WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.160 --> 00:00:03.720 align:middle line:84% It seems like you want to laugh tonight, 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:06.420 align:middle line:84% so I'm going to read my two funny poems. 00:00:06.420 --> 00:00:11.550 align:middle line:84% Those weren't funny poems, but I do have two funny poems 00:00:11.550 --> 00:00:12.750 align:middle line:90% so I'll read them now. 00:00:12.750 --> 00:00:15.630 align:middle line:90% They're parodies. 00:00:15.630 --> 00:00:18.360 align:middle line:84% The first one is a parody of a very lovely poem, one 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:22.680 align:middle line:84% of my favorites, and I'm sure a poem you all know, 00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:26.255 align:middle line:84% or most of you, called "Elegy for"-- 00:00:26.255 --> 00:00:27.630 align:middle line:84% I can't remember the exact title, 00:00:27.630 --> 00:00:29.560 align:middle line:84% but Mark Strand's elegy for his father, 00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:31.560 align:middle line:84% one of the very beautiful poems in our language. 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:34.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:37.770 align:middle line:84% I chose it to parody because I wanted the parody 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:40.650 align:middle line:84% to not simply be a parody, which I think is sort of easy, 00:00:40.650 --> 00:00:43.020 align:middle line:90% but to be an appreciation also. 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:45.870 align:middle line:84% Eventually an appreciation of the poem. 00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:48.750 align:middle line:90% And I hope this poem does that. 00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:53.830 align:middle line:90% 00:00:53.830 --> 00:00:56.470 align:middle line:84% There's one section in his poem, he's 00:00:56.470 --> 00:00:58.870 align:middle line:84% talking about his father who's going on with his dying 00:00:58.870 --> 00:01:00.970 align:middle line:84% and nothing can stop his father from dying. 00:01:00.970 --> 00:01:02.770 align:middle line:84% The refrain is nothing can stop him. 00:01:02.770 --> 00:01:04.930 align:middle line:84% He went on with his dying, and so forth. 00:01:04.930 --> 00:01:08.710 align:middle line:90% 00:01:08.710 --> 00:01:12.490 align:middle line:84% That was the model for this parody. 00:01:12.490 --> 00:01:13.480 align:middle line:90% "Poem for Mark Strand." 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:17.390 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:19.070 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:01:19.070 --> 00:01:23.690 align:middle line:84% Not the worst day, not the heaviness of his job, 00:01:23.690 --> 00:01:29.180 align:middle line:84% not the increase in postage, he went on with his writing. 00:01:29.180 --> 00:01:32.120 align:middle line:84% The moon sunk to his shoulder, peered over like the eye 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:34.670 align:middle line:90% left open in the darker dark. 00:01:34.670 --> 00:01:37.160 align:middle line:90% He continued writing. 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:39.530 align:middle line:84% The young poets came forward, threatening 00:01:39.530 --> 00:01:41.340 align:middle line:90% to write longer litanies. 00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:44.150 align:middle line:84% So long, in fact, chanting them would make the dead count 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:46.250 align:middle line:90% their blessings. 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:48.170 align:middle line:90% He went on with his writing. 00:01:48.170 --> 00:01:50.000 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.340 align:middle line:84% Not the scene from the window which he described 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:55.100 align:middle line:84% as if it were the subject of his poem, 00:01:55.100 --> 00:01:57.530 align:middle line:84% not the silence of the telephone, 00:01:57.530 --> 00:02:01.940 align:middle line:84% not the children who kept asking what he did for a living, not 00:02:01.940 --> 00:02:04.700 align:middle line:84% the change in the weather, which took months. 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:06.620 align:middle line:90% He continued writing. 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:08.660 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:02:08.660 --> 00:02:11.900 align:middle line:84% "Mark," I said, "there's no ink in the pen." 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:14.690 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:02:14.690 --> 00:02:17.180 align:middle line:84% "You're ruining the surface of Richard Howard's mahogany 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:17.840 align:middle line:90% desk." 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.120 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:24.110 align:middle line:84% Cigarette ashes covered the page like confetti falling forever 00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:26.240 align:middle line:90% over the quarreling lovers. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.040 align:middle line:90% He went on with his writing. 00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:29.660 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:02:29.660 --> 00:02:31.610 align:middle line:84% Not the publisher with money who asked 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:36.050 align:middle line:84% for shorter poems, not the short Provincetown, 00:02:36.050 --> 00:02:41.390 align:middle line:84% not the architect of EPB in Iowa City, not Dan Halpern who said, 00:02:41.390 --> 00:02:45.560 align:middle line:84% Mark, I can get you a seat on the Stock Exchange. 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:47.900 align:middle line:90% He went on with his writing. 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.660 align:middle line:84% His eyes refused to leave the mirror. 00:02:50.660 --> 00:02:52.760 align:middle line:84% The spaces he worshipped behind him 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:54.950 align:middle line:84% filled with 100 Black coats, which 00:02:54.950 --> 00:02:58.620 align:middle line:84% were the angels of emptiness arriving from Spain. 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:00.620 align:middle line:90% He went on with his writing. 00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:02.480 align:middle line:90% Nothing could stop him. 00:03:02.480 --> 00:03:06.110 align:middle line:84% Not the breathing, which escaped the keyhole as song, 00:03:06.110 --> 00:03:09.350 align:middle line:84% not the life he wanted, not the life he chose, 00:03:09.350 --> 00:03:13.070 align:middle line:84% which was the same, not the blank page which he laughed 00:03:13.070 --> 00:03:16.010 align:middle line:84% at, not the memory of his father, 00:03:16.010 --> 00:03:19.100 align:middle line:84% not the punk poet who wrote parodies, 00:03:19.100 --> 00:03:23.660 align:middle line:84% not the poem which was perfect, not the poem which wasn't. 00:03:23.660 --> 00:03:26.030 align:middle line:90% He went on with his writing. 00:03:26.030 --> 00:03:28.640 align:middle line:84% The rest of us closed our eyes in the darkness, 00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:31.100 align:middle line:84% became the walls that housed him. 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:33.180 align:middle line:84% Dreams were there for the taking, 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:36.940 align:middle line:90% but no, nothing could stop him.