WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.200 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:02.580 align:middle line:90% Here's a more personal poem. 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.910 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.910 --> 00:00:08.127 align:middle line:90% My father died about a year ago. 00:00:08.127 --> 00:00:10.210 align:middle line:84% And so I was telling people in some of the classes 00:00:10.210 --> 00:00:12.310 align:middle line:84% that I was in, I avoided writing about it. 00:00:12.310 --> 00:00:15.130 align:middle line:90% I didn't think that I wanted to. 00:00:15.130 --> 00:00:19.010 align:middle line:84% I didn't think I knew enough about how I felt. 00:00:19.010 --> 00:00:19.810 align:middle line:90% But I couldn't. 00:00:19.810 --> 00:00:23.650 align:middle line:84% I couldn't write anything, which seemed close enough 00:00:23.650 --> 00:00:25.100 align:middle line:90% to a message for me. 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:27.220 align:middle line:90% So I started in. 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:30.490 align:middle line:84% And the first ones that I did, I had to say, I mean, 00:00:30.490 --> 00:00:32.049 align:middle line:84% they weren't sorted out in any way. 00:00:32.049 --> 00:00:34.600 align:middle line:84% I wasn't really able to do anything. 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:38.050 align:middle line:84% But about half a year later, I thought 00:00:38.050 --> 00:00:39.370 align:middle line:90% that I was able to get further. 00:00:39.370 --> 00:00:42.280 align:middle line:84% And it took a while to get the poem finally 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:46.360 align:middle line:90% to be what it wanted to be. 00:00:46.360 --> 00:00:49.773 align:middle line:84% But this is one of a sequence in the poem set about my father. 00:00:49.773 --> 00:00:50.815 align:middle line:90% This one's called "News." 00:00:50.815 --> 00:00:53.610 align:middle line:90% 00:00:53.610 --> 00:00:58.170 align:middle line:84% "Two weeks into April, the buds on the currants swell snow. 00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:00.780 align:middle line:90% The ants crawl indoors. 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:03.690 align:middle line:84% I remember you're writing to me in secret once. 00:01:03.690 --> 00:01:05.820 align:middle line:90% I miss the seasons. 00:01:05.820 --> 00:01:09.660 align:middle line:84% Your South was a fetter of uprooted friendships. 00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:12.810 align:middle line:84% The square of spotty grass, maples. 00:01:12.810 --> 00:01:16.560 align:middle line:84% The vacant lot where you walk some dog for 30 years. 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:18.720 align:middle line:90% They ached in you. 00:01:18.720 --> 00:01:21.840 align:middle line:84% You told me nothing last or I imagine 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.260 align:middle line:84% it was you who could pretend only a date had to be fixed. 00:01:25.260 --> 00:01:27.930 align:middle line:84% And I'd be on your terrace, drink in hand, 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:31.470 align:middle line:84% making small talk or eating breakfast and visits 00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:33.690 align:middle line:90% after that. 00:01:33.690 --> 00:01:35.610 align:middle line:90% The wind is up. 00:01:35.610 --> 00:01:38.310 align:middle line:90% In every room, doors rattle. 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:41.370 align:middle line:84% The wild rose thrashes a window sill. 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:45.000 align:middle line:84% Distance is sealed in an envelope. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.410 align:middle line:84% In spring, a cloudless night, I walk outside, 00:01:49.410 --> 00:01:52.830 align:middle line:84% lashed by my own hair in tow, and listening 00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:58.350 align:middle line:84% to the river roar, muddied, swollen, burdened by runoff. 00:01:58.350 --> 00:02:02.820 align:middle line:84% A widow calls each Sunday to tell me she's doing fine. 00:02:02.820 --> 00:02:05.940 align:middle line:90% Habits last and lost. 00:02:05.940 --> 00:02:10.860 align:middle line:84% Treeless vistas level as grief, and these letters I send that 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.070 align:middle line:90% cannot arrive."