WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.090 --> 00:00:02.610 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:02.610 --> 00:00:03.300 align:middle line:90% Here's a poem. 00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:06.180 align:middle line:84% It's kind of a mixture of humor and seriousness. 00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:08.370 align:middle line:84% It's called "And the Trains Go On." 00:00:08.370 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:84% So when I was at Mark Halperin's-- brought his class 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.420 align:middle line:84% to the Poetry Center there next to my mansion. 00:00:15.420 --> 00:00:17.640 align:middle line:90% And I'm in the little bungalow. 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:20.740 align:middle line:90% And a guy asked a question. 00:00:20.740 --> 00:00:25.063 align:middle line:84% He said, there's no title poem for this book. 00:00:25.063 --> 00:00:25.980 align:middle line:90% The Names of the Lost. 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:27.630 align:middle line:90% What would be the key poem? 00:00:27.630 --> 00:00:29.640 align:middle line:84% Well, actually, the title is in this poem, 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:32.460 align:middle line:84% "And the Trains Go On," slightly changed. 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:34.795 align:middle line:84% But the key poem is not this poem. 00:00:34.795 --> 00:00:36.420 align:middle line:84% This may be the best poem, but it isn't 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:37.628 align:middle line:90% the central poem of the book. 00:00:37.628 --> 00:00:40.050 align:middle line:84% I don't know if it's the best poem or not. 00:00:40.050 --> 00:00:42.040 align:middle line:90% I like it a lot. 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:43.050 align:middle line:90% I like this book. 00:00:43.050 --> 00:00:46.350 align:middle line:84% It hasn't been around long enough for me to dislike it. 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:50.010 align:middle line:90% And it's made me all this money. 00:00:50.010 --> 00:00:53.660 align:middle line:90% "And the Trains Go On." 00:00:53.660 --> 00:00:55.668 align:middle line:84% The Mystic River-- it is a real river. 00:00:55.668 --> 00:00:56.210 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:56.210 --> 00:00:57.492 align:middle line:90% I mean, I never saw it. 00:00:57.492 --> 00:00:58.700 align:middle line:90% Have you ever been to Boston? 00:00:58.700 --> 00:00:59.575 align:middle line:90% I don't recommend it. 00:00:59.575 --> 00:01:00.750 align:middle line:90% But if you've ever-- 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:01.250 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:03.710 align:middle line:84% --if you've ever been there, you see these signs-- 00:01:03.710 --> 00:01:05.790 align:middle line:90% Mystic River Bridge ahead. 00:01:05.790 --> 00:01:08.165 align:middle line:84% And then, you pass over the bridge, and there's no river. 00:01:08.165 --> 00:01:09.550 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:09.550 --> 00:01:11.190 align:middle line:84% And so I said, that's what they mean. 00:01:11.190 --> 00:01:13.065 align:middle line:90% See? 00:01:13.065 --> 00:01:14.440 align:middle line:84% You have to have faith to believe 00:01:14.440 --> 00:01:15.565 align:middle line:90% there's a river down there. 00:01:15.565 --> 00:01:16.838 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:16.838 --> 00:01:17.380 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:01:17.380 --> 00:01:18.640 align:middle line:84% But then, other people would say, no, 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:19.390 align:middle line:90% I went over the bridge. 00:01:19.390 --> 00:01:20.057 align:middle line:90% I saw the river. 00:01:20.057 --> 00:01:21.085 align:middle line:90% And how are your eyes? 00:01:21.085 --> 00:01:22.210 align:middle line:90% Well, they're not too good. 00:01:22.210 --> 00:01:22.540 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:23.140 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:24.970 align:middle line:84% But I never saw the goddamn river. 00:01:24.970 --> 00:01:26.080 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:26.080 --> 00:01:28.150 align:middle line:84% And I went over that bridge a lot. 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:29.845 align:middle line:84% I couldn't find my way out of that city. 00:01:29.845 --> 00:01:31.605 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:31.605 --> 00:01:32.980 align:middle line:84% It was kind of like this reading. 00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:36.380 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:36.380 --> 00:01:38.740 align:middle line:84% It's called "And the Trains Go On." 00:01:38.740 --> 00:01:41.890 align:middle line:84% "We stood at the back door of the shop in the night air 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:45.490 align:middle line:84% while a line of boxcars of soured wheat and pop bottles 00:01:45.490 --> 00:01:49.960 align:middle line:84% uncoupled and was sent creaking down our spur. 00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:53.410 align:middle line:84% Once, when I unsealed a car, and the two of us 00:01:53.410 --> 00:01:56.500 align:middle line:84% strained the door open with a groan of rust, 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:59.650 align:middle line:84% an old man stepped out and tipped his hat. 00:01:59.650 --> 00:02:01.870 align:middle line:90% It's all yours, boys. 00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:06.790 align:middle line:84% And he went off, stiff-legged, smelling of straw and shit. 00:02:06.790 --> 00:02:09.759 align:middle line:84% I often wonder whose father he was, 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:12.280 align:middle line:84% and how long he kept moving until the police found 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:16.390 align:middle line:84% him ticketless-- sleeping in a second class waiting room, 00:02:16.390 --> 00:02:19.660 align:middle line:84% and tore the cardboard box out of his hands, 00:02:19.660 --> 00:02:22.360 align:middle line:84% and beat him until the ink of his birth 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:27.850 align:middle line:84% smudged and surrendered its separate vowels. 00:02:27.850 --> 00:02:29.680 align:middle line:84% In the great rail yard of Milano, 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.680 align:middle line:84% the dog with the white throat and the soiled muzzle 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.740 align:middle line:84% crossed and re-crossed the tracks, searching 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:38.950 align:middle line:90% for his master, said the boy. 00:02:38.950 --> 00:02:41.410 align:middle line:90% But his grandfather said, no. 00:02:41.410 --> 00:02:46.780 align:middle line:84% He was sent by God to test the Italian railroads. 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:51.460 align:middle line:84% When I lie down at last to sleep inside a boxcar of coffins, 00:02:51.460 --> 00:02:55.000 align:middle line:84% bound for the villages climbing north, 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.150 align:middle line:84% will I waken in a small station where 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:02.260 align:middle line:84% women have come to claim what is left of glory, 00:03:02.260 --> 00:03:04.570 align:middle line:84% or will I sleep until the Silver Bridge 00:03:04.570 --> 00:03:07.960 align:middle line:84% spanning the Mystic River jabs me awake. 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:11.770 align:middle line:84% And I am back in a dirty work shirt that says, Phil. 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:16.570 align:middle line:84% 24 years old, hungry, and lost on the run from a war no one 00:03:16.570 --> 00:03:18.670 align:middle line:90% can win? 00:03:18.670 --> 00:03:22.420 align:middle line:84% I want to travel one more time with a wind whipping 00:03:22.420 --> 00:03:26.710 align:middle line:84% in the open door with you to keep me company. 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:30.130 align:middle line:84% Back to long tangled road that leads us home, 00:03:30.130 --> 00:03:33.770 align:middle line:84% through Flat Rock going east, picking up speed. 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:36.310 align:middle line:84% The damp fields asleep in moonlight. 00:03:36.310 --> 00:03:39.850 align:middle line:84% You stand beside me breathing the cold in silence. 00:03:39.850 --> 00:03:44.110 align:middle line:84% When you grip my arm hard, and lean way out, and shout out 00:03:44.110 --> 00:03:49.240 align:middle line:84% the holy names of the lost, neither of us is scared. 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.020 align:middle line:90% And our tears mean nothing." 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:55.470 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:55.470 --> 00:03:58.000 align:middle line:90%