WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:04.510 align:middle line:90%
Another poem about fires.

00:00:04.510 --> 00:00:06.345 align:middle line:84%
I seem to have an
obsession with that.

00:00:06.345 --> 00:00:10.996 align:middle line:84%
In my past life, I must have
been an arsonist or something.

00:00:10.996 --> 00:00:14.970 align:middle line:90%


00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:16.580 align:middle line:90%
And the last line--

00:00:16.580 --> 00:00:19.310 align:middle line:84%
I don't know where I read it,
but there's a line in Spanish,

00:00:19.310 --> 00:00:23.210 align:middle line:84%
a maxim, a saying,
that, it translated

00:00:23.210 --> 00:00:26.180 align:middle line:90%
goes something to the effect--

00:00:26.180 --> 00:00:27.890 align:middle line:84%
it's a real dumb
saying because it

00:00:27.890 --> 00:00:31.380 align:middle line:84%
says when the governments
fail, the poets will take over.

00:00:31.380 --> 00:00:35.810 align:middle line:84%
And you think the
country is badly run now.

00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:38.690 align:middle line:90%


00:00:38.690 --> 00:00:40.730 align:middle line:84%
Don't think that the
buses would run on time

00:00:40.730 --> 00:00:42.740 align:middle line:90%
if the poets were driving them.

00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:49.290 align:middle line:90%


00:00:49.290 --> 00:00:52.940 align:middle line:84%
It also has something
to do with--

00:00:52.940 --> 00:00:55.800 align:middle line:84%
well, it's one of those
down on the farm poems.

00:00:55.800 --> 00:01:00.840 align:middle line:84%
And I think you'll
understand that.

00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.630 align:middle line:84%
But in the good old days, they
used to have chimney fires.

00:01:05.630 --> 00:01:07.820 align:middle line:84%
I don't know if they
have them anymore.

00:01:07.820 --> 00:01:10.130 align:middle line:84%
The soot and the grease
would build up in chimneys.

00:01:10.130 --> 00:01:13.310 align:middle line:84%
And I remember as a
kid, firemen climbing up

00:01:13.310 --> 00:01:15.620 align:middle line:84%
houses and shoveling
hoses down chimneys.

00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:19.310 align:middle line:84%
Well, there's a chimney
fire in this poem.

00:01:19.310 --> 00:01:22.640 align:middle line:90%
"Last Fires."

00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.310 align:middle line:84%
"Even farmers have
enough sense to stop

00:01:25.310 --> 00:01:27.530 align:middle line:90%
at the moment of excitement.

00:01:27.530 --> 00:01:29.480 align:middle line:84%
And after the hogs
are slaughtered,

00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:32.270 align:middle line:84%
museum pieces cut open
hanging in their barns.

00:01:32.270 --> 00:01:34.580 align:middle line:90%
Stooped washing up at the pumps.

00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:37.790 align:middle line:84%
Already they can see the
movies behind their brows.

00:01:37.790 --> 00:01:40.250 align:middle line:90%
New fields of milo sprouting.

00:01:40.250 --> 00:01:44.750 align:middle line:84%
Row on row, while those judases,
the crows, enemies of gravity,

00:01:44.750 --> 00:01:47.570 align:middle line:90%
circle over.

00:01:47.570 --> 00:01:49.820 align:middle line:84%
Then that night, first
sneaking a drink,

00:01:49.820 --> 00:01:53.810 align:middle line:84%
they build their last fires, sit
holding hands with their wives,

00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.060 align:middle line:84%
wishing they had
chestnuts to roast,

00:01:56.060 --> 00:01:59.090 align:middle line:84%
that they had the courage
to read 'Snowbound.'

00:01:59.090 --> 00:02:01.820 align:middle line:90%


00:02:01.820 --> 00:02:04.670 align:middle line:84%
I used to see them through the
woods running away from home

00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:08.270 align:middle line:84%
again, resting on the hillsides
among the bushes where

00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:10.610 align:middle line:84%
those dapper gentlemen,
the pheasants,

00:02:10.610 --> 00:02:14.360 align:middle line:84%
so alert all through the
night but hardly dozed.

00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:17.060 align:middle line:84%
Bessemer furnaces forming
up against the sky--

00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:20.480 align:middle line:84%
here, there, across
the landscapes.

00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:23.690 align:middle line:84%
Even then, hearing the firemen
stirring in their firehouses,

00:02:23.690 --> 00:02:26.990 align:middle line:84%
dreaming they were in their
yellow coats, racing for miles,

00:02:26.990 --> 00:02:30.140 align:middle line:84%
calling to one another, climbing
ladders where they balanced,

00:02:30.140 --> 00:02:34.430 align:middle line:84%
eyes wide in the face of
it, pouring buckets down.

00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:38.810 align:middle line:84%
Telling myself, even
then, thus afflicted,

00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:44.080 align:middle line:84%
that when governments
fail, the poets take over".

00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.000 align:middle line:90%