WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:05.340 align:middle line:84% It's become I think kind of a cliche and literary criticism 00:00:05.340 --> 00:00:09.240 align:middle line:84% that what poems are about are really other poems. 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.080 align:middle line:84% And that behind every poem is lyrics, 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:16.470 align:middle line:84% a kind of shadow poem or a grandfather poem or precursor 00:00:16.470 --> 00:00:20.580 align:middle line:84% poem or whatever the spectre poem, whatever the term is. 00:00:20.580 --> 00:00:24.540 align:middle line:84% Well this poem is explicitly about another poem, about -- 00:00:24.540 --> 00:00:27.930 align:middle line:84% explicitly about an explicit poem and it's about a haiku. 00:00:27.930 --> 00:00:34.350 align:middle line:84% It's about-- And the little 17 syllable Japanese poems. 00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:36.030 align:middle line:84% And since I've written this poem, which 00:00:36.030 --> 00:00:40.020 align:middle line:84% was a little while back, I've become very hypersensitive 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:45.300 align:middle line:90% to 17 syllable sized comments. 00:00:45.300 --> 00:00:53.350 align:middle line:84% And one of my favorite poems has a very helpful title. 00:00:53.350 --> 00:00:55.055 align:middle line:84% It's called-- it's by Thomas Gray 00:00:55.055 --> 00:00:56.430 align:middle line:84% and it's called "Ode On the Death 00:00:56.430 --> 00:00:59.310 align:middle line:84% of the Favored Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes". 00:00:59.310 --> 00:01:01.680 align:middle line:90% And that's 17 syllables. 00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:03.790 align:middle line:84% You wonder how has the time to count these things. 00:01:03.790 --> 00:01:07.768 align:middle line:84% But all the lyrics to moonlight in Vermont are 17 syllables. 00:01:07.768 --> 00:01:09.810 align:middle line:84% Pennies in the stream, falling leaves a Sycamore. 00:01:09.810 --> 00:01:12.780 align:middle line:90% You can count it out yourself. 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.780 align:middle line:84% A friend of mine noticed that a sign on a train. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:17.610 align:middle line:90% The sign is a haiku. 00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:20.400 align:middle line:84% It's: Attention. When the train is not stopped, 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.080 align:middle line:90% it will be constantly moving. 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:26.850 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:26.850 --> 00:01:30.000 align:middle line:84% Which has a bit of a bewildering haiku like effect in addition 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.780 align:middle line:90% to the 17 syllable requirement. 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:36.990 align:middle line:84% But the best accidental haiku I heard 00:01:36.990 --> 00:01:41.110 align:middle line:84% was when I was about to give a talk on poetry 00:01:41.110 --> 00:01:43.620 align:middle line:90% at a college at Penn State. 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:46.740 align:middle line:84% It was, and I was going to start by talking about haiku. 00:01:46.740 --> 00:01:49.800 align:middle line:84% And as I was walking along the campus 00:01:49.800 --> 00:01:53.370 align:middle line:84% kind of putting my thoughts in order, I passed two students 00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:56.940 align:middle line:84% and as we passed one said something to the other, 00:01:56.940 --> 00:01:57.990 align:middle line:90% and I counted it out. 00:01:57.990 --> 00:02:00.220 align:middle line:90% I had haiku on the brain. 00:02:00.220 --> 00:02:02.220 align:middle line:84% And what you said, I thought it was pretty close 00:02:02.220 --> 00:02:04.303 align:middle line:90% but it was exactly 17 syllables. 00:02:04.303 --> 00:02:06.720 align:middle line:84% And I'll say her haiku for you, I'll count it out for you. 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:09.090 align:middle line:90% She said, it was-- 00:02:09.090 --> 00:02:13.020 align:middle line:84% "when he found out, he was like Oh my God. 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:16.367 align:middle line:90% And I was like Oh my God." 00:02:16.367 --> 00:02:26.320 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:26.320 --> 00:02:27.370 align:middle line:90% Not a great haiku. 00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:31.388 align:middle line:90% 00:02:31.388 --> 00:02:32.130 align:middle line:90% Not exact. 00:02:32.130 --> 00:02:38.373 align:middle line:90% 00:02:38.373 --> 00:02:39.790 align:middle line:84% But the poem is a different thing. 00:02:39.790 --> 00:02:44.640 align:middle line:84% And it's called "Japan" and it comes in three line stanzas 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:48.780 align:middle line:84% so it has a sort of a haiku like appearance to it at least. 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:51.060 align:middle line:90% "Japan". 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:54.690 align:middle line:84% "Today, I passed the time reading a favorite haiku saying 00:02:54.690 --> 00:02:57.520 align:middle line:90% the few words over and over. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:01.380 align:middle line:84% It feels like eating the same small perfect grape 00:03:01.380 --> 00:03:03.150 align:middle line:90% again and again. 00:03:03.150 --> 00:03:05.160 align:middle line:84% I walk through the house reciting it 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:08.430 align:middle line:84% and leave its letters falling through the air of every room. 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:12.810 align:middle line:84% I stand by the big silence of the piano and say it. 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:15.510 align:middle line:84% I say it in front of a painting of the sea. 00:03:15.510 --> 00:03:18.870 align:middle line:84% I tap out its rhythm on an empty shelf. 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:21.420 align:middle line:84% I listen to myself saying it then 00:03:21.420 --> 00:03:26.160 align:middle line:84% I say it without listening then I hear it without saying it. 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:30.240 align:middle line:84% And when the dog looks up at me, I kneel down on the floor 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.290 align:middle line:84% and whisper it into each of his long white ears. 00:03:34.290 --> 00:03:36.510 align:middle line:84% It's the one about the one ton temple bell 00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:39.090 align:middle line:84% with the moth sleeping on its surface. 00:03:39.090 --> 00:03:43.170 align:middle line:84% And every time I say it, I feel the excruciating pressure 00:03:43.170 --> 00:03:46.800 align:middle line:84% of the moth on the surface of the iron bell. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:50.490 align:middle line:84% When I say it at the window, the bell is the world 00:03:50.490 --> 00:03:53.850 align:middle line:90% and I am the moth resting there. 00:03:53.850 --> 00:03:57.300 align:middle line:84% When I say it into the mirror, I am the heavy bell 00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:01.020 align:middle line:84% and the moth is life with its papery wings. 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:05.940 align:middle line:84% And later when I say it to you in the dark, you are the bell 00:04:05.940 --> 00:04:09.540 align:middle line:84% and I am the tongue of the bell ringing you. 00:04:09.540 --> 00:04:13.170 align:middle line:84% And the moth is flown from its line and moves 00:04:13.170 --> 00:04:17.270 align:middle line:84% like a hinge in the air above our bed." 00:04:17.270 --> 00:04:21.000 align:middle line:90%