WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:01.920 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:01.920 --> 00:00:05.700 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:07.390 align:middle line:84% Julie, I'm honored by that introduction. 00:00:07.390 --> 00:00:07.890 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:07.890 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Tyler. 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:09.840 align:middle line:90% And my thanks to-- 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:90% to all of you for being here. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:18.240 align:middle line:84% Wow, there's something operatic about the open wall 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:19.620 align:middle line:90% and people in the back. 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:21.380 align:middle line:90% It's the Santa Fe opera feeling. 00:00:21.380 --> 00:00:23.070 align:middle line:90% It's good. 00:00:23.070 --> 00:00:25.080 align:middle line:84% It means a great deal to me to come 00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:27.150 align:middle line:84% to Tucson and to the Poetry Center, which 00:00:27.150 --> 00:00:31.380 align:middle line:84% has played a very genuine and profound role in my life. 00:00:31.380 --> 00:00:40.890 align:middle line:84% When I was in high school and a troubled, intensely awake, 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:45.750 align:middle line:84% but intensely conflicted kid from a very chaotic family, 00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:49.440 align:middle line:84% I had the good luck of having a high school drama teacher who 00:00:49.440 --> 00:00:53.850 align:middle line:84% just looked at some of my poems and did not quite believe 00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:57.110 align:middle line:84% that I had written them, not because they were so good 00:00:57.110 --> 00:00:59.430 align:middle line:84% but because there weren't a lot of kids around 00:00:59.430 --> 00:01:02.220 align:middle line:84% at Rincon reading Blake, and Garcia Lorca, and E. E. 00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:04.590 align:middle line:84% Cummings, and showing some influence from them. 00:01:04.590 --> 00:01:07.860 align:middle line:84% And my teachers took my poems to Dick Shelton, 00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:11.220 align:middle line:84% and Shelton said I'd like to meet this young man. 00:01:11.220 --> 00:01:12.240 align:middle line:90% Hey, hey, more? 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:12.960 align:middle line:90% OK, closer? 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:13.980 align:middle line:90% Better? 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:14.550 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:14.550 --> 00:01:15.467 align:middle line:90% Oh, I just got bigger. 00:01:15.467 --> 00:01:16.198 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:16.198 --> 00:01:16.990 align:middle line:90% I got a lot bigger. 00:01:16.990 --> 00:01:18.360 align:middle line:90% Do I need to start over? 00:01:18.360 --> 00:01:19.830 align:middle line:90% No? 00:01:19.830 --> 00:01:21.060 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:25.110 align:middle line:84% So here I am, rather desperately in need 00:01:25.110 --> 00:01:27.780 align:middle line:84% of being rescued at the age of 15 or 16, 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:30.240 align:middle line:84% and Richard Shelton invited me to come down to the Poetry 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:32.730 align:middle line:90% Center to meet with him there. 00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:35.850 align:middle line:84% I walked in the door of that little adobe cottage 00:01:35.850 --> 00:01:37.980 align:middle line:84% on Speedway, before the street was widened. 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:40.230 align:middle line:84% The walls were covered with photographs 00:01:40.230 --> 00:01:43.680 align:middle line:90% of poets, handmade broadsides. 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:48.990 align:middle line:84% Dick was this sort of redheaded satyr, bearded satyr who 00:01:48.990 --> 00:01:52.590 align:middle line:84% looked as if he'd been slightly dusted with powdered gold, 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:55.170 align:middle line:84% and he was wearing a pair of leather pants 00:01:55.170 --> 00:01:56.700 align:middle line:84% that had the brand still on them. 00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:58.770 align:middle line:90% I'll never forget that detail. 00:01:58.770 --> 00:02:03.960 align:middle line:84% He talked to me about my poems a bit, but what he really did 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:07.080 align:middle line:84% was to be a poet, to be a person who centered 00:02:07.080 --> 00:02:08.310 align:middle line:90% his life around this art. 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:10.320 align:middle line:84% I've never known anyone who did that. 00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:13.260 align:middle line:84% He talked about Keats, and Shelley, 00:02:13.260 --> 00:02:18.690 align:middle line:84% and André Breton and Pablo Neruda as if they were his 00:02:18.690 --> 00:02:22.110 align:middle line:84% friends, and indeed, he was part of a community with them. 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:24.840 align:middle line:84% A community not bounded in space or in time, something 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:26.800 align:middle line:90% that anyone might join. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:28.980 align:middle line:84% And he seemed to be holding the door 00:02:28.980 --> 00:02:30.433 align:middle line:90% open to me, to that community. 00:02:30.433 --> 00:02:32.850 align:middle line:84% That I could come to the Poetry Center anytime I wanted to 00:02:32.850 --> 00:02:33.630 align:middle line:90% and read. 00:02:33.630 --> 00:02:34.890 align:middle line:90% I could come to readings. 00:02:34.890 --> 00:02:36.210 align:middle line:90% I could hang out there. 00:02:36.210 --> 00:02:39.660 align:middle line:84% I used to sit under the shade of an olive tree in front 00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:42.390 align:middle line:84% of the poet's cottage and wait for a glimpse of Allen 00:02:42.390 --> 00:02:45.840 align:middle line:84% Ginsberg, or Philip Levine, or Diane Wakoski, 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:47.790 align:middle line:90% or Galway Kinnell. 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:49.260 align:middle line:84% I was far too shy to talk to them, 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:53.060 align:middle line:84% but I would wait and watch them go by. 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:54.950 align:middle line:84% Dick invited me to come over to his house 00:02:54.950 --> 00:02:56.810 align:middle line:90% to work for him one weekend. 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:58.250 align:middle line:90% I was going to clean his garage. 00:02:58.250 --> 00:03:00.950 align:middle line:84% And as I was working, I needed a drink of water or something. 00:03:00.950 --> 00:03:02.075 align:middle line:90% I walked through the house. 00:03:02.075 --> 00:03:03.800 align:middle line:84% It was the first time I met Lois Shelton. 00:03:03.800 --> 00:03:06.240 align:middle line:84% She was sitting at the piano, grand piano. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:10.460 align:middle line:84% She was singing Pirate Jenny from the Threepenny Opera 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:13.400 align:middle line:90% in German, playing a piano. 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:15.650 align:middle line:84% And I think I probably almost dropped 00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:17.180 align:middle line:90% whatever I was carrying. 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:18.260 align:middle line:90% It was so beautiful. 00:03:18.260 --> 00:03:20.900 align:middle line:84% I didn't know there were people in the world I 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:23.090 align:middle line:84% lived in who did that, who sang arias 00:03:23.090 --> 00:03:25.130 align:middle line:90% in German with their pianos. 00:03:25.130 --> 00:03:28.340 align:middle line:84% They were for me introductions to a cultural life 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:32.510 align:middle line:84% and forever grateful to that and to them and to this place. 00:03:32.510 --> 00:03:35.300 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read for you this evening some 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:36.553 align:middle line:90% poems from a new book. 00:03:36.553 --> 00:03:37.470 align:middle line:90% It's called Deep Lane. 00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:40.370 align:middle line:90% It came out this spring. 00:03:40.370 --> 00:03:42.740 align:middle line:84% I guess what I want to tell you about that 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:45.630 align:middle line:84% is that this place, Deep Lane, is it's a real road. 00:03:45.630 --> 00:03:48.650 align:middle line:84% It's in Amagansett, New York, out at the far end of Long 00:03:48.650 --> 00:03:50.120 align:middle line:90% Island on the south fork. 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.280 align:middle line:84% It's a very handsome little country road, 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.380 align:middle line:84% but what I really loved about it is the name. 00:03:54.380 --> 00:03:57.860 align:middle line:84% The two monosyllables, the long vowels, deep lane. 00:03:57.860 --> 00:04:00.458 align:middle line:84% The sense of going forward and down. 00:04:00.458 --> 00:04:02.750 align:middle line:84% I've been spending time there for the last seven years, 00:04:02.750 --> 00:04:06.410 align:middle line:84% and that name increasingly enchanted me, compelled me, 00:04:06.410 --> 00:04:08.570 align:middle line:90% became something of a mantra. 00:04:08.570 --> 00:04:11.660 align:middle line:84% It is a place, which like this one, 00:04:11.660 --> 00:04:15.830 align:middle line:84% has a certain spell it might cast. 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:18.709 align:middle line:84% Beside the sea, beside the fields, in the green shadows 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:20.959 align:middle line:84% and shade, and the changing weather, 00:04:20.959 --> 00:04:23.690 align:middle line:84% there is an opportunity to come closer to the inner life 00:04:23.690 --> 00:04:24.530 align:middle line:90% in some way. 00:04:24.530 --> 00:04:27.110 align:middle line:84% Landscape, in the best of landscapes, 00:04:27.110 --> 00:04:29.300 align:middle line:84% is not outside of us, but enters in 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:31.410 align:middle line:90% and we share, we partake of it. 00:04:31.410 --> 00:04:34.130 align:middle line:84% So a number of these poems are called deep lane 00:04:34.130 --> 00:04:34.880 align:middle line:90% as you will hear. 00:04:34.880 --> 00:04:37.870 align:middle line:90% 00:04:37.870 --> 00:04:41.470 align:middle line:84% And this first one has to do with the work of the gardener. 00:04:41.470 --> 00:04:44.650 align:middle line:84% How many of you are gardeners here? 00:04:44.650 --> 00:04:48.670 align:middle line:84% If you have this passion, you know that you're never done. 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:49.750 align:middle line:90% There's always more. 00:04:49.750 --> 00:04:53.380 align:middle line:84% And should you inherit a garden, it's never right. 00:04:53.380 --> 00:04:54.010 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:04:54.010 --> 00:04:56.090 align:middle line:90% Everything needs to be moved. 00:04:56.090 --> 00:04:59.110 align:middle line:84% So this poem begins in that process of moving everything 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:02.230 align:middle line:84% to get it right, and it remembers the late Deborah 00:05:02.230 --> 00:05:05.350 align:middle line:84% Digges, a wonderful poet who left us now 00:05:05.350 --> 00:05:07.120 align:middle line:90% about four years ago. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:09.010 align:middle line:90% "Deep Lane" 00:05:09.010 --> 00:05:12.040 align:middle line:84% "When I'm down on my knees, pulling up wild mustard 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.410 align:middle line:84% by the roots before it sets seed, 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:17.710 align:middle line:84% hauling the old ferns further into the shade, 00:05:17.710 --> 00:05:20.920 align:middle line:84% I'm talking to the anvil of darkness. 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:22.090 align:middle line:90% Break table. 00:05:22.090 --> 00:05:24.190 align:middle line:90% Slab no blow could dent. 00:05:24.190 --> 00:05:25.690 align:middle line:90% Run with the making. 00:05:25.690 --> 00:05:28.600 align:middle line:84% And out of that chop and rot comes the fresh surf 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:30.250 align:middle line:90% of the lupins. 00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:32.770 align:middle line:84% When the shovel slips into white root flesh, 00:05:32.770 --> 00:05:35.410 align:middle line:84% into the meat coursing with cool water, when 00:05:35.410 --> 00:05:38.680 align:middle line:84% I'm grubbing on my knees, what is the hammer? 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.680 align:middle line:84% Dusky skin of the tuber, naked worms 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.920 align:middle line:84% who write on the soil every letter, my companion blind. 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.160 align:middle line:84% All day we go digging, harrowing, rooting deep. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:52.330 align:middle line:84% Spade plunge and trowel, sweet turned-down gas flame, 00:05:52.330 --> 00:05:54.760 align:middle line:84% slow charring carbon out of which 00:05:54.760 --> 00:05:58.090 align:middle line:90% sprouts the wild unsayable. 00:05:58.090 --> 00:06:00.130 align:middle line:90% Beauty's the least of it. 00:06:00.130 --> 00:06:04.090 align:middle line:84% You get ready like Deborah, who used to garden in the dark, 00:06:04.090 --> 00:06:06.790 align:middle line:84% hauling out candles and a tall glass of what she 00:06:06.790 --> 00:06:09.820 align:middle line:84% said was tea, and digging, and reading, 00:06:09.820 --> 00:06:11.800 align:middle line:90% and studying in the dirt. 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:13.900 align:middle line:90% She'd bring a dictionary. 00:06:13.900 --> 00:06:17.500 align:middle line:84% If study is prayer, she said, I'm praying. 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:19.780 align:middle line:84% If you've already gone down to the anvil, 00:06:19.780 --> 00:06:22.810 align:middle line:84% if you've rested your face on that adamant, 00:06:22.810 --> 00:06:24.160 align:middle line:90% maybe you're already changed. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:28.110 align:middle line:90% 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:30.842 align:middle line:84% That foam started when I had ordered something 00:06:30.842 --> 00:06:31.800 align:middle line:90% from a garden catalog." 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:33.300 align:middle line:90% Yeah, can you hear me? 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:34.300 align:middle line:90% It's still hard to hear. 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:35.050 align:middle line:90% It's still hard to hear? 00:06:35.050 --> 00:06:35.740 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:06:35.740 --> 00:06:36.310 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:06:36.310 --> 00:06:37.977 align:middle line:84% So we're going to get really close here, 00:06:37.977 --> 00:06:39.850 align:middle line:90% thank you for telling me. 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:40.515 align:middle line:90% Yes, OK. 00:06:40.515 --> 00:06:41.890 align:middle line:84% So what we're going to do is this 00:06:41.890 --> 00:06:42.430 align:middle line:90% Yep. 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:42.820 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:06:42.820 --> 00:06:44.530 align:middle line:84% Cause when you're looking up at the crowd 00:06:44.530 --> 00:06:45.290 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:06:45.290 --> 00:06:47.630 align:middle line:90% And then lose me. 00:06:47.630 --> 00:06:48.130 align:middle line:90% OK, wait. 00:06:48.130 --> 00:06:50.213 align:middle line:84% When I'm looking at it now, you're hearing me now? 00:06:50.213 --> 00:06:51.153 align:middle line:90% No. 00:06:51.153 --> 00:06:52.070 align:middle line:90% It's got to go higher. 00:06:52.070 --> 00:06:52.100 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:52.840 align:middle line:90% It's got to be up here. 00:06:52.840 --> 00:06:54.110 align:middle line:84% It's got to be higher, but when you're-- 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:55.420 align:middle line:84% I think, it's in your face comes down. 00:06:55.420 --> 00:06:56.253 align:middle line:90% When my face comes-- 00:06:56.253 --> 00:07:00.010 align:middle line:84% OK, so if the book's up here, all right, and I'm up here, OK. 00:07:00.010 --> 00:07:01.360 align:middle line:90% All right, OK. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.610 align:middle line:90% So now I'm going to tell you-- 00:07:02.610 --> 00:07:04.193 align:middle line:84% All right, now we're going to do this. 00:07:04.193 --> 00:07:05.620 align:middle line:84% We're going to get this right, OK. 00:07:05.620 --> 00:07:07.600 align:middle line:90% This could be fixed. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:09.910 align:middle line:84% And l I'm going to tell you a story about the poem, 00:07:09.910 --> 00:07:10.780 align:middle line:90% and then you'll hear it again. 00:07:10.780 --> 00:07:12.613 align:middle line:84% OK, those who didn't hear it the first time, 00:07:12.613 --> 00:07:14.180 align:middle line:84% you'll hear it for the first time. 00:07:14.180 --> 00:07:15.640 align:middle line:84% So I ordered something from a garden catalog, 00:07:15.640 --> 00:07:16.370 align:middle line:84% and if you've ever done this, you 00:07:16.370 --> 00:07:17.860 align:middle line:90% know what happens the next day? 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:19.960 align:middle line:84% Is you get 250 garden catalogs to choose from. 00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:20.560 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:24.010 align:middle line:84% And in among the 250 was the catalog for bearded iris, 00:07:24.010 --> 00:07:27.940 align:middle line:84% which are the most hybridized outrageously colored flowers. 00:07:27.940 --> 00:07:31.700 align:middle line:84% And there's one of these called anvil of darkness. 00:07:31.700 --> 00:07:36.280 align:middle line:84% Now can you imagine choosing to grow the anvil of darkness? 00:07:36.280 --> 00:07:38.800 align:middle line:84% So I was going to write this little sort of comic poem 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:40.840 align:middle line:84% about that idea, and this is what happened. 00:07:40.840 --> 00:07:42.940 align:middle line:90% "Deep Lane" June 23rd-- 00:07:42.940 --> 00:07:45.590 align:middle line:90% Oh, that's the next Deep Lane. 00:07:45.590 --> 00:07:46.660 align:middle line:90% "Deep Lane" 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:49.570 align:middle line:84% "When I'm down on my knees, pulling up wild mustard 00:07:49.570 --> 00:07:53.500 align:middle line:84% by the roots before it sets seed, hauling old ferns further 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:57.670 align:middle line:84% into the shade, I'm talking to the anvil of darkness. 00:07:57.670 --> 00:07:58.810 align:middle line:90% Break table. 00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:00.760 align:middle line:90% Slab no blow could dent. 00:08:00.760 --> 00:08:03.760 align:middle line:84% Run with the making and out of that chop and rot 00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:06.610 align:middle line:84% comes the fresh surf of the lupins. 00:08:06.610 --> 00:08:09.160 align:middle line:84% When the shovel slips into white root flesh, 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:11.710 align:middle line:84% into the meat coursing with cool water, when 00:08:11.710 --> 00:08:14.590 align:middle line:84% I'm rubbing on my knees, what is the hammer? 00:08:14.590 --> 00:08:16.600 align:middle line:90% Dusky skin of the tuber. 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.170 align:middle line:84% Naked worms write on the soil every letter, my companion 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:20.680 align:middle line:90% blind. 00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:24.670 align:middle line:84% All day we go digging, harrowing, rooting deep. 00:08:24.670 --> 00:08:28.420 align:middle line:84% Spade plunge and trowel, sweet turned-down gas flame, 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:30.970 align:middle line:84% slow charring carbon out of which 00:08:30.970 --> 00:08:34.120 align:middle line:90% sprouts the wild unsayable. 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:36.220 align:middle line:90% Beauty is the least of it. 00:08:36.220 --> 00:08:40.299 align:middle line:84% You get ready like Deborah, who used to garden in the dark, 00:08:40.299 --> 00:08:43.030 align:middle line:84% hauling out candles and a tall glass of what she 00:08:43.030 --> 00:08:45.850 align:middle line:84% said was tea, and digging, and reading, 00:08:45.850 --> 00:08:47.620 align:middle line:90% and studying in the dirt. 00:08:47.620 --> 00:08:49.540 align:middle line:90% She'd bring a dictionary. 00:08:49.540 --> 00:08:53.140 align:middle line:84% If study is prayer, she said, I'm praying. 00:08:53.140 --> 00:08:55.090 align:middle line:84% If you've already gone down to the anvil, 00:08:55.090 --> 00:08:57.850 align:middle line:84% if you've rested your face on that adamant, 00:08:57.850 --> 00:09:01.330 align:middle line:90% maybe you're already changed." 00:09:01.330 --> 00:09:03.077 align:middle line:90% So you could hear that? 00:09:03.077 --> 00:09:03.910 align:middle line:90% You could hear that? 00:09:03.910 --> 00:09:04.360 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:04.750 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:09:04.750 --> 00:09:05.250 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:06.810 align:middle line:90% All right.