.630 --> 01:30:10.690 align:middle line:84% and you do, so I used 168 pounds. 01:30:10.690 --> 01:30:13.450 align:middle line:84% And anyway it's probably changed by now. 01:30:13.450 --> 01:30:15.610 align:middle line:84% The thing is that the poem was originally conceived 01:30:15.610 --> 01:30:19.930 align:middle line:84% as a radio piece, if it was conceived at all. 01:30:19.930 --> 01:30:22.900 align:middle line:84% And it had lots of sound effects going on behind it. 01:30:22.900 --> 01:30:27.250 align:middle line:84% It needs a sort of boxing match ramble going on in the back, 01:30:27.250 --> 01:30:29.050 align:middle line:90% and it also needs a bell. 01:30:29.050 --> 01:30:30.310 align:middle line:90% I have done this with a bell. 01:30:30.310 --> 01:30:32.102 align:middle line:84% I used to have a man who came round with me 01:30:32.102 --> 01:30:35.210 align:middle line:84% and whose job it was solely to ring the bell, 01:30:35.210 --> 01:30:36.460 align:middle line:90% but he wasn't very good at it. 01:30:36.460 --> 01:30:38.350 align:middle line:84% And on one occasion I sort of said, "Look, 01:30:38.350 --> 01:30:39.910 align:middle line:84% when I say ring the bell, I mean--" 01:30:39.910 --> 01:30:41.860 align:middle line:84% because I got a bit carried away in it, 01:30:41.860 --> 01:30:43.420 align:middle line:90% I said, "I mean ring the bell." 01:30:43.420 --> 01:30:46.150 align:middle line:84% Swung the bell and in his horror of having let me down 01:30:46.150 --> 01:30:48.880 align:middle line:84% he let go the piece of string just as I hit the bell, 01:30:48.880 --> 01:30:54.100 align:middle line:84% and I saw this brass bell whipping across the auditorium, 01:30:54.100 --> 01:30:55.930 align:middle line:84% and it hit a member of the audience 01:30:55.930 --> 01:30:57.910 align:middle line:90% over the bridge of the nose. 01:30:57.910 --> 01:31:00.910 align:middle line:90% Real blood cascaded. 01:31:00.910 --> 01:31:02.320 align:middle line:90% But we gave him his money back. 01:31:02.320 --> 01:31:05.470 align:middle line:90% 01:31:05.470 --> 01:31:07.185 align:middle line:84% And I met him a couple of years later 01:31:07.185 --> 01:31:08.560 align:middle line:84% and he seemed all right about it. 01:31:08.560 --> 01:31:10.310 align:middle line:84% In fact he could seem quite proud, really. 01:31:10.310 --> 01:31:11.710 align:middle line:90% He said, "Do you remember me?" 01:31:11.710 --> 01:31:13.752 align:middle line:84% And I said, "No, I'm sorry," and he said, "Look." 01:31:13.752 --> 01:31:16.220 align:middle line:90% 01:31:16.220 --> 01:31:17.155 align:middle line:90% And I did. 01:31:17.155 --> 01:31:19.530 align:middle line:84% Now the other thing is that right at the end of the poem, 01:31:19.530 --> 01:31:23.720 align:middle line:84% it needs a small nuclear explosion. 01:31:23.720 --> 01:31:25.370 align:middle line:84% I hate to tell you this, but it's true. 01:31:25.370 --> 01:31:27.560 align:middle line:90% I've tried that as well. 01:31:27.560 --> 01:31:29.087 align:middle line:84% But with one of those magic smoke 01:31:29.087 --> 01:31:31.670 align:middle line:84% boxes where nobody notices that there's an electric lead and I 01:31:31.670 --> 01:31:33.920 align:middle line:84% put my foot on a button, and up goes a mushroom cloud 01:31:33.920 --> 01:31:35.630 align:middle line:90% of a tiny flash of smoke. 01:31:35.630 --> 01:31:38.750 align:middle line:84% It has a nice little effect, mushroom shaped effect 01:31:38.750 --> 01:31:39.530 align:middle line:90% about it. 01:31:39.530 --> 01:31:41.480 align:middle line:84% But on this occasion when it didn't work, 01:31:41.480 --> 01:31:43.880 align:middle line:84% I was working with an English band called The Bonzo Dog 01:31:43.880 --> 01:31:46.730 align:middle line:84% Doo-dah Band, who are a bunch of nutters 01:31:46.730 --> 01:31:48.680 align:middle line:90% you've ever met in your life. 01:31:48.680 --> 01:31:51.380 align:middle line:84% And I put my foot on the button and the thing didn't go off. 01:31:51.380 --> 01:31:53.480 align:middle line:84% Well, it really ought to very quickly 01:31:53.480 --> 01:31:54.570 align:middle line:90% after the end of the poem. 01:31:54.570 --> 01:31:56.630 align:middle line:90% So I leant forward and-- 01:31:56.630 --> 01:31:58.780 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 01:31:58.780 --> 01:32:20.000 align:middle line:90%