WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.040 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:04.220 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to conclude
with a couple of sonnets.

00:00:04.220 --> 00:00:07.010 align:middle line:84%
The last time that I
taught the forms course,

00:00:07.010 --> 00:00:10.010 align:middle line:84%
I got the nerve to spend a
lot of time writing sonnets.

00:00:10.010 --> 00:00:14.030 align:middle line:84%
And so I've been working on
these for a little over a year.

00:00:14.030 --> 00:00:16.760 align:middle line:84%
It'll be another sequence,
but it won't be book-length.

00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:22.820 align:middle line:84%
I think, with luck,
it'll be chapbook-length.

00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.910 align:middle line:84%
And I'll read one of
these new sonnets,

00:00:25.910 --> 00:00:28.670 align:middle line:84%
and then I'm going to read
a sonnet by somebody else

00:00:28.670 --> 00:00:30.170 align:middle line:90%
to conclude.

00:00:30.170 --> 00:00:33.320 align:middle line:84%
This one is titled
with a prefix--

00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:37.010 align:middle line:90%
"post," post hyphen after.

00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:38.795 align:middle line:84%
And you know we use
it in many ways--

00:00:38.795 --> 00:00:41.540 align:middle line:90%


00:00:41.540 --> 00:00:46.970 align:middle line:84%
postmodern, postmortem,
post-Bush post-whatever.

00:00:46.970 --> 00:00:51.080 align:middle line:84%
But this "post" is left
to you-- post hyphen.

00:00:51.080 --> 00:00:56.090 align:middle line:84%
And the poem is after
Cormac McCarthy.

00:00:56.090 --> 00:00:59.870 align:middle line:84%
I'm a fan of his novels,
especially the ones that

00:00:59.870 --> 00:01:05.060 align:middle line:84%
are sort of gritty and have
rich-textured, dark, musical

00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:05.690 align:middle line:90%
language.

00:01:05.690 --> 00:01:08.990 align:middle line:84%
And some of his phrases are
floating around in here.

00:01:08.990 --> 00:01:16.950 align:middle line:84%
And perhaps I also channeled
a little of his dark tone.

00:01:16.950 --> 00:01:19.460 align:middle line:90%
"Post."

00:01:19.460 --> 00:01:22.700 align:middle line:84%
"As if what's done could
shrug and change its mind,

00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:28.040 align:middle line:84%
one pit breathed for
days, a heaving form.

00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:30.980 align:middle line:84%
Shot, thrown into
trenches, and set afire,

00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:35.900 align:middle line:84%
the buried alive writhe
like flies, like worms.

00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:39.590 align:middle line:84%
Now, flatlands, miles
and miles of silence

00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:44.010 align:middle line:84%
fenced, where noble feelings
search for noble acts.

00:01:44.010 --> 00:01:48.980 align:middle line:84%
Ants, locusts, crickets-- a
swarm intelligence transmits

00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:52.610 align:middle line:90%
data in pheromones and clicks.

00:01:52.610 --> 00:01:56.810 align:middle line:84%
A bright sun obscures
angles in the road.

00:01:56.810 --> 00:01:59.840 align:middle line:84%
Blink after images
inside the eyes.

00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:03.620 align:middle line:90%
Bodies rejiggered to holograms.

00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:07.370 align:middle line:84%
The sound of wind, the
closest thing to words,

00:02:07.370 --> 00:02:09.350 align:middle line:90%
reduced to chemicals.

00:02:09.350 --> 00:02:11.570 align:middle line:90%
Memory simplifies.

00:02:11.570 --> 00:02:13.850 align:middle line:90%
Stories empty.

00:02:13.850 --> 00:02:17.500 align:middle line:90%
Hearts desiccate to sand.

00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:18.000 align:middle line:90%