WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.540 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:01.770 align:middle line:90%
Hi.

00:00:01.770 --> 00:00:03.640 align:middle line:90%
It's great to be here.

00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:07.230 align:middle line:84%
I want to thank the Poetry
Center, Gail Browne,

00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:11.050 align:middle line:84%
and Frances Sjoberg
for having me here.

00:00:11.050 --> 00:00:13.470 align:middle line:84%
It's a great honor
to read in this place

00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:16.079 align:middle line:84%
where I sat and listened
to so many great readings

00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:18.490 align:middle line:84%
when I was a graduate
student here.

00:00:18.490 --> 00:00:22.770 align:middle line:84%
And then later, when I was
a loitering person seeking

00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:26.580 align:middle line:84%
employment, hanging
out in Tucson.

00:00:26.580 --> 00:00:29.010 align:middle line:84%
And I want to thank
you for coming,

00:00:29.010 --> 00:00:35.460 align:middle line:84%
for believing that poetry
would be entertaining enough

00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:41.760 align:middle line:84%
to fill an hour of your
time on Wednesday night.

00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84%
And it's also because this is
a sort of hometown of mine.

00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:50.220 align:middle line:84%
It's a thrill, and
also a great anxiety,

00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:52.500 align:middle line:84%
to be in the presence
of many people

00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:56.370 align:middle line:84%
who I have known over many years
who are here tonight, from whom

00:00:56.370 --> 00:00:59.190 align:middle line:90%
I've received so much kindness.

00:00:59.190 --> 00:01:02.422 align:middle line:84%
There are people here that
I've met in AA meetings.

00:01:02.422 --> 00:01:04.964 align:middle line:84%
There are people here I've met
in the opposite of AA meetings.

00:01:04.964 --> 00:01:08.900 align:middle line:90%


00:01:08.900 --> 00:01:12.980 align:middle line:84%
The person who taught me how to
write the five paragraph essay

00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:14.120 align:middle line:90%
is here.

00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:16.940 align:middle line:84%
And the person who taught
me the meaning of the words

00:01:16.940 --> 00:01:18.530 align:middle line:90%
dysfunctional relationship.

00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:23.950 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:01:23.950 --> 00:01:27.310 align:middle line:84%
And I especially want to thank
my old friend and teacher

00:01:27.310 --> 00:01:32.470 align:middle line:84%
Steve Orlen, who's taught
me so much over the years--

00:01:32.470 --> 00:01:36.430 align:middle line:84%
some of it by negative
example, it's true.

00:01:36.430 --> 00:01:39.250 align:middle line:90%
But not all of it.

00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:41.740 align:middle line:84%
And I'm going to
start off with a poem.

00:01:41.740 --> 00:01:44.380 align:middle line:90%


00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:46.690 align:middle line:90%
Which is -- It's about a season.

00:01:46.690 --> 00:01:49.360 align:middle line:84%
If you told me when I
was a young poet that I

00:01:49.360 --> 00:01:52.300 align:middle line:84%
would write poems
about seasons, I never

00:01:52.300 --> 00:01:53.650 align:middle line:90%
would have believed you.

00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:55.150 align:middle line:84%
I never would have
believed that I'd

00:01:55.150 --> 00:01:58.873 align:middle line:90%
become so incredibly boring.

00:01:58.873 --> 00:02:00.790 align:middle line:84%
But this is about this
very particular season.

00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:01.832 align:middle line:90%
There's a lot of seasons.

00:02:01.832 --> 00:02:04.810 align:middle line:84%
There's a season when in bathing
suits go on sale at Kmart.

00:02:04.810 --> 00:02:05.980 align:middle line:90%
That's a kind of season.

00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:09.054 align:middle line:84%
There's this season of declining
sexual interest-- that's

00:02:09.054 --> 00:02:09.554 align:middle line:90%
a season.

00:02:09.554 --> 00:02:12.370 align:middle line:90%


00:02:12.370 --> 00:02:15.400 align:middle line:84%
This is about the
season that happens

00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.900 align:middle line:84%
in autumn, when the
high school bands start

00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:22.930 align:middle line:84%
rehearsing on the
football fields,

00:02:22.930 --> 00:02:24.980 align:middle line:90%
but they aren't very good yet.

00:02:24.980 --> 00:02:26.800 align:middle line:84%
And if you live
near a high school,

00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:29.830 align:middle line:84%
you hear them rehearsing
and marching around

00:02:29.830 --> 00:02:31.720 align:middle line:90%
in straggling formation.

00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:33.190 align:middle line:90%
The trombones are off.

00:02:33.190 --> 00:02:35.020 align:middle line:90%
And the wind blows the sound.

00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:37.780 align:middle line:84%
And the wind also
distorts a little.

00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:41.830 align:middle line:84%
And there's something really
autumnal about that flavor.

00:02:41.830 --> 00:02:44.410 align:middle line:90%
It's about that moment.

00:02:44.410 --> 00:02:49.720 align:middle line:84%
And the bands used to
play songs like "Louie

00:02:49.720 --> 00:02:54.190 align:middle line:90%
Louie" and "Impossible Dream".

00:02:54.190 --> 00:02:56.470 align:middle line:84%
Now they play it's
"Born To Be Bad"

00:02:56.470 --> 00:03:02.590 align:middle line:84%
and "Like a Virgin",
or something else.

00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:04.390 align:middle line:90%
I'm onto something.

00:03:04.390 --> 00:03:09.550 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, it's called
"Impossible Dream".

00:03:09.550 --> 00:03:18.370 align:middle line:84%
"In Delaware, a Congressman,
accused of sexual misconduct,

00:03:18.370 --> 00:03:22.420 align:middle line:84%
says clearly at the
press conference,

00:03:22.420 --> 00:03:26.560 align:middle line:84%
speaking right into
the microphone,

00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:29.710 align:middle line:84%
that he would like very
much to do it again.

00:03:29.710 --> 00:03:33.310 align:middle line:90%


00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:35.560 align:middle line:90%
It was on the radio.

00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:43.450 align:middle line:84%
And Carla laughed as she painted
"die, you pig" in red nail

00:03:43.450 --> 00:03:47.830 align:middle line:84%
polish on the back
of a turtle she

00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:51.865 align:middle line:84%
plans to turn loose tomorrow
in Jerry's backyard.

00:03:51.865 --> 00:03:54.980 align:middle line:90%


00:03:54.980 --> 00:03:58.040 align:middle line:84%
We lived near the high
school that year.

00:03:58.040 --> 00:04:01.880 align:middle line:84%
And in the
afternoons, in autumn,

00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:06.410 align:middle line:84%
we could hear the marching band
rehearsals from the stadium--

00:04:06.410 --> 00:04:11.030 align:middle line:84%
off-key trumpets smeared
and carried by the wind,

00:04:11.030 --> 00:04:15.320 align:middle line:84%
drums and weirdly
bent trombones,

00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:20.450 align:middle line:84%
a ragged 'Louie
Louie' or, sometimes,

00:04:20.450 --> 00:04:23.750 align:middle line:90%
'The Impossible Dream'.

00:04:23.750 --> 00:04:26.750 align:middle line:84%
I was reading a
book about pleasure,

00:04:26.750 --> 00:04:32.510 align:middle line:84%
how you have to glide through it
without clinging, like an arrow

00:04:32.510 --> 00:04:37.730 align:middle line:84%
passing through a target,
coming out the other side,

00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:40.730 align:middle line:90%
and going on.

00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:43.550 align:middle line:84%
Sitting at the
picnic table, carved

00:04:43.550 --> 00:04:47.240 align:middle line:84%
with the initials of
the previous tenants,

00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:52.200 align:middle line:84%
in October sunlight
blessing the pale grass,

00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:55.190 align:middle line:84%
you would have
thought we had it all.

00:04:55.190 --> 00:05:00.950 align:middle line:84%
But the turtle in Carla's hand
turned its odd, stiff legs

00:05:00.950 --> 00:05:06.830 align:middle line:84%
like oars, as if it wasn't
made for holding still.

00:05:06.830 --> 00:05:11.750 align:middle line:84%
And the high school band played
worse than ever for a moment,

00:05:11.750 --> 00:05:16.000 align:middle line:84%
as if getting the song right
was the impossible dream."

00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.000 align:middle line:90%