WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.490 --> 00:00:11.180 align:middle line:84% Central Park, the lungs of New York City, 00:00:11.180 --> 00:00:15.770 align:middle line:84% exists because of a poet, William Cullen Bryant. 00:00:15.770 --> 00:00:18.770 align:middle line:90% He was a very influential poet. 00:00:18.770 --> 00:00:21.380 align:middle line:90% And it is created as a poem. 00:00:21.380 --> 00:00:24.320 align:middle line:84% It was designed to be experienced as a poem 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:27.860 align:middle line:84% by Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed it. 00:00:27.860 --> 00:00:31.370 align:middle line:84% It's perfect that we have Auden here 00:00:31.370 --> 00:00:34.010 align:middle line:84% at this place, where we're overlooking 00:00:34.010 --> 00:00:38.960 align:middle line:84% not only the zoo, and down below, the snow monkeys, 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:43.940 align:middle line:84% but when you look up this way, you're surrounded by the city. 00:00:43.940 --> 00:00:47.240 align:middle line:84% A small grove massacred to the last ash, an oak 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:49.460 align:middle line:84% with heart rot, giveaway the show. 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:51.920 align:middle line:84% This great society is going smash. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.260 align:middle line:84% They cannot fool us with how fast they go, 00:00:54.260 --> 00:00:56.600 align:middle line:84% how much they cost each other and the gods. 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:59.105 align:middle line:84% A culture is no better than its woods. 00:00:59.105 --> 00:01:03.690 align:middle line:90% 00:01:03.690 --> 00:01:05.190 align:middle line:84% We think people don't like poetry. 00:01:05.190 --> 00:01:08.310 align:middle line:84% People seem thrilled to find poetry. 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:12.480 align:middle line:84% It seems to really give them the respite that they want. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:17.040 align:middle line:84% I get calls from people, like the environmental minister 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.340 align:middle line:84% from Iceland, who wants to know more about this poem, 00:01:20.340 --> 00:01:25.380 align:middle line:84% who has no idea who Auden is, who does not 00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:28.800 align:middle line:84% know that Auden wrote a great deal, 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:31.350 align:middle line:84% including letters from Iceland, and considered 00:01:31.350 --> 00:01:35.910 align:middle line:90% Iceland his iconic landscape. 00:01:35.910 --> 00:01:38.880 align:middle line:84% We know that all art is conversation. 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:40.920 align:middle line:84% That's what we're doing this for. 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:44.790 align:middle line:84% It's this truing of the inner with the outer. 00:01:44.790 --> 00:01:46.980 align:middle line:84% But still, it's really exciting when 00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:49.170 align:middle line:84% people call you from the other side of the world, 00:01:49.170 --> 00:01:56.520 align:middle line:84% or call you from the UN, to find out, who is this guy. 00:01:56.520 --> 00:02:00.060 align:middle line:84% I was saying to Cybele and Wendy today, 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:03.420 align:middle line:90% my most exciting moment is-- 00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:06.690 align:middle line:84% there's a wonderful, really fine poet 00:02:06.690 --> 00:02:10.770 align:middle line:84% who lives below me at the bottom of the hill. 00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:14.910 align:middle line:84% And she lives in a sheepherder's wagon. 00:02:14.910 --> 00:02:17.610 align:middle line:90% And her partner is a farrier. 00:02:17.610 --> 00:02:21.030 align:middle line:84% And they have everything that's just-- 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:24.540 align:middle line:84% it's built to the size to go down the highway in case 00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:25.620 align:middle line:90% they have to move. 00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:28.668 align:middle line:84% It's sort of like a gypsy operation. 00:02:28.668 --> 00:02:30.460 align:middle line:84% And she was excited about what I was doing. 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:32.020 align:middle line:84% But she gave me a call one day, and she said, 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:33.930 align:middle line:84% I just got a call from my friend in New York. 00:02:33.930 --> 00:02:35.610 align:middle line:90% And her son is-- 00:02:35.610 --> 00:02:40.470 align:middle line:84% this friend's son is autistic, and rarely says anything 00:02:40.470 --> 00:02:41.610 align:middle line:90% to his mother. 00:02:41.610 --> 00:02:46.470 align:middle line:84% And the mother took the son to this installation, 00:02:46.470 --> 00:02:49.320 align:middle line:84% and he couldn't stop pulling on her, saying, 00:02:49.320 --> 00:02:51.030 align:middle line:90% it's a celebration, Mommy. 00:02:51.030 --> 00:02:53.450 align:middle line:90% It's a celebration. 00:02:53.450 --> 00:02:55.130 align:middle line:90% And I said, yes. 00:02:55.130 --> 00:02:57.720 align:middle line:90% He got it perfectly. 00:02:57.720 --> 00:03:03.080 align:middle line:84% This is exactly, exactly what it was about. 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:05.780 align:middle line:84% Scientists were so excited by the poems 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:07.040 align:middle line:90% that we're now putting-- 00:03:07.040 --> 00:03:09.800 align:middle line:84% we went on from there to put poems in five boroughs. 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:13.400 align:middle line:84% I became NEA's first conservation poet 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:16.340 align:middle line:84% to work with Wildlife Conservation 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:21.500 align:middle line:84% Society in the other boroughs, expanding the readership 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:26.930 align:middle line:84% from one million, from all over the world, to four million. 00:03:26.930 --> 00:03:32.810 align:middle line:84% And then we had a little break, and our incredible grant 00:03:32.810 --> 00:03:36.950 align:middle line:84% writer, John Frazier, went out and wrote another grant 00:03:36.950 --> 00:03:43.610 align:middle line:84% to take what we're doing, and expand it to five cities. 00:03:43.610 --> 00:03:48.590 align:middle line:84% I was able to have my dream list of poets 00:03:48.590 --> 00:03:55.070 align:middle line:84% and invite Lucy Tapahonso from here, 00:03:55.070 --> 00:04:01.610 align:middle line:84% and invite Alison Hawthorne Deming from here, 00:04:01.610 --> 00:04:05.470 align:middle line:84% W.S. Merwin, Galway Kinnell, Jane Hirshfield. 00:04:05.470 --> 00:04:08.410 align:middle line:90% Many, many wonderful poets. 00:04:08.410 --> 00:04:11.080 align:middle line:84% And then go down that list and say, 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:15.120 align:middle line:90% who would be the ideal person. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:16.950 align:middle line:84% It was almost like a dating service. 00:04:16.950 --> 00:04:18.300 align:middle line:90% You don't know this, Alison. 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.950 align:middle line:84% But I called-- well, because I've been through this-- 00:04:22.950 --> 00:04:26.130 align:middle line:84% I called the scientists, and I would talk with the scientists 00:04:26.130 --> 00:04:28.380 align:middle line:84% and get an idea of their temperament, 00:04:28.380 --> 00:04:32.700 align:middle line:84% and think, OK, who would go really well. 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:36.900 align:middle line:84% Of course, the zoo director left before Alison 00:04:36.900 --> 00:04:38.700 align:middle line:90% arrived in Jacksonville. 00:04:38.700 --> 00:04:40.920 align:middle line:84% She has a new person she's just charmed. 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:45.930 align:middle line:84% But ask Alison Hawthorne Deming and Mark Doty. 00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:52.230 align:middle line:84% Mark is in New Orleans, Pattiann Rogers is in Milwaukee, 00:04:52.230 --> 00:04:57.713 align:middle line:84% Joe Bruchac is in Little Rock, and Alison is in Jacksonville. 00:04:57.713 --> 00:04:59.880 align:middle line:84% We're expanding this, and it's becoming a little bit 00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:02.490 align:middle line:90% more complex, in that now-- 00:05:02.490 --> 00:05:04.890 align:middle line:84% oh, and I'm at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, 00:05:04.890 --> 00:05:06.900 align:middle line:84% and I'm there because the scientist 00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:12.300 align:middle line:84% I worked with in New York has now moved to Brookfield. 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:14.070 align:middle line:84% But the way it's become more complex-- 00:05:14.070 --> 00:05:16.560 align:middle line:84% and it's a great thing for all the writers involved-- 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:19.740 align:middle line:84% is that we're partnering with libraries, 00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:23.790 align:middle line:84% and we're partnering with the American Library Association. 00:05:23.790 --> 00:05:27.090 align:middle line:84% All of the advisors get their books in the libraries. 00:05:27.090 --> 00:05:31.410 align:middle line:84% And we have programming, not only at the zoological center, 00:05:31.410 --> 00:05:33.160 align:middle line:90% but at the libraries as well. 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:34.710 align:middle line:84% And this is a million-dollar grant 00:05:34.710 --> 00:05:38.940 align:middle line:84% that's now going on for-- it will be a three-year grant. 00:05:38.940 --> 00:05:40.740 align:middle line:84% We're in the second year of three years. 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:44.380 align:middle line:90% 00:05:44.380 --> 00:05:49.120 align:middle line:84% And now we're talking about taking on world peace. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:50.575 align:middle line:90% What's next for poetry? 00:05:50.575 --> 00:05:53.110 align:middle line:90% 00:05:53.110 --> 00:05:55.800 align:middle line:90% They have very strict rules.