WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.937 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.937 --> 00:00:04.437 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:00:04.437 --> 00:00:07.888 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.888 --> 00:00:11.350 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:11.350 --> 00:00:13.310 align:middle line:90% Done. 00:00:13.310 --> 00:00:14.530 align:middle line:90% I sound wonderful. 00:00:14.530 --> 00:00:18.360 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.360 --> 00:00:22.460 align:middle line:84% It's an illusion, but I do sound wonderful. 00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:25.370 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:25.370 --> 00:00:25.940 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:28.880 align:middle line:84% Thank you, everybody, all for your hospitality. 00:00:28.880 --> 00:00:32.790 align:middle line:84% What an impressive damn place this is. 00:00:32.790 --> 00:00:36.500 align:middle line:84% This is something, not just the art of it, 00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:38.870 align:middle line:84% because I'm really hot on architecture too. 00:00:38.870 --> 00:00:41.240 align:middle line:84% But the heart of it has been great. 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:43.500 align:middle line:84% There have been wonderful souls at every turn. 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:44.510 align:middle line:90% And I thank you. 00:00:44.510 --> 00:00:47.930 align:middle line:84% Including this afternoon, I met with the most cherishable 00:00:47.930 --> 00:00:49.190 align:middle line:90% bunch. 00:00:49.190 --> 00:00:54.710 align:middle line:84% I will hear that I'm not loud enough, but thank you. 00:00:54.710 --> 00:00:58.160 align:middle line:90% It's good of you to care. 00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:01.070 align:middle line:84% I did meet with the most wonderful bunch 00:01:01.070 --> 00:01:05.150 align:middle line:84% of undergraduates today in a classroom 00:01:05.150 --> 00:01:13.040 align:middle line:84% right up there, which I can also see from my bedroom, whereupon 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.145 align:middle line:84% I spared them much and lowered the blinds. 00:01:16.145 --> 00:01:20.780 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHING] 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:24.020 align:middle line:84% They'd been reading Eyeshot, which was a collection of poems 00:01:24.020 --> 00:01:26.450 align:middle line:90% I had published in 2003. 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:28.730 align:middle line:84% And now that I have a new book about to come out, 00:01:28.730 --> 00:01:33.140 align:middle line:84% I thought I'd give you some glimpses of that. 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:38.570 align:middle line:84% It's called Upgraded to Serious, which is-- oh good, 00:01:38.570 --> 00:01:41.060 align:middle line:84% a few people have been in the hospital. 00:01:41.060 --> 00:01:43.760 align:middle line:90% That's always lucky. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.960 align:middle line:84% It's a kind of literary one upsmanship, 00:01:47.960 --> 00:01:50.150 align:middle line:84% too, since one presumes, of course, 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:53.600 align:middle line:84% that the critical is a few notches down, one or two, 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:54.740 align:middle line:90% anyway. 00:01:54.740 --> 00:01:56.660 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure I know the whole taxonomy, 00:01:56.660 --> 00:01:59.720 align:middle line:84% but I think critical is under serious, right? 00:01:59.720 --> 00:02:01.880 align:middle line:90% Serious is on top. 00:02:01.880 --> 00:02:04.820 align:middle line:84% I just want to make sure because I live in English departments. 00:02:04.820 --> 00:02:09.590 align:middle line:84% You understand, I need reassurance on this score. 00:02:09.590 --> 00:02:14.900 align:middle line:84% They won't know either, which is just as well since I 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:19.130 align:middle line:90% live among them, the critics. 00:02:19.130 --> 00:02:22.460 align:middle line:84% Despite the "serious" in the title, much in the book 00:02:22.460 --> 00:02:23.870 align:middle line:90% is meant to be funny. 00:02:23.870 --> 00:02:25.400 align:middle line:90% So you're allowed to laugh. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:27.740 align:middle line:84% I'm always bursting with something. 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:31.910 align:middle line:84% And bursting is my modus operandi. 00:02:31.910 --> 00:02:38.960 align:middle line:84% And in life, you've got to have the bursts of hilarity 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:41.750 align:middle line:84% to counterpoint the bursts of severity. 00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:45.470 align:middle line:90% 00:02:45.470 --> 00:02:49.790 align:middle line:84% There's a kind of ratio right of laughter to lachrymal, 00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:50.690 align:middle line:90% and it's one. 00:02:50.690 --> 00:02:51.710 align:middle line:90% It better be one. 00:02:51.710 --> 00:02:53.930 align:middle line:90% You've got to work it out. 00:02:53.930 --> 00:02:57.080 align:middle line:90% You joke to keep from jumping. 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:57.980 align:middle line:90% You guys know. 00:02:57.980 --> 00:03:00.530 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:06.470 align:middle line:84% Because the dark is always lurking in there 00:03:06.470 --> 00:03:09.020 align:middle line:84% when you're making light of things. 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:14.630 align:middle line:84% And, like, I just read on the plane, 00:03:14.630 --> 00:03:17.660 align:middle line:84% the leper says to the prostitute, keep the tip. 00:03:17.660 --> 00:03:21.270 align:middle line:90% [GROANING LAUGHTER] 00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:24.935 align:middle line:84% Oh, I know it's the groan that makes it funny. 00:03:24.935 --> 00:03:27.770 align:middle line:90% 00:03:27.770 --> 00:03:29.180 align:middle line:90% I know, I know. 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:31.850 align:middle line:90% It's horrible. 00:03:31.850 --> 00:03:33.980 align:middle line:90% But you burst out. 00:03:33.980 --> 00:03:38.090 align:middle line:84% It's uncontainably horrible and funny. 00:03:38.090 --> 00:03:40.760 align:middle line:84% And I did laugh at a funeral once. 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:42.890 align:middle line:90% And I've never forgiven myself. 00:03:42.890 --> 00:03:47.520 align:middle line:84% On the other hand, it's the story of my life. 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:53.630 align:middle line:84% So here's a photo negative of some light studies-- 00:03:53.630 --> 00:03:54.200 align:middle line:90% "The Gift." 00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:57.570 align:middle line:90% 00:03:57.570 --> 00:04:01.200 align:middle line:84% "From underwater you can't see a thing above-- 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:06.240 align:middle line:84% a sun, or a cloud, or a man in a boat. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.440 align:middle line:90% You see the bottom of the boat. 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:13.550 align:middle line:84% And everywhere below it-- flocks of glitter, brilliantly 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:15.410 align:middle line:90% communicating schools. 00:04:15.410 --> 00:04:18.875 align:middle line:84% You see the calm translucencies and groves, 00:04:18.875 --> 00:04:23.390 align:middle line:90% a sway of peaceful flags. 00:04:23.390 --> 00:04:27.440 align:middle line:90% Above is silver impassivity-- 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:30.140 align:middle line:90% reflective lid. 00:04:30.140 --> 00:04:32.090 align:middle line:90% So why look out? 00:04:32.090 --> 00:04:35.360 align:middle line:90% No out exists. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.560 align:middle line:84% The sky, each time it's wounded, heals at once. 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:45.410 align:middle line:84% A zippering across it instantly dissolves a wet suit's foot 00:04:45.410 --> 00:04:50.660 align:middle line:84% or a long black line behind a plummet, or the sudden angling 00:04:50.660 --> 00:04:56.090 align:middle line:84% boomerang, of a murre in a hurry to zigzag down. 00:04:56.090 --> 00:05:01.010 align:middle line:84% All come as pure surprises, passing thoughts 00:05:01.010 --> 00:05:05.600 align:middle line:90% that leave no afterimage. 00:05:05.600 --> 00:05:08.030 align:middle line:84% But we have lived above it all instead, 00:05:08.030 --> 00:05:11.180 align:middle line:84% our feet on the ground, our heads in the clouds 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:15.500 align:middle line:84% where there's no ceiling sealing us from heaven. 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:21.170 align:middle line:84% Drawn into the storybook of stars, the spark-lit universes, 00:05:21.170 --> 00:05:23.360 align:middle line:90% countlessness of dust-- 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:27.470 align:middle line:84% we think along those phosphorescent ways 00:05:27.470 --> 00:05:28.760 align:middle line:90% there must-- 00:05:28.760 --> 00:05:31.760 align:middle line:84% brain lights up a schoolroom rule-- 00:05:31.760 --> 00:05:38.730 align:middle line:84% live others like ourselves in worlds as mirror-mesmerized. 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:43.290 align:middle line:90% As mine, let's say, or hers. 00:05:43.290 --> 00:05:50.070 align:middle line:84% And so it was around the 57th month of her life's underlife-- 00:05:50.070 --> 00:05:55.080 align:middle line:84% a mindless blind metastasis of cells-- 00:05:55.080 --> 00:05:57.840 align:middle line:84% we sent each other messages by email, 00:05:57.840 --> 00:06:02.640 align:middle line:84% sudden, simultaneous, because of dreams. 00:06:02.640 --> 00:06:06.060 align:middle line:84% In hers, the ancestors were waiting just across a lake, 00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:10.350 align:middle line:84% but she found no equipment in her circumstances of canoe. 00:06:10.350 --> 00:06:15.180 align:middle line:84% The paddle on the water drifted far and farther off. 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:16.800 align:middle line:90% She saw it. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.320 align:middle line:90% Touch my boat, she said. 00:06:19.320 --> 00:06:22.860 align:middle line:84% She saw me shove it back across the surface, 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:29.400 align:middle line:84% safely to her hand, so she could get where she'd be found. 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:33.000 align:middle line:84% Dear god, give me a faith like that. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:36.450 align:middle line:90% In my dream we both drowned. 00:06:36.450 --> 00:06:37.700 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHING]