Well, we'll leave a little time for questions,
but I'll read a couple more poems.
This is a poem from an earlier book called "Forgetfulness."
It's really more like a--
some of these poems are almost like little essays that stick
more or less to the topic.
And this poem seems to have another reason
to read it is it seems to have a growing audience.
People seem to identify with it.
"Forgetfulness."
"The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even
heard of, it is as if, one by one, the memories you used
to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere
of the brain, to a little fishing village
where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and you watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower
perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling
to remember it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name
begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your way to oblivion where you will join those
who have forgotten even how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have
drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart."
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.