WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:07.537 align:middle line:84% I'm going to first of all break off from these veins 00:00:07.537 --> 00:00:09.120 align:middle line:84% that I've been following in the poetry 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:13.560 align:middle line:84% right now for some shorter poems that are light verse. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:18.690 align:middle line:84% And then I'm going to come back and read some more of the poems 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:21.390 align:middle line:84% from the second book and conclude that. 00:00:21.390 --> 00:00:24.750 align:middle line:84% I feel like this is getting a little-- 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:26.580 align:middle line:84% I feel like it's getting a little heavy. 00:00:26.580 --> 00:00:29.490 align:middle line:84% And I want for a moment to back away from that 00:00:29.490 --> 00:00:31.680 align:middle line:84% and do something else and then come back to it. 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:44.867 align:middle line:90% 00:00:44.867 --> 00:00:47.450 align:middle line:84% To be perfectly honest, it's not so much backing away from it, 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:50.990 align:middle line:84% it's just coming on it from a different tack. 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:52.790 align:middle line:84% This first one is called "Swan Song." 00:00:52.790 --> 00:00:58.702 align:middle line:90% 00:00:58.702 --> 00:01:00.785 align:middle line:84% And when I was a kid, I was very interested in all 00:01:00.785 --> 00:01:05.120 align:middle line:84% of the historical figures that had the name 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:08.720 align:middle line:90% Bill, or William, or Billy. 00:01:08.720 --> 00:01:11.810 align:middle line:84% And my own name as I was growing up was Billy. 00:01:11.810 --> 00:01:13.790 align:middle line:84% And there were a number of Williams 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:16.850 align:middle line:84% and there were quite a few Bills. 00:01:16.850 --> 00:01:19.280 align:middle line:84% "Wild Bill" Hickok, "Wild Bill" Elliott, Buffalo Bill, 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.100 align:middle line:84% and Wild Bill Cody, all these people. 00:01:22.100 --> 00:01:24.560 align:middle line:84% But there was only one Billy and that was Billy the Kid. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:26.960 align:middle line:90% And so I had a-- 00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:30.440 align:middle line:84% it was kind of a hero worship, I guess, at the time on him. 00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:32.538 align:middle line:84% And even saw a movie which backed up this idea. 00:01:32.538 --> 00:01:34.580 align:middle line:84% And I found out subsequently with The Left Handed 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:39.020 align:middle line:84% Gun with Paul Newman playing Billy the Kid. 00:01:39.020 --> 00:01:40.548 align:middle line:84% And I've often wondered, how I would 00:01:40.548 --> 00:01:42.590 align:middle line:84% have felt about Billy the Kid if I had known then 00:01:42.590 --> 00:01:43.882 align:middle line:90% that he was an adenoidal moron. 00:01:43.882 --> 00:01:47.020 align:middle line:90% 00:01:47.020 --> 00:01:49.520 align:middle line:84% But it seemed to me, being Paul Newman, that was so obvious. 00:01:49.520 --> 00:01:53.390 align:middle line:84% When I saw the movie, I couldn't believe it. 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:55.730 align:middle line:84% More recently, they've done a Michael J. Pollard 00:01:55.730 --> 00:01:59.260 align:middle line:84% version of Billy the Kid called Dirty Little Billy. 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:07.100 align:middle line:90% 00:02:07.100 --> 00:02:11.780 align:middle line:84% And this one is just "Playing Around with Billy the Kid." 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:14.830 align:middle line:90% 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:20.560 align:middle line:84% "It feels good to be famous, he gasped, face down in the dirt. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.260 align:middle line:84% I could have died of old age, gut rot, or the preacher's 00:02:23.260 --> 00:02:26.440 align:middle line:84% threats but it's you that done me in. 00:02:26.440 --> 00:02:29.740 align:middle line:84% Just think, Billy the Kid, a notch 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:32.080 align:middle line:84% in that big gun sure beats a niche in the old lady's 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:33.550 align:middle line:90% cupboard. 00:02:33.550 --> 00:02:36.700 align:middle line:90% I love you for what you'd done. 00:02:36.700 --> 00:02:40.180 align:middle line:84% And Billy grinned and bid farewell to another winner." 00:02:40.180 --> 00:02:46.290 align:middle line:90% 00:02:46.290 --> 00:02:48.330 align:middle line:84% After writing that, I've become very conscious 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:50.310 align:middle line:90% of people's farewell smiles. 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:53.520 align:middle line:84% Not really people's, but of movie stars, for instance. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:55.420 align:middle line:84% And Paul Newman's is really amazing. 00:02:55.420 --> 00:02:58.980 align:middle line:84% He smiles farewell more times per movie, probably. 00:02:58.980 --> 00:03:01.620 align:middle line:84% Every time he leaves a room, and he smiles farewell. 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:05.220 align:middle line:90% And does it very well. 00:03:05.220 --> 00:03:08.170 align:middle line:90% WUSA comes to the end of it. 00:03:08.170 --> 00:03:10.675 align:middle line:84% And he's done these horrible things to various people 00:03:10.675 --> 00:03:11.550 align:middle line:90% throughout the movie. 00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.342 align:middle line:84% So it's a bad movie from a really good book 00:03:13.342 --> 00:03:14.978 align:middle line:90% called Hall of Mirrors. 00:03:14.978 --> 00:03:16.770 align:middle line:84% And he just turns around and says something 00:03:16.770 --> 00:03:19.800 align:middle line:84% to the effect of, well, it's just us survivors. 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.800 align:middle line:84% And sort of pats himself on the back and walks out with a smile 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:26.280 align:middle line:84% on his face, which is the famous Paul Newman smile. 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:27.900 align:middle line:90% And the other day-- what was it? 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:30.630 align:middle line:90% 00:03:30.630 --> 00:03:32.630 align:middle line:90% I guess it was Hud. 00:03:32.630 --> 00:03:33.630 align:middle line:90% At the very end of Hud-- 00:03:33.630 --> 00:03:34.770 align:middle line:84% I'd seen it before, and I'd forgotten 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:35.940 align:middle line:90% the very last line of it. 00:03:35.940 --> 00:03:42.300 align:middle line:84% He's talking to his younger brother, Hud being the old guy, 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:43.645 align:middle line:90% probably in his 30s, anyway. 00:03:43.645 --> 00:03:44.770 align:middle line:90% And he's been around a lot. 00:03:44.770 --> 00:03:47.020 align:middle line:84% And the younger brother looks at him in awe and so on. 00:03:47.020 --> 00:03:49.035 align:middle line:84% But his younger brother is very straight, 00:03:49.035 --> 00:03:50.160 align:middle line:90% on the straight and narrow. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:52.290 align:middle line:84% And Hud's trying to get him to stay there 00:03:52.290 --> 00:03:55.980 align:middle line:84% and as he's walking off to get a bus to leave the whole area, 00:03:55.980 --> 00:03:58.230 align:middle line:84% Hud's driving alongside him in a Cadillac convertible, 00:03:58.230 --> 00:04:00.780 align:middle line:84% telling him how to stay and help him work the ranch 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:02.220 align:middle line:90% and so on and so on. 00:04:02.220 --> 00:04:05.590 align:middle line:84% And then the boy just won't respond to him. 00:04:05.590 --> 00:04:09.420 align:middle line:84% So finally, he just slams on the brake and gets out of the car, 00:04:09.420 --> 00:04:13.127 align:middle line:84% and puts one arm up there on the door jam and says, 00:04:13.127 --> 00:04:14.710 align:middle line:84% you just think that if you're careful, 00:04:14.710 --> 00:04:15.918 align:middle line:90% you can get away from it all. 00:04:15.918 --> 00:04:18.180 align:middle line:84% He said, but it's so thick out there, he says, 00:04:18.180 --> 00:04:20.750 align:middle line:84% that there's no place that you'll be able to go 00:04:20.750 --> 00:04:22.500 align:middle line:84% and no way you'll be able to be so careful 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:24.978 align:middle line:90% as not to step in it. 00:04:24.978 --> 00:04:26.895 align:middle line:84% And he gets back into the car and turns around 00:04:26.895 --> 00:04:27.520 align:middle line:90% and drives off. 00:04:27.520 --> 00:04:31.807 align:middle line:90% 00:04:31.807 --> 00:04:33.390 align:middle line:84% But I think Michael J. Pollard finally 00:04:33.390 --> 00:04:35.880 align:middle line:84% has a cleverer smile because he's smiling goodbye already 00:04:35.880 --> 00:04:38.120 align:middle line:90% just upon meeting you. 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:39.000 align:middle line:90%