WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.550 align:middle line:90% And Sylvia Plath. 00:00:02.550 --> 00:00:06.750 align:middle line:84% The readings been prepared by PL Skinner and Chris Kennedy. 00:00:06.750 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84% And the readers will be Chris Kennedy, Linda Lashinsky, 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:16.095 align:middle line:84% and Professor Roger Bowen, the English Department. 00:00:16.095 --> 00:00:17.970 align:middle line:84% I hope that you can come to the Student Union 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:22.320 align:middle line:84% and meet Susan Schaeffer after the reading tonight who 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.450 align:middle line:84% will be in the terrace lounge with the usual punch 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:27.157 align:middle line:90% and cookies. 00:00:27.157 --> 00:00:28.740 align:middle line:84% We never pay for our punch or cookies, 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:29.850 align:middle line:90% but we're still getting them. 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:30.570 align:middle line:90% It's very nice. 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:33.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.510 --> 00:00:36.510 align:middle line:84% Several people have come up to me in the last few years 00:00:36.510 --> 00:00:38.910 align:middle line:84% and complained that they couldn't find books 00:00:38.910 --> 00:00:40.560 align:middle line:90% by visiting writers. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:45.180 align:middle line:84% So Blue Moon Press has agreed to sell 00:00:45.180 --> 00:00:47.040 align:middle line:90% books following the readings. 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:49.140 align:middle line:84% And they'll have a table at the reception 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:51.180 align:middle line:84% with some of Mrs. Schaeffer's work, 00:00:51.180 --> 00:00:55.410 align:middle line:84% and also copies of Patience in Blue Moon Press, the Blue Moon 00:00:55.410 --> 00:00:59.805 align:middle line:84% news, and their chapbooks, and also copies of Grilled Flowers. 00:00:59.805 --> 00:01:02.660 align:middle line:90% 00:01:02.660 --> 00:01:06.350 align:middle line:84% Susan Schaeffer has had published four books of poetry 00:01:06.350 --> 00:01:10.700 align:middle line:90% and two novels since 1972. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:15.560 align:middle line:84% Her books of poetry are The Witch and The Weather Report, 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:20.450 align:middle line:84% Granite Lady, The Rhymes and Runes of the Toad, 00:01:20.450 --> 00:01:24.140 align:middle line:84% and most recently, Alphabet for the Lost Years. 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:27.920 align:middle line:90% Her novels are Falling and Anew. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.000 align:middle line:90% She teaches at Brooklyn College. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.020 align:middle line:84% We're very happy to welcome her to our campus, Susan Fromberg 00:01:33.020 --> 00:01:33.925 align:middle line:90% Schaeffer. 00:01:33.925 --> 00:01:36.350 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:36.350 --> 00:01:48.000 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.640 align:middle line:84% I asked just before I came here if there were 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:55.410 align:middle line:90% such things as daffodils here. 00:01:55.410 --> 00:02:01.260 align:middle line:84% I didn't mean this at any kind of slur on the West as opposed 00:02:01.260 --> 00:02:01.950 align:middle line:90% to the East. 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:06.540 align:middle line:84% But my ignorance is beginning to bother me. 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:09.000 align:middle line:84% I saw planes taking off with parachutes-- 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.340 align:middle line:84% I saw planes with parachutes and didn't 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:13.650 align:middle line:84% know if they were taking off or landing, 00:02:13.650 --> 00:02:17.250 align:middle line:84% and decided I had better ask some questions before I made 00:02:17.250 --> 00:02:20.520 align:middle line:90% any assumptions about anything. 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:22.500 align:middle line:84% The first poem I'd like to read is 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.020 align:middle line:90% called "Confession in April." 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:27.690 align:middle line:84% And this has to do with my garden. 00:02:27.690 --> 00:02:31.620 align:middle line:84% That's what the daffodil question was about. 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:34.440 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:35.940 align:middle line:84% Also, it has to do with my refusal 00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:37.620 align:middle line:84% to admit that the summer is over. 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:40.500 align:middle line:84% It's much colder in New York than it is here. 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:46.620 align:middle line:84% It's a poem that started when I planted a great many bulbs 00:02:46.620 --> 00:02:49.560 align:middle line:84% in our garden when we had first moved into the house, 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.290 align:middle line:84% and was assured by the gardener that they 00:02:52.290 --> 00:02:55.440 align:middle line:84% were tulip bulbs which are my favorite flowers. 00:02:55.440 --> 00:02:58.870 align:middle line:84% "And when spring came, I was in for a surprise 00:02:58.870 --> 00:03:04.260 align:middle line:84% and this is the poem that came from this unusual effort 00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:05.170 align:middle line:90% on my part. 00:03:05.170 --> 00:03:08.160 align:middle line:84% It's called "Confession in April." 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:10.590 align:middle line:84% Dear Lord, I have sinned against thee. 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:14.130 align:middle line:84% For I do not love all flowers equally. 00:03:14.130 --> 00:03:18.090 align:middle line:84% For daffodils have come up in my yard instead of tulips. 00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:21.810 align:middle line:84% For I hate their stupid yellow faces and I say 00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:24.270 align:middle line:90% they are no better than weeds. 00:03:24.270 --> 00:03:27.540 align:middle line:84% For I have turned spiteful and admire the cats 00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:29.700 align:middle line:90% who do buy through their necks. 00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:32.550 align:middle line:84% For I finger my calluses from the planting 00:03:32.550 --> 00:03:35.010 align:middle line:90% and resent them still further. 00:03:35.010 --> 00:03:37.890 align:middle line:84% For I blame them for their nature. 00:03:37.890 --> 00:03:41.610 align:middle line:84% Yet once planted, they could be but what they are. 00:03:41.610 --> 00:03:45.210 align:middle line:84% For I resent the Earth that they eat and they're growing, 00:03:45.210 --> 00:03:48.660 align:middle line:84% for even the crow who devoured a nestling before me is more 00:03:48.660 --> 00:03:53.010 align:middle line:84% accepted in my sight, for I will not accept them and say I 00:03:53.010 --> 00:03:54.540 align:middle line:90% cannot. 00:03:54.540 --> 00:03:57.600 align:middle line:84% For if I had courage, I would root them up by their heads 00:03:57.600 --> 00:04:00.030 align:middle line:90% and leave them as carcasses. 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:02.790 align:middle line:84% For my anger is implacable [AUDIO OUT] against them, 00:04:02.790 --> 00:04:05.370 align:middle line:84% yet they grow in clusters like families 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:08.200 align:middle line:90% and still are detestable. 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:12.280 align:middle line:84% For I say, how could this happen as if it counted to measure. 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:16.000 align:middle line:84% For I tell myself I like the barrenness better. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.790 align:middle line:84% For I act as if this were the last year. 00:04:18.790 --> 00:04:21.250 align:middle line:84% For I encourage the wins against them 00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:24.760 align:middle line:84% and hate the rains which suckle them up. 00:04:24.760 --> 00:04:26.920 align:middle line:84% For I walk neither to the right nor left, 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:29.260 align:middle line:90% but would trample upon them. 00:04:29.260 --> 00:04:31.360 align:middle line:84% For in the morning, I wish it were evening 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:33.520 align:middle line:84% so they would be gone from my sight. 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:35.530 align:middle line:90% For I cannot forgive. 00:04:35.530 --> 00:04:38.620 align:middle line:84% For all day, my face is pressed against the glass 00:04:38.620 --> 00:04:40.930 align:middle line:90% and my eye is evil. 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:44.440 align:middle line:84% For I my neighbor's hose and will it to burst and drown them 00:04:44.440 --> 00:04:46.150 align:middle line:90% entirely. 00:04:46.150 --> 00:04:48.670 align:middle line:90% For they seem so proud. 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:51.010 align:middle line:84% For they have spent the winter feeling worms 00:04:51.010 --> 00:04:54.880 align:middle line:84% at their white skins and have not complained to the air. 00:04:54.880 --> 00:04:57.160 align:middle line:84% They do not cry out we are cold though 00:04:57.160 --> 00:05:00.850 align:middle line:90% the wind blows against Roli. 00:05:00.850 --> 00:05:04.105 align:middle line:84% For against heat when the sun bakes down upon them. 00:05:04.105 --> 00:05:07.060 align:middle line:90% For not really ugly. 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:09.070 align:middle line:84% For much can be said to assert them yet 00:05:09.070 --> 00:05:11.770 align:middle line:90% they anger me beyond all sanity. 00:05:11.770 --> 00:05:15.910 align:middle line:84% For I suspect their connivance against my favorite roses. 00:05:15.910 --> 00:05:18.650 align:middle line:90% For their goals are gall to me. 00:05:18.650 --> 00:05:21.325 align:middle line:84% For in truth, my will is not done." 00:05:21.325 --> 00:05:24.580 align:middle line:90% 00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:25.870 align:middle line:90% Temper tantrum poem. 00:05:25.870 --> 00:05:29.860 align:middle line:90% 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:33.970 align:middle line:84% These next poems come from a long series 00:05:33.970 --> 00:05:38.920 align:middle line:84% which constitutes a good portion of the book 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.000 align:middle line:90% Alphabet for the Lost Years. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.760 align:middle line:84% And when I started writing this alphabet series, 00:05:45.760 --> 00:05:48.760 align:middle line:84% I knew how many letters there were in the alphabet, 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:50.710 align:middle line:90% that there were 26. 00:05:50.710 --> 00:05:54.400 align:middle line:84% But after I began, the 26 began to seem 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:56.080 align:middle line:84% like a much larger number than it 00:05:56.080 --> 00:05:59.420 align:middle line:90% had seemed when I first began. 00:05:59.420 --> 00:06:03.400 align:middle line:84% So I will not torture everybody with all 26 letters I've picked 00:06:03.400 --> 00:06:07.330 align:middle line:90% out, some of them from A to Z. 00:06:07.330 --> 00:06:10.000 align:middle line:84% A. "At the beginning was the arch, 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.950 align:middle line:90% but its shape was strange. 00:06:11.950 --> 00:06:14.110 align:middle line:90% It had a small tail. 00:06:14.110 --> 00:06:15.950 align:middle line:90% It was alive. 00:06:15.950 --> 00:06:18.880 align:middle line:84% So it was inevitable, everyone went through. 00:06:18.880 --> 00:06:21.460 align:middle line:90% Now it has eaten its tail. 00:06:21.460 --> 00:06:27.640 align:middle line:84% It stands in its stones, the air more solid than stones. 00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:31.210 align:middle line:84% E, some of these are like riddles. 00:06:31.210 --> 00:06:39.950 align:middle line:84% And if the letter is the only title, then part of the poem 00:06:39.950 --> 00:06:42.590 align:middle line:84% is to figure out what the letter stands for." 00:06:42.590 --> 00:06:46.310 align:middle line:84% E. "The round thing where it all begins, 00:06:46.310 --> 00:06:49.340 align:middle line:84% the small sun under gelatinous clouds 00:06:49.340 --> 00:06:53.690 align:middle line:84% they shift, white and warm and speckled. 00:06:53.690 --> 00:06:57.140 align:middle line:84% It seems there are times nothing prevents them. 00:06:57.140 --> 00:07:00.320 align:middle line:84% The Chinese buries some four years trusting them only 00:07:00.320 --> 00:07:01.550 align:middle line:90% to Earth. 00:07:01.550 --> 00:07:04.730 align:middle line:84% They cook in its fires, delicacy, 00:07:04.730 --> 00:07:09.510 align:middle line:84% singing the songs of the skull, the new roots of grass. 00:07:09.510 --> 00:07:13.080 align:middle line:84% In China is also a Great Wall in places 00:07:13.080 --> 00:07:15.020 align:middle line:90% shattered like a venerable egg." 00:07:15.020 --> 00:07:17.530 align:middle line:90% 00:07:17.530 --> 00:07:26.900 align:middle line:84% F. "When it grows, its green cover the cows come. 00:07:26.900 --> 00:07:31.730 align:middle line:84% In spring, covered with green fuzz like the skull of a baby. 00:07:31.730 --> 00:07:34.100 align:middle line:90% By summer, it riots. 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:38.000 align:middle line:84% There are lovers in the clover and under. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.640 align:middle line:84% Everywhere there are soldiers, 10 pictures 00:07:40.640 --> 00:07:42.830 align:middle line:90% slipping through bone cage. 00:07:42.830 --> 00:07:46.950 align:middle line:84% For hundreds of years, for centuries out of mind, 00:07:46.950 --> 00:07:50.690 align:middle line:84% the head of a man speaks to the head of a cow. 00:07:50.690 --> 00:07:52.640 align:middle line:90% The field eats them all." 00:07:52.640 --> 00:07:55.710 align:middle line:90% 00:07:55.710 --> 00:08:01.560 align:middle line:84% T. "Which everyone can probably guess 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:04.470 align:middle line:84% immediately after the first poem I read. 00:08:04.470 --> 00:08:07.050 align:middle line:84% All winter, they lie in the black Earth. 00:08:07.050 --> 00:08:08.910 align:middle line:90% They are blind in the eyes. 00:08:08.910 --> 00:08:11.760 align:middle line:84% They're sleep more deep than the dead. 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:15.270 align:middle line:84% They sleep without where they save themselves up, 00:08:15.270 --> 00:08:19.560 align:middle line:84% then something touches them, their dark wombs open. 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:22.170 align:middle line:90% They have been buried alive. 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:24.120 align:middle line:84% In their perpetuity, their blooms 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:27.780 align:middle line:84% contradict the seasons of greenness and cold. 00:08:27.780 --> 00:08:29.100 align:middle line:90% From them, it is clear. 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:31.020 align:middle line:90% The flesh, it is golden. 00:08:31.020 --> 00:08:33.690 align:middle line:84% And in the long afternoons consumes itself 00:08:33.690 --> 00:08:35.909 align:middle line:90% in violent fires. 00:08:35.909 --> 00:08:39.780 align:middle line:84% And the petals tire quickly, throwing their heads back 00:08:39.780 --> 00:08:42.840 align:middle line:84% in the air resembling poppies, age 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:46.290 align:middle line:90% taking its tuck in their skins. 00:08:46.290 --> 00:08:51.030 align:middle line:84% Now before their next droop with the last harsh cry of swans, 00:08:51.030 --> 00:08:53.130 align:middle line:90% they show their black mouths. 00:08:53.130 --> 00:08:57.270 align:middle line:84% The black son seat in the gold, thin green women 00:08:57.270 --> 00:09:01.170 align:middle line:84% without shawls, they prepare to descend the long steps 00:09:01.170 --> 00:09:03.660 align:middle line:90% to the chill and to black Earth. 00:09:03.660 --> 00:09:05.085 align:middle line:90% They never look back." 00:09:05.085 --> 00:09:09.350 align:middle line:90% 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:15.230 align:middle line:90% C. "A man is asleep in the sun. 00:09:15.230 --> 00:09:17.720 align:middle line:90% He does, a bee buzzes. 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:19.670 align:middle line:90% The air is drugged. 00:09:19.670 --> 00:09:24.590 align:middle line:84% Somewhere a man is sawing his wood, son yields him. 00:09:24.590 --> 00:09:26.870 align:middle line:90% The cut wood glows. 00:09:26.870 --> 00:09:30.080 align:middle line:84% The willow bends over the water washing its hair, 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:32.870 align:middle line:90% boy swing from its branches. 00:09:32.870 --> 00:09:36.860 align:middle line:84% The river confesses its sins to the sins of the bank. 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:40.910 align:middle line:84% The boys fall into water and peacocks of silver 00:09:40.910 --> 00:09:44.000 align:middle line:84% when he's fallen asleep under a tree. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.810 align:middle line:84% The sawing and sawing puts the man's wife to sleep. 00:09:47.810 --> 00:09:50.510 align:middle line:90% Standing, he nods in the sun. 00:09:50.510 --> 00:09:53.490 align:middle line:90% The cat is asleep on the rock. 00:09:53.490 --> 00:09:55.620 align:middle line:84% Warm blood in the year, this season 00:09:55.620 --> 00:09:59.250 align:middle line:84% buzzes, a bee settles itself on the skin." 00:09:59.250 --> 00:10:03.460 align:middle line:90% 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:06.990 align:middle line:84% This next poem, "The Bible of the Beasts of the Little 00:10:06.990 --> 00:10:11.640 align:middle line:90% Field," is a long poem. 00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:19.170 align:middle line:84% And I'm not sure whether it's necessary to have [AUDIO OUT] 00:10:19.170 --> 00:10:22.780 align:middle line:90% or not to understand it. 00:10:22.780 --> 00:10:27.600 align:middle line:84% But since it's a long poem and since people probably 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:30.240 align:middle line:90% haven't read it. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:32.520 align:middle line:84% The last few lines of the poem have 00:10:32.520 --> 00:10:34.750 align:middle line:84% to do with the story of Jonah and the Bible. 00:10:34.750 --> 00:10:39.860 align:middle line:84% Are people familiar with the story of Jonah in the Bible? 00:10:39.860 --> 00:10:42.930 align:middle line:84% It's one of the few funny stories in the Bible. 00:10:42.930 --> 00:10:46.380 align:middle line:84% At the end of the story of Jonah, 00:10:46.380 --> 00:10:51.600 align:middle line:84% Jonah is so angry with God after having sent him on this mission 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:54.360 align:middle line:84% to warn everybody that Nineveh was going to be destroyed, 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:57.300 align:middle line:84% then God changes his mind, so Jonah's trip in the whale 00:10:57.300 --> 00:10:59.310 align:middle line:84% has been useless that he gets very angry 00:10:59.310 --> 00:11:00.420 align:middle line:90% and gives God a lecture. 00:11:00.420 --> 00:11:02.940 align:middle line:84% And essentially, says you ought to destroy it after all 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:04.560 align:middle line:90% that you've put me through. 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:09.600 align:middle line:84% And God argues with him saying, he likes the gourd 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:12.330 align:middle line:84% that he's sitting under which gives him shade in the desert 00:11:12.330 --> 00:11:14.610 align:middle line:84% and how would he like it if that were killed. 00:11:14.610 --> 00:11:17.250 align:middle line:84% And therefore should he destroy Nineveh, 00:11:17.250 --> 00:11:21.960 align:middle line:84% which is filled with stupid people and also has many in it, 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:25.020 align:middle line:90% and that's the end of the story. 00:11:25.020 --> 00:11:28.080 align:middle line:90% And Jonah loses the argument. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:34.360 align:middle line:84% And this poem depends on some knowledge of the Jonah story 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:34.860 align:middle line:90% I think. 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:38.760 align:middle line:90% 00:11:38.760 --> 00:11:42.270 align:middle line:84% "One, I was born unacquainted, the beast say, 00:11:42.270 --> 00:11:44.100 align:middle line:90% I was born unacquainted. 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:47.250 align:middle line:84% Everything that creeps and flies through the firmament 00:11:47.250 --> 00:11:49.620 align:middle line:90% and swims the deep places. 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:54.060 align:middle line:84% And they say unto us, who is to say that our breaths go down 00:11:54.060 --> 00:11:57.960 align:middle line:84% and yours go up and we are struck down saying, 00:11:57.960 --> 00:11:59.190 align:middle line:90% I know you not. 00:11:59.190 --> 00:12:00.780 align:middle line:90% I do not know you. 00:12:00.780 --> 00:12:03.540 align:middle line:90% We have become unacquainted. 00:12:03.540 --> 00:12:06.780 align:middle line:84% Two, let me number in this new yard 00:12:06.780 --> 00:12:12.270 align:middle line:84% as I can a multitude of cats, both little and large, both one 00:12:12.270 --> 00:12:17.370 align:middle line:84% color and brindle, some friendly, some not, some lame, 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:19.530 align:middle line:90% some strong-legged. 00:12:19.530 --> 00:12:22.980 align:middle line:84% Some birds of many description, some red on the head, 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:25.800 align:middle line:84% others on the chest, little brown ones, 00:12:25.800 --> 00:12:30.360 align:middle line:84% numerous as the seeds they do eat, a hammer add wood. 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:32.760 align:middle line:84% Two strolling pigeons with breast plates 00:12:32.760 --> 00:12:36.360 align:middle line:84% of Persian enamel who feel no fear, who 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:40.470 align:middle line:84% walk about my toes, who in the morning call to each other 00:12:40.470 --> 00:12:43.110 align:middle line:84% with a thick sound of water gushing 00:12:43.110 --> 00:12:45.360 align:middle line:90% from all the deep places. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.100 align:middle line:84% And one red cardinal and also two blue jays. 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:54.940 align:middle line:84% Three, let us consider the animals in the spring. 00:12:54.940 --> 00:12:57.280 align:middle line:84% The Abyssinian mistress has brought 00:12:57.280 --> 00:12:59.350 align:middle line:90% forth three black kittens. 00:12:59.350 --> 00:13:02.680 align:middle line:84% In numberless leaves, they number three. 00:13:02.680 --> 00:13:04.510 align:middle line:90% Their nest is an old car. 00:13:04.510 --> 00:13:07.280 align:middle line:90% Its pipes are their toys. 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:11.290 align:middle line:84% They will not know us, though we bring milk forth to them. 00:13:11.290 --> 00:13:15.310 align:middle line:84% They stare at us seriously out of blue button eyes. 00:13:15.310 --> 00:13:18.130 align:middle line:90% How the mighty have fallen. 00:13:18.130 --> 00:13:20.650 align:middle line:84% No, I am Ruth amidst daily in corn 00:13:20.650 --> 00:13:23.500 align:middle line:84% and I have multiplied after my kind. 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:27.150 align:middle line:90% Black queen, my queen. 00:13:27.150 --> 00:13:31.260 align:middle line:84% Four, is there no end to the humans and all their fence 00:13:31.260 --> 00:13:35.310 align:middle line:84% cities, who tend to their vines and the green blood touches 00:13:35.310 --> 00:13:38.610 align:middle line:84% their hands and now they want red? 00:13:38.610 --> 00:13:42.450 align:middle line:84% The man in the house after is a reproach and a lament. 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:45.690 align:middle line:84% As they pass by, people hiss at him 00:13:45.690 --> 00:13:49.170 align:middle line:84% yet he is innocently clipping his vines. 00:13:49.170 --> 00:13:51.660 align:middle line:84% There was a man who took bricks and threw them. 00:13:51.660 --> 00:13:54.990 align:middle line:84% This is the man where he has taken a cat 00:13:54.990 --> 00:13:56.820 align:middle line:90% and broken its back. 00:13:56.820 --> 00:14:00.750 align:middle line:84% For his crawl to its dying in the yard of the priest, 00:14:00.750 --> 00:14:04.830 align:middle line:84% and what shall be his punishment for he has set a trap 00:14:04.830 --> 00:14:07.170 align:middle line:84% and caught the cat called nameless. 00:14:07.170 --> 00:14:09.330 align:middle line:90% And nameless is crippled. 00:14:09.330 --> 00:14:12.030 align:middle line:84% And what shall his punishment be? 00:14:12.030 --> 00:14:15.690 align:middle line:84% Will we have fed nameless and tried to minister 00:14:15.690 --> 00:14:19.260 align:middle line:84% for there is much to this matter as a tree with two leaves 00:14:19.260 --> 00:14:21.930 align:middle line:84% may spread its roots through the yard. 00:14:21.930 --> 00:14:25.980 align:middle line:84% For we must consider, nameless, the cat who was crippled. 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:30.990 align:middle line:84% Five, angel with four faces, one and one of lion, 00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:33.870 align:middle line:90% one ax, one eagle, come down-- 00:14:33.870 --> 00:14:37.440 align:middle line:84% come down angel with four wings, always going straight 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:42.210 align:middle line:84% as you gaze, resting on your two rings, when moving you forward, 00:14:42.210 --> 00:14:45.810 align:middle line:84% one turning, and each ring full of eyes, 00:14:45.810 --> 00:14:49.380 align:middle line:84% for the spirit of the angel rests in the wheels. 00:14:49.380 --> 00:14:52.680 align:middle line:84% Can you inspire such wonder as nameless? 00:14:52.680 --> 00:14:54.960 align:middle line:90% For nameless is my savior. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.420 align:middle line:84% He has caused me to green into life 00:14:57.420 --> 00:15:02.250 align:middle line:84% as a dry root and water, as a wire into its current, 00:15:02.250 --> 00:15:04.740 align:middle line:90% as each green leaf to the sun. 00:15:04.740 --> 00:15:08.190 align:middle line:84% To turn from my winter to come forth green and golden. 00:15:08.190 --> 00:15:10.170 align:middle line:90% My Earth full of petals. 00:15:10.170 --> 00:15:13.050 align:middle line:90% My branches, heavy with leaves. 00:15:13.050 --> 00:15:18.840 align:middle line:84% Six, wherefore did this cat say, yay I shall live? 00:15:18.840 --> 00:15:21.810 align:middle line:84% His skin hung on him, his bone showed through him 00:15:21.810 --> 00:15:26.010 align:middle line:84% like laving of a dwelling that has not yet been plastered. 00:15:26.010 --> 00:15:29.850 align:middle line:84% Why was his fur with considerable gray patches? 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:33.450 align:middle line:84% A map of disparity, so said we have him meant on his way 00:15:33.450 --> 00:15:34.830 align:middle line:90% by us. 00:15:34.830 --> 00:15:39.360 align:middle line:84% He walked in pure pain as a tree that catches on fire. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.420 align:middle line:84% Up to the fence of pain, he went his fourth leg with him 00:15:42.420 --> 00:15:45.120 align:middle line:90% and down again into the yard. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:47.460 align:middle line:90% So he slept before the priest. 00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:50.460 align:middle line:90% So he slept before me. 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:54.750 align:middle line:84% By lifting their heads, others could scare him off milk. 00:15:54.750 --> 00:15:56.700 align:middle line:84% He lay in the greens and the rain 00:15:56.700 --> 00:15:58.950 align:middle line:90% brought him mud splattered. 00:15:58.950 --> 00:16:02.190 align:middle line:84% Heavy was the air and the flying bugs crowned him 00:16:02.190 --> 00:16:04.560 align:middle line:90% as if he had died there. 00:16:04.560 --> 00:16:07.860 align:middle line:84% He left and the Earth turned to iron. 00:16:07.860 --> 00:16:11.520 align:middle line:84% He came again and the Earth turned to gold. 00:16:11.520 --> 00:16:14.830 align:middle line:84% Fat and happy was the cat for, Missy, 00:16:14.830 --> 00:16:17.310 align:middle line:84% the cat has given him her protection. 00:16:17.310 --> 00:16:19.800 align:middle line:90% For he has given her kittens. 00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:22.800 align:middle line:84% For his fourth foot rests on the ground and almost 00:16:22.800 --> 00:16:24.420 align:middle line:90% will bear him. 00:16:24.420 --> 00:16:27.300 align:middle line:84% For he has dug through the wall called despair 00:16:27.300 --> 00:16:29.940 align:middle line:90% and has seen the green sea. 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:32.550 align:middle line:84% For he has let me press my eye to it 00:16:32.550 --> 00:16:34.860 align:middle line:90% although he constantly hisses. 00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:38.970 align:middle line:84% For he touch his head, which was the head of a savage. 00:16:38.970 --> 00:16:41.280 align:middle line:90% On that day, I was anointed. 00:16:41.280 --> 00:16:44.490 align:middle line:90% On that day, I had faith. 00:16:44.490 --> 00:16:53.120 align:middle line:84% Seven, under the sun I sat on the Earth and considered. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:55.970 align:middle line:84% I considered the little hill in its boldness. 00:16:55.970 --> 00:16:58.970 align:middle line:84% I considered the little seeds in their pouches 00:16:58.970 --> 00:17:01.580 align:middle line:84% and how the two should be joined. 00:17:01.580 --> 00:17:06.380 align:middle line:84% And as I sat, the sky was blue and the Earth was chocolate. 00:17:06.380 --> 00:17:09.920 align:middle line:84% So I took up my trowel and on the Earth's first turning, 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:11.869 align:middle line:90% discovered the worm. 00:17:11.869 --> 00:17:13.790 align:middle line:90% And the worm was not usual. 00:17:13.790 --> 00:17:16.369 align:middle line:90% No, he was wide as my finger. 00:17:16.369 --> 00:17:20.990 align:middle line:84% And his color was a dull pink as the inner part of a body. 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:23.630 align:middle line:84% And although he was startled under my eye, 00:17:23.630 --> 00:17:26.599 align:middle line:84% he made his way along the little hill. 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:30.020 align:middle line:84% And I wondered that I did not fear him or feel disgust 00:17:30.020 --> 00:17:33.440 align:middle line:84% at him, but thought I could even see on his body 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:36.170 align:middle line:84% the head which made the rest ripple after, 00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:38.570 align:middle line:90% as if it were a living wave. 00:17:38.570 --> 00:17:41.960 align:middle line:84% And thought, how he went down deep into the cold Earth making 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:46.460 align:middle line:84% all his apartments, learning the road marks of pebbles 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:50.270 align:middle line:84% and how the sun did not shine for him or the moon. 00:17:50.270 --> 00:17:53.510 align:middle line:84% He had still, he comes up in tribute to see them 00:17:53.510 --> 00:17:57.710 align:middle line:84% and then makes his bed in the absolute dark. 00:17:57.710 --> 00:17:59.840 align:middle line:84% And I thought then of the flowers 00:17:59.840 --> 00:18:02.270 align:middle line:90% and how they bore living. 00:18:02.270 --> 00:18:05.730 align:middle line:84% One short season nodding in the pleasant rains and sunshine 00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:08.390 align:middle line:84% showers, then fisting back to bulbs 00:18:08.390 --> 00:18:11.090 align:middle line:90% for 10 long months of dreams. 00:18:11.090 --> 00:18:15.170 align:middle line:84% 10 months of dreams, so long for dreams. 00:18:15.170 --> 00:18:18.410 align:middle line:84% No wonder the timbrels and soul trees and little bells 00:18:18.410 --> 00:18:21.140 align:middle line:84% play so in the yard and their music 00:18:21.140 --> 00:18:25.880 align:middle line:84% starts the season to ticking, nor does the worm harm them-- 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:27.890 align:middle line:90% 10 months of dreams. 00:18:27.890 --> 00:18:30.290 align:middle line:84% When they come they are emptied out of them, 00:18:30.290 --> 00:18:33.050 align:middle line:84% their sight is as the clear glass. 00:18:33.050 --> 00:18:36.680 align:middle line:84% They see what is here and I saw them and envied, 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:40.770 align:middle line:84% and the little worm made his way from me. 00:18:40.770 --> 00:18:45.320 align:middle line:84% Eight, nor the great tree has cast a squirrel down before me 00:18:45.320 --> 00:18:47.270 align:middle line:84% and the neighbors all say, take him up 00:18:47.270 --> 00:18:50.390 align:middle line:84% and make him to eat for he is only a baby. 00:18:50.390 --> 00:18:53.450 align:middle line:84% He lies in this box as he lay on the ground, 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:57.110 align:middle line:84% arms spread out as if lying and little legs also. 00:18:57.110 --> 00:19:00.620 align:middle line:84% And his eyes do not wink but stare only. 00:19:00.620 --> 00:19:04.100 align:middle line:84% Though the wind ruffles the fur of his comely gray tail, 00:19:04.100 --> 00:19:08.840 align:middle line:84% he is dead; yet I have put sugared milk on his lips 00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:11.330 align:middle line:90% for he might wake in his box. 00:19:11.330 --> 00:19:15.680 align:middle line:84% And if it were deep, the worms will would fail him. 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:20.630 align:middle line:84% The baby sky darken, and I could never explain. 00:19:20.630 --> 00:19:25.090 align:middle line:84% He is dead, he is dead, says the weather; 00:19:25.090 --> 00:19:28.630 align:middle line:84% nor my life does not make his eye to blinks as the sun 00:19:28.630 --> 00:19:32.830 align:middle line:84% or to water; nor does the wind Earth but stare him. 00:19:32.830 --> 00:19:37.060 align:middle line:84% Through his small nose comes no little breeze of his own. 00:19:37.060 --> 00:19:40.620 align:middle line:84% The small children think he is sleeping. 00:19:40.620 --> 00:19:43.920 align:middle line:84% Good night, good night, they say under the trees. 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:45.630 align:middle line:90% Ellen, took up his pose. 00:19:45.630 --> 00:19:50.910 align:middle line:84% He took up his pose and he died, yet we have nameless. 00:19:50.910 --> 00:19:53.520 align:middle line:84% Shall I destroy Nineveh that great city, 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:56.250 align:middle line:84% said the Lord, wherein the people do not 00:19:56.250 --> 00:19:58.620 align:middle line:84% know their left hand from their right. 00:19:58.620 --> 00:20:01.680 align:middle line:84% And also much cattle, and also my 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.650 align:middle line:90% nameless, and also my nameless." 00:20:04.650 --> 00:20:15.690 align:middle line:90% 00:20:15.690 --> 00:20:19.600 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure I should say this about this poem. 00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:22.560 align:middle line:84% In the college where I teach, we have to-- 00:20:22.560 --> 00:20:25.710 align:middle line:84% I don't know if they do that here, do they do that here? 00:20:25.710 --> 00:20:27.990 align:middle line:84% Senior members of the faculty go in 00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.150 align:middle line:84% and listen to junior members of the faculty 00:20:30.150 --> 00:20:34.410 align:middle line:84% to make sure they're not doing atrocious things like teaching, 00:20:34.410 --> 00:20:36.450 align:middle line:90% whatever. 00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:39.270 align:middle line:84% Well, this is one of the most boring activities they've 00:20:39.270 --> 00:20:40.890 align:middle line:90% thought up at Brooklyn College. 00:20:40.890 --> 00:20:45.480 align:middle line:84% And whenever possible, as long as the person appears sane 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:49.170 align:middle line:84% and doesn't seem to eat the chalk or the eraser, 00:20:49.170 --> 00:20:52.170 align:middle line:84% I'll do anything so that the hour will pass quickly. 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:55.980 align:middle line:84% And during this particular hour, I wrote one of these poems. 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.080 align:middle line:84% I actually wrote two, I was so desperate. 00:20:58.080 --> 00:21:00.210 align:middle line:90% The class was so boring. 00:21:00.210 --> 00:21:03.960 align:middle line:84% But a boring class, that is not reportable. 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.230 align:middle line:84% Only a class in which the students are interested 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:09.720 align:middle line:84% and possibly not doing the prescribed material 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:10.590 align:middle line:90% is reportable. 00:21:10.590 --> 00:21:12.270 align:middle line:84% So I could see the writing on the wall 00:21:12.270 --> 00:21:14.880 align:middle line:84% and I thought I would do some of my own. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:15.930 align:middle line:90% And this is one of them. 00:21:15.930 --> 00:21:18.990 align:middle line:90% It's called "The Raven Trees." 00:21:18.990 --> 00:21:22.500 align:middle line:84% "In the raven trees, there is a stirring of wings. 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:26.370 align:middle line:84% There is a fluttering of blinks and the raven trees. 00:21:26.370 --> 00:21:30.960 align:middle line:84% There are green eyes clustering like grapes in the raven trees. 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.890 align:middle line:84% There is a white frame house, and oh, it is proper. 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:38.160 align:middle line:84% There is an expanse of black grass between the House 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.440 align:middle line:90% and the raven trees. 00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:45.030 align:middle line:84% Oh, lords and ladies imagining cherubim and tiny hearts, 00:21:45.030 --> 00:21:48.390 align:middle line:84% imagining hawks, vultures, crows. 00:21:48.390 --> 00:21:52.650 align:middle line:84% Why can you meet on the white snow falls on the black grass, 00:21:52.650 --> 00:21:57.720 align:middle line:84% covering the black grass, the White House, the pale sun, 00:21:57.720 --> 00:21:58.830 align:middle line:90% the raven trees." 00:21:58.830 --> 00:22:02.850 align:middle line:90% 00:22:02.850 --> 00:22:09.640 align:middle line:84% This poem I'm about to read next is about a cemetery in Vermont, 00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:13.560 align:middle line:90% which dates back to about 1803. 00:22:13.560 --> 00:22:16.920 align:middle line:84% And after about a month of pestering my husband who 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:18.780 align:middle line:84% hates cemeteries, he finally agreed 00:22:18.780 --> 00:22:20.910 align:middle line:84% to go with me although he's convinced 00:22:20.910 --> 00:22:25.300 align:middle line:84% that visiting a cemetery is an extremely morbid thing to do. 00:22:25.300 --> 00:22:28.440 align:middle line:84% So I thought it was relatively harmless 00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:30.000 align:middle line:84% since all we would have to do is walk 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:32.310 align:middle line:84% up and down among the stones and I could write down 00:22:32.310 --> 00:22:34.230 align:middle line:84% what information it was that I wanted. 00:22:34.230 --> 00:22:36.660 align:middle line:84% But naturally, as things would have it, 00:22:36.660 --> 00:22:39.990 align:middle line:84% he now has plenty of grounds to complain. 00:22:39.990 --> 00:22:44.190 align:middle line:84% If any of you have seen movies like The Exorcist 00:22:44.190 --> 00:22:49.200 align:middle line:84% or recently, that movie with Gregory Peck, 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:51.960 align:middle line:84% The Omen, something always happens 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:53.550 align:middle line:90% and something always falls down. 00:22:53.550 --> 00:22:55.470 align:middle line:84% Well, for some reason in a movie, 00:22:55.470 --> 00:22:57.420 align:middle line:84% it never really seems very frightening. 00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:00.210 align:middle line:84% But when something really falls down in a real cemetery 00:23:00.210 --> 00:23:02.970 align:middle line:84% I discovered that's another matter altogether. 00:23:02.970 --> 00:23:06.360 align:middle line:84% So I imagine this was my last trip 00:23:06.360 --> 00:23:12.120 align:middle line:84% to the cemetery with my husband who is now convinced 00:23:12.120 --> 00:23:15.272 align:middle line:84% that the cemetery had some form of protest of its own 00:23:15.272 --> 00:23:16.980 align:middle line:84% about our being there in the first place. 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:19.930 align:middle line:90% 00:23:19.930 --> 00:23:21.130 align:middle line:90% It's called "The Moles-- 00:23:21.130 --> 00:23:22.655 align:middle line:90% Twitchell Cemetery, Vermont." 00:23:22.655 --> 00:23:26.140 align:middle line:90% 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:29.020 align:middle line:84% "They keep charts of all the cemeteries and names 00:23:29.020 --> 00:23:31.390 align:middle line:84% and genealogies, but they sometimes 00:23:31.390 --> 00:23:37.060 align:middle line:84% neglect to put back up the stones that fall down. 00:23:37.060 --> 00:23:39.340 align:middle line:84% God only knows what we were doing there, 00:23:39.340 --> 00:23:44.560 align:middle line:84% visiting Freddie so long dead in that place of stopped hearts 00:23:44.560 --> 00:23:47.020 align:middle line:90% as if he were ours, ours only. 00:23:47.020 --> 00:23:52.360 align:middle line:84% Died 1818 age four years nine months. 00:23:52.360 --> 00:23:56.290 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it was merely histone, perhaps not Freddie at all. 00:23:56.290 --> 00:24:01.900 align:middle line:84% But his father younger than we were that day, that year, 1818, 00:24:01.900 --> 00:24:04.450 align:middle line:84% who carved the little lamb stroke by stroke 00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:07.180 align:middle line:84% out of found marble until he fashioned 00:24:07.180 --> 00:24:09.910 align:middle line:84% a shape for his own heart, until he 00:24:09.910 --> 00:24:12.880 align:middle line:90% felt each stroke of his blade. 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:16.090 align:middle line:84% Not as sentimental as we had first thought, a lamb, 00:24:16.090 --> 00:24:18.610 align:middle line:84% not a puppy, not the child's pet, 00:24:18.610 --> 00:24:23.560 align:middle line:84% meaning as did the stone of his sister gone home. 00:24:23.560 --> 00:24:26.740 align:middle line:84% Oh, it was a strange day as if blackbirds were stirring 00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:28.900 align:middle line:90% the air to storm everywhere. 00:24:28.900 --> 00:24:31.840 align:middle line:84% The cold white clouds, the stunning blue sky, 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:35.380 align:middle line:84% and the mountains rising stones over the stones; 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:37.720 align:middle line:90% waves out of the flood. 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:41.170 align:middle line:84% The stones in the midst of that greenery signaling winter, 00:24:41.170 --> 00:24:45.250 align:middle line:84% its endless separating snows making those drifts 00:24:45.250 --> 00:24:48.970 align:middle line:84% seem for the moment tame, nothing fearful. 00:24:48.970 --> 00:24:51.940 align:middle line:84% Never before did we feel so helpless in the face 00:24:51.940 --> 00:24:55.450 align:middle line:84% of enormity, shrunk to this little lamb who 00:24:55.450 --> 00:24:58.780 align:middle line:84% gazed at us out of his black eye shoulder 00:24:58.780 --> 00:25:03.970 align:middle line:84% while the black mold modeled his back and the picturesque stones 00:25:03.970 --> 00:25:08.440 align:middle line:84% tilting this way and that, a forgotten town all askew. 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:13.480 align:middle line:84% And we were naive to lean so on his sister, poor Emmeline who 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:15.670 align:middle line:90% died in the second summer. 00:25:15.670 --> 00:25:18.220 align:middle line:84% And her stone fell straight back. 00:25:18.220 --> 00:25:23.470 align:middle line:84% The crown piece flying furthest, one stone in three pieces. 00:25:23.470 --> 00:25:26.680 align:middle line:84% What a horror has if a God had fallen. 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:30.280 align:middle line:84% And how fast we jump to put up that heavy marble, 00:25:30.280 --> 00:25:33.010 align:middle line:84% one pin holding the big slab like the pin 00:25:33.010 --> 00:25:35.170 align:middle line:90% in the hip of a soldier. 00:25:35.170 --> 00:25:38.380 align:middle line:84% The other two plates in the head of a skull. 00:25:38.380 --> 00:25:43.690 align:middle line:84% Poor Emmeline, we said then, she never had luck. 00:25:43.690 --> 00:25:45.580 align:middle line:84% It was then that we noticed the feel 00:25:45.580 --> 00:25:48.400 align:middle line:84% of the ground and the dates of the parents 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:52.900 align:middle line:84% who lived 36 years after Freddy, waiting 10 for Emmeline. 00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:56.440 align:middle line:84% And when she was gone, no foolish carving for that spongy 00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:57.580 align:middle line:90% ground. 00:25:57.580 --> 00:26:00.100 align:middle line:84% That ground that seemed so ready to let the boot 00:26:00.100 --> 00:26:02.830 align:middle line:90% through to that we walked on. 00:26:02.830 --> 00:26:05.230 align:middle line:84% It didn't feel right walking on the dead, 00:26:05.230 --> 00:26:08.860 align:middle line:84% and then it did as if this were the Earth's crust 00:26:08.860 --> 00:26:12.100 align:middle line:90% and now given up all disguises. 00:26:12.100 --> 00:26:15.190 align:middle line:84% We kept telling ourselves they were down deep. 00:26:15.190 --> 00:26:17.050 align:middle line:84% But after the fall of that stone, 00:26:17.050 --> 00:26:19.060 align:middle line:90% it was hard to believe it. 00:26:19.060 --> 00:26:23.050 align:middle line:84% When we realized it was only moles, little moles, hundreds 00:26:23.050 --> 00:26:26.500 align:middle line:84% of them tunneling the loam, creating this terror, 00:26:26.500 --> 00:26:30.400 align:middle line:84% our boots would go through to poor Emmeline and poor Freddy. 00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:32.920 align:middle line:84% Those sleek moles opposes of gardens, 00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:35.380 align:middle line:84% and we thought as we left or thought we 00:26:35.380 --> 00:26:37.420 align:middle line:90% left through the white wicket. 00:26:37.420 --> 00:26:39.910 align:middle line:84% This was the wrong garden for them. 00:26:39.910 --> 00:26:43.330 align:middle line:84% The fruits were too deep for their pores and their noses, 00:26:43.330 --> 00:26:46.870 align:middle line:84% but the lamb's blank eye caught us. 00:26:46.870 --> 00:26:49.960 align:middle line:84% And as if we could read the moles notes, we knew finally 00:26:49.960 --> 00:26:52.270 align:middle line:84% and forever those furry destroying 00:26:52.270 --> 00:26:55.030 align:middle line:84% angels with their sharp teeth and their Earth 00:26:55.030 --> 00:26:59.110 align:middle line:84% song, their deep mission and worm tunnels. 00:26:59.110 --> 00:27:01.360 align:middle line:84% And though little Freddy haunted our sleep 00:27:01.360 --> 00:27:04.180 align:middle line:84% like one of the quickest, [AUDIO OUT] 00:27:04.180 --> 00:27:05.485 align:middle line:90% we would always be wrong." 00:27:05.485 --> 00:27:14.640 align:middle line:90% 00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:18.630 align:middle line:84% This poem was written for one of my students 00:27:18.630 --> 00:27:22.390 align:middle line:84% who fell madly in love every three weeks for about 00:27:22.390 --> 00:27:24.600 align:middle line:90% a period of two years. 00:27:24.600 --> 00:27:28.500 align:middle line:84% And whenever she fell madly in love, 00:27:28.500 --> 00:27:32.970 align:middle line:84% everything was completely simple and clear to her. 00:27:32.970 --> 00:27:34.650 align:middle line:90% That was the first week. 00:27:34.650 --> 00:27:37.560 align:middle line:84% The second week, she would entertain some doubts. 00:27:37.560 --> 00:27:39.510 align:middle line:84% And the third week, she would be considering 00:27:39.510 --> 00:27:42.840 align:middle line:84% committing suicide or having her personality 00:27:42.840 --> 00:27:45.060 align:middle line:84% altered in some surgical manner since she 00:27:45.060 --> 00:27:48.510 align:middle line:90% was obviously inadequate. 00:27:48.510 --> 00:27:52.900 align:middle line:84% And after listening to her for approximately five years, 00:27:52.900 --> 00:27:55.590 align:middle line:84% I decided I would write a poem about love just because I 00:27:55.590 --> 00:27:56.820 align:middle line:90% couldn't stand it anymore. 00:27:56.820 --> 00:27:58.650 align:middle line:84% And the condition she was usually in, 00:27:58.650 --> 00:28:00.570 align:middle line:90% she wasn't fit to talk to. 00:28:00.570 --> 00:28:05.268 align:middle line:84% So I thought if I wrote it down, perhaps it would do some good. 00:28:05.268 --> 00:28:06.810 align:middle line:84% I don't know whether I did it or not. 00:28:06.810 --> 00:28:09.060 align:middle line:84% At least she hasn't mentioned the subject lately 00:28:09.060 --> 00:28:12.630 align:middle line:84% and I haven't noticed any new engagement rings changing 00:28:12.630 --> 00:28:14.620 align:middle line:90% every month on her finger. 00:28:14.620 --> 00:28:17.640 align:middle line:90% So I think it may just be age. 00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:22.350 align:middle line:84% I doubt if she's had any surgery or had her stomach pumped. 00:28:22.350 --> 00:28:27.720 align:middle line:84% But this is the result of constant romantic torment 00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:31.770 align:middle line:84% which makes as the world turns, look extremely tame. 00:28:31.770 --> 00:28:35.880 align:middle line:84% It's almost enough to wean me from television altogether. 00:28:35.880 --> 00:28:37.680 align:middle line:90% "Love." 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:40.230 align:middle line:90% "Why is love so difficult? 00:28:40.230 --> 00:28:44.400 align:middle line:84% At the very word, the heart surrounds itself with briars. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:47.130 align:middle line:84% But the thorns have their own secrets. 00:28:47.130 --> 00:28:51.690 align:middle line:84% With tears, his sword slashes through, his face as gashed, 00:28:51.690 --> 00:28:54.270 align:middle line:90% his clothes cut to pieces. 00:28:54.270 --> 00:28:58.690 align:middle line:84% When he finds her, his tears and his blood varnish her face. 00:28:58.690 --> 00:29:01.320 align:middle line:84% He is already full of joys and resentments, 00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:03.660 align:middle line:90% and she is ecstatic. 00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:07.210 align:middle line:84% Though the coffins glass mesh surely upsets her. 00:29:07.210 --> 00:29:11.100 align:middle line:84% Her face is sticky, she asks for his handkerchief 00:29:11.100 --> 00:29:12.780 align:middle line:90% and he sees it stain. 00:29:12.780 --> 00:29:15.390 align:middle line:84% He does not say what he feels nor does 00:29:15.390 --> 00:29:17.610 align:middle line:84% she looking at it's tarnishing blood as they 00:29:17.610 --> 00:29:21.420 align:middle line:90% walk home talking of home. 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:24.870 align:middle line:84% They know not what they say they are so full of plans. 00:29:24.870 --> 00:29:27.000 align:middle line:84% I will bandage the wall with drapes 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:29.970 align:middle line:84% and wig the ball windows with ruffled hem. 00:29:29.970 --> 00:29:31.950 align:middle line:84% The eyes of the house shall not stare 00:29:31.950 --> 00:29:34.860 align:middle line:84% like wide open lids stiff and unclosing-- 00:29:34.860 --> 00:29:37.020 align:middle line:90% we shall have blinds. 00:29:37.020 --> 00:29:41.010 align:middle line:84% And he says, look I have seen these boards somewhere before 00:29:41.010 --> 00:29:44.910 align:middle line:84% and this narrow room someday it will warm. 00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:48.060 align:middle line:84% We can feed those shrill cries and mirrors 00:29:48.060 --> 00:29:50.190 align:middle line:90% forbidden us are no loss. 00:29:50.190 --> 00:29:53.580 align:middle line:84% Small faces shall give back our own. 00:29:53.580 --> 00:29:56.860 align:middle line:84% What is that she'll win but a deep breath? 00:29:56.860 --> 00:29:59.610 align:middle line:90% What is that cough in the attic? 00:29:59.610 --> 00:30:03.120 align:middle line:84% I know there are vast flowers in the plaster, 00:30:03.120 --> 00:30:05.100 align:middle line:90% they are drawn to the bodies. 00:30:05.100 --> 00:30:09.150 align:middle line:84% From the minute, they slam the door they smell the Earth. 00:30:09.150 --> 00:30:12.090 align:middle line:84% They argued with each other like lawyers. 00:30:12.090 --> 00:30:14.760 align:middle line:84% They picked each other's pockets. 00:30:14.760 --> 00:30:18.330 align:middle line:84% Someone always woke in the night and stole from the room. 00:30:18.330 --> 00:30:22.860 align:middle line:84% The shadows were thick, each confided in the moon. 00:30:22.860 --> 00:30:25.410 align:middle line:84% There were the illnesses and the recriminations, 00:30:25.410 --> 00:30:29.520 align:middle line:84% and that mad lady memory locked herself in the guest room. 00:30:29.520 --> 00:30:33.240 align:middle line:84% When they could not get her out, they fed her under the door. 00:30:33.240 --> 00:30:36.510 align:middle line:84% Strange to say, everything prospered. 00:30:36.510 --> 00:30:40.380 align:middle line:84% Though the cat they fed ate the pigeon who fed on their crumbs. 00:30:40.380 --> 00:30:43.650 align:middle line:84% And when it was over, there were others left who cried 00:30:43.650 --> 00:30:46.200 align:middle line:84% and one patched cat who kept returning 00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:48.390 align:middle line:84% to the scene of the crime saying, 00:30:48.390 --> 00:30:53.610 align:middle line:84% though no one understood, this was love, this was happiness, 00:30:53.610 --> 00:30:56.280 align:middle line:84% and, I too, between hunting the birds 00:30:56.280 --> 00:30:58.740 align:middle line:84% and the squirrels and the one pigeon 00:30:58.740 --> 00:31:01.290 align:middle line:84% remaining take time out to mourn." 00:31:01.290 --> 00:31:06.060 align:middle line:90% 00:31:06.060 --> 00:31:08.130 align:middle line:84% The more I look at this, the more I think 00:31:08.130 --> 00:31:09.190 align:middle line:90% they have to do with-- 00:31:09.190 --> 00:31:12.560 align:middle line:90% 00:31:12.560 --> 00:31:16.650 align:middle line:84% I had the students that were both. 00:31:16.650 --> 00:31:20.010 align:middle line:84% There comes a point where they become inseparable, 00:31:20.010 --> 00:31:22.590 align:middle line:84% especially when they start teaching in the same department 00:31:22.590 --> 00:31:23.850 align:middle line:90% you're in. 00:31:23.850 --> 00:31:26.880 align:middle line:84% There becomes entirely inseparable. 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:30.060 align:middle line:84% This poem, I think, had something to do with once, 00:31:30.060 --> 00:31:35.580 align:middle line:84% with somebody who seemed to want to spend her life doing 00:31:35.580 --> 00:31:37.717 align:middle line:90% her graduate work. 00:31:37.717 --> 00:31:39.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:31:39.180 --> 00:31:43.530 align:middle line:84% And her goal seemed to be to finish it 24 hours before she 00:31:43.530 --> 00:31:46.170 align:middle line:90% died of old age. 00:31:46.170 --> 00:31:51.810 align:middle line:84% And I'm not sure how closely related the two things are, 00:31:51.810 --> 00:31:58.440 align:middle line:84% but one day after eight years on the second year of the PhD, 00:31:58.440 --> 00:31:59.910 align:middle line:90% I found myself writing this. 00:31:59.910 --> 00:32:02.670 align:middle line:84% So I suspect there must be some kind of connection. 00:32:02.670 --> 00:32:05.405 align:middle line:90% It's called "When." 00:32:05.405 --> 00:32:06.850 align:middle line:90% "When does life begins? 00:32:06.850 --> 00:32:08.280 align:middle line:90% She asked. 00:32:08.280 --> 00:32:11.640 align:middle line:84% There is always the lace metal ball full of snakes, 00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:15.030 align:middle line:84% its intricacies to consider, and the gold knife 00:32:15.030 --> 00:32:18.570 align:middle line:84% to slice the gold apple which has no [AUDIO OUT] in it. 00:32:18.570 --> 00:32:21.930 align:middle line:84% Yet each piece grows into a hole. 00:32:21.930 --> 00:32:24.840 align:middle line:84% And we have not even mentioned the flying white horse 00:32:24.840 --> 00:32:29.010 align:middle line:84% or the possibility of traveling unseen, but still leaving 00:32:29.010 --> 00:32:30.900 align:middle line:90% tracks on the sand. 00:32:30.900 --> 00:32:34.560 align:middle line:84% Or the small crystal globe sunk in the palm of my hand 00:32:34.560 --> 00:32:37.950 align:middle line:84% in which I can see the future coming closer. 00:32:37.950 --> 00:32:42.540 align:middle line:84% Although lately, the future resembles a pillar of smoke. 00:32:42.540 --> 00:32:46.620 align:middle line:84% There are rumors of new plagues, surely you've heard them. 00:32:46.620 --> 00:32:50.550 align:middle line:84% And I can never forget the two sisters, one of them blind. 00:32:50.550 --> 00:32:53.280 align:middle line:90% They never knew they were twins. 00:32:53.280 --> 00:32:58.080 align:middle line:84% Then the oracle spoke quick into the scold caldron, 00:32:58.080 --> 00:33:00.570 align:middle line:84% terrible other burns and the scars, 00:33:00.570 --> 00:33:04.230 align:middle line:84% they will heal late which is better than never. 00:33:04.230 --> 00:33:06.510 align:middle line:90% That land, healthy as a hug." 00:33:06.510 --> 00:33:17.130 align:middle line:90% 00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:19.170 align:middle line:84% Poems are nastier than I thought. 00:33:19.170 --> 00:33:21.150 align:middle line:84% This one is a poem about somebody 00:33:21.150 --> 00:33:28.980 align:middle line:84% I don't like who is quite famous. 00:33:28.980 --> 00:33:33.480 align:middle line:84% And for good reasons, her name has been omitted even 00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:40.860 align:middle line:84% in anagrams and across sticks and things of that sort. 00:33:40.860 --> 00:33:42.572 align:middle line:84% We've known each other for a long time, 00:33:42.572 --> 00:33:44.280 align:middle line:84% largely because there are some people who 00:33:44.280 --> 00:33:46.860 align:middle line:84% insist upon knowing you whether you want to or not, 00:33:46.860 --> 00:33:50.340 align:middle line:90% but this one is called "Famous." 00:33:50.340 --> 00:33:54.000 align:middle line:84% And it's about somebody who everyone, I'm sure, 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:57.480 align:middle line:84% in this room has seen pictures of however. 00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:01.540 align:middle line:84% I'll behave myself for change not mention who it is. 00:34:01.540 --> 00:34:04.360 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:34:04.360 --> 00:34:06.240 align:middle line:90% 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:09.119 align:middle line:84% Well, I'd be curious to see who guessed, but that's not fair. 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:12.600 align:middle line:90% 00:34:12.600 --> 00:34:14.250 align:middle line:90% "Famous." 00:34:14.250 --> 00:34:17.219 align:middle line:84% "Fame was that dame she ate on and served 00:34:17.219 --> 00:34:20.639 align:middle line:84% until a gold halo grew overhead but it hummed 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:24.989 align:middle line:84% with the dark sound of bees has closed against her, 00:34:24.989 --> 00:34:28.170 align:middle line:84% even the moon heard the slam of wood doors. 00:34:28.170 --> 00:34:31.889 align:middle line:84% Jealousy, she cried in despair with a pout. 00:34:31.889 --> 00:34:34.500 align:middle line:84% But a housewife with a big mouth and belly 00:34:34.500 --> 00:34:36.510 align:middle line:90% could not help herself. 00:34:36.510 --> 00:34:39.969 align:middle line:84% While you slept, the stethoscope sounded your chest. 00:34:39.969 --> 00:34:42.780 align:middle line:84% It is filled with the black sound of bees. 00:34:42.780 --> 00:34:46.139 align:middle line:84% The gold sting of wasps and wasps, 00:34:46.139 --> 00:34:48.390 align:middle line:90% wasps only for your dowry." 00:34:48.390 --> 00:34:52.770 align:middle line:90% 00:34:52.770 --> 00:34:56.790 align:middle line:84% And it seems to have been prophetic too, which gives me 00:34:56.790 --> 00:35:01.380 align:middle line:84% more nasty satisfaction than is really desirable in a person. 00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:04.350 align:middle line:90% 00:35:04.350 --> 00:35:06.450 align:middle line:84% This poem is from a book I wrote called 00:35:06.450 --> 00:35:09.060 align:middle line:90% Rhymes and Runes of the Toad. 00:35:09.060 --> 00:35:11.880 align:middle line:84% It's all about a toad or various toads 00:35:11.880 --> 00:35:15.000 align:middle line:90% in their various adventures. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:20.452 align:middle line:84% And this one seems to have appealed to fathers 00:35:20.452 --> 00:35:21.660 align:middle line:90% more than I thought it would. 00:35:21.660 --> 00:35:24.720 align:middle line:84% I thought more letters from fathers detailing 00:35:24.720 --> 00:35:26.080 align:middle line:90% all the sins of their children. 00:35:26.080 --> 00:35:28.710 align:middle line:90% This book has come out. 00:35:28.710 --> 00:35:30.600 align:middle line:84% Fathers are a neglected commodity, 00:35:30.600 --> 00:35:32.190 align:middle line:90% I've discovered in this society. 00:35:32.190 --> 00:35:35.370 align:middle line:84% I think that's probably why Joseph Heller, Something 00:35:35.370 --> 00:35:38.190 align:middle line:90% Happened was so popular. 00:35:38.190 --> 00:35:40.440 align:middle line:90% Has anyone read that book? 00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:42.600 align:middle line:84% He spends a great deal of time describing why he 00:35:42.600 --> 00:35:46.020 align:middle line:90% hates his children, his wife. 00:35:46.020 --> 00:35:48.870 align:middle line:84% Usually you have Philip Roth complaining about his mother. 00:35:48.870 --> 00:35:52.410 align:middle line:84% This one you have the father complaining about the children. 00:35:52.410 --> 00:35:57.480 align:middle line:84% It's an interesting sociological development if nothing else. 00:35:57.480 --> 00:35:59.430 align:middle line:84% The father hasn't been heard from much 00:35:59.430 --> 00:36:02.070 align:middle line:90% in this society or century. 00:36:02.070 --> 00:36:03.630 align:middle line:84% This one is called "Paternal Toad." 00:36:03.630 --> 00:36:09.090 align:middle line:90% 00:36:09.090 --> 00:36:12.540 align:middle line:90% "Finally, toad had children. 00:36:12.540 --> 00:36:15.310 align:middle line:84% Toad took fatherhood very seriously, 00:36:15.310 --> 00:36:21.330 align:middle line:84% especially since being a toad he had hundreds of them. 00:36:21.330 --> 00:36:24.480 align:middle line:84% One cold afternoon in the fall when the leaves were beginning 00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:26.700 align:middle line:84% to fall and the pons were lacing with ice, 00:36:26.700 --> 00:36:28.590 align:middle line:90% he called them all to him. 00:36:28.590 --> 00:36:32.220 align:middle line:84% He took his place upon a rock and they sat down below, 00:36:32.220 --> 00:36:36.120 align:middle line:84% leaf green and gray, leaf green and beige. 00:36:36.120 --> 00:36:39.150 align:middle line:84% It is time for me to tell you how the world came to begin, 00:36:39.150 --> 00:36:40.590 align:middle line:90% said the Toad. 00:36:40.590 --> 00:36:44.190 align:middle line:84% First, there was blackness then a red ball of fire, 00:36:44.190 --> 00:36:48.390 align:middle line:84% rose in the sky, then darkness again, then a white ball 00:36:48.390 --> 00:36:50.760 align:middle line:90% of fire, not nearly so hot. 00:36:50.760 --> 00:36:53.850 align:middle line:90% And so the pattern was set. 00:36:53.850 --> 00:36:58.140 align:middle line:84% What happened next, they chorused their minds all agog. 00:36:58.140 --> 00:37:02.040 align:middle line:84% At this, Toad threw himself down on his rock 00:37:02.040 --> 00:37:03.555 align:middle line:90% and sobbed himself sick." 00:37:03.555 --> 00:37:06.260 align:middle line:90% 00:37:06.260 --> 00:37:09.200 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:37:09.200 --> 00:37:22.600 align:middle line:90% 00:37:22.600 --> 00:37:24.100 align:middle line:84% I don't know if any of you have ever 00:37:24.100 --> 00:37:28.080 align:middle line:84% read anything about Freud's study of the "Wolf Man." 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:31.390 align:middle line:84% It's about a man who thought he was a wolf, not a werewolf, 00:37:31.390 --> 00:37:35.800 align:middle line:84% thought he was a wolf a great deal of the time. 00:37:35.800 --> 00:37:38.260 align:middle line:84% Or rather he didn't think he was a wolf much of the time. 00:37:38.260 --> 00:37:42.180 align:middle line:84% He was afraid wolves were after him all of the time. 00:37:42.180 --> 00:37:44.740 align:middle line:84% I think he only had a very brief interval of thinking. 00:37:44.740 --> 00:37:46.990 align:middle line:84% He himself might be turning into a wolf 00:37:46.990 --> 00:37:50.320 align:middle line:84% and have to do all these dreadful things. 00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:54.220 align:middle line:84% This poem is about a picture that the wolf man, that's 00:37:54.220 --> 00:37:57.010 align:middle line:84% what he called himself, the wolf man, and that's what Freud also 00:37:57.010 --> 00:37:59.560 align:middle line:84% called him, drew to show Freud what 00:37:59.560 --> 00:38:02.260 align:middle line:84% the wolves looked like when they stood outside his window 00:38:02.260 --> 00:38:02.800 align:middle line:90% at night. 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:05.830 align:middle line:84% They sat in a tree and watched him 00:38:05.830 --> 00:38:08.920 align:middle line:84% so that Freud couldn't possibly think he was imagining, 00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:12.381 align:middle line:84% and he drew the picture and it would all be clear. 00:38:12.381 --> 00:38:15.820 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:38:15.820 --> 00:38:17.140 align:middle line:90% It's on the cover of the book. 00:38:17.140 --> 00:38:18.550 align:middle line:90% It's a very nice picture. 00:38:18.550 --> 00:38:22.030 align:middle line:84% But when you realize someone took it seriously, 00:38:22.030 --> 00:38:26.440 align:middle line:84% it somehow loses its charm in some ways. 00:38:26.440 --> 00:38:29.440 align:middle line:84% "The Picture Wolves in the Tree." 00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:31.420 align:middle line:84% This is dedicated to Cynthia Ozick 00:38:31.420 --> 00:38:34.480 align:middle line:84% who's an extremely talented short story 00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:36.580 align:middle line:90% and who hates Freud. 00:38:36.580 --> 00:38:43.150 align:middle line:84% But she's made an exception for these wolves and their tree. 00:38:43.150 --> 00:38:46.720 align:middle line:84% "In the picture, five white wolves sit-in a tree. 00:38:46.720 --> 00:38:49.720 align:middle line:84% The sixth has hidden himself in the works of a grandfather 00:38:49.720 --> 00:38:51.010 align:middle line:90% clock. 00:38:51.010 --> 00:38:52.750 align:middle line:90% They're afraid of being eaten. 00:38:52.750 --> 00:38:55.670 align:middle line:84% But of course, this is what happens. 00:38:55.670 --> 00:38:59.380 align:middle line:84% They are not really wolves, but six woolly lambs. 00:38:59.380 --> 00:39:01.780 align:middle line:90% They only pretend to be wolves. 00:39:01.780 --> 00:39:04.030 align:middle line:90% They are afraid of the wolf. 00:39:04.030 --> 00:39:08.680 align:middle line:84% They sit-in a blasted tree in a desolate snow-covered steppe. 00:39:08.680 --> 00:39:11.650 align:middle line:84% They all stare straight ahead, blue pines 00:39:11.650 --> 00:39:13.750 align:middle line:90% are jagged behind them. 00:39:13.750 --> 00:39:16.540 align:middle line:84% It is a mystery how they got up there. 00:39:16.540 --> 00:39:19.510 align:middle line:84% It is a mystery how the wolf eats them. 00:39:19.510 --> 00:39:22.780 align:middle line:84% They seem to be made of the snow and are not very nourishing, 00:39:22.780 --> 00:39:25.330 align:middle line:90% but still they are eaten. 00:39:25.330 --> 00:39:29.290 align:middle line:84% The sixth deserves our concern, crouched stiffly and patiently 00:39:29.290 --> 00:39:31.510 align:middle line:90% under the pendulum and waits. 00:39:31.510 --> 00:39:34.090 align:middle line:90% When is it safe to come out? 00:39:34.090 --> 00:39:37.460 align:middle line:84% He thinks of his brothers in the tree in the snow. 00:39:37.460 --> 00:39:41.170 align:middle line:84% He thinks of the North wind puffing the face of the clock. 00:39:41.170 --> 00:39:44.080 align:middle line:84% He wants to sneeze from the dust. 00:39:44.080 --> 00:39:47.320 align:middle line:84% There are two possible ends to his story. 00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:52.300 align:middle line:84% In one, the constant ticking and chiming strive him quite mad. 00:39:52.300 --> 00:39:54.910 align:middle line:84% The ticking turns slowly to snow. 00:39:54.910 --> 00:39:58.540 align:middle line:84% He digs his way out smears himself with butter 00:39:58.540 --> 00:40:01.300 align:middle line:84% and lies down on the hearth of the wolf. 00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:05.050 align:middle line:84% He wears a little red hood for good measure. 00:40:05.050 --> 00:40:08.950 align:middle line:84% The wolf is surprised, but knows just what to do. 00:40:08.950 --> 00:40:12.220 align:middle line:84% In the other, he comes out thinner but wiser, 00:40:12.220 --> 00:40:16.750 align:middle line:84% knows his pulse is a clock, and goes to the market for wives. 00:40:16.750 --> 00:40:19.330 align:middle line:90% He brings home a fat one. 00:40:19.330 --> 00:40:22.510 align:middle line:84% He has 14 children and teaches them hopscotch 00:40:22.510 --> 00:40:24.310 align:middle line:90% as he used to play it. 00:40:24.310 --> 00:40:27.700 align:middle line:84% He makes a good living building grandfather clocks. 00:40:27.700 --> 00:40:31.510 align:middle line:84% They are all big enough for a fat sheep to sleep in. 00:40:31.510 --> 00:40:35.290 align:middle line:84% He keeps a huge pot boiling under his chimney, his house, 00:40:35.290 --> 00:40:37.810 align:middle line:90% of course, made of brick. 00:40:37.810 --> 00:40:41.920 align:middle line:84% At night, his wife is often quiet and takes off her apron 00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:44.530 align:middle line:90% and asks, what's it all for? 00:40:44.530 --> 00:40:47.560 align:middle line:84% He says the perpetuation of hopscotch 00:40:47.560 --> 00:40:49.750 align:middle line:90% and turns on his side. 00:40:49.750 --> 00:40:53.350 align:middle line:84% When he dies, the whole village calls him the sage." 00:40:53.350 --> 00:41:14.550 align:middle line:90% 00:41:14.550 --> 00:41:20.070 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that I wrote quite a long time 00:41:20.070 --> 00:41:25.770 align:middle line:84% ago before it really was popular to start 00:41:25.770 --> 00:41:27.660 align:middle line:84% chewing through your wrist if you discovered 00:41:27.660 --> 00:41:30.300 align:middle line:84% you were a housewife primarily and not 00:41:30.300 --> 00:41:34.950 align:middle line:84% an upcoming female president of the United States. 00:41:34.950 --> 00:41:38.970 align:middle line:84% And since then, it's been anthologized a great deal 00:41:38.970 --> 00:41:42.715 align:middle line:84% in feminist places, which is nice, 00:41:42.715 --> 00:41:44.090 align:middle line:84% but a little bit disturbing to me 00:41:44.090 --> 00:41:48.200 align:middle line:84% because the poem is about both the man and the woman. 00:41:48.200 --> 00:41:53.450 align:middle line:84% And it's always been hard for me to imagine how a woman gets 00:41:53.450 --> 00:41:55.700 align:middle line:84% herself into circumstances which are going 00:41:55.700 --> 00:41:59.540 align:middle line:84% to drive her insane without giving consent of some kind 00:41:59.540 --> 00:42:04.010 align:middle line:84% since there's always the bus, or mother, or something. 00:42:04.010 --> 00:42:11.320 align:middle line:84% But this poem has really been read didactically. 00:42:11.320 --> 00:42:17.470 align:middle line:84% I still like it and that's why I would like to read it. 00:42:17.470 --> 00:42:19.540 align:middle line:84% There is a problem, I think, for everybody 00:42:19.540 --> 00:42:22.540 align:middle line:84% once you commit yourself to a certain way of life 00:42:22.540 --> 00:42:24.620 align:middle line:90% and a certain number of tasks. 00:42:24.620 --> 00:42:28.420 align:middle line:84% And this one, in my mind, was about somebody 00:42:28.420 --> 00:42:32.770 align:middle line:90% who had chosen to stay home. 00:42:32.770 --> 00:42:34.420 align:middle line:90% And that was it. 00:42:34.420 --> 00:42:37.840 align:middle line:84% I didn't really see the person as a victim of society 00:42:37.840 --> 00:42:40.990 align:middle line:84% or a person who was oppressed by society. 00:42:40.990 --> 00:42:44.350 align:middle line:90% 00:42:44.350 --> 00:42:46.600 align:middle line:84% Still, you can't force, read things the way 00:42:46.600 --> 00:42:48.160 align:middle line:90% you want them read. 00:42:48.160 --> 00:42:51.820 align:middle line:84% So maybe there's something wrong with the way 00:42:51.820 --> 00:42:54.310 align:middle line:90% I wrote it in that case. 00:42:54.310 --> 00:42:55.210 align:middle line:90% "Housewife." 00:42:55.210 --> 00:42:59.510 align:middle line:90% 00:42:59.510 --> 00:43:02.810 align:middle line:84% "What can be wrong that some days I hug this house about me 00:43:02.810 --> 00:43:07.010 align:middle line:84% like a show and feel each window like a tatter in his skin 00:43:07.010 --> 00:43:11.390 align:middle line:84% or worse, bright eyes I must not look through. 00:43:11.390 --> 00:43:14.390 align:middle line:84% Now my husband stands above me as high as ever 00:43:14.390 --> 00:43:18.950 align:middle line:84% my father did, and I am in that house of dolls which when young 00:43:18.950 --> 00:43:20.930 align:middle line:90% I could not shrink to. 00:43:20.930 --> 00:43:24.050 align:middle line:84% I feel the shrinkage in each bone. 00:43:24.050 --> 00:43:27.770 align:middle line:84% No matter what I do, my two girls spoil like fruit, 00:43:27.770 --> 00:43:31.310 align:middle line:84% already they push us back like two full plates. 00:43:31.310 --> 00:43:34.520 align:middle line:90% They play with us like dolls. 00:43:34.520 --> 00:43:36.860 align:middle line:84% The road before the house is like a wish 00:43:36.860 --> 00:43:40.220 align:middle line:84% that stretches out and out and will not stop. 00:43:40.220 --> 00:43:42.830 align:middle line:84% And the smallest hills are built like steps 00:43:42.830 --> 00:43:45.290 align:middle line:90% to the slippery moon. 00:43:45.290 --> 00:43:48.290 align:middle line:84% But I circle this lit house like any more 00:43:48.290 --> 00:43:50.390 align:middle line:84% and see each day open its fingers 00:43:50.390 --> 00:43:54.410 align:middle line:84% to disclose the stone, which hand, which hand, 00:43:54.410 --> 00:43:57.170 align:middle line:90% and the stone in both. 00:43:57.170 --> 00:44:00.770 align:middle line:84% Once I drove my car into a tree, the bottle's 00:44:00.770 --> 00:44:04.640 align:middle line:84% in the back burst like bombs, tubular glass beasts giving up 00:44:04.640 --> 00:44:06.110 align:middle line:90% the ghost. 00:44:06.110 --> 00:44:09.590 align:middle line:84% My husband thought it was the road, it was. 00:44:09.590 --> 00:44:12.110 align:middle line:84% In the rear view mirror, it curves and curls 00:44:12.110 --> 00:44:15.620 align:middle line:84% longer and stronger than the road ahead, a question 00:44:15.620 --> 00:44:18.260 align:middle line:90% of perspective, I thought then. 00:44:18.260 --> 00:44:21.530 align:middle line:84% I watched it until it turned and I did not. 00:44:21.530 --> 00:44:26.180 align:middle line:84% I breathed in pain like air as if I had the rib had cracked. 00:44:26.180 --> 00:44:30.380 align:middle line:84% I did not feel this pain, not then almost in my mouth. 00:44:30.380 --> 00:44:33.560 align:middle line:84% I wriggle this life and find it loose. 00:44:33.560 --> 00:44:35.600 align:middle line:84% Like my girls, I would pull it out, 00:44:35.600 --> 00:44:37.490 align:middle line:84% would watch something new and white, 00:44:37.490 --> 00:44:40.340 align:middle line:84% push like mushrooms from the rich red soil. 00:44:40.340 --> 00:44:43.910 align:middle line:84% But there is just this hole, this phone. 00:44:43.910 --> 00:44:47.990 align:middle line:84% So I live inside my wedding ring beneath its arch, 00:44:47.990 --> 00:44:50.960 align:middle line:84% multiplying the tables of my days 00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:54.410 align:middle line:84% were in the lessons of this dish, that sleeve, 00:44:54.410 --> 00:44:57.020 align:middle line:84% wanting the book that no one wrote, 00:44:57.020 --> 00:45:00.020 align:middle line:84% loving my husband, my children, my house 00:45:00.020 --> 00:45:04.490 align:middle line:84% with this pain in my jaw wanting to go to where this feel 00:45:04.490 --> 00:45:05.690 align:middle line:90% like this. 00:45:05.690 --> 00:45:06.575 align:middle line:90% What do they do?" 00:45:06.575 --> 00:45:14.300 align:middle line:90% 00:45:14.300 --> 00:45:17.420 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that I wrote after I 00:45:17.420 --> 00:45:19.940 align:middle line:84% had some experience with the same situation 00:45:19.940 --> 00:45:25.550 align:middle line:84% and realized how it wasn't terribly difficult to become 00:45:25.550 --> 00:45:29.938 align:middle line:84% reasonably insane from lack of time, 00:45:29.938 --> 00:45:32.480 align:middle line:84% that there were actually times when you would check the clock 00:45:32.480 --> 00:45:37.970 align:middle line:84% to see if you had as much as 30 seconds or even 20. 00:45:37.970 --> 00:45:42.770 align:middle line:84% And if you only had eight, could become quite frantic. 00:45:42.770 --> 00:45:46.460 align:middle line:84% It's called the "Windows" and it's about one 00:45:46.460 --> 00:45:49.610 align:middle line:90% of the peaceful times. 00:45:49.610 --> 00:45:53.120 align:middle line:84% "The morning light sanctifies all the terrible objects-- 00:45:53.120 --> 00:45:54.980 align:middle line:84% the knives, the serviceable dishes 00:45:54.980 --> 00:45:56.840 align:middle line:84% which return in their tiny orbits 00:45:56.840 --> 00:45:59.870 align:middle line:90% again and again like used moons. 00:45:59.870 --> 00:46:04.130 align:middle line:84% And also the strange silence of this one hour before creation. 00:46:04.130 --> 00:46:08.390 align:middle line:90% And my own breath is not human. 00:46:08.390 --> 00:46:11.780 align:middle line:84% The morning light sanctifies all the terrible objects-- 00:46:11.780 --> 00:46:14.090 align:middle line:84% the knives, the serviceable dishes 00:46:14.090 --> 00:46:15.950 align:middle line:84% which return and their tiny orbits 00:46:15.950 --> 00:46:18.890 align:middle line:90% again and again like used moons. 00:46:18.890 --> 00:46:23.120 align:middle line:84% And also the strange silence of this one hour before creation. 00:46:23.120 --> 00:46:26.210 align:middle line:84% And my own breath is not human, but is 00:46:26.210 --> 00:46:28.550 align:middle line:84% a breeze through the winds and the rushes. 00:46:28.550 --> 00:46:30.560 align:middle line:90% And months are not yet. 00:46:30.560 --> 00:46:34.130 align:middle line:84% But green saplings saying what soon will be. 00:46:34.130 --> 00:46:37.970 align:middle line:84% And the yard has gathered time to itself in its greenery. 00:46:37.970 --> 00:46:40.100 align:middle line:90% There is no human element. 00:46:40.100 --> 00:46:43.140 align:middle line:90% The human element is not yet. 00:46:43.140 --> 00:46:46.320 align:middle line:84% The trees dance, the wind blows, blue jays 00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:48.330 align:middle line:90% drink of the cracked fountain. 00:46:48.330 --> 00:46:51.900 align:middle line:84% The sun opens petal by petal, and the clouds 00:46:51.900 --> 00:46:54.000 align:middle line:90% move in their silence. 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:56.880 align:middle line:84% They fly in flux like white geese. 00:46:56.880 --> 00:46:59.400 align:middle line:90% They are intelligent. 00:46:59.400 --> 00:47:02.220 align:middle line:84% Little water's puddle and splash sing, see 00:47:02.220 --> 00:47:04.500 align:middle line:90% the flood has pulled back. 00:47:04.500 --> 00:47:07.920 align:middle line:84% There is a sign that compasses everything Yes, 00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:11.160 align:middle line:90% it even rests on four pillars. 00:47:11.160 --> 00:47:14.130 align:middle line:84% And the willows bends its hair to the blowing. 00:47:14.130 --> 00:47:16.620 align:middle line:84% And the skies ancient silks below 00:47:16.620 --> 00:47:19.110 align:middle line:90% and blueness up and again. 00:47:19.110 --> 00:47:21.720 align:middle line:84% Now the flowers do speak one to the other 00:47:21.720 --> 00:47:24.120 align:middle line:84% and even bend down to the little worm who goes 00:47:24.120 --> 00:47:26.130 align:middle line:90% so hard through his tunnel. 00:47:26.130 --> 00:47:30.120 align:middle line:84% With joy, they open their mouths to the tiger bee. 00:47:30.120 --> 00:47:33.120 align:middle line:84% This is before, before everything. 00:47:33.120 --> 00:47:36.450 align:middle line:84% Yes, it is true an angel stands at the gate 00:47:36.450 --> 00:47:39.780 align:middle line:84% although there is no gate yet there is one indeed. 00:47:39.780 --> 00:47:43.020 align:middle line:84% Oh, this is before and all is still then. 00:47:43.020 --> 00:47:46.350 align:middle line:84% But my heart crawls with time, fills with it 00:47:46.350 --> 00:47:48.060 align:middle line:90% like burrowing ants. 00:47:48.060 --> 00:47:51.000 align:middle line:90% To them, I am only more Earth. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:53.970 align:middle line:84% In a pointy white tower, a steeple, 00:47:53.970 --> 00:47:58.470 align:middle line:84% a petal splash of peelings, a blazing forth of the sun, 00:47:58.470 --> 00:48:00.090 align:middle line:90% a throw cry. 00:48:00.090 --> 00:48:02.130 align:middle line:90% The ivy becomes ivy. 00:48:02.130 --> 00:48:04.680 align:middle line:90% My hands become my hands. 00:48:04.680 --> 00:48:06.720 align:middle line:90% The cat crosses the yard. 00:48:06.720 --> 00:48:10.470 align:middle line:84% She has divided, her eyes full of purpose. 00:48:10.470 --> 00:48:13.500 align:middle line:84% And in the high tower, I see the round face 00:48:13.500 --> 00:48:17.280 align:middle line:84% with its numbers, feign marble and iron. 00:48:17.280 --> 00:48:19.530 align:middle line:90% So the air fills with takings. 00:48:19.530 --> 00:48:21.360 align:middle line:90% So my blood ticks. 00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:24.570 align:middle line:84% So the room now ticks to their purpose. 00:48:24.570 --> 00:48:28.530 align:middle line:84% Thus the hands of the clock are the flaming swords of angels. 00:48:28.530 --> 00:48:31.125 align:middle line:84% So this little time comes to a close." 00:48:31.125 --> 00:48:34.130 align:middle line:90% 00:48:34.130 --> 00:48:37.730 align:middle line:84% This is the last poem I'm going to read. 00:48:37.730 --> 00:48:38.975 align:middle line:90% It's called "When I spoke." 00:48:38.975 --> 00:48:47.910 align:middle line:90% 00:48:47.910 --> 00:48:52.430 align:middle line:84% Short, trouble with writing long poems 00:48:52.430 --> 00:48:54.180 align:middle line:84% is that not only do you have to type them, 00:48:54.180 --> 00:49:00.180 align:middle line:84% but reading them takes longer than reading short ones. 00:49:00.180 --> 00:49:03.390 align:middle line:84% I like the short ones, looks like a blank page 00:49:03.390 --> 00:49:05.760 align:middle line:90% by comparison. 00:49:05.760 --> 00:49:08.400 align:middle line:84% "When I spoke to the cows, they would not 00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:11.880 align:middle line:90% answer, neither the horses. 00:49:11.880 --> 00:49:14.460 align:middle line:84% They changed their mind, speaking of the one day 00:49:14.460 --> 00:49:17.190 align:middle line:90% they would no longer be dumb. 00:49:17.190 --> 00:49:21.780 align:middle line:84% It was then that I realized the sun and the moon had gone out. 00:49:21.780 --> 00:49:23.700 align:middle line:90% A chill had set in. 00:49:23.700 --> 00:49:25.380 align:middle line:90% My lips sealed. 00:49:25.380 --> 00:49:27.540 align:middle line:90% Bones, glacial." 00:49:27.540 --> 00:49:28.800 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:31.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:49:31.850 --> 00:49:49.000 align:middle line:90%