WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.810 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:08.940 align:middle line:84% Yeah, coming into the 21st century, a new experience. 00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:14.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.780 --> 00:00:22.550 align:middle line:84% Among other things, I began a series of auto variations. 00:00:22.550 --> 00:00:28.040 align:middle line:84% I had done in the '90s a book called The Lorca 00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:33.750 align:middle line:84% Variations in which I followed from poems of Lorca's that I 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:38.790 align:middle line:84% had translated, and poem by poem took out all of his nouns, 00:00:38.790 --> 00:00:44.280 align:middle line:84% now in my English, and setting up a grid pattern. 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:46.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:48.195 align:middle line:90% Just-- that's just fussy. 00:00:48.195 --> 00:00:50.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.970 --> 00:00:54.480 align:middle line:90% Process notes. 00:00:54.480 --> 00:01:00.340 align:middle line:90% I did a new series of poems. 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:02.960 align:middle line:90% 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:84% And I did that with other poets as well. 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:16.280 align:middle line:84% And then into this century, I turned the process on myself. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:19.400 align:middle line:84% So I'll read a variation on "The Hell of Measures," 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:23.780 align:middle line:84% which I read to you earlier, and I prefaced 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:28.790 align:middle line:84% all of these variations on the Jigoku Zoshi hells 00:01:28.790 --> 00:01:33.830 align:middle line:84% with two quotes from Henri Matisse 00:01:33.830 --> 00:01:38.180 align:middle line:84% to the Italian painter Gino Severini. 00:01:38.180 --> 00:01:41.960 align:middle line:84% One should be able to rework an old work of art 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:46.520 align:middle line:84% at least once to make sure that one has not fallen victim 00:01:46.520 --> 00:01:50.200 align:middle line:90% to one's nerves or to fate. 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:52.570 align:middle line:84% And, again, when you have achieved 00:01:52.570 --> 00:01:56.380 align:middle line:84% what you want in a certain area, when you have exploited 00:01:56.380 --> 00:01:59.410 align:middle line:84% the possibilities that lie in one direction, 00:01:59.410 --> 00:02:03.190 align:middle line:84% you must, when the time comes, change course. 00:02:03.190 --> 00:02:04.855 align:middle line:90% Search for something new. 00:02:04.855 --> 00:02:10.419 align:middle line:90% 00:02:10.419 --> 00:02:14.430 align:middle line:84% And I think Matisse was somewhat younger than me 00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:17.470 align:middle line:90% when he said that. 00:02:17.470 --> 00:02:18.150 align:middle line:90% But that's OK. 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:21.660 align:middle line:90% 00:02:21.660 --> 00:02:25.470 align:middle line:84% "Variations on the Hell of Measures." 00:02:25.470 --> 00:02:30.660 align:middle line:84% How can any of what it feels like to count coins and hell? 00:02:30.660 --> 00:02:33.690 align:middle line:84% Hell has windows as the skin has numbers, 00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:35.940 align:middle line:84% and the sun flashing on the sidewalk 00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:39.210 align:middle line:84% blinds the little customers who bathe in it. 00:02:39.210 --> 00:02:41.370 align:middle line:84% In my head as on my flesh the poems 00:02:41.370 --> 00:02:43.590 align:middle line:90% appear, responding to my call. 00:02:43.590 --> 00:02:48.390 align:middle line:84% My palms turn violet and blue, smoother than Chinese silk. 00:02:48.390 --> 00:02:50.460 align:middle line:84% My room is filled with rain as hell 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:56.160 align:middle line:84% with fire while an eyebrow slightly raised signals deceit. 00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:58.530 align:middle line:84% The other hells are kept in store. 00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:01.290 align:middle line:84% A hell of numbers follows one with rhymings. 00:03:01.290 --> 00:03:02.970 align:middle line:90% Ribs grow heavy. 00:03:02.970 --> 00:03:04.380 align:middle line:90% The night is meant for grief. 00:03:04.380 --> 00:03:07.680 align:middle line:84% No lotions over legs or fingers can assuage. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:09.750 align:middle line:84% Lost in the smoke, we wait for day 00:03:09.750 --> 00:03:13.380 align:middle line:84% to come, for coins to burn the swindlers who demand them 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:14.610 align:middle line:90% like a brand. 00:03:14.610 --> 00:03:15.930 align:middle line:90% Crates pile up. 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:17.160 align:middle line:90% Windows break. 00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:19.350 align:middle line:90% Death makes the mind turn white. 00:03:19.350 --> 00:03:21.870 align:middle line:90% Hands open hell for others. 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:25.320 align:middle line:84% Let its fires trap the birds who fly through them. 00:03:25.320 --> 00:03:27.960 align:middle line:84% Let the disaster make them all turn black. 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:30.270 align:middle line:84% Let them cry out with pain, the counters 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:33.570 align:middle line:84% filling up with cloth and boxes broken open 00:03:33.570 --> 00:03:36.060 align:middle line:84% in the night unmeasured, boxes smelling 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:38.850 align:middle line:84% of the sea, the intellect in prison in their darkness 00:03:38.850 --> 00:03:42.360 align:middle line:84% knowing the right questions but afraid to ask. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.290 align:middle line:84% May it make it pliable like wax and let it drip over 00:03:46.290 --> 00:03:48.330 align:middle line:90% the outlaw's cashbox. 00:03:48.330 --> 00:03:50.160 align:middle line:90% Words have their birth in it. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:54.360 align:middle line:84% And metals drawn out of the Earth and melted give us coins. 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.790 align:middle line:90% The years ahead are green. 00:03:56.790 --> 00:03:59.880 align:middle line:84% The bedposts where we rest are iron. 00:03:59.880 --> 00:04:03.750 align:middle line:84% Our eyes are iron, too, and blind us. 00:04:03.750 --> 00:04:05.930 align:middle line:90% Call it hell. 00:04:05.930 --> 00:04:07.000 align:middle line:90%