WEBVTT

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I think if you're lucky
as you're writing a poem,

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you find that the poem becomes
a little vehicle of some kind.

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And I do think of poetry as
sort of a cheap public means

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of transportation.

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I like ending up in a different
place at the end of the poem

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whether it's one I'm
writing or reading.

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This poem started
out rather simply

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as just a bit of a notion
about the fashion, that

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was very prevalent
of men wearing hats

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in cities, especially.

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A fashion that held sway
pretty much until the 1960s

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when John Kennedy
became president.

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And you might remember
Kennedy did not wear a hat

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and often in winter
did not even wear

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a top coat, which
added to this look of,

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I suppose vulnerability.

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And people acknowledge the
fact that Kennedy put the hat

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business out of
business more or less

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because people wanted
to look like him.

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So the poem it, excuse me,
starts as a meditation on that.

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It's called, "The
Death of The Hat."

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"Once every man wore a hat
in the ashen newsreels,

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the avenues of cities are
broad rivers flowing with hats.

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The ballpark swelled with
thousands of straw hats

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brims and bands, rows of
men smoking and cheering

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and shirt sleeves.

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Hats were the law.

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They went without saying,
you noticed a man in a crowd

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without a hat.

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You bought them from Adams or
Dobbs who branded your initials

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in gold on the inside band,
trolleys criss-crossed

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the city, steamships sailed
in and out of the harbor.

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Men with hats
gathered on the docks.

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There was a person to block
your hat and a hat check girl

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to mind it while you had a
drink or ate a steak with peas

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and a baked potato.

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In your office,
stood a hat rack.

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The day war was
declared everyone

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in the street was wearing a
hat and they were wearing hats

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when a ship loaded with men
and women sank in the icy sea.

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My father wore one
to work every day

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and returned home carrying
the evening paper.

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The winter chill radiating
from his overcoat.

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But today we go bear headed
into the winter streets, stand

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hatless on frozen platforms.

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Today the mailbox is on the
roadside and the spruce trees

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behind the house, wear
cold white hats of snow.

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Mice scurry from the stone walls
at night in their thin fur hats

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to eat the birdseed
that has spilled.

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And now my father after a life
of work wears a hat of Earth,

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and on top of that a lighter
one of cloud and sky,

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a hat of wind."

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[APPLAUSE]

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