WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:05.970 align:middle line:84% All right, I'm going to read a few poems to finish off 00:00:05.970 --> 00:00:09.360 align:middle line:84% this evening, and maybe pull up some 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.280 align:middle line:84% of the ideas and themes that have 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:14.760 align:middle line:90% come in earlier in the evening. 00:00:14.760 --> 00:00:18.270 align:middle line:84% The cover for this book, Rope, is 00:00:18.270 --> 00:00:22.710 align:middle line:84% a detail from a painting by Brice Marden. 00:00:22.710 --> 00:00:28.380 align:middle line:84% Brice Marden went to Japan and he 00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:30.750 align:middle line:84% started doing these line drawings because he 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:32.549 align:middle line:84% was studying Japanese calligraphy, 00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:36.840 align:middle line:84% and he became completely in love with the line. 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:41.190 align:middle line:84% Not what the line was saying in terms of its letter, 00:00:41.190 --> 00:00:45.720 align:middle line:84% but the gorgeous energy and fluidity of the line. 00:00:45.720 --> 00:00:50.040 align:middle line:84% He did a series of paintings that came off of the Han Shan 00:00:50.040 --> 00:00:52.770 align:middle line:84% or Cold Mountain poems, that Gary Snyder and David 00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:84% Hinton have both translated so beautifully. 00:00:55.800 --> 00:00:58.350 align:middle line:84% So it was actually Lucinda's idea. 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:01.080 align:middle line:84% When I was looking for a cover, she said Brice Marden. 00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:03.150 align:middle line:84% She knew I'd been to the show and loved it. 00:01:03.150 --> 00:01:06.850 align:middle line:84% And I had given her the book, actually, of the Han Shan 00:01:06.850 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:90% drawings. 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:10.980 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to open this with the first poem 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:16.140 align:middle line:84% in the book, which comes off of seeing those paintings. 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.840 align:middle line:90% And the title is a title of a-- 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:84% I think it's a six panel work that 00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:84% was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.780 align:middle line:90% York a couple of years ago. 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:30.690 align:middle line:84% The Propitious Garden of the Plane Image, 00:01:30.690 --> 00:01:34.560 align:middle line:84% after the paintings of Brice Marden. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.040 align:middle line:84% "By the time the Santa Anas travel from the ocean 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:42.150 align:middle line:84% to our inland desert, they've lost their name. 00:01:42.150 --> 00:01:46.230 align:middle line:84% The palos verdes and mesquites know such winds 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:51.120 align:middle line:84% that rake through their pinnate leaves. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:55.260 align:middle line:84% I live about as far from the source of these storms 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:58.920 align:middle line:84% as I do from the muses, their names 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:03.000 align:middle line:84% lost too since they've descended from Olympus 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:10.350 align:middle line:84% to hijack our moods and amplify the cosmic background noise. 00:02:10.350 --> 00:02:13.950 align:middle line:84% So everything that needs to be said 00:02:13.950 --> 00:02:18.150 align:middle line:84% can be said without the right words, 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:22.830 align:middle line:84% with only the gusts, so utterly themselves, 00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:27.330 align:middle line:84% and the inner pattern that never falters. 00:02:27.330 --> 00:02:32.580 align:middle line:84% The canvas is the path the mountain hermit takes, leaving 00:02:32.580 --> 00:02:36.570 align:middle line:90% the city to purify his ears. 00:02:36.570 --> 00:02:39.480 align:middle line:84% A path, but no sign of footprints. 00:02:39.480 --> 00:02:44.370 align:middle line:84% Many pathways that loop and veer, and sometimes 00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:49.540 align:middle line:84% touch themselves or each other for an interval, 00:02:49.540 --> 00:02:53.200 align:middle line:90% then split and turn away. 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:57.060 align:middle line:90% How does a line become a path? 00:02:57.060 --> 00:03:02.490 align:middle line:84% The way in is to choose a certain color and follow. 00:03:02.490 --> 00:03:08.480 align:middle line:84% Get lost and choose again, the lines and the light." 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:09.000 align:middle line:90%