WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.760 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:03.700 align:middle line:84% If that provokes any curiosity, then 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:05.485 align:middle line:84% I'd be happy-- there's a microphone here, 00:00:05.485 --> 00:00:07.735 align:middle line:84% or you're up front, you can just shout out a question, 00:00:07.735 --> 00:00:08.530 align:middle line:90% I'll repeat it. 00:00:08.530 --> 00:00:13.753 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.753 --> 00:00:14.920 align:middle line:90% Do I have any poems on tape? 00:00:14.920 --> 00:00:17.680 align:middle line:90% Yes, I do have poems on tape. 00:00:17.680 --> 00:00:19.277 align:middle line:90% I have a CD-- 00:00:19.277 --> 00:00:20.110 align:middle line:90% two of them, really. 00:00:20.110 --> 00:00:21.660 align:middle line:84% One's more available than the other. 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:23.800 align:middle line:84% But there's one, it's just called, 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:25.600 align:middle line:90% me, Live at Symphony Space. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.570 align:middle line:84% I give a reading in New York and it was recorded. 00:00:28.570 --> 00:00:30.400 align:middle line:84% And, oddly enough, I'm introduced 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:32.350 align:middle line:84% by Bill Murray, whose introduction 00:00:32.350 --> 00:00:34.690 align:middle line:90% had to be edited down. 00:00:34.690 --> 00:00:37.790 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:37.790 --> 00:00:40.322 align:middle line:84% So yeah, there is a CD available. 00:00:40.322 --> 00:00:43.220 align:middle line:90% 00:00:43.220 --> 00:00:45.500 align:middle line:84% How do you suggest appreciating poetry 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:49.540 align:middle line:84% that's less accessible than yours is when you're not taking 00:00:49.540 --> 00:00:52.400 align:middle line:90% the college class [INAUDIBLE]? 00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:59.060 align:middle line:84% Well I think it's difficult. And if poetry 00:00:59.060 --> 00:01:02.030 align:middle line:84% is presented in anthology form, and you're 00:01:02.030 --> 00:01:04.790 align:middle line:84% kind of jumping from Walt Whitman, to Emily Dickinson, 00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:09.440 align:middle line:84% and so forth, if you read one poet for a while, 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:13.580 align:middle line:84% you get to know how hard you can press on their poetry-- 00:01:13.580 --> 00:01:16.610 align:middle line:84% because you were talking about less accessible poetry. 00:01:16.610 --> 00:01:18.800 align:middle line:84% And some poetry you press really hard on 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:21.590 align:middle line:90% and it will press back into you. 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.760 align:middle line:84% English 17th century metaphysical poetry can be-- 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:29.420 align:middle line:84% you can just go line by line, and something will always be-- 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:31.975 align:middle line:84% every line will give forth something, some contributing 00:01:31.975 --> 00:01:33.912 align:middle line:90% thing to the poem. 00:01:33.912 --> 00:01:35.870 align:middle line:84% If you took another poet and pressed that hard, 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:38.330 align:middle line:84% you would go through the poem like it was tissue paper. 00:01:38.330 --> 00:01:40.700 align:middle line:90% You'd be overanalyze it. 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:45.890 align:middle line:84% So when the question of analysis comes up, or explication-- 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:47.540 align:middle line:90% and I went to graduate school. 00:01:47.540 --> 00:01:49.850 align:middle line:84% I have a PhD in English, so obviously I 00:01:49.850 --> 00:01:54.890 align:middle line:84% got some conceptual pleasure of dealing with difficult poetry, 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.590 align:middle line:84% like Wallace Stevens, and Hart Crane, and others. 00:01:57.590 --> 00:02:02.660 align:middle line:84% But one has to know how hard to push, what analytical pressure 00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:03.800 align:middle line:90% a certain poet-- 00:02:03.800 --> 00:02:05.300 align:middle line:84% what is the right amount of pressure 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:07.310 align:middle line:90% to apply to a certain poet? 00:02:07.310 --> 00:02:08.940 align:middle line:84% And that's really-- there's no easy way 00:02:08.940 --> 00:02:12.470 align:middle line:84% to do this unless you read extensively in that poet. 00:02:12.470 --> 00:02:18.260 align:middle line:84% So you were asking for a kind of easier answer, 00:02:18.260 --> 00:02:20.240 align:middle line:84% but I don't know if there is one. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:21.590 align:middle line:90% Sir? 00:02:21.590 --> 00:02:23.690 align:middle line:84% All my questions were answered the last time 00:02:23.690 --> 00:02:27.800 align:middle line:84% you were here at the Swede Johnson University Foundation. 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:32.630 align:middle line:84% And anticipating this, I dreamed about this meeting last night, 00:02:32.630 --> 00:02:37.430 align:middle line:84% and suddenly I woke up and wrote this poem. 00:02:37.430 --> 00:02:41.330 align:middle line:84% And I'd ask permission to read it, but you might say no. 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:44.420 align:middle line:84% "I saw him talk to Billy Collins last night. 00:02:44.420 --> 00:02:47.690 align:middle line:84% I walked straight up to him and with no intro said, 00:02:47.690 --> 00:02:50.810 align:middle line:84% my friend here thinks I'm a good poet. 00:02:50.810 --> 00:02:53.450 align:middle line:90% I think I'm an excellent poet. 00:02:53.450 --> 00:02:56.810 align:middle line:84% A lot of people say I'm a very good poet, that 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.300 align:middle line:90% is except editors. 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:00.230 align:middle line:90% Why is that? 00:03:00.230 --> 00:03:01.610 align:middle line:90% Billy asked. 00:03:01.610 --> 00:03:04.550 align:middle line:90% I said, because I make sense. 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:06.770 align:middle line:90% Billy turned and walked away. 00:03:06.770 --> 00:03:09.440 align:middle line:84% Last night I talked to Billy Collins, 00:03:09.440 --> 00:03:11.495 align:middle line:84% all he said to me was, why's that?" 00:03:11.495 --> 00:03:13.714 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:13.714 --> 00:03:20.590 align:middle line:90% 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:22.180 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:24.160 align:middle line:84% I don't have a question, I have a comment. 00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:25.060 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:26.860 align:middle line:84% It's like, oh my God, you're awesome. 00:03:26.860 --> 00:03:29.758 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] 00:03:29.758 --> 00:03:38.782 align:middle line:90% 00:03:38.782 --> 00:03:39.990 align:middle line:90% Could that be lowered at all? 00:03:39.990 --> 00:03:44.870 align:middle line:90% 00:03:44.870 --> 00:03:48.550 align:middle line:84% Do you experience your poetry differently 00:03:48.550 --> 00:03:50.635 align:middle line:84% once you've read it aloud to an audience? 00:03:50.635 --> 00:03:53.830 align:middle line:90% 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:56.500 align:middle line:84% Well, I know something more about it 00:03:56.500 --> 00:04:00.040 align:middle line:84% after I read it out to an audience. 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:01.840 align:middle line:90% But I read it, I don't-- 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:04.060 align:middle line:84% when I finish it, I don't kind of up on my coffee 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:07.210 align:middle line:90% table to proclaim it. 00:04:07.210 --> 00:04:08.590 align:middle line:90% I think reading it-- 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:10.450 align:middle line:90% I've read some poems to my dog. 00:04:10.450 --> 00:04:14.260 align:middle line:84% She's the kind of dog that really 00:04:14.260 --> 00:04:15.650 align:middle line:90% wants to understand English. 00:04:15.650 --> 00:04:17.370 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:17.370 --> 00:04:20.290 align:middle line:90% She starts cocking her head. 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:23.128 align:middle line:90% 00:04:23.128 --> 00:04:27.705 align:middle line:84% If I just get the right angle I can [INAUDIBLE].. 00:04:27.705 --> 00:04:32.700 align:middle line:90% 00:04:32.700 --> 00:04:37.010 align:middle line:84% As I'm writing, the right composition of the poem 00:04:37.010 --> 00:04:41.540 align:middle line:84% is not just a matter of ink, it's an acoustic. 00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:42.755 align:middle line:90% It has an acoustic dimension. 00:04:42.755 --> 00:04:45.050 align:middle line:84% And I'm hearing it as I'm writing, 00:04:45.050 --> 00:04:51.230 align:middle line:84% and as I'm testing lines, then stanzas, and sentences, 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:55.430 align:middle line:84% I'm testing them acoustically in addition to for their sense, 00:04:55.430 --> 00:04:59.030 align:middle line:84% or their contributions to the forward run 00:04:59.030 --> 00:05:01.630 align:middle line:84% from the poem, conceptual run of the poem. 00:05:01.630 --> 00:05:06.810 align:middle line:84% So the poems have been musically checked by me 00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:08.400 align:middle line:90% before I read them out loud. 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:12.260 align:middle line:84% So there aren't too many surprises, but occasionally, 00:05:12.260 --> 00:05:15.740 align:middle line:84% maybe that last poem, "On Turning 10" 00:05:15.740 --> 00:05:17.960 align:middle line:84% probably for better or worse, I think 00:05:17.960 --> 00:05:21.300 align:middle line:84% that poem succeeds maybe more than other ones 00:05:21.300 --> 00:05:23.900 align:middle line:84% in doing what I try to do in a lot of poems 00:05:23.900 --> 00:05:27.770 align:middle line:84% which is ride this line between seriousness and humor. 00:05:27.770 --> 00:05:30.320 align:middle line:84% And it's interesting to read that poem out loud, 00:05:30.320 --> 00:05:33.380 align:middle line:84% because OK, it's meant to be funny, 00:05:33.380 --> 00:05:35.810 align:middle line:90% but it turns serious at the end. 00:05:35.810 --> 00:05:39.170 align:middle line:84% Because as I was writing it I kind of 00:05:39.170 --> 00:05:41.830 align:middle line:84% started to really sympathize with this child, 00:05:41.830 --> 00:05:45.500 align:middle line:84% this 9-year-old on the verge of the double figures. 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:49.590 align:middle line:84% And I think I got sort of emotionally involved in it. 00:05:49.590 --> 00:05:52.190 align:middle line:84% I wanted it to end with a sort of a serious ending. 00:05:52.190 --> 00:05:55.790 align:middle line:84% So when that one was let out read out loud, 00:05:55.790 --> 00:05:58.550 align:middle line:84% the laughter tapers off in degrees. 00:05:58.550 --> 00:06:01.370 align:middle line:84% There are still kind of pockets of people that are still 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:05.600 align:middle line:84% laughing, and that's sort of an interesting kind of feedback. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:09.500 align:middle line:84% I think reading poems out loud, you do get to-- 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:10.350 align:middle line:90% you learn things. 00:06:10.350 --> 00:06:15.320 align:middle line:84% And if your ears are attentive to the audience, 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:17.480 align:middle line:84% silence is both the best reaction 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:20.300 align:middle line:90% and the worst reaction. 00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:25.370 align:middle line:84% Some silences are really good and others are really bad. 00:06:25.370 --> 00:06:29.660 align:middle line:84% So listening to a live audience, you 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:33.560 align:middle line:84% do get some interesting feedback that way. 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:37.400 align:middle line:84% Well I just sense a sense of delight 00:06:37.400 --> 00:06:40.880 align:middle line:84% that you get when you're reading some of your poetry aloud. 00:06:40.880 --> 00:06:43.910 align:middle line:84% And really, I've read a lot of your poetry, 00:06:43.910 --> 00:06:49.170 align:middle line:84% and it really adds to it, to get your sense of how 00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:51.055 align:middle line:90% you've enjoyed this poem. 00:06:51.055 --> 00:06:53.540 align:middle line:84% Well, I enjoy it because so many people are here. 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:56.348 align:middle line:90% 00:06:56.348 --> 00:06:58.850 align:middle line:84% And I thank all of you for coming today. 00:06:58.850 --> 00:07:00.350 align:middle line:84% It's been a fun experience, thanks. 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:04.000 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.000 align:middle line:90%