WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.276 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.276 --> 00:00:06.552 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.552 --> 00:00:08.180 align:middle line:90% Well, I know everybody here. 00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:10.390 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:10.390 --> 00:00:11.980 align:middle line:90% It's very exciting. 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:13.635 align:middle line:90% It's-- I'm not used to-- 00:00:13.635 --> 00:00:16.620 align:middle line:84% is this doing the feedback or something? 00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:18.310 align:middle line:90% I can't really hear it. 00:00:18.310 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:19.920 align:middle line:90% Sound OK? 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:21.180 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:22.228 align:middle line:90% I can't hear it. 00:00:22.228 --> 00:00:22.770 align:middle line:90% Keep talking. 00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:23.395 align:middle line:90% We'll tell you. 00:00:23.395 --> 00:00:24.450 align:middle line:90% Keep talking, they say. 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:26.730 align:middle line:84% I'm not used to giving a poetry reading, 00:00:26.730 --> 00:00:30.810 align:middle line:84% and for a long time in front of everybody that I know. 00:00:30.810 --> 00:00:35.550 align:middle line:84% And Gail-- my wife Gail is here and all my friends. 00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:41.910 align:middle line:84% Well, it's a real honor to give a reading in one's own home 00:00:41.910 --> 00:00:46.320 align:middle line:84% and also a little daunting because I can't fake anything. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:50.130 align:middle line:90% You all know who I am. 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:53.100 align:middle line:90% So I'll start. 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:56.820 align:middle line:84% Mia, could you go ding when I hit 50 minutes. 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:58.410 align:middle line:84% Even if I'm in the middle, you know? 00:00:58.410 --> 00:01:00.360 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:00.360 --> 00:01:02.199 align:middle line:90% That's a way to do with that. 00:01:02.199 --> 00:01:10.830 align:middle line:90% 00:01:10.830 --> 00:01:16.470 align:middle line:84% A lot of my poems set in the last several years are funny, 00:01:16.470 --> 00:01:18.670 align:middle line:84% but sometimes they're not, and I think they are, 00:01:18.670 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:84% and I find out that people don't find them funny. 00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:24.750 align:middle line:84% There are some folks that aren't funny at all, 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:28.140 align:middle line:84% and because you get in the mood for laughing sometimes, 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:33.130 align:middle line:84% I will tell you when a poem is somber or not funny at all. 00:01:33.130 --> 00:01:36.780 align:middle line:84% Well, I gave a reading some months ago, 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:39.060 align:middle line:90% and everybody's laughing. 00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:41.190 align:middle line:84% And then, I read this really sad moment, 00:01:41.190 --> 00:01:43.080 align:middle line:90% and people started to laugh. 00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:44.260 align:middle line:90% And I had to say, no, no. 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:45.196 align:middle line:90% No. 00:01:45.196 --> 00:01:48.480 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:51.240 align:middle line:84% I don't-- I don't know whether this opening poem is funny 00:01:51.240 --> 00:01:53.040 align:middle line:90% or not, but I thought it was. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:55.830 align:middle line:90% But somebody said it wasn't. 00:01:55.830 --> 00:01:58.830 align:middle line:90% OK, it's called "Blind Date." 00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:03.540 align:middle line:84% And just imagine yourself on a blind date with someone 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:07.800 align:middle line:84% who likes to ask a whole lot of questions. 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:09.930 align:middle line:90% "After Where were you born? 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:12.040 align:middle line:90% And How long were you married? 00:02:12.040 --> 00:02:14.880 align:middle line:84% Comes the first sip of wine and after 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:17.820 align:middle line:84% that the clash of cutlery and the shuffling 00:02:17.820 --> 00:02:21.360 align:middle line:84% shoes of the waiter, then the silence so brief 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.610 align:middle line:90% you almost don't hear it. 00:02:23.610 --> 00:02:26.700 align:middle line:84% What are the smallest objects you have lost? 00:02:26.700 --> 00:02:31.020 align:middle line:84% What sudden smells make you stop and think back? 00:02:31.020 --> 00:02:34.410 align:middle line:84% And the struggle, the summoning up, the visualizing, 00:02:34.410 --> 00:02:36.420 align:middle line:90% the squinting into the past. 00:02:36.420 --> 00:02:39.000 align:middle line:84% Now and then she interrupts and asks 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:43.800 align:middle line:84% for a story, a theory, speculation, interpretations. 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:46.500 align:middle line:84% How many close friends have died and where do you 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:49.260 align:middle line:84% think they went and how do you talk to them 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:51.240 align:middle line:90% now that they're gone? 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:54.660 align:middle line:84% And your mind is eagerly opening, swelling, 00:02:54.660 --> 00:02:58.080 align:middle line:84% a cavern in which what have been formally hidden 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:01.770 align:middle line:84% from you by the public din now dart around 00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:06.090 align:middle line:84% like bats with their insistent intimate squeakings. 00:03:06.090 --> 00:03:07.800 align:middle line:90% Did your mother like you? 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:10.890 align:middle line:84% How do you start a conversation with a stranger? 00:03:10.890 --> 00:03:14.610 align:middle line:84% By now, the answers come easier, more flowing, 00:03:14.610 --> 00:03:17.700 align:middle line:90% a zone, a spigot, a well. 00:03:17.700 --> 00:03:20.160 align:middle line:84% What parts of yourself have you given up 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:22.260 align:middle line:90% since leaving your home town? 00:03:22.260 --> 00:03:23.820 align:middle line:90% Have you ever been lost? 00:03:23.820 --> 00:03:24.630 align:middle line:90% Broke? 00:03:24.630 --> 00:03:25.770 align:middle line:90% Hungry? 00:03:25.770 --> 00:03:28.890 align:middle line:84% Have you ever asked your sister what she thought of you back 00:03:28.890 --> 00:03:31.350 align:middle line:90% then, when you were kids? 00:03:31.350 --> 00:03:34.590 align:middle line:84% The conversation of call and response, 00:03:34.590 --> 00:03:38.250 align:middle line:84% and when she enters the taxi, and waves bye-bye, 00:03:38.250 --> 00:03:41.580 align:middle line:84% you are left standing at the altar in the Church 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:45.900 align:middle line:84% of Lost Memories wearing that ridiculous tie, your hands 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:48.600 align:middle line:84% in your pockets, jingling the change, 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:53.100 align:middle line:84% sniffing the ancient air for clues, for distillations, 00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:55.650 align:middle line:90% perfume fresh from the flowers. 00:03:55.650 --> 00:03:56.490 align:middle line:90% Have you ever? 00:03:56.490 --> 00:03:58.430 align:middle line:90% Have you ever?" 00:03:58.430 --> 00:04:01.000 align:middle line:90%