WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.270 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.270 --> 00:00:03.550 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:03.550 --> 00:00:05.680 align:middle line:84% Well, I have a lot of friends in the audience, 00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:09.790 align:middle line:84% but it's hard to read for your friends than it is for enemies. 00:00:09.790 --> 00:00:11.900 align:middle line:90% I'll tell you. 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:17.320 align:middle line:84% First of all, there was a line in that newspaper article. 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.630 align:middle line:84% They said, who are your favorite poets? 00:00:19.630 --> 00:00:23.290 align:middle line:84% And I said Merwin, Canal, and Levine. 00:00:23.290 --> 00:00:25.690 align:middle line:84% And they said, who did I feel influenced by? 00:00:25.690 --> 00:00:28.990 align:middle line:84% Which it's not true nobody's influenced my work. 00:00:28.990 --> 00:00:30.760 align:middle line:90% My work is my work. 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:33.550 align:middle line:84% What they have done for me is support me 00:00:33.550 --> 00:00:38.530 align:middle line:84% for the past couple of months, both materially 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:39.920 align:middle line:90% and spiritually. 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:44.000 align:middle line:90% And I owe them a lot for that. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.280 align:middle line:90% So they're really good friends. 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:47.650 align:middle line:90% I'm nervous tonight. 00:00:47.650 --> 00:00:50.230 align:middle line:90% Can you all hear me? 00:00:50.230 --> 00:00:51.500 align:middle line:90% OK, good. 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:55.748 align:middle line:84% I really like some of Philip Levine's work. 00:00:55.748 --> 00:00:56.290 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:56.290 --> 00:00:58.180 align:middle line:84% He spent a lot of time in Detroit 00:00:58.180 --> 00:01:02.740 align:middle line:84% and he has a particular hardness that I really like. 00:01:02.740 --> 00:01:05.310 align:middle line:84% And even though I don't think the reading 00:01:05.310 --> 00:01:09.840 align:middle line:84% will go past an hour, but I ask you please to bear with me. 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.160 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read a poem of his because it's 00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:17.410 align:middle line:84% like I'm always in another time, and this poem is another time. 00:01:17.410 --> 00:01:21.880 align:middle line:90% I come from the '30s tonight. 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:25.970 align:middle line:84% He ain't heavy, he's my brother that, sort of, thing. 00:01:25.970 --> 00:01:29.120 align:middle line:90% So let me start out. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:30.920 align:middle line:84% And this is by Philip Levine and it's 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:33.530 align:middle line:90% called "Saturday Sweeping." 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:36.410 align:middle line:90% 00:01:36.410 --> 00:01:38.740 align:middle line:84% Let all of these people in first. 00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:49.550 align:middle line:90% 00:01:49.550 --> 00:01:51.590 align:middle line:90% "Saturday Sweeping." 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:54.170 align:middle line:84% "Saturday sweeping with an old broom, 00:01:54.170 --> 00:01:57.200 align:middle line:84% counting the strokes back and forth. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:01.190 align:middle line:84% The dust bray's up silver in the February sun 00:02:01.190 --> 00:02:03.350 align:middle line:90% and comes down gray. 00:02:03.350 --> 00:02:08.509 align:middle line:84% Soft straw muzzle poking in and bringing out scraps of news. 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:11.390 align:middle line:90% Little fingers and signatures. 00:02:11.390 --> 00:02:15.200 align:middle line:84% Everybody's had this room one time or another 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:17.750 align:middle line:90% and never thought to sweep. 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:22.490 align:middle line:84% Outside the snows stiffen, the roofs loosen their last teeth 00:02:22.490 --> 00:02:24.110 align:middle line:90% into the streets. 00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:27.680 align:middle line:90% Outside it's 1952. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.520 align:middle line:84% Detroit unburned stumbles away from my window 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.010 align:middle line:84% over the drained roofs toward the river 00:02:34.010 --> 00:02:36.860 align:middle line:90% to scald its useless hands. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:39.890 align:middle line:84% Half the men in this town are crying in the snow. 00:02:39.890 --> 00:02:43.880 align:middle line:84% Their eyes blackened like Chinese soldiers. 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:49.700 align:middle line:84% The gates are closing at Dodge main and Wyandotte Chemical. 00:02:49.700 --> 00:02:52.100 align:middle line:84% They must go home to watch the kids 00:02:52.100 --> 00:02:56.150 align:middle line:84% scrub their ground, brown faces or grease cartridges 00:02:56.150 --> 00:02:58.880 align:middle line:90% for the showdown. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:01.010 align:middle line:84% If anyone knocks on your door, he'll 00:03:01.010 --> 00:03:03.410 align:middle line:90% be oil flecked or seaborn. 00:03:03.410 --> 00:03:07.070 align:middle line:84% He'll be bringing words from the people of the ice drifts 00:03:07.070 --> 00:03:10.700 align:middle line:84% or the great talking dogs that save the Jews. 00:03:10.700 --> 00:03:13.910 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, our masters will come on television 00:03:13.910 --> 00:03:15.680 align:middle line:90% to ask for our help. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:20.180 align:middle line:84% Here, the radiator's working, stove says don't touch, 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:21.710 align:middle line:90% and the radios crying. 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:24.830 align:middle line:90% I don't get enough on my keeper. 00:03:24.830 --> 00:03:28.820 align:middle line:84% The only thing I've got, sweeping out my one room life 00:03:28.820 --> 00:03:32.420 align:middle line:90% while the sun still up." 00:03:32.420 --> 00:03:35.510 align:middle line:84% No, please don't applaud till it's over. 00:03:35.510 --> 00:03:39.110 align:middle line:90% 00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:43.670 align:middle line:84% That's just the tribute to my friends and all the poets 00:03:43.670 --> 00:03:45.790 align:middle line:90% that I really love.