WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.320 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.320 --> 00:00:06.690 align:middle line:84% Let me conclude with one poem from a book 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:90% I'm currently working on. 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:12.690 align:middle line:84% It's called "Said to Have Been Heard to Say Hush." 00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:24.360 align:middle line:84% There's a new gnosticism in American poetry 00:00:24.360 --> 00:00:27.270 align:middle line:84% that's been getting some attention, 00:00:27.270 --> 00:00:30.330 align:middle line:84% and sometimes my name gets mentioned in relationship 00:00:30.330 --> 00:00:32.940 align:middle line:90% to it. 00:00:32.940 --> 00:00:36.180 align:middle line:84% I've decided that there are two schools of this new gnosticism. 00:00:36.180 --> 00:00:42.810 align:middle line:84% There's a sunshine school, and there's the cloudy school. 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:45.075 align:middle line:84% I think this poem qualifies me for the latter. 00:00:45.075 --> 00:00:48.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:51.165 align:middle line:84% Again, it's called "Said to Have Been Heard to Say Hush." 00:00:51.165 --> 00:01:03.870 align:middle line:90% 00:01:03.870 --> 00:01:05.235 align:middle line:90% Remembered moment lamenting-- 00:01:05.235 --> 00:01:07.032 align:middle line:90% [MICROPHONE FEEDBACK] 00:01:07.032 --> 00:01:16.827 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.827 --> 00:01:18.410 align:middle line:84% Shouldn't have mentioned Jimi Hendrix. 00:01:18.410 --> 00:01:19.895 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:19.895 --> 00:01:22.370 align:middle line:90% 00:01:22.370 --> 00:01:26.750 align:middle line:84% Remembered moment lamenting its exit. 00:01:26.750 --> 00:01:30.440 align:middle line:90% The anaphylactic aria fell away. 00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:33.380 align:middle line:84% What beauty promised or we projected faded, 00:01:33.380 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:84% we moved on, not's province the place we now camped in. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:41.570 align:middle line:84% The abandoned ones we averred we'd someday be 00:01:41.570 --> 00:01:43.460 align:middle line:90% fell away as well. 00:01:43.460 --> 00:01:47.390 align:middle line:84% The abandoned girl and boy blended in. 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:50.930 align:middle line:84% Thought's province it was we pitched our tents in. 00:01:50.930 --> 00:01:56.240 align:middle line:84% Wind wrinkled our foreheads, thought not's not someday. 00:01:56.240 --> 00:01:59.000 align:middle line:90% Not made every eye water. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.580 align:middle line:84% In our heads more than ever, syllabic 00:02:01.580 --> 00:02:05.210 align:middle line:84% beads we thumbed, not's dread have-without-hold, 00:02:05.210 --> 00:02:06.770 align:middle line:90% we bowed down to. 00:02:06.770 --> 00:02:11.780 align:middle line:90% Cried, cry blood, fell back. 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:13.850 align:middle line:90% There was a box inside my head. 00:02:13.850 --> 00:02:17.420 align:middle line:84% Something menacing shook it, Joe Henderson's tenor. 00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:21.860 align:middle line:84% Not's woken-up-to now we backed away from, little Johnny C, 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:28.250 align:middle line:84% Hobo Joe, insistent, imposed itself, beside the point. 00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:32.120 align:middle line:84% All of it was orphan song we chimed in on, chided by it, 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:34.670 align:middle line:90% charmed even so. 00:02:34.670 --> 00:02:37.070 align:middle line:84% I saw no light but said otherwise, 00:02:37.070 --> 00:02:40.490 align:middle line:84% lit by the thought of it, not-light lytic, 00:02:40.490 --> 00:02:43.730 align:middle line:90% tear between said and saw. 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:48.020 align:middle line:84% Light stole away, some kind of spell I was under. 00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:51.470 align:middle line:84% At more removes than there was ground for, 00:02:51.470 --> 00:02:58.260 align:middle line:84% I stole away as well, said to have been heard to say hush. 00:02:58.260 --> 00:03:02.010 align:middle line:84% A tiptoe ghost octet fidgeted behind us. 00:03:02.010 --> 00:03:04.620 align:middle line:84% Not was another name for death I was afraid, 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:07.980 align:middle line:84% and afraid my feet would fail, idiot footless, 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:13.800 align:middle line:84% feet I did indeed speak with, did indeed say hush. 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:16.890 align:middle line:84% A little bit of nothing, anaphylactic rush, 00:03:16.890 --> 00:03:18.720 align:middle line:90% seen say gone so soon. 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:20.430 align:middle line:90% We were not's understudies. 00:03:20.430 --> 00:03:22.740 align:middle line:84% Whatever it was we did, no matter 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:27.930 align:middle line:84% what we did, whatever we did, we did away. 00:03:27.930 --> 00:03:31.770 align:middle line:84% No one heard footsteps, no feet struck the dirt. 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:35.760 align:middle line:84% Earth beset by see-through sleep, transparent footprint, 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:40.140 align:middle line:84% sleepwalk's his and hers, an it club of late, the abandoned his 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:42.960 align:middle line:90% and hers run come. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.710 align:middle line:84% In back of us, the ghost octet kept at it. 00:03:46.710 --> 00:03:49.590 align:middle line:84% Thread on the box and on the backs of our necks. 00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:53.400 align:middle line:84% Hair stood on the backs of our necks. 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:56.610 align:middle line:84% Balletic, they traipsed on tiptoe, 00:03:56.610 --> 00:04:00.120 align:middle line:84% shushed all who stood, and looked on. 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:02.970 align:middle line:84% The sense we were being shadowed had hold of us. 00:04:02.970 --> 00:04:06.510 align:middle line:90% The sense of being had we had. 00:04:06.510 --> 00:04:08.610 align:middle line:84% They were plotting what it was to be 00:04:08.610 --> 00:04:13.410 align:middle line:84% footless, points on a graph the ground had become. 00:04:13.410 --> 00:04:16.950 align:middle line:84% What it meant to be the tiptoe ghost we could see now, 00:04:16.950 --> 00:04:20.579 align:middle line:84% shushed as we were, shadowed as we were, 00:04:20.579 --> 00:04:24.090 align:middle line:84% warned we were better off away, beside the point, 00:04:24.090 --> 00:04:28.620 align:middle line:90% not's null insistence, moot. 00:04:28.620 --> 00:04:33.390 align:middle line:84% All the same, they doused us all in fish powder, a rite 00:04:33.390 --> 00:04:35.160 align:middle line:90% we were none the wiser for. 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:38.230 align:middle line:90% 00:04:38.230 --> 00:04:38.730 align:middle line:90% Slogan. 00:04:38.730 --> 00:04:41.280 align:middle line:90% 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:44.400 align:middle line:90% I saw no way to be wise enough. 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:47.190 align:middle line:90% Tonal motion made me weep. 00:04:47.190 --> 00:04:50.910 align:middle line:84% I saw no way to stay where I was, be where I was. 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:54.360 align:middle line:84% Whatever it was, I was moved on, moved over. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:58.710 align:middle line:84% Whatever it was, worried what I was. 00:04:58.710 --> 00:05:02.520 align:middle line:84% So it was green-loomed outside my window. 00:05:02.520 --> 00:05:05.280 align:middle line:84% Drawn light and low forest I was wise to, 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:08.440 align:middle line:84% saw through, aroused by light's reluctance, 00:05:08.440 --> 00:05:10.050 align:middle line:90% but not to be caught out. 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:14.130 align:middle line:84% No way could I be wise enough, I knew. 00:05:14.130 --> 00:05:15.900 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:18.350 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:20.000 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