WEBVTT

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The last book that I
had that's over there

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is called Your Father
On the Train of Ghosts.

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And it was a collaboration
with another poet, which was

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something kind of new for me.

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I had met another
poet who Joshua also

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knows named John Gallaher.

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And I had been really
interested, I mentioned

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this last night,
why does making art

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mean that we have to be alone?

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This was a puzzle for me.

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Why do we have to go away
from the people we care about?

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You all know this.

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Most of you who are
writers or artists,

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you know that there's something
about going into another place

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and closing the door, as
our friend Miss Wolfe said,

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and having that time
away from other people.

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And that's fine,
as far as it goes.

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But it can be lonely, can't it,
to be an artist or a writer?

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And I thought, it shouldn't
have to be that way.

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And I thought about the
example of the dadaist

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and the surrealist, for whom
writing was a communal act,

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often, at least.

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So John Gallaher and I started
writing poems back and forth

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to one another.

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And over 16 months, we
wrote 750 pages of poems.

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It was astonishing.

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And it was a beautiful way to
be alive for a little while.

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I was asked this
morning in a class,

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what does that mean to you?

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What did it mean to you?

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And I said, you know, I think
it was about friendship.

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I think it was about what
shape would friendship

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take if friendship were a poem?

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So we wrote these poems, and
I'm going to read a few of them

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from the book.

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It was a fascinating way
to be there, to be here.

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This is called
Your Lover, Later.

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Your lover is on the
roof, the gray roof.

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Your lover is sitting on
the roof of that house

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you remember.

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Your lover, long ago, sitting
there with both hands down.

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Your lover, sitting there,
waving into the pockets of air.

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It's an easy idea.

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All the people of the town
are out on their roofs,

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little people over their porch
lights, legs over the edges,

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like so many high
and beautiful beings.

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And one of them is your lover.

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Remember?

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Some of them, you can
see, and some not.

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Call to them.

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Why not call to them, and then
listen all night, all night,

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the sound of that town, your
lover on the roof, and a train

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along the horizon that's
crowded with hotels.

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And the Ford
dealership is setting

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off balloons, red and blue
and green and white balloons.

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I'd like to climb up there.

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It would be such
an easy concept,

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such an easy way to be.

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And what about your lover?

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It's such a large
town, isn't it?

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So many roofs.

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And so many people with
their hands at their sides

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in the future.

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It's easy.

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It has to be.

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Tell me again what to do.

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