WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.930 align:middle line:84% I worked a lot in the last two years, 00:00:01.930 --> 00:00:06.300 align:middle line:84% particularly with friends and company who 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:09.600 align:middle line:90% were painters, visual artists. 00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:17.190 align:middle line:84% And I see that Jim Dine has a show presently of tools, 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:21.720 align:middle line:84% one of his particular favorite folky senses 00:00:21.720 --> 00:00:29.095 align:middle line:84% of what proposition of reality or echoing resonance. 00:00:29.095 --> 00:00:33.340 align:middle line:84% His family were classic hardware store owners, 00:00:33.340 --> 00:00:38.680 align:middle line:84% and he grew up with a great pleasure in tools. 00:00:38.680 --> 00:00:41.770 align:middle line:84% And so now these years later, he's about 10 years younger 00:00:41.770 --> 00:00:48.260 align:middle line:84% than I am, these become not fetishes, fetishized objects, 00:00:48.260 --> 00:00:51.790 align:middle line:84% but they become echoing resonances of his own real life 00:00:51.790 --> 00:00:56.290 align:middle line:84% and take on character and person, almost literally. 00:00:56.290 --> 00:01:00.520 align:middle line:84% So, he-- we, anyhow, we got into a situation 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:05.740 align:middle line:84% where he was going to work with whatever I gave him. 00:01:05.740 --> 00:01:09.580 align:middle line:84% I remember calling him to ask him what would be useful. 00:01:09.580 --> 00:01:11.070 align:middle line:90% He said, well, 10 parts. 00:01:11.070 --> 00:01:15.370 align:middle line:84% 10-- 10 would be a good number of whatever, you know, 00:01:15.370 --> 00:01:17.680 align:middle line:90% single poems, 10. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:24.680 align:middle line:84% So-- in that interest I wrote this sequence, 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:25.960 align:middle line:90% which is actually 10-- 00:01:25.960 --> 00:01:29.500 align:middle line:84% it's a serial poem, called "Pictures." 00:01:29.500 --> 00:01:32.400 align:middle line:90% 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:34.750 align:middle line:90% "1. 00:01:34.750 --> 00:01:38.800 align:middle line:84% This distance between pane of glass, 00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:45.340 align:middle line:84% eye's sight, the far-waving green edge of trees, sun's 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:51.445 align:middle line:84% reflection, light yellow and sky there, too, light blue. 00:01:51.445 --> 00:01:54.190 align:middle line:90% 00:01:54.190 --> 00:01:54.690 align:middle line:90% 2. 00:01:54.690 --> 00:01:57.340 align:middle line:90% 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:01.270 align:middle line:84% I will sit here till breeze ambient 00:02:01.270 --> 00:02:04.630 align:middle line:90% enfolds me and I lift away. 00:02:04.630 --> 00:02:09.430 align:middle line:84% I will sit here as the sun warms my hands, 00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:15.850 align:middle line:84% my body eases and sounds grow soft and intimate in my ears. 00:02:15.850 --> 00:02:19.480 align:middle line:84% I will sit here in the back of the house. 00:02:19.480 --> 00:02:23.500 align:middle line:84% Behind me will at last disappear. 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.710 align:middle line:90% I will sit here. 00:02:26.710 --> 00:02:29.500 align:middle line:90% 3. 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:32.320 align:middle line:90% Harry's gone out for pizza. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:35.320 align:middle line:90% Mabel's home all alone. 00:02:35.320 --> 00:02:38.260 align:middle line:90% Mother just left for Ibiza. 00:02:38.260 --> 00:02:41.290 align:middle line:90% Give the old man a bone. 00:02:41.290 --> 00:02:43.720 align:middle line:84% Remember when Barkis was willing, 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:46.570 align:middle line:84% when onions grew on the lawn, when 00:02:46.570 --> 00:02:49.720 align:middle line:90% airplanes cost just a shilling? 00:02:49.720 --> 00:02:53.080 align:middle line:90% Where have the good times gone? 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:55.120 align:middle line:90% 4. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:00.070 align:middle line:84% If one looked back for things to look in that uselessly opaque 00:03:00.070 --> 00:03:05.470 align:middle line:84% direction, little enough's ever there. 00:03:05.470 --> 00:03:08.740 align:middle line:84% What is it one stares into, thinks still 00:03:08.740 --> 00:03:15.310 align:middle line:84% to recover, as it all fades out, minds vagary? 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:17.350 align:middle line:90% I call to you brutally. 00:03:17.350 --> 00:03:19.420 align:middle line:90% I remember the day we met. 00:03:19.420 --> 00:03:24.490 align:middle line:84% I remember how you sat impatient to get out. 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:28.120 align:middle line:90% Back is no direction to pass. 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:33.590 align:middle line:84% Life is the river we've carried with us. 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:35.500 align:middle line:90% 5. 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:38.830 align:middle line:84% Sun's shadows aslant across opening 00:03:38.830 --> 00:03:43.270 align:middle line:84% expansive various green fields, down from door, 00:03:43.270 --> 00:03:47.200 align:middle line:84% here ajar on box tower's third floor. 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:50.455 align:middle line:90% Look out on wonder this morning. 00:03:50.455 --> 00:03:53.105 align:middle line:90% 00:03:53.105 --> 00:03:53.605 align:middle line:90% 6. 00:03:53.605 --> 00:03:56.260 align:middle line:90% 00:03:56.260 --> 00:04:01.570 align:middle line:84% I never met you afterward, nor seemingly knew you before. 00:04:01.570 --> 00:04:06.610 align:middle line:84% Our lives were interfolded, wrapped like a present. 00:04:06.610 --> 00:04:11.350 align:middle line:84% The body, the odors, the tastes, the surfaces of our bodies 00:04:11.350 --> 00:04:17.110 align:middle line:84% were the mac, the mind of distraction, trying to keep up. 00:04:17.110 --> 00:04:19.839 align:middle line:84% I could not compare you to anything. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:22.450 align:middle line:84% You were not like rhubarb or clean sheets, 00:04:22.450 --> 00:04:27.820 align:middle line:84% or dear as it might be, sudden rain in the street. 00:04:27.820 --> 00:04:31.240 align:middle line:84% All those years ago and the beach in Dover, 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:34.460 align:middle line:84% with that time so ominous, and the couple 00:04:34.460 --> 00:04:38.600 align:middle line:84% so human, pledging their faith to one another. 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:43.480 align:middle line:84% Now again, such a time seems fear, not to fear death 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:49.900 align:middle line:84% or what's been so given, to yield one's own despair. 00:04:49.900 --> 00:04:51.610 align:middle line:90% 7. 00:04:51.610 --> 00:04:56.440 align:middle line:84% Like sitting in the back seat, can't see what street we're on 00:04:56.440 --> 00:05:00.970 align:middle line:84% or what the one driving sees or where we're going, 00:05:00.970 --> 00:05:03.880 align:middle line:84% waiting for what's to happen, can't quite 00:05:03.880 --> 00:05:10.680 align:middle line:84% hear the conversation, the big people sitting up front. 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:12.960 align:middle line:90% 8. 00:05:12.960 --> 00:05:19.530 align:middle line:84% Death be not proud, days been not done, hair be not gone, 00:05:19.530 --> 00:05:26.490 align:middle line:84% head be not cowed, bird be not dead, thoughts be not fled. 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:30.780 align:middle line:84% Come back, instead, heart's hopeful wedding, 00:05:30.780 --> 00:05:33.510 align:middle line:90% face faint in the mirror. 00:05:33.510 --> 00:05:35.370 align:middle line:90% Why does it stay there? 00:05:35.370 --> 00:05:40.620 align:middle line:84% What's become of person who was here? 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:42.150 align:middle line:90% 9. 00:05:42.150 --> 00:05:50.790 align:middle line:84% Wet, water, warm, fire, rough wood, cold stone. 00:05:50.790 --> 00:05:55.110 align:middle line:90% Hot coals, shining star. 00:05:55.110 --> 00:05:57.870 align:middle line:90% Physical hill, still my will. 00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:00.795 align:middle line:90% Mind's ambiance alters all. 00:06:00.795 --> 00:06:03.420 align:middle line:90% 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:05.730 align:middle line:90% 10. 00:06:05.730 --> 00:06:10.920 align:middle line:84% As I rode out one morning, just at break of day, 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:15.900 align:middle line:84% a pain came upon me unexpectedly. 00:06:15.900 --> 00:06:20.770 align:middle line:84% As I thought one day not to think anymore, 00:06:20.770 --> 00:06:23.130 align:middle line:90% I thought again, caught. 00:06:23.130 --> 00:06:25.890 align:middle line:90% You could not stop. 00:06:25.890 --> 00:06:31.090 align:middle line:84% Were I the horse I rode, were I the bridge I crossed, were I 00:06:31.090 --> 00:06:37.530 align:middle line:84% a tree unable to move, the light would have no reflections, 00:06:37.530 --> 00:06:41.670 align:middle line:90% the sweet soft air no sounds. 00:06:41.670 --> 00:06:44.340 align:middle line:90% So I hear, I see. 00:06:44.340 --> 00:06:49.440 align:middle line:84% Tell still the echoing story of all that lives in the forest, 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:52.040 align:middle line:90% all that surrounds me." 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:53.000 align:middle line:90%