WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.965 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.965 --> 00:00:06.270 align:middle line:84% I'll read one more poem from this old book, 00:00:06.270 --> 00:00:07.335 align:middle line:90% a couple of books back. 00:00:07.335 --> 00:00:14.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.950 --> 00:00:19.360 align:middle line:84% One always sets out with the various resolutions 00:00:19.360 --> 00:00:24.340 align:middle line:84% and for me they're always things I'm not going to do again. 00:00:24.340 --> 00:00:27.560 align:middle line:84% I've done that already and so I don't want to go back there. 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:29.800 align:middle line:84% And so it feels quite intrepid, it 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:33.910 align:middle line:84% feels as though one is really breaking new territory. 00:00:33.910 --> 00:00:35.800 align:middle line:84% And then after you get through with whatever 00:00:35.800 --> 00:00:38.210 align:middle line:84% the next project is you look back and say, 00:00:38.210 --> 00:00:39.580 align:middle line:90% well, wait a minute. 00:00:39.580 --> 00:00:43.000 align:middle line:84% Isn't that the same x, isn't that the same y? 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.430 align:middle line:90% Haven't you seen that before? 00:00:46.430 --> 00:00:52.000 align:middle line:84% So I thought I would give you a little run into the new book 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.202 align:middle line:84% by reading it that little short line lyric and then-- 00:00:55.202 --> 00:00:57.160 align:middle line:84% this is the book in which I tried to figure out 00:00:57.160 --> 00:00:59.020 align:middle line:90% how to tell a story. 00:00:59.020 --> 00:01:00.130 align:middle line:90% Is this working all right. 00:01:00.130 --> 00:01:02.540 align:middle line:84% Do we have it where it's supposed to be? 00:01:02.540 --> 00:01:03.040 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:12.880 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:15.230 align:middle line:84% This is a poem called "Short Story." 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:17.050 align:middle line:84% And it's one of the first narratives 00:01:17.050 --> 00:01:18.310 align:middle line:90% that I tried to write. 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:21.840 align:middle line:90% 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.890 align:middle line:84% "My grandfather killed a mule with a hammer or maybe 00:01:25.890 --> 00:01:29.370 align:middle line:84% with a plank or a stick, maybe it was a horse. 00:01:29.370 --> 00:01:32.670 align:middle line:90% The story varied in the telling. 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:36.750 align:middle line:84% If he was planting corn when it happened, it was a mule. 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:38.850 align:middle line:84% And he was plowing the upper slope 00:01:38.850 --> 00:01:42.780 align:middle line:84% West of the house, his overalls stiff to the knees 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:43.980 align:middle line:90% with red dirt. 00:01:43.980 --> 00:01:47.940 align:middle line:84% The lines draped behind his neck. 00:01:47.940 --> 00:01:51.360 align:middle line:84% He must have been glad to rest when the mule first 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:53.790 align:middle line:90% stopped mid furrow. 00:01:53.790 --> 00:01:55.710 align:middle line:84% Looked back at where he'd come then 00:01:55.710 --> 00:01:59.520 align:middle line:84% down to the brush along the creek he bent to clear. 00:01:59.520 --> 00:02:04.410 align:middle line:84% No doubt, he noticed the hawks great leisure over the field. 00:02:04.410 --> 00:02:09.000 align:middle line:84% The crows lumped in the biggest elm on the opposite hill. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.670 align:middle line:84% After he'd wiped his hat brim with his sleeve, 00:02:11.670 --> 00:02:14.010 align:middle line:84% he called to the mule as he slapped 00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:19.500 align:middle line:84% the line along its rump clipped and whistled. 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:22.650 align:middle line:84% My grandfather was a slight quiet man, 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:27.180 align:middle line:84% smaller than most women, smaller than his wife. 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:31.050 align:middle line:84% Had she been in the yard seen him heading toward the pump 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:36.090 align:middle line:84% now she'd pump for him a dipper of cold water. 00:02:36.090 --> 00:02:39.300 align:middle line:84% Walking back to the field, past the corn crib. 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:41.850 align:middle line:84% He took an ear of corn to start the mule, 00:02:41.850 --> 00:02:44.040 align:middle line:90% but the mule was planted. 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:47.490 align:middle line:84% He never cursed or shouted, only whipped it. 00:02:47.490 --> 00:02:53.070 align:middle line:84% The mule rippling its backside each time the switch fell. 00:02:53.070 --> 00:02:56.490 align:middle line:84% And when that didn't work whipped it low on its side 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:57.930 align:middle line:90% where it's tender. 00:02:57.930 --> 00:03:02.070 align:middle line:84% Then crosshatched the welts he'd made already. 00:03:02.070 --> 00:03:04.860 align:middle line:90% The mule went down on one knee. 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:07.980 align:middle line:84% And that was when he reached for the blown limb 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:12.000 align:middle line:84% or walked to the pile of seasoning lumber or else, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.060 align:middle line:84% unhooked the plow and took his own time to the shed 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:17.580 align:middle line:90% to get the hammer. 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:21.750 align:middle line:84% By the time I was born, he couldn't even lift a stick. 00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:24.990 align:middle line:84% He lived another 15 years in a chair 00:03:24.990 --> 00:03:29.520 align:middle line:84% but now he's dead, and so is his son who never meant 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:31.560 align:middle line:90% to speak a word against him. 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.830 align:middle line:84% And whom I never asked what his father was planting 00:03:34.830 --> 00:03:36.600 align:middle line:90% and in which field. 00:03:36.600 --> 00:03:39.330 align:middle line:84% And whether it happened before he married, 00:03:39.330 --> 00:03:42.240 align:middle line:84% before his children came in quick succession, 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:45.420 align:middle line:84% before his wife died of the last one. 00:03:45.420 --> 00:03:50.060 align:middle line:84% And only a few of us are left who ever heard that story." 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:52.000 align:middle line:90%