WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.350 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.350 --> 00:00:05.670 align:middle line:84%
Deborah Bernhardt's poetry is
a poetry of sounds, noises,

00:00:05.670 --> 00:00:08.640 align:middle line:90%
whistles, catcalls, and shouts.

00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:12.480 align:middle line:84%
A poetry hanging on by a finger
to some cliff, almost unsure

00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:17.340 align:middle line:84%
if it wants to let go and fall
entirely into the language.

00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:20.370 align:middle line:84%
Her book, Echolalia,
begins with noticing,

00:00:20.370 --> 00:00:24.360 align:middle line:84%
if you like words you
favor a kind of words.

00:00:24.360 --> 00:00:26.940 align:middle line:84%
And that sounds so
nice that any reader

00:00:26.940 --> 00:00:29.790 align:middle line:84%
will think it's true, at
least until getting a few more

00:00:29.790 --> 00:00:32.040 align:middle line:84%
pages in and finding
that the book itself

00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:36.660 align:middle line:84%
is a testament in preaching and
in practice to a deep enjoyment

00:00:36.660 --> 00:00:39.510 align:middle line:84%
of every kind of word
and arrangement of words

00:00:39.510 --> 00:00:43.140 align:middle line:84%
from email, text, and pop songs
to science jargon and highbrow

00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:45.360 align:middle line:84%
art appreciation,
to the inherited

00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:47.910 align:middle line:90%
forms and the high lyric.

00:00:47.910 --> 00:00:51.570 align:middle line:84%
It's a poetry unquiet and
uncareful in the best sense.

00:00:51.570 --> 00:00:54.750 align:middle line:84%
It's one unconcerned with
expectations, not its own.

00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:57.990 align:middle line:84%
One that makes no apologies
for its own neon colors,

00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:01.890 align:middle line:84%
its discombobulating turns and
leaps, or Bernhardt's fantastic

00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:03.390 align:middle line:90%
ear for music.

00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:05.610 align:middle line:84%
To paraphrase the end
of her poem Looking

00:01:05.610 --> 00:01:08.100 align:middle line:84%
for the Lights, when
Deborah Bernhardt liked

00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:10.140 align:middle line:84%
to write some poems,
she just liked

00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:13.230 align:middle line:90%
to write some goddamn poems.

00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.960 align:middle line:84%
I'll read you the bio
note out of her book,

00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:18.370 align:middle line:84%
in case you haven't
bought it yet.

00:01:18.370 --> 00:01:22.380 align:middle line:84%
Deborah Bernhardt received a
BA from Sarah Lawrence College

00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:25.710 align:middle line:84%
and an MFA from
University of Arizona.

00:01:25.710 --> 00:01:28.110 align:middle line:84%
She has been a fellow at
the Fine Arts Work Center

00:01:28.110 --> 00:01:31.410 align:middle line:84%
in Provincetown and
a Jay C and Ruth Hall

00:01:31.410 --> 00:01:34.170 align:middle line:84%
fellow at the Wisconsin
Institute for Creative Writing,

00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:37.200 align:middle line:84%
and a writer in residence
at Penn State and Altoona,

00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:39.630 align:middle line:84%
and a recipient of the
Literary Arts Grant

00:01:39.630 --> 00:01:42.450 align:middle line:84%
from the Wisconsin Arts Board,
and she lives in Baraboo.

00:01:42.450 --> 00:01:44.550 align:middle line:84%
Please everybody welcome
Deborah Bernhardt.

00:01:44.550 --> 00:01:46.400 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]