I suppose it's a, well, a poem that arose out of--
I was going through some bizarre period as I was reading--
I was reading this book called, "How to Write Fiction".
I should have just stuck with Elmore Leonard's book
about the 10 rules, but I was reading a much less smart book
about how to write fiction.
And the book was aimed at a fairly--
let's say it was written on a fairly rudimentary level,
and it included do's and don'ts.
And it was a series of basic pages about what you should
and shouldn't do in fiction.
One of them, for example, one of the rules
was if you have dialogue tags, that you should always
make the adverb or the adjective go along
with what was just said.
So you wouldn't want to say, "help, I'm drowning,
she implied."
[LAUGHTER]
[INAUDIBLE] explained.
[LAUGHTER]
But there was one piece of advice that jumped out at me.
And the advice was, never use the word "suddenly" just
to create tension.
And one of the examples I've heard
of the overuse of this adverb was,
this sounds like something out of an Elmore
Leonard [INAUDIBLE] the end, I pointed the gun at her head
and pulled the trigger.
Suddenly, shots rang out.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, after I returned to writing poetry, not only
was I liberated from these rules,
but I could actually violate some.
So the result is this poem called "Tension."
"Suddenly, you were planting some yellow petunias outside
in the garden, and suddenly I was
in the study looking up the word oligarchy for the 37th time.
When suddenly, without warning, you planted the last petunia
in the flat, and I suddenly closed the dictionary now
that I was reminded of that vile form of governance.
A moment later, we found ourselves
standing suddenly in the kitchen where you suddenly
opened a can of cat food and I just as suddenly watched you
doing that.
I observed a window of leafy activity
and, beyond that, a bird perched on the edge of the stone
birdbath when suddenly you announced
you were leaving to pick up a few things at the market
and I stunned you by impulsively pointing out
that we were getting low on butter and another case of wine
would not be a bad idea.
Who could tell what the next moment would hold?
Another drip from the faucet?
Another little spasm on the second hand?
Would the painting of a bowl of pears
continue to hang on the wall from that nail?
Would the heavy anthologies remain on their shelves?
Would the stove hold its position?
Suddenly, it was anyone's guess.
[LAUGHTER]
The sun rose ever higher in the sky.
The state capitals remained motionless on the wall map
when suddenly I found myself lying on a couch where I closed
my eyes and without any warning began to picture the Andes,
of all places, and a path that led over
the mountains to another country with strange customs
and eye-catching hats, each one suddenly fringed
with colorful little tassels."
[APPLAUSE]