WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.260 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:07.050 align:middle line:84% So during the time of all this writing, 00:00:07.050 --> 00:00:10.560 align:middle line:90% our public life was exploding. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.860 align:middle line:84% And I was thinking a lot about that a lot 00:00:13.860 --> 00:00:17.910 align:middle line:84% when I was writing "Father's Day." 00:00:17.910 --> 00:00:24.000 align:middle line:84% And I write about this, to some extent, in "Why Poetry." 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.790 align:middle line:84% And what I'm really trying to think about is-- 00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:29.970 align:middle line:84% what's the relationship between the individual imagination 00:00:29.970 --> 00:00:33.690 align:middle line:90% and our collective existence. 00:00:33.690 --> 00:00:34.415 align:middle line:90% We live together. 00:00:34.415 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:39.720 align:middle line:84% What does it mean to think about ourselves 00:00:39.720 --> 00:00:44.550 align:middle line:84% as belonging to some kind of common species or nation 00:00:44.550 --> 00:00:48.810 align:middle line:84% or any group while, also, respecting individualities 00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:52.500 align:middle line:84% and particularities and differences 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:57.340 align:middle line:84% and many other things about hope and grief and responsibility. 00:00:57.340 --> 00:01:01.710 align:middle line:84% And I think poems are a great place to explore those things. 00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:05.103 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure they're always the best place for answers 00:01:05.103 --> 00:01:07.020 align:middle line:84% to those questions, but I think they're really 00:01:07.020 --> 00:01:10.900 align:middle line:84% an essential place to ask those kinds of questions. 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:13.290 align:middle line:84% And, sometimes, I think the problem is we're not 00:01:13.290 --> 00:01:15.780 align:middle line:90% asking good enough questions. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:17.403 align:middle line:84% There are a lot of answers out there. 00:01:17.403 --> 00:01:18.570 align:middle line:90% I mentioned Twitter earlier. 00:01:18.570 --> 00:01:21.370 align:middle line:90% It's a series of answers. 00:01:21.370 --> 00:01:24.360 align:middle line:84% But I think we've, now, demonstrated 00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:28.125 align:middle line:84% that answers are not going to solve our problems. 00:01:28.125 --> 00:01:29.750 align:middle line:84% I think we might need better questions. 00:01:29.750 --> 00:01:32.410 align:middle line:84% So I just want to read, very briefly, 00:01:32.410 --> 00:01:34.997 align:middle line:84% just this quote from the poet, W. S. Merwin, 00:01:34.997 --> 00:01:38.120 align:middle line:84% which I think it's such a great quote. 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:43.550 align:middle line:84% He writes, "poetry like speech itself is made out 00:01:43.550 --> 00:01:47.240 align:middle line:84% of paradox, contradictions, irresolvables. 00:01:47.240 --> 00:01:50.270 align:middle line:84% It cannot be conscripted, even into the service of good 00:01:50.270 --> 00:01:51.230 align:middle line:90% intentions." 00:01:51.230 --> 00:01:53.810 align:middle line:84% So he says that, and then he immediately contradicts 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.510 align:middle line:84% himself, like any good poet, and says the following. 00:01:56.510 --> 00:01:59.300 align:middle line:84% And this quote, I think, is really relevant, 00:01:59.300 --> 00:02:01.610 align:middle line:84% chillingly relevant, to our current situation. 00:02:01.610 --> 00:02:04.310 align:middle line:90% He writes-- this is Merwin. 00:02:04.310 --> 00:02:06.650 align:middle line:84% "Poets have been known to be smug 00:02:06.650 --> 00:02:08.930 align:middle line:90% about their fine uselessness. 00:02:08.930 --> 00:02:11.270 align:middle line:84% But the Vietnam War led many poets 00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:14.060 align:middle line:84% of my generation to try to use poetry to make 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:16.160 align:middle line:90% something stop happening. 00:02:16.160 --> 00:02:19.490 align:middle line:84% We will never know whether all that we wrote shortened 00:02:19.490 --> 00:02:23.390 align:middle line:84% that nightmare by one hour, saved a single life 00:02:23.390 --> 00:02:25.640 align:middle line:90% or the leaves on one tree. 00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:27.830 align:middle line:84% But it seemed unthinkable, to many of us, 00:02:27.830 --> 00:02:31.070 align:middle line:84% not to make the attempt and not to use whatever talent 00:02:31.070 --> 00:02:33.350 align:middle line:90% we had in order to do it. 00:02:33.350 --> 00:02:37.040 align:middle line:84% In the process, we produced a great many bad poems, 00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:40.220 align:middle line:84% but our opposition to that horror and degradation 00:02:40.220 --> 00:02:42.920 align:middle line:84% was more than an intellectual formulation. 00:02:42.920 --> 00:02:48.320 align:middle line:84% And, sometimes, it tapped depths of bewilderment, grief, rage, 00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:51.470 align:middle line:84% admiration, that took us by surprise. 00:02:51.470 --> 00:02:53.330 align:middle line:84% Occasionally, it called for writings 00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:56.170 align:middle line:90% that may be poems after all."