WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.547 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.547 --> 00:00:03.630 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to read a poem
that's a tiny bit longer.

00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:05.915 align:middle line:84%
It's because I'm going
to read another poem that

00:00:05.915 --> 00:00:08.290 align:middle line:84%
has the same subject a little
later, the reason for them.

00:00:08.290 --> 00:00:13.050 align:middle line:84%
This one is called Rotten
Angel, and it is the angel

00:00:13.050 --> 00:00:14.970 align:middle line:90%
of death in Jewish lore.

00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:15.630 align:middle line:90%
Malach.

00:00:15.630 --> 00:00:19.425 align:middle line:90%


00:00:19.425 --> 00:00:20.925 align:middle line:84%
In my house in
Pennsylvania, there's

00:00:20.925 --> 00:00:22.680 align:middle line:90%
a little island down the river.

00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:26.100 align:middle line:84%
I imagined myself, in this
poem, being buried there.

00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:28.800 align:middle line:84%
A place where nobody comes,
underwater vegetation,

00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:33.510 align:middle line:84%
eerie and ugly,
despicable, a weed place.

00:00:33.510 --> 00:00:35.588 align:middle line:84%
And I started the
poem in Athens,

00:00:35.588 --> 00:00:36.630 align:middle line:90%
I saw one of those bases.

00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:39.720 align:middle line:90%


00:00:39.720 --> 00:00:42.750 align:middle line:84%
Hermes, in Greek mythology
and Greek religion,

00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:46.500 align:middle line:84%
is the one who leads you
into the next world, that's

00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:48.120 align:middle line:90%
one of his functions.

00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:51.240 align:middle line:84%
And I saw these urns with
the ashes in them, well,

00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.520 align:middle line:84%
actually, once was in
them, was a legend,

00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:57.300 align:middle line:84%
this is Hermes leading
so-and-so into the next realm.

00:00:57.300 --> 00:01:01.248 align:middle line:84%
I started with a kind of,
stole it from, Hermes oriented.

00:01:01.248 --> 00:01:03.540 align:middle line:84%
I finally found it when I
was discovered and remembered

00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:10.280 align:middle line:84%
the malach, who was my angel
of death, Jewish angel.

00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:13.858 align:middle line:84%
The Greeks are, I don't
want to offend anybody,

00:01:13.858 --> 00:01:14.900 align:middle line:90%
I'm supposed to love all.

00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:16.370 align:middle line:90%
The Greeks are kind of cheap.

00:01:16.370 --> 00:01:21.890 align:middle line:84%
They make their gods do all
kinds of different functions.

00:01:21.890 --> 00:01:23.900 align:middle line:84%
I mean, Hermes had
to be a messenger,

00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:25.460 align:middle line:84%
and he had to be a
guide to the dead,

00:01:25.460 --> 00:01:27.680 align:middle line:90%
whereas the Jews specialize.

00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:30.800 align:middle line:84%
They have angels
that do this and they

00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:34.040 align:middle line:84%
accept that it's
balanced somewhere else.

00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:39.590 align:middle line:84%
The balance and the
Greeks have many gods,

00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:42.310 align:middle line:84%
and they are liberal
there on the Jews.

00:01:42.310 --> 00:01:44.030 align:middle line:90%
We used to have just one.

00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:45.870 align:middle line:90%
So it's called Rotten Angel.

00:01:45.870 --> 00:01:49.490 align:middle line:90%


00:01:49.490 --> 00:01:51.890 align:middle line:84%
My friends still of
this world follow me

00:01:51.890 --> 00:01:54.590 align:middle line:84%
to the bottom of the
river, tripping over roots

00:01:54.590 --> 00:01:56.465 align:middle line:84%
and cutting themselves
on the dry grass.

00:01:56.465 --> 00:01:59.480 align:middle line:90%


00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:04.250 align:middle line:84%
They are all over on the left
side, drinking beer and crying,

00:02:04.250 --> 00:02:08.000 align:middle line:84%
and I am there by myself
waiting for the rotten angel.

00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:11.090 align:middle line:84%
For my sake, it hasn't
rained for 20 days,

00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:14.480 align:middle line:84%
and all the old jetties are
showing up again in the water.

00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:17.420 align:middle line:84%
I can reach my arms up into
the second row of branches

00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:21.440 align:middle line:84%
and pull down clumps of dead
leaves and barrel hoops.

00:02:21.440 --> 00:02:24.170 align:middle line:84%
I finally find my
clearing and fall down

00:02:24.170 --> 00:02:29.300 align:middle line:84%
in the dirt, exhausted, from
30 minutes of fighting for air.

00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:32.870 align:middle line:84%
I put an 'x' on the ground
to start marking off

00:02:32.870 --> 00:02:34.640 align:middle line:90%
a place for the gravel.

00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:37.670 align:middle line:84%
The rhododendron
and the iron bird,

00:02:37.670 --> 00:02:42.140 align:middle line:84%
my friends stand above me,
a little bored by my death,

00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:46.778 align:middle line:84%
and a little tired of the
flies, and the sad ritual.

00:02:46.778 --> 00:02:48.320 align:middle line:84%
How I would love it
if I could really

00:02:48.320 --> 00:02:53.180 align:middle line:84%
be buried here, a mile away
from my house in this soft soil.

00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:55.280 align:middle line:84%
I think the state
could do this for me.

00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.830 align:middle line:84%
They could give me
a few feet of Earth.

00:02:57.830 --> 00:02:59.600 align:middle line:90%
They could make an exception.

00:02:59.600 --> 00:03:01.550 align:middle line:90%
I tell you what really matters.

00:03:01.550 --> 00:03:05.120 align:middle line:84%
And all that talk about so many
cents worth of fat, and so many

00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.690 align:middle line:84%
grams of water, is really
just fake humility.

00:03:08.690 --> 00:03:11.210 align:middle line:84%
I would hate being
dusted on the ocean,

00:03:11.210 --> 00:03:13.850 align:middle line:84%
or put in a drawer
for perpetuity.

00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:17.420 align:middle line:84%
I want to be connected with
life as long as possible.

00:03:17.420 --> 00:03:22.200 align:middle line:84%
I want to disappear slowly,
as gruesome as that sounds.

00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:25.760 align:middle line:84%
So there is time for those who
want to see me in my own light,

00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:28.245 align:middle line:84%
and get an idea of how
I made my connections,

00:03:28.245 --> 00:03:29.870 align:middle line:84%
and what I looked at
and dreamed about,

00:03:29.870 --> 00:03:32.900 align:middle line:84%
and what the river smelled
like from this island.

00:03:32.900 --> 00:03:34.730 align:middle line:84%
And how the grackles
sounded when

00:03:34.730 --> 00:03:36.530 align:middle line:84%
they landed in the
polished trees,

00:03:36.530 --> 00:03:40.460 align:middle line:84%
and how the truck
sounded charging up 611

00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:42.230 align:middle line:84%
carrying the culture
of Philadelphia

00:03:42.230 --> 00:03:44.000 align:middle line:90%
into the mountains.

00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.520 align:middle line:84%
And how the angel
must have gasped

00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.040 align:middle line:84%
as he swam back to
the shore, and how

00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.280 align:middle line:84%
he must have dipped his
head in the green water

00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:56.060 align:middle line:84%
to escape the gnats
swarming after him

00:03:56.060 --> 00:04:01.160 align:middle line:84%
in the dirty sunlight, a
million miles from his New York,

00:04:01.160 --> 00:04:04.720 align:middle line:84%
and his Baltimore
and his Boston.

00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:10.000 align:middle line:90%