One of the things I carry along in order
to be able to disguise myself as fit to appear in a college
or university is a political poem,
which I think I might as well read now and have it over with.
[LAUGHTER]
It's called "Aunt Mabel."
"Our town is haunted by many good deeds that
reappear like a country cousin or a truth
when language falters these days trying to lie.
Because Aunt Mabel, an old lady gone now, would accost even
strangers to give bright flowers away quick as a striking snake.
Its deeds like this have weakened
me, shaken by intermittent trust,
stricken with friendliness.
Our Senator talked like war and Aunt Mabel said, he's
a brilliant man but we didn't elect him that much.
[LAUGHTER]
Everyone's resolve weakens toward evening
or in a flash when a face melds, the strangers even, reminded
for an instant between menace and fear.
There are Aunt Mabels all over the world
or their graves in the rain."
The kind of move I'd like to make,
the kind of sacrifice I'd like to make of this poem
is for many people writing seems like something
that you do by having something worth
saying and then mustering those skills necessary to say it.
It sounds so reasonable.
But I don't-- I want to contend against that.
And the formulation I tried in the first class
I met here I guess it was yesterday
is something like this.
A writer is not so much someone who
has something to say and gets the words and skills
and so on to say it, as he is a person who
has found a way toward a process that
will bring about things to say he wouldn't have thought
of if he hadn't entered the process.
And I use this poem to try to make that point just
because even before getting started without much momentum
in this creative process, it's quite possible for a person
even like myself to have a cute idea like our town is haunted
by good deeds or there are Aunt Mabels all over the world.
But at the very end of this poem without using it--
without trying to make this prove my point but just
to the occasion to say it, something occurred to me
that would not have occurred if I
hadn't started in the process.
And that's where it says or their graves in the rain.