I think we have time for one more question.
OK, good.
In the back there.
I wanted to ask you, when John Ashbery was here
a couple of years ago, he talked a lot
about the role that music played and his experience of music,
listening to music.
And not he listened-- although I think
he did say he listened sometimes when he was writing.
And I know music's really important to you.
And I wonder if, I mean, how does it
connect to your act of writing?
Do you have to have quiet when you write?
Do you find yourself sort of listening to things
or are there things going through your head that
seem to connect with--
I don't know.
I think it's probably a kind of incidental relationship.
Usually there's jazz playing on the radio or something
in the house.
And I tend to write about jazz, mostly,
only because it's something that's part of my life.
It's the same thing as weather or food or having a dog
or being married.
I mean, they are parts of my life,
and they get into my poetry.
I think a lot of poetry about jazz,
particularly, is very bad because it tries to imitate.
It commits what is called the imitative fallacy.
It tries to sound jazzy.
And I'd read rather just listen to jazz than some poet trying
to be jazzy.
So I don't try to be jazzy.
I just take on jazz as another subject matter that might
yield metaphors and whatnot.
But it's usually playing.
Thank you very much for coming today and this morning.
I'm sorry I have to kind of bolt.
But I enjoyed talking to you.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]