WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:04.605 align:middle line:90% And the last poem-- 00:00:04.605 --> 00:00:11.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:17.740 align:middle line:84% Once a year, my husband and kids and I, 00:00:17.740 --> 00:00:21.190 align:middle line:84% and my sister when she can be there, visit my mother. 00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:25.060 align:middle line:84% It's going to happen next month at Thanksgiving. 00:00:25.060 --> 00:00:29.290 align:middle line:84% And we put in her wood for the year. 00:00:29.290 --> 00:00:32.619 align:middle line:84% She uses a wood burning furnace in Central Wisconsin, 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:34.720 align:middle line:90% and uses a lot of wood. 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:36.700 align:middle line:84% My father's goal when he died was 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:40.060 align:middle line:84% to have five years of cordwood stacked up for her, 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:41.545 align:middle line:90% and he had six. 00:00:41.545 --> 00:00:43.780 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:43.780 --> 00:00:47.540 align:middle line:84% But he's not there to stack new wood anymore. 00:00:47.540 --> 00:00:50.770 align:middle line:84% So my cousin Peter who has a wood service, and thanks 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:54.940 align:middle line:84% to whom I have a feed cap that says Gregerson Tree 00:00:54.940 --> 00:01:00.520 align:middle line:84% Service with one of those plastic adjustable things 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:04.180 align:middle line:84% takes the dead wood down and leaves it there for us, loans 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:10.150 align:middle line:84% as his hydraulic splitter, which is really something. 00:01:10.150 --> 00:01:15.580 align:middle line:84% But we-- and as we age we do this more and more, moved over, 00:01:15.580 --> 00:01:19.420 align:middle line:84% more and more like Mrs. Exner there, but it's something we-- 00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:23.650 align:middle line:90% it makes us feel very good. 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:25.550 align:middle line:84% And as you can see I boast about it, 00:01:25.550 --> 00:01:27.080 align:middle line:90% I feel like it's a credential. 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:27.580 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:27.580 --> 00:01:30.970 align:middle line:90% 00:01:30.970 --> 00:01:31.900 align:middle line:90% Last poem I'll read. 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:34.390 align:middle line:84% It's to my father, and it's called "Cord--" 00:01:34.390 --> 00:01:36.940 align:middle line:84% and the kind that's called C-O-R-D. 00:01:36.940 --> 00:01:41.830 align:middle line:84% "Dearest, we filled up the wood room this week. 00:01:41.830 --> 00:01:46.120 align:middle line:84% Karen, and Steven, and the I and Peter's truck. 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:50.890 align:middle line:84% You would have been amused to see us in our woodsman mode. 00:01:50.890 --> 00:01:52.600 align:middle line:90% It's your wood still. 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:56.590 align:middle line:84% And you know those homely cruxes where 00:01:56.590 --> 00:02:00.500 align:middle line:84% the odd piece split, near the fork for instance, 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:03.820 align:middle line:84% has to be turned till it's made to fit 00:02:03.820 --> 00:02:07.630 align:middle line:84% and another lame one found for the gap? 00:02:07.630 --> 00:02:10.509 align:middle line:90% Sap just yesterday. 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:16.720 align:middle line:84% Smoke in the end this clubfoot marking the mean time. 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:18.400 align:middle line:90% I came to one of them. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.970 align:middle line:84% One of the numberless justnesses, a life 00:02:21.970 --> 00:02:24.850 align:middle line:90% of stacking wood affords. 00:02:24.850 --> 00:02:27.460 align:middle line:90% Had you even broken rhythm? 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:32.440 align:middle line:84% And for just that instant had you back. 00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:37.270 align:middle line:84% I know, I know it wasn't the last 00:02:37.270 --> 00:02:42.470 align:middle line:84% despite the strangled heaving of your chest, 00:02:42.470 --> 00:02:49.540 align:middle line:84% despite the rattled exhalation and the leavened livid meat 00:02:49.540 --> 00:02:52.170 align:middle line:90% born smell. 00:02:52.170 --> 00:02:54.945 align:middle line:84% It wasn't the last till after word. 00:02:54.945 --> 00:02:58.890 align:middle line:90% I have made that my excuse. 00:02:58.890 --> 00:03:03.420 align:middle line:84% But mother was sleeping not five feet away. 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:09.060 align:middle line:84% She'd scarcely slept in weeks, I could have waked her. 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:18.030 align:middle line:84% I, sweet darling, the morphine under your tongue, and much 00:03:18.030 --> 00:03:21.285 align:middle line:90% your quiet hands to blame. 00:03:21.285 --> 00:03:24.040 align:middle line:90% 00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:29.170 align:middle line:84% And when we had dismantled this last but one 00:03:29.170 --> 00:03:32.500 align:middle line:84% of the provident stores you'd left, 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:37.960 align:middle line:84% a winter's worth of warmth in each and hold it in. 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:43.570 align:middle line:84% We split and stacked the new oak Peter felled last spring. 00:03:43.570 --> 00:03:48.790 align:middle line:84% We took a day off in between, we wrapped ourselves in virtue, 00:03:48.790 --> 00:03:51.790 align:middle line:90% we can be good children yet. 00:03:51.790 --> 00:03:55.360 align:middle line:84% The ginkgos have come back from their near poisoning. 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:57.340 align:middle line:90% Have I told you that? 00:03:57.340 --> 00:03:59.330 align:middle line:90% Our tenants are remorseful. 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:02.380 align:middle line:90% He's sworn off new insecticides. 00:04:02.380 --> 00:04:09.480 align:middle line:84% My hour with you, one breath, one more was theft." 00:04:09.480 --> 00:04:11.270 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:04:11.270 --> 00:04:13.000 align:middle line:90%