WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.480 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:03.840 align:middle line:84%
One of the things I
carry along in order

00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:09.420 align:middle line:84%
to be able to disguise myself
as fit to appear in a college

00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:12.540 align:middle line:84%
or university is
a political poem,

00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:15.420 align:middle line:84%
which I think I might as well
read now and have it over with.

00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:17.460 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:18.540 align:middle line:90%
It's called "Aunt Mabel."

00:00:18.540 --> 00:00:22.620 align:middle line:90%


00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:28.440 align:middle line:84%
"Our town is haunted
by many good deeds that

00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:31.800 align:middle line:84%
reappear like a country
cousin or a truth

00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:35.550 align:middle line:84%
when language falters
these days trying to lie.

00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:40.710 align:middle line:84%
Because Aunt Mabel, an old lady
gone now, would accost even

00:00:40.710 --> 00:00:46.380 align:middle line:84%
strangers to give bright flowers
away quick as a striking snake.

00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:49.290 align:middle line:84%
Its deeds like
this have weakened

00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:53.160 align:middle line:84%
me, shaken by
intermittent trust,

00:00:53.160 --> 00:00:56.250 align:middle line:90%
stricken with friendliness.

00:00:56.250 --> 00:00:59.610 align:middle line:84%
Our Senator talked like war
and Aunt Mabel said, he's

00:00:59.610 --> 00:01:01.740 align:middle line:84%
a brilliant man but we
didn't elect him that much.

00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:03.900 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:06.930 align:middle line:84%
Everyone's resolve
weakens toward evening

00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:12.090 align:middle line:84%
or in a flash when a face melds,
the strangers even, reminded

00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:15.720 align:middle line:84%
for an instant between
menace and fear.

00:01:15.720 --> 00:01:19.080 align:middle line:84%
There are Aunt Mabels
all over the world

00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:20.550 align:middle line:90%
or their graves in the rain."

00:01:20.550 --> 00:01:24.900 align:middle line:90%


00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:27.245 align:middle line:84%
The kind of move
I'd like to make,

00:01:27.245 --> 00:01:29.370 align:middle line:84%
the kind of sacrifice I'd
like to make of this poem

00:01:29.370 --> 00:01:38.130 align:middle line:84%
is for many people writing
seems like something

00:01:38.130 --> 00:01:42.090 align:middle line:84%
that you do by having
something worth

00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:49.080 align:middle line:84%
saying and then mustering those
skills necessary to say it.

00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:51.070 align:middle line:90%
It sounds so reasonable.

00:01:51.070 --> 00:01:55.140 align:middle line:84%
But I don't-- I want to
contend against that.

00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:57.900 align:middle line:84%
And the formulation I
tried in the first class

00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:00.540 align:middle line:84%
I met here I guess
it was yesterday

00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:03.930 align:middle line:90%
is something like this.

00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:05.670 align:middle line:84%
A writer is not so
much someone who

00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:09.160 align:middle line:84%
has something to say and
gets the words and skills

00:02:09.160 --> 00:02:12.030 align:middle line:84%
and so on to say it,
as he is a person who

00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:14.430 align:middle line:84%
has found a way
toward a process that

00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:17.790 align:middle line:84%
will bring about things to
say he wouldn't have thought

00:02:17.790 --> 00:02:19.290 align:middle line:84%
of if he hadn't
entered the process.

00:02:19.290 --> 00:02:21.860 align:middle line:90%


00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:25.190 align:middle line:84%
And I use this poem to try
to make that point just

00:02:25.190 --> 00:02:29.480 align:middle line:84%
because even before getting
started without much momentum

00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:33.440 align:middle line:84%
in this creative process, it's
quite possible for a person

00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:36.950 align:middle line:84%
even like myself to have a cute
idea like our town is haunted

00:02:36.950 --> 00:02:41.090 align:middle line:84%
by good deeds or there are
Aunt Mabels all over the world.

00:02:41.090 --> 00:02:43.850 align:middle line:84%
But at the very end of this
poem without using it--

00:02:43.850 --> 00:02:46.080 align:middle line:84%
without trying to make this
prove my point but just

00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.710 align:middle line:84%
to the occasion to say it,
something occurred to me

00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:50.210 align:middle line:84%
that would not
have occurred if I

00:02:50.210 --> 00:02:51.720 align:middle line:90%
hadn't started in the process.

00:02:51.720 --> 00:02:55.984 align:middle line:84%
And that's where it says or
their graves in the rain.

00:02:55.984 --> 00:02:56.484 align:middle line:90%