WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.350 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.350 --> 00:00:02.430 align:middle line:90%
So this is a--

00:00:02.430 --> 00:00:04.860 align:middle line:84%
I'll be reading from a book
called New and Selected Poems

00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:08.160 align:middle line:90%
1962-2012.

00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:12.690 align:middle line:84%
And I'll skip, but I'll
move chronologically.

00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:15.370 align:middle line:84%
So this is--
actually, this point

00:00:15.370 --> 00:00:19.710 align:middle line:84%
is much later, when I was
already in New Hampshire.

00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:24.840 align:middle line:90%
And it was--

00:00:24.840 --> 00:00:29.520 align:middle line:84%
I moved there in '73,
and the mill towns

00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:33.810 align:middle line:84%
in New Hampshire and Maine
and, well, Massachusetts, too,

00:00:33.810 --> 00:00:37.920 align:middle line:84%
had been dying for-- since
the late 19th century, finally

00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:41.310 align:middle line:90%
croaked in that decade.

00:00:41.310 --> 00:00:54.750 align:middle line:84%
And really bleak towns,
especially with the weather,

00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:56.850 align:middle line:90%
winter weather [INAUDIBLE].

00:00:56.850 --> 00:01:02.430 align:middle line:84%
So here's a little
poem from that time

00:01:02.430 --> 00:01:04.170 align:middle line:90%
called "A Partial Explanation."

00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:07.320 align:middle line:90%


00:01:07.320 --> 00:01:12.030 align:middle line:84%
"Seems like a long time since
the waiter took my order.

00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:17.940 align:middle line:84%
Grimy little luncheonette,
the snow falling outside.

00:01:17.940 --> 00:01:21.360 align:middle line:84%
Seems like it has grown darker
since I last heard the kitchen

00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:24.870 align:middle line:84%
door behind my back,
since I last noticed

00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:28.620 align:middle line:90%
anyone pass on the street.

00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.290 align:middle line:84%
A glass of ice water
keeps me company

00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:35.970 align:middle line:84%
at this table I chose
myself upon entering

00:01:35.970 --> 00:01:38.820 align:middle line:84%
and the longing,
incredible longing,

00:01:38.820 --> 00:01:43.370 align:middle line:84%
to eavesdrop on the
conversation of cooks."

00:01:43.370 --> 00:01:44.000 align:middle line:90%