WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.650 align:middle line:90%
Hey, everybody.

00:00:02.650 --> 00:00:06.960 align:middle line:84%
So it falls on me to
introduce tonight's activities

00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:11.350 align:middle line:84%
and I wrote something down just
because that's always better.

00:00:11.350 --> 00:00:14.310 align:middle line:84%
So I'm Matthew
Zapruder, as Tyler said.

00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:16.260 align:middle line:84%
And I'm an editor at
large at Wave Books

00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:19.410 align:middle line:84%
and also the director of the
Bagley Wright lecture series.

00:00:19.410 --> 00:00:21.180 align:middle line:84%
What is the Bagley
Wright lecture series?

00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:22.260 align:middle line:90%
You might ask.

00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:24.240 align:middle line:84%
It was founded a
little over five years

00:00:24.240 --> 00:00:26.970 align:middle line:84%
ago with the support of Charlie
and Barbara, who are here

00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:28.410 align:middle line:90%
today from Seattle.

00:00:28.410 --> 00:00:30.350 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:00:30.350 --> 00:00:30.850 align:middle line:90%
Yeah.

00:00:30.850 --> 00:00:34.420 align:middle line:84%
We're so glad they made
it down, thank you all.

00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:37.750 align:middle line:84%
Charlie's the publisher of
Wave Books and the series

00:00:37.750 --> 00:00:39.970 align:middle line:84%
is named after his late
father, Bagley Wright,

00:00:39.970 --> 00:00:43.680 align:middle line:84%
a noted philanthropist
and supporter of the arts.

00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:46.020 align:middle line:84%
Charlie and I conceived
of the series as a way

00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:49.680 align:middle line:84%
to make it possible for leading
mid-career poets to explore

00:00:49.680 --> 00:00:52.590 align:middle line:84%
issues of current concern
to them in their poetry.

00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:84%
And to present those
investigations publicly as

00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:56.250 align:middle line:90%
lectures.

00:00:56.250 --> 00:01:00.150 align:middle line:84%
You might reasonably ask,
why is this a good idea?

00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:02.640 align:middle line:84%
Why should we ask poets
to do anything other

00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:04.050 align:middle line:90%
than write poetry?

00:01:04.050 --> 00:01:06.150 align:middle line:84%
Isn't their best
thinking in their poems,

00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:07.890 align:middle line:90%
or at least shouldn't it be?

00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:11.160 align:middle line:84%
And why should we ask
them to do it publicly?

00:01:11.160 --> 00:01:15.180 align:middle line:84%
By nature, poets are often eager
to talk about poems by others.

00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:17.640 align:middle line:84%
Or about pretty much
anything at all.

00:01:17.640 --> 00:01:20.070 align:middle line:84%
Yet, when they're asked
about their own work,

00:01:20.070 --> 00:01:22.800 align:middle line:84%
a strange reticence
could descend.

00:01:22.800 --> 00:01:25.350 align:middle line:84%
Maybe it's a way of
protecting the singularity

00:01:25.350 --> 00:01:28.920 align:middle line:84%
of poetic speech and resisting
the idea that it is merely

00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.320 align:middle line:84%
a way of communicating
ideas that

00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:33.870 align:middle line:84%
could just as easily
or perhaps even better

00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:35.730 align:middle line:90%
be expressed in prose.

00:01:35.730 --> 00:01:37.860 align:middle line:90%
Or maybe it's superstition.

00:01:37.860 --> 00:01:41.220 align:middle line:84%
One consistent exception
I found to this resistance

00:01:41.220 --> 00:01:44.130 align:middle line:84%
is when poets are asked by
translators of their work

00:01:44.130 --> 00:01:47.610 align:middle line:84%
to illuminate what the purpose
of something in a poem is.

00:01:47.610 --> 00:01:49.890 align:middle line:84%
They can, in that
circumstance, become

00:01:49.890 --> 00:01:54.720 align:middle line:84%
almost shockingly lucid and
rational in their explanations.

00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:57.510 align:middle line:84%
Also, it seems there's
something about putting poets

00:01:57.510 --> 00:02:00.690 align:middle line:84%
in front of an eager,
receptive general audience,

00:02:00.690 --> 00:02:04.290 align:middle line:84%
one not necessarily full
exclusively of other poets

00:02:04.290 --> 00:02:07.110 align:middle line:84%
or students of
poetry or academics,

00:02:07.110 --> 00:02:09.570 align:middle line:84%
that brings out something
generous in the poet

00:02:09.570 --> 00:02:12.180 align:middle line:84%
and additive to
the poetry itself.

00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:15.840 align:middle line:84%
When one looks closely into the
history of poetry criticism,

00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:18.630 align:middle line:84%
it turns out that a
great many, I would even

00:02:18.630 --> 00:02:22.140 align:middle line:84%
say a preponderance, of the
lasting statements we have

00:02:22.140 --> 00:02:24.060 align:middle line:84%
about poetry have
come from poets

00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:26.160 align:middle line:84%
who were communicating
their thoughts

00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:28.350 align:middle line:90%
in the form of public lectures.

00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:31.410 align:middle line:84%
We think of these works
now as written documents.

00:02:31.410 --> 00:02:34.890 align:middle line:84%
But examples of what are now
called essays about poetry,

00:02:34.890 --> 00:02:36.720 align:middle line:84%
but which began as
public lectures,

00:02:36.720 --> 00:02:40.050 align:middle line:84%
would include Lorca's
lecture on the ''Duende''.

00:02:40.050 --> 00:02:42.558 align:middle line:84%
Most of Wallace Stevens'
poetic statements,

00:02:42.558 --> 00:02:44.850 align:middle line:84%
including ''The Noble Rider'
and 'The Sound of Words''.

00:02:44.850 --> 00:02:48.360 align:middle line:84%
T.S. Eliot's immensely
influential literary concepts.

00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:50.670 align:middle line:84%
The important writings
of Audre Lorde,

00:02:50.670 --> 00:02:52.770 align:middle line:84%
collected in
''Sister Outsider''.

00:02:52.770 --> 00:02:55.410 align:middle line:84%
Almost anything you know
that Robert Frost has said

00:02:55.410 --> 00:02:56.370 align:middle line:90%
was said in a lecture.

00:02:56.370 --> 00:02:59.190 align:middle line:90%
And so on, and so on, and so on.

00:02:59.190 --> 00:03:03.510 align:middle line:84%
It is also true that, despite
what it seems like to us now,

00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:05.490 align:middle line:84%
many of these famous
poetic statements

00:03:05.490 --> 00:03:07.350 align:middle line:84%
were given when
the poets were not

00:03:07.350 --> 00:03:11.280 align:middle line:84%
yet eminences, but relatively
early in their poetic careers.

00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:13.560 align:middle line:84%
Not at the beginning, but
somewhere in the middle.

00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:15.480 align:middle line:90%
Or maybe the early middle.

00:03:15.480 --> 00:03:18.120 align:middle line:84%
So Charlie and I thought
it would be a good idea

00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:21.450 align:middle line:84%
to give some of our leading
mid-career poets, people

00:03:21.450 --> 00:03:23.610 align:middle line:84%
whose poetry and
ideas we immensely

00:03:23.610 --> 00:03:26.550 align:middle line:84%
respect, the opportunity
to give lectures

00:03:26.550 --> 00:03:28.950 align:middle line:84%
all over the country
to different audiences

00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:30.750 align:middle line:90%
to see what emerged.

00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:33.990 align:middle line:84%
It was a kind of experiment,
one that I am glad to say

00:03:33.990 --> 00:03:36.090 align:middle line:90%
had excellent results.

00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:39.120 align:middle line:84%
So far there have been six
Bagley Wright lecturers

00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.300 align:middle line:84%
and we are incredibly fortunate
to have them all here with us

00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:44.340 align:middle line:84%
for readings and
panel discussions

00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:46.740 align:middle line:90%
over the next several days.

00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:49.560 align:middle line:84%
Tonight we will be hearing
from three of our lecturers

00:03:49.560 --> 00:03:53.370 align:middle line:84%
in this order, Dorothea Lasky,
Terrance Hayes, and Joshua

00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:54.060 align:middle line:90%
Beckman.

00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:55.890 align:middle line:90%
Their careers are distinguished.

00:03:55.890 --> 00:03:58.920 align:middle line:84%
I do not wish to take
up time with recitations

00:03:58.920 --> 00:04:02.160 align:middle line:84%
of their publications, awards,
and other accomplishments.

00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:04.290 align:middle line:84%
I would just say that they
are three of the finest

00:04:04.290 --> 00:04:07.080 align:middle line:84%
poets I have been lucky
enough to work with and know,

00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.660 align:middle line:84%
which I can also say about
tomorrow evening's three

00:04:09.660 --> 00:04:12.750 align:middle line:84%
lecturers, Timothy Donnelly,
Srikanth Reddy, and Rachel

00:04:12.750 --> 00:04:13.980 align:middle line:90%
Zucker.

00:04:13.980 --> 00:04:17.190 align:middle line:84%
Before I turn it over to our
first three distinguished poets

00:04:17.190 --> 00:04:20.490 align:middle line:84%
and lecturers, I want to extend
particular thanks to the Poetry

00:04:20.490 --> 00:04:23.040 align:middle line:84%
Center, especially
Tyler Meier, who's

00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.810 align:middle line:84%
been such a big supporter
of this endeavor

00:04:24.810 --> 00:04:25.770 align:middle line:90%
from the beginning.

00:04:25.770 --> 00:04:29.307 align:middle line:84%
As well as Becka Ranta,
who's the events coordinator

00:04:29.307 --> 00:04:30.390 align:middle line:90%
here at the Poetry Center.

00:04:30.390 --> 00:04:31.590 align:middle line:90%
And they're just awesome people.

00:04:31.590 --> 00:04:34.090 align:middle line:84%
And showing up here, immediately
we felt completely at home,

00:04:34.090 --> 00:04:34.927 align:middle line:90%
so thank you.

00:04:34.927 --> 00:04:36.510 align:middle line:84%
We're thrilled to
be able to celebrate

00:04:36.510 --> 00:04:38.955 align:middle line:84%
the work of this
lecture series here

00:04:38.955 --> 00:04:40.080 align:middle line:90%
over the next several days.

00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:42.240 align:middle line:90%
I can't think of a better venue.

00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.510 align:middle line:84%
I want to thank Charlie and
Barb, the lecturers, and also

00:04:45.510 --> 00:04:47.520 align:middle line:84%
Wave Books represented
in particular

00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.610 align:middle line:84%
by senior editor, Heidi
Brodhead, who's here tonight.

00:04:50.610 --> 00:04:52.140 align:middle line:84%
Special thanks to
the coordinator

00:04:52.140 --> 00:04:53.550 align:middle line:84%
of the series,
Ellen Welcker, who

00:04:53.550 --> 00:04:56.820 align:middle line:84%
did some serious coordinating
to get us all here.

00:04:56.820 --> 00:04:59.980 align:middle line:84%
And finally, I want to thank
all of you for being here.

00:04:59.980 --> 00:05:02.460 align:middle line:84%
I know I'm speaking on
behalf of all our poets

00:05:02.460 --> 00:05:05.460 align:middle line:84%
when I say we're grateful
beyond measure for your kind

00:05:05.460 --> 00:05:07.310 align:middle line:90%
attention.