WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.133 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.133 --> 00:00:03.300 align:middle line:84% A little while ago, I was walking around the Garment 00:00:03.300 --> 00:00:08.380 align:middle line:84% District in New York, and in one of the stores 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:11.070 align:middle line:84% there was this piece of cardboard. 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:16.275 align:middle line:84% And on the cardboard was all these individual zippers. 00:00:16.275 --> 00:00:19.410 align:middle line:84% And it was one of the most beautiful things 00:00:19.410 --> 00:00:20.820 align:middle line:90% I had ever seen. 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:24.870 align:middle line:84% There was probably 50 different kinds of zippers. 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:27.690 align:middle line:84% And it was like a Hopkins poem, I 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:29.510 align:middle line:90% mean that kind of specificity. 00:00:29.510 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:84% It was like looking at, you know, looking 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:32.770 align:middle line:90% at surgical instruments. 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:35.430 align:middle line:84% It was like looking at individual fireworks. 00:00:35.430 --> 00:00:37.530 align:middle line:84% It was just incredibly beautiful. 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:39.750 align:middle line:84% You know, I walked to the store, and asked them 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:40.590 align:middle line:90% if I could buy it. 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:41.340 align:middle line:90% And they said, no. 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.230 align:middle line:84% And I said, OK, well could buy 50 different zippers? 00:00:44.230 --> 00:00:45.990 align:middle line:90% They said, no. 00:00:45.990 --> 00:00:48.060 align:middle line:84% You can buy a thousand of any one zipper. 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.560 align:middle line:84% So it was something that I couldn't have. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:51.820 align:middle line:90% But anyway, I was thinking-- 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:52.320 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.100 align:middle line:84% Which may, of course, have made it more beautiful. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:59.940 align:middle line:84% I was thinking about that sort of specificity, and in relation 00:00:59.940 --> 00:01:02.830 align:middle line:84% to the zipper's relationship to the line. 00:01:02.830 --> 00:01:06.845 align:middle line:84% This is one of the-- it's a very un-enlightening introduction 00:01:06.845 --> 00:01:07.345 align:middle line:90% to the poem. 00:01:07.345 --> 00:01:11.090 align:middle line:90% It doesn't make a lot of sense. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:13.660 align:middle line:84% So I tried to write a poem in which line 00:01:13.660 --> 00:01:18.310 align:middle line:84% had a kind of specific end style completion to it, 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:20.350 align:middle line:84% but nonetheless there was something that 00:01:20.350 --> 00:01:23.590 align:middle line:90% was holding the poem together. 00:01:23.590 --> 00:01:25.840 align:middle line:84% And that's true of every poem anybody ever writes. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:29.010 align:middle line:90% 00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:33.520 align:middle line:84% It's unhelpfully named after a Duchamp assisted readymade 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:35.530 align:middle line:84% called "With Hidden Noise," which is 00:01:35.530 --> 00:01:37.420 align:middle line:90% a ball of twine and two metal-- 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:40.750 align:middle line:90% 00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:43.540 align:middle line:84% metal pieces holding it together, 00:01:43.540 --> 00:01:45.670 align:middle line:84% and something is put inside the ball of twine 00:01:45.670 --> 00:01:47.980 align:middle line:90% by a friend of his. 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:49.810 align:middle line:90% Duchamp never knew what it was. 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:51.445 align:middle line:84% The idea is that you can hear it, 00:01:51.445 --> 00:01:55.270 align:middle line:90% but you don't know what it is 00:01:55.270 --> 00:01:59.050 align:middle line:84% "I am a teapot and this is my song. 00:01:59.050 --> 00:02:02.680 align:middle line:84% I am award winning and this is my song. 00:02:02.680 --> 00:02:07.390 align:middle line:84% What genius decided we needed fire engine now? 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:11.620 align:middle line:84% I'm a post-industrial bunny and this-- look, big ears, 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:15.010 align:middle line:84% this is my song, and no one needs your rabbity bull 00:02:15.010 --> 00:02:17.260 align:middle line:90% around here. 00:02:17.260 --> 00:02:20.760 align:middle line:84% I am an exchequer and this is my retinue. 00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:24.070 align:middle line:84% No one knows precisely what I do. 00:02:24.070 --> 00:02:27.370 align:middle line:84% Where to put the excess of speaking voice? 00:02:27.370 --> 00:02:29.470 align:middle line:84% But Professor, there's too much nitrogen 00:02:29.470 --> 00:02:33.340 align:middle line:84% up there for any known life-form to survive! 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:37.840 align:middle line:84% I am the breasts of a starlet and this is my lab coat. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:40.300 align:middle line:90% Did you say lifeboat? 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:44.170 align:middle line:84% Watch out for the nails coming out the other side. 00:02:44.170 --> 00:02:48.100 align:middle line:84% I am a liminal state and this is my program. 00:02:48.100 --> 00:02:51.820 align:middle line:90% Misbegotten pang, open your oh. 00:02:51.820 --> 00:02:54.520 align:middle line:90% Did you say sleeping voice? 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:58.090 align:middle line:84% We can no more invent ourselves than the ticks of a clock 00:02:58.090 --> 00:03:00.610 align:middle line:90% can invent the clock. 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:03.760 align:middle line:84% Are you sure this is the way to go? 00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:05.830 align:middle line:90% I am Walt Whitman but so? 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:08.260 align:middle line:90% Everyone's Walt Whitman. 00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:11.440 align:middle line:90% Clouds of unlimited portent. 00:03:11.440 --> 00:03:14.740 align:middle line:90% Insert anecdote here. 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:18.640 align:middle line:84% The idea is to get the heart-rate up and sustain it. 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:22.570 align:middle line:84% 'What happened?' Shouts the hero rushing into the study room. 00:03:22.570 --> 00:03:27.940 align:middle line:84% 'Muyng magph naagh', replies the heroine, still in her gag. 00:03:27.940 --> 00:03:33.760 align:middle line:84% insert flap A into slot A. X-rays inconclusive. 00:03:33.760 --> 00:03:38.350 align:middle line:84% One to hear me count to 1,000 by 17s? 00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:41.710 align:middle line:90% Beep hexagonal, my puppeteer. 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:43.810 align:middle line:90% I hate your dog. 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:48.340 align:middle line:84% I am a two CD set of the world's greatest arias. 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:51.370 align:middle line:84% No wonder no one gets nothing done. 00:03:51.370 --> 00:03:54.490 align:middle line:84% Clearly we need a new filing system. 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:57.360 align:middle line:84% After a while it all sounds the same. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.010 align:middle line:90% Saaaaaaammmmme. 00:04:00.010 --> 00:04:01.990 align:middle line:90% Enter Fortinbras. 00:04:01.990 --> 00:04:04.750 align:middle line:84% I am your waiter and this is your orchard. 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:06.670 align:middle line:90% This can't be what I ordered. 00:04:06.670 --> 00:04:08.350 align:middle line:90% Next question. 00:04:08.350 --> 00:04:11.550 align:middle line:90% Now try it on your own at home." 00:04:11.550 --> 00:04:13.000 align:middle line:90%