WEBVTT

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So this poem is called
"Overtakelessness," which

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is an Emily Dickinson word.

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"The overtakelessness of those
who have accomplished death."

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Amazing.

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"Overtakelessness."

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"To speak inaudibly,
the outside,

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its blurred sentence
foreshadowed,

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indistinguishable
as shining brass.

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The room, the empty sky,
beautiful or golden bands

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burn because it is empty.

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Without depth of field,
birds become primitive again.

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Unstuck weeds float downstream
completing representation.

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A thick green
complicating light.

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Now face the horizon in silence.

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Come down while
gladness unbinds sleep.

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This quiet speech feels
right and will be imitated.

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To turn away, to speak
fondly without a history.

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Come down and rediscover
this ancient province,

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as persons exchange smiles
like wind instruments.

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There, unlike any
road you travel,

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are small tidings that
awakening, are pleasing.

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No history is clear."

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And that poem was written
looking at a canvas

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by the 19th century painter,
Albert Pinkham Ryder.

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He was late 19th century
into the early 20th century.

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And he was really important
to the modern representational

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painters of the
'40s and the '50s.

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And anyway, he's really
worth looking at,

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and the thing-- the great
thing, it's not the great thing,

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but the real history
of the work is

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that it's decaying,
because he used house paint

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and painted on boards.

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And so, they're changing all
the time, just like a body.

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