WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.930 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:01.754 align:middle line:90% "Poem as Bed." 00:00:01.754 --> 00:00:06.450 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.450 --> 00:00:10.590 align:middle line:84% "If you make it you have to lie in it, that's true. 00:00:10.590 --> 00:00:13.620 align:middle line:84% But what one lies about is one's own business, 00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:18.060 align:middle line:84% unless he or she gets caught, which is hard on the spine. 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:19.350 align:middle line:90% Boiled eggs. 00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:20.730 align:middle line:90% Heroin addiction. 00:00:20.730 --> 00:00:23.260 align:middle line:90% Sunday afternoon. 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:26.380 align:middle line:84% Here we made merry with orange peels. 00:00:26.380 --> 00:00:29.320 align:middle line:90% Here we sleep days in a boat. 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:31.630 align:middle line:84% This young man has a mind of French toast 00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:34.790 align:middle line:90% and this one a lung full of fog. 00:00:34.790 --> 00:00:37.670 align:middle line:84% Think Wee Willy Winkie smirking and you'll 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:41.120 align:middle line:84% have a pretty good idea of what I look like. 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:45.200 align:middle line:84% Ladies, are you tired of your husband and 2.2 kids? 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:46.100 align:middle line:90% Well, so are we. 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:47.540 align:middle line:90% Goodnight. 00:00:47.540 --> 00:00:51.140 align:middle line:84% And by the way, it's time once again for ye old Hit Parade. 00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:53.330 align:middle line:84% Keep in mind, however, that it was Kenneth Koch who 00:00:53.330 --> 00:00:56.060 align:middle line:84% wrote the first "Poem as Bed," only it's called "In Bed," 00:00:56.060 --> 00:00:57.800 align:middle line:90% and it's quite long. 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:00.350 align:middle line:90% Always curse your alarm clock. 00:01:00.350 --> 00:01:03.633 align:middle line:84% Every morning wake up to the sound of your heart. 00:01:03.633 --> 00:01:05.300 align:middle line:84% When you are about to sleep with someone 00:01:05.300 --> 00:01:08.510 align:middle line:84% in their bed for the first time, reach down and steal the tag 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:10.430 align:middle line:90% off the mattress. 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:15.230 align:middle line:84% Bedclothes aside, this is the reason I'm putting you on. 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:18.620 align:middle line:84% 'Once upon a time in faraway kingdom--' now skip 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:20.180 align:middle line:90% to the end-- 'The End.' 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:22.010 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry, that's not fair. 00:01:22.010 --> 00:01:23.870 align:middle line:84% But you were starting to doze off. 00:01:23.870 --> 00:01:26.630 align:middle line:84% When you wear your pajamas to the Cinderella ball, 00:01:26.630 --> 00:01:29.540 align:middle line:84% remember that some go completely without them. 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:32.810 align:middle line:84% The devil is always close by to a bed. 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:34.670 align:middle line:90% So also the bedbug. 00:01:34.670 --> 00:01:36.710 align:middle line:90% So also Mayakovsky. 00:01:36.710 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:84% The poem as bed is not one that's 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:40.680 align:middle line:90% waiting outside in the snow. 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.670 align:middle line:84% But it might be reading at the bus stop with pleasure. 00:01:43.670 --> 00:01:47.120 align:middle line:84% It might be feverishly dying alone. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:49.535 align:middle line:84% This little piggy stayed home, it is said-- 00:01:49.535 --> 00:01:51.770 align:middle line:90% and you know where. 00:01:51.770 --> 00:01:55.670 align:middle line:84% Preposterous lines, disastrous stripes, oh my god-- 00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:56.690 align:middle line:90% it's a bed? 00:01:56.690 --> 00:01:58.550 align:middle line:90% A bed is a bed is a bed. 00:01:58.550 --> 00:02:00.740 align:middle line:90% And by any other name, still-- 00:02:00.740 --> 00:02:04.100 align:middle line:90% insert 'doin' it' music here. 00:02:04.100 --> 00:02:05.150 align:middle line:90% Dim the lights. 00:02:05.150 --> 00:02:06.570 align:middle line:90% Burn some incense. 00:02:06.570 --> 00:02:07.070 align:middle line:90% Quick! 00:02:07.070 --> 00:02:09.289 align:middle line:84% While the lion makes mud of the lamb. 00:02:09.289 --> 00:02:12.200 align:middle line:84% Ezra Pound, Ezra Pound, Ezra Pound! 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:13.115 align:middle line:90% Elizabeth Bishop. 00:02:13.115 --> 00:02:14.990 align:middle line:90% A bucket of cats. 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:17.930 align:middle line:84% Once in a bed, I ate 400 peaches. 00:02:17.930 --> 00:02:21.080 align:middle line:84% Once I was sick for a fortnight in bed. 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.840 align:middle line:84% On my nightstand, the end of the world. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:27.080 align:middle line:84% John Wilkes Booth laid up with a splint. 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.890 align:middle line:84% In a sleeping fit, Desnos mentions a walrus. 00:02:30.890 --> 00:02:34.850 align:middle line:84% Persephone deliriously Hollywood-square. 00:02:34.850 --> 00:02:36.500 align:middle line:90% A farm on stilts. 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:38.180 align:middle line:90% A woman mid-sentence. 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:41.030 align:middle line:84% Whatever may happen in the vacuum of sleep, 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:44.500 align:middle line:84% it's best if you keep it to yourself." 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:46.000 align:middle line:90%