WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:01.410 align:middle line:90% You had a question? 00:00:01.410 --> 00:00:02.370 align:middle line:90% I have two. 00:00:02.370 --> 00:00:02.970 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:06.480 align:middle line:84% Have you ever written a poem that completely amused you, 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.570 align:middle line:84% even when you go back and reread it two weeks later 00:00:09.570 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:90% that nobody got the humor in? 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.790 align:middle line:90% Oh yeah. 00:00:14.790 --> 00:00:16.075 align:middle line:90% And that's really just sad. 00:00:16.075 --> 00:00:18.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:26.040 align:middle line:84% Once the amusement fades, you're just alone in your room. 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:29.070 align:middle line:84% My second question is, what's the last book you read? 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:30.450 align:middle line:90% What's the last book I read? 00:00:30.450 --> 00:00:40.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.530 align:middle line:90% Well I don't know. 00:00:42.530 --> 00:00:46.430 align:middle line:84% I can't tell you the truth for that question, 00:00:46.430 --> 00:00:51.650 align:middle line:90% because I'd rather tell you-- 00:00:51.650 --> 00:00:55.940 align:middle line:84% I read a book of poetry by Chelsey Minnis. 00:00:55.940 --> 00:00:58.370 align:middle line:90% It's called Zirconia. 00:00:58.370 --> 00:00:59.940 align:middle line:90% That was it. 00:00:59.940 --> 00:01:02.204 align:middle line:90% It was pretty good. 00:01:02.204 --> 00:01:03.680 align:middle line:90% It had funny punctuation. 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:11.490 align:middle line:90% 00:01:11.490 --> 00:01:11.990 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:01:11.990 --> 00:01:14.620 align:middle line:90% 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:16.000 align:middle line:90% Do you ever eavesdrop? 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:20.260 align:middle line:84% And how do you feel about gossip? 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:22.703 align:middle line:90% How do I feel about gossip? 00:01:22.703 --> 00:01:23.620 align:middle line:90% Is that what you said? 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:24.120 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:25.180 align:middle line:90% Do you ever eavesdrop? 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:26.070 align:middle line:90% Yeah, absolutely. 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:29.710 align:middle line:90% Gossip is literature. 00:01:29.710 --> 00:01:33.200 align:middle line:84% Really, I'm glad you asked that question. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.620 align:middle line:90% What is your name? 00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:36.370 align:middle line:90% John. 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.950 align:middle line:90% John? 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:44.020 align:middle line:84% I'm glad you asked that question because really the progress 00:01:44.020 --> 00:01:48.790 align:middle line:84% of mine growing up to the extent that I've grown up as a poet 00:01:48.790 --> 00:01:53.230 align:middle line:84% has really been to listen less to myself and more 00:01:53.230 --> 00:01:54.410 align:middle line:90% to other people. 00:01:54.410 --> 00:02:02.926 align:middle line:84% Which seems to me to be kind of the normal maturation process. 00:02:02.926 --> 00:02:08.479 align:middle line:84% I was afflicted by my own psychology for a long time. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:12.130 align:middle line:84% And so my poems tended to be located around the family 00:02:12.130 --> 00:02:13.540 align:middle line:90% and around the self. 00:02:13.540 --> 00:02:17.470 align:middle line:84% And then my life settled down and I calmed down a little bit. 00:02:17.470 --> 00:02:22.240 align:middle line:84% And I began to realize that sort of my personal joys 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.390 align:middle line:84% and sufferings were actually part of my context. 00:02:25.390 --> 00:02:28.270 align:middle line:84% And we're actually culturally representative. 00:02:28.270 --> 00:02:31.180 align:middle line:84% And the people I was eavesdropping on 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:35.290 align:middle line:84% were also in some way both generic and wonderfully 00:02:35.290 --> 00:02:38.680 align:middle line:90% particular and flavorful. 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.620 align:middle line:84% And that this self was not a discrete 00:02:41.620 --> 00:02:44.380 align:middle line:84% closed off system, but actually a system 00:02:44.380 --> 00:02:47.830 align:middle line:84% in which all kinds of things are constantly participating. 00:02:47.830 --> 00:02:49.810 align:middle line:84% And that's really the kind of poetry 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:55.075 align:middle line:84% that I like now as a reader and that I attempt as a writer. 00:02:55.075 --> 00:02:58.210 align:middle line:84% Is to make poems in which many systems are 00:02:58.210 --> 00:03:01.420 align:middle line:84% sort of expressing themselves and sort of manifesting. 00:03:01.420 --> 00:03:04.540 align:middle line:84% Because it all seems like a big swirl to me. 00:03:04.540 --> 00:03:06.640 align:middle line:84% That seems to be what it truly is. 00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:11.830 align:middle line:84% As opposed to sort of the swirl of personality 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:15.400 align:middle line:84% and personal grievances and stuff like that. 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:16.460 align:middle line:90% So the big world. 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:19.652 align:middle line:84% So now I want to get snipers and wars. 00:03:19.652 --> 00:03:21.610 align:middle line:84% I don't understand why there are not more poems 00:03:21.610 --> 00:03:22.923 align:middle line:90% with Saddam Hussein in them. 00:03:22.923 --> 00:03:24.340 align:middle line:84% I don't understand why they're not 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:27.670 align:middle line:90% more poems with the World Bank. 00:03:27.670 --> 00:03:30.185 align:middle line:84% And just why isn't there more money in poems? 00:03:30.185 --> 00:03:31.810 align:middle line:84% Why don't people talk more about money? 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:33.550 align:middle line:90% It's so weird. 00:03:33.550 --> 00:03:34.105 align:middle line:90% It's green. 00:03:34.105 --> 00:03:36.040 align:middle line:84% It has the faces of presidents on it. 00:03:36.040 --> 00:03:38.140 align:middle line:90% It carries disease. 00:03:38.140 --> 00:03:41.530 align:middle line:84% And sometimes the presidents looks sad. 00:03:41.530 --> 00:03:43.750 align:middle line:90% And sometimes they look cruel. 00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:46.015 align:middle line:90% Isn't that odd how they change? 00:03:46.015 --> 00:03:49.472 align:middle line:90% 00:03:49.472 --> 00:03:50.680 align:middle line:90% Why isn't that in more poems? 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:56.860 align:middle line:90% 00:03:56.860 --> 00:03:58.750 align:middle line:84% I was just reading a book where it 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:01.180 align:middle line:84% said that literature doesn't really come alive 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:03.640 align:middle line:90% until people read it. 00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:09.010 align:middle line:84% And I was wondering what you think of translated poetry? 00:04:09.010 --> 00:04:13.140 align:middle line:84% And good poetry, you'll never gain anything 00:04:13.140 --> 00:04:15.090 align:middle line:90% from a translation. 00:04:15.090 --> 00:04:19.300 align:middle line:90% I think that's not true. 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:23.220 align:middle line:84% I think some poetry actually improves in translation. 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:28.700 align:middle line:84% I think translated poems are American poems. 00:04:28.700 --> 00:04:31.410 align:middle line:84% If they're translated into American as opposed to English. 00:04:31.410 --> 00:04:35.370 align:middle line:90% 00:04:35.370 --> 00:04:38.310 align:middle line:84% It's for my own benefit that I don't 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:39.630 align:middle line:90% think less of translated poems. 00:04:39.630 --> 00:04:43.950 align:middle line:84% If there's something to get from it I want to get that. 00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:46.020 align:middle line:90% So I think some poetry-- 00:04:46.020 --> 00:04:48.120 align:middle line:84% I mean I have heard people, native speakers 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:53.160 align:middle line:84% say that some poets are better in translation in English 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:56.910 align:middle line:84% than they actually are in their original language. 00:04:56.910 --> 00:05:02.620 align:middle line:84% We're all sort of scavenging for what we're looking for in poems 00:05:02.620 --> 00:05:03.120 align:middle line:90% anyway. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:08.475 align:middle line:84% We're reading those poems for what we need. 00:05:08.475 --> 00:05:11.520 align:middle line:90% I think about eating clay. 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:13.517 align:middle line:84% Pregnant women eating clay in the South. 00:05:13.517 --> 00:05:14.350 align:middle line:90% That's where we are. 00:05:14.350 --> 00:05:15.900 align:middle line:90% We're pregnant women. 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:19.710 align:middle line:84% And sometimes the clay you want is a Polish poem. 00:05:19.710 --> 00:05:24.340 align:middle line:90% 00:05:24.340 --> 00:05:24.840 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:24.840 --> 00:05:30.230 align:middle line:90% 00:05:30.230 --> 00:05:32.680 align:middle line:90% That was so [INAUDIBLE]. 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:41.510 align:middle line:90% 00:05:41.510 --> 00:05:43.327 align:middle line:84% A lot of writers say that a lot of times 00:05:43.327 --> 00:05:45.410 align:middle line:84% they just sit themselves down and force themselves 00:05:45.410 --> 00:05:47.097 align:middle line:90% to write a [INAUDIBLE]. 00:05:47.097 --> 00:05:49.180 align:middle line:84% Do you wait until something just pops in your head 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:52.430 align:middle line:84% or do sit down and write [INAUDIBLE]?? 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:55.670 align:middle line:84% I mean like to write as a neurotic activity. 00:05:55.670 --> 00:05:58.230 align:middle line:90% I like it. 00:05:58.230 --> 00:06:01.558 align:middle line:90% It makes me feel like a writer. 00:06:01.558 --> 00:06:02.492 align:middle line:90% It's weird. 00:06:02.492 --> 00:06:08.010 align:middle line:90% 00:06:08.010 --> 00:06:10.753 align:middle line:84% But you know I know people who are very good writers who 00:06:10.753 --> 00:06:11.670 align:middle line:90% proceed the other way. 00:06:11.670 --> 00:06:14.940 align:middle line:84% But that seems like a dangerous operating method 00:06:14.940 --> 00:06:16.320 align:middle line:90% to wait to be inspired. 00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:18.915 align:middle line:84% Because all of a sudden you know you could be 65. 00:06:18.915 --> 00:06:22.500 align:middle line:90% 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.077 align:middle line:84% That could be really disappointing. 00:06:25.077 --> 00:06:28.350 align:middle line:90% 00:06:28.350 --> 00:06:32.500 align:middle line:84% So thank you so much for your attention to your questions. 00:06:32.500 --> 00:06:33.000 align:middle line:90%