WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.050 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90% Don't buy. 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:02.640 align:middle line:90% Don't sell. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:10.720 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.030 align:middle line:90% Anyway. 00:00:13.030 --> 00:00:15.940 align:middle line:84% I never really understand what these Q and As are supposed 00:00:15.940 --> 00:00:16.480 align:middle line:90% to yield. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.350 align:middle line:84% They should yield something unexpected. 00:00:18.350 --> 00:00:24.010 align:middle line:84% So I'd be happy to answer any questions that might come. 00:00:24.010 --> 00:00:25.660 align:middle line:90% Oh, here's a question. 00:00:25.660 --> 00:00:26.650 align:middle line:90% I know this is unfair. 00:00:26.650 --> 00:00:30.890 align:middle line:84% But what color is the chip on your shoulder? 00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:31.695 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:00:31.695 --> 00:00:32.320 align:middle line:90% I can't see it. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:36.613 align:middle line:90% 00:00:36.613 --> 00:00:38.450 align:middle line:90% Will you read another poem? 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:38.950 align:middle line:90% What? 00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:41.320 align:middle line:90% Will you read another poem? 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:44.320 align:middle line:90% Oh, I think I've read enough. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:44.830 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:44.830 --> 00:00:45.730 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Deborah. 00:00:45.730 --> 00:00:50.530 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.530 --> 00:00:52.205 align:middle line:90% I'm quite curious. 00:00:52.205 --> 00:00:55.550 align:middle line:84% Who is your favorite philosopher? 00:00:55.550 --> 00:00:57.200 align:middle line:90% Who is my favorite philosopher? 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:04.110 align:middle line:90% 00:01:04.110 --> 00:01:06.140 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:10.700 align:middle line:84% I don't really have a respectable answer for that. 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:14.000 align:middle line:84% So I think that poets are amateurs. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:22.580 align:middle line:84% And so, in a way, being untutored and acquiring 00:01:22.580 --> 00:01:28.955 align:middle line:84% our information and sort of our construct, I mean, 00:01:28.955 --> 00:01:30.830 align:middle line:84% is just what happens with anyone, 00:01:30.830 --> 00:01:34.250 align:middle line:84% that there's a kind of random kind 00:01:34.250 --> 00:01:40.370 align:middle line:84% of collage and amateurish kind of way that we put it together. 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:41.510 align:middle line:90% So it's quirky. 00:01:41.510 --> 00:01:45.530 align:middle line:90% And it's not systematic. 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:46.220 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:48.650 align:middle line:84% Poets don't usually have systematic. 00:01:48.650 --> 00:01:51.590 align:middle line:84% Wallace Stevens, I suppose, he had a systematic. 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:52.130 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:01:52.130 --> 00:01:54.580 align:middle line:84% So I can't really answer the question. 00:01:54.580 --> 00:01:57.380 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry. 00:01:57.380 --> 00:02:00.240 align:middle line:90% Who's your favorite philosopher? 00:02:00.240 --> 00:02:03.720 align:middle line:84% My favorite philosopher is Benedict Espinoza. 00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:04.220 align:middle line:90% Uh-huh. 00:02:04.220 --> 00:02:06.780 align:middle line:90% 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:10.388 align:middle line:84% I see you're on a first name basis with him. 00:02:10.388 --> 00:02:11.730 align:middle line:90% And that's got to feel good. 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:16.933 align:middle line:90% 00:02:16.933 --> 00:02:18.540 align:middle line:90% But thank you for the question. 00:02:18.540 --> 00:02:20.483 align:middle line:90% I wish I had a-- 00:02:20.483 --> 00:02:21.900 align:middle line:84% I probably will think of something 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:23.025 align:middle line:90% in the middle of the night. 00:02:23.025 --> 00:02:29.450 align:middle line:90% 00:02:29.450 --> 00:02:34.260 align:middle line:84% When you're writing, are you conscious of the humor 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:37.770 align:middle line:84% and use it as a distance to help you stay connected 00:02:37.770 --> 00:02:41.520 align:middle line:84% to the underlying emotions and the harder-hitting emotions 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:42.720 align:middle line:90% in the poem? 00:02:42.720 --> 00:02:45.790 align:middle line:84% Well, you know, I think when I'm writing, 00:02:45.790 --> 00:02:53.670 align:middle line:84% which is a really, really, also a really quirky, amateurish 00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:56.700 align:middle line:84% process, I think I'm looking for little terms. 00:02:56.700 --> 00:03:02.010 align:middle line:84% And humor is-- both humor and seriousness is, in a way, 00:03:02.010 --> 00:03:03.330 align:middle line:90% angular. 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:07.170 align:middle line:84% It's about constructing an angle with the preceding moment. 00:03:07.170 --> 00:03:11.430 align:middle line:84% And what you want in the poem or what I sort of want, 00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:14.220 align:middle line:84% took me decades for somebody to say, oh, 00:03:14.220 --> 00:03:15.320 align:middle line:90% you're interested in tone. 00:03:15.320 --> 00:03:17.560 align:middle line:84% In some ways, that is what I'm interested in. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.640 align:middle line:84% But what you want is for the process to-- 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:23.880 align:middle line:84% a poem stays alive by continuing to change its mind. 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:25.830 align:middle line:84% That's true whether you're a dignified poet 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:29.580 align:middle line:90% or a sort of humorous poet. 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:36.540 align:middle line:84% So I think that I write a lot of poems that are merely funny 00:03:36.540 --> 00:03:40.590 align:middle line:84% and sort of don't have a good emotional timbre 00:03:40.590 --> 00:03:42.090 align:middle line:90% or base in them. 00:03:42.090 --> 00:03:44.100 align:middle line:84% And those are just second-rate poems. 00:03:44.100 --> 00:03:46.920 align:middle line:84% And the good ones are the ones that are sort of 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:48.925 align:middle line:90% lived in by the whole self. 00:03:48.925 --> 00:03:50.550 align:middle line:84% I mean, this is what you want if you're 00:03:50.550 --> 00:03:52.620 align:middle line:84% a poet is you want a poem that seems 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:57.900 align:middle line:84% like a credible product of an entire human being, 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:02.850 align:middle line:90% some approximation of that. 00:04:02.850 --> 00:04:05.850 align:middle line:84% And I think I was always attracted 00:04:05.850 --> 00:04:07.590 align:middle line:90% to speakers that were alive. 00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:09.600 align:middle line:84% You look at anybody, the poems that they 00:04:09.600 --> 00:04:13.260 align:middle line:84% know from their memory, and you see 00:04:13.260 --> 00:04:16.800 align:middle line:84% how they were constructing a self 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.870 align:middle line:84% or trying to recognize a future self. 00:04:19.870 --> 00:04:23.800 align:middle line:84% So lots of angles is really what I look for. 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:27.190 align:middle line:90% 00:04:27.190 --> 00:04:29.840 align:middle line:84% You mentioned AA and the opposite of AA. 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:33.020 align:middle line:84% And I hope it's not too personal. 00:04:33.020 --> 00:04:33.520 align:middle line:90% But-- 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:34.145 align:middle line:90% Did I say that? 00:04:34.145 --> 00:04:36.640 align:middle line:90% 00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:39.040 align:middle line:84% Did your voice or creative process 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.010 align:middle line:90% change as a result of that? 00:04:42.010 --> 00:04:43.930 align:middle line:84% Did you have any trouble with the transition? 00:04:43.930 --> 00:04:47.160 align:middle line:90% 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:51.470 align:middle line:84% I'd say that my life became more consistent as a result 00:04:51.470 --> 00:04:54.830 align:middle line:90% of growing up a little bit. 00:04:54.830 --> 00:04:59.150 align:middle line:90% 00:04:59.150 --> 00:05:02.065 align:middle line:90% Very, very ordinary story. 00:05:02.065 --> 00:05:05.700 align:middle line:84% If I told it, I would only lie while telling it.