WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.030 align:middle line:84% I always marvel when poets are introduced 00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:08.730 align:middle line:84% or when I'm introduced, and people applaud. 00:00:08.730 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:84% That's really wonderful because you really 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:11.850 align:middle line:90% don't know what you're getting. 00:00:11.850 --> 00:00:15.600 align:middle line:84% And to get the applause before I start, 00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:17.820 align:middle line:90% it's always an honor for me. 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:19.000 align:middle line:90% I thank you for that. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.180 align:middle line:84% I also want to thank the Poetry Center and Frances and Larry, 00:00:24.180 --> 00:00:27.000 align:middle line:84% and all of you who have invited me here today. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:29.140 align:middle line:84% You have an incredible program here. 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:33.570 align:middle line:84% And I want to thank Barbara for her association with this. 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:36.580 align:middle line:84% And I don't know all the names of all the people involved. 00:00:36.580 --> 00:00:38.790 align:middle line:84% But you have a marvelous program here. 00:00:38.790 --> 00:00:44.160 align:middle line:84% And I'm very grateful and honored to be here. 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:45.750 align:middle line:90% So let me start, OK? 00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:50.630 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:54.780 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with a poem that ran away with me. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.230 align:middle line:84% I've gotten to the point in my writing 00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:00.620 align:middle line:84% where I can't always determine where 00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:02.060 align:middle line:90% the poem is going to take me. 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:04.709 align:middle line:90% I follow it. 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:07.880 align:middle line:84% And sometimes, it takes me around corners that I don't 00:01:07.880 --> 00:01:09.740 align:middle line:90% know and don't understand. 00:01:09.740 --> 00:01:12.620 align:middle line:84% But I follow it, and see where it's going to take me. 00:01:12.620 --> 00:01:15.110 align:middle line:90% And it's exciting. 00:01:15.110 --> 00:01:16.580 align:middle line:90% It's a challenge. 00:01:16.580 --> 00:01:20.640 align:middle line:84% I have a friend who lived to be 101 years old. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:21.860 align:middle line:90% Her name was Rose. 00:01:21.860 --> 00:01:25.370 align:middle line:84% And Rose had one of the most magnificent minds of anybody 00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:26.630 align:middle line:90% I've ever seen. 00:01:26.630 --> 00:01:33.390 align:middle line:84% I'm hoping that I can sustain myself, not for 101 years, 00:01:33.390 --> 00:01:36.350 align:middle line:84% but maybe as long as I'm on this planet 00:01:36.350 --> 00:01:39.500 align:middle line:84% to have the kind of mind and alertness that she had. 00:01:39.500 --> 00:01:44.330 align:middle line:84% One thing she told me was how the Susquehanna River 00:01:44.330 --> 00:01:50.000 align:middle line:84% in Delaware submerged itself under the Chesapeake Bay 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:51.980 align:middle line:90% to become a drowned river. 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:55.160 align:middle line:84% Now that notion itself, it intrigued me. 00:01:55.160 --> 00:01:57.680 align:middle line:84% The metaphor, how does a river drown. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.220 align:middle line:84% And I thought-- I said to her, I said, Rose, this is a poem. 00:02:01.220 --> 00:02:02.480 align:middle line:90% I want to work on this. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:04.220 align:middle line:84% So I started working on the poem, 00:02:04.220 --> 00:02:06.230 align:middle line:84% and then the poem took a turn on me. 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:11.780 align:middle line:84% And it moved into a Orpheus and Eurydice. 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:15.020 align:middle line:84% I'm wondering, how did the poem go from where I was taking it 00:02:15.020 --> 00:02:19.880 align:middle line:84% to that wonderful Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice 00:02:19.880 --> 00:02:21.050 align:middle line:90% to Orpheus. 00:02:21.050 --> 00:02:24.630 align:middle line:84% And Eurydice was his wife, and she was in the underground. 00:02:24.630 --> 00:02:27.440 align:middle line:84% And he wanted to get her, and he had to go down 00:02:27.440 --> 00:02:29.630 align:middle line:90% to get her out of this hell. 00:02:29.630 --> 00:02:30.680 align:middle line:90% And he did. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:31.980 align:middle line:90% He loved her very much. 00:02:31.980 --> 00:02:34.700 align:middle line:84% And he was told not to look back. 00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:35.960 align:middle line:90% But of course, he did. 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:39.260 align:middle line:84% And the moment he did, he lost her. 00:02:39.260 --> 00:02:41.630 align:middle line:90% So here, I-- is the poem. 00:02:41.630 --> 00:02:45.380 align:middle line:84% One thing I have discovered is that James Michener 00:02:45.380 --> 00:02:47.960 align:middle line:90% wrote a book about that area. 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.360 align:middle line:84% And I understand as some friends have told me 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.120 align:middle line:84% that if you go to Havre de Grace in Maryland, 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:55.230 align:middle line:84% you can actually see that happen, 00:02:55.230 --> 00:02:57.530 align:middle line:84% how the one river, the Susquehanna, 00:02:57.530 --> 00:02:59.810 align:middle line:84% drowns itself under the Chesapeake Bay. 00:02:59.810 --> 00:03:02.450 align:middle line:84% "You told me, Rose, it's this river, 00:03:02.450 --> 00:03:05.510 align:middle line:84% how the Susquehanna had submerged itself 00:03:05.510 --> 00:03:10.370 align:middle line:84% under the Chesapeake Bay to become a drowned river. 00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.250 align:middle line:84% He tends his pain each morning with a glance 00:03:13.250 --> 00:03:18.320 align:middle line:84% at his fragile garden, a gesture toward his tender bedroom. 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:20.990 align:middle line:84% A look at his invisible shadow that 00:03:20.990 --> 00:03:24.020 align:middle line:84% augurs a lament in the creasing of mirrors 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:28.970 align:middle line:84% nonexistent in this house but haunting his memory of himself. 00:03:28.970 --> 00:03:31.910 align:middle line:90% There is a Who somewhere. 00:03:31.910 --> 00:03:33.710 align:middle line:90% Can he find it? 00:03:33.710 --> 00:03:36.350 align:middle line:84% The river you say flows powerfully under, 00:03:36.350 --> 00:03:38.750 align:middle line:84% drowning itself to create another identity 00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:41.360 align:middle line:84% close to its own, closer to its nature, 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:45.440 align:middle line:84% crest to its ambivalence and the water of its ways. 00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:48.800 align:middle line:90% The drowning is a survival. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.980 align:middle line:84% He goes under it intervals, looks at the clock. 00:03:51.980 --> 00:03:53.390 align:middle line:90% Knows the day is due. 00:03:53.390 --> 00:03:55.460 align:middle line:90% A premium must be paid. 00:03:55.460 --> 00:04:00.200 align:middle line:84% Falters, hopes, looks for last things, a soccer shoe, 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:03.770 align:middle line:84% asks the vase if she's still there, if the colors are right. 00:04:03.770 --> 00:04:06.600 align:middle line:84% If there's a survival in this texture. 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:10.040 align:middle line:84% Its watching of inanimate things. 00:04:10.040 --> 00:04:13.760 align:middle line:84% The vase answers, yes, all of the above. 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:15.740 align:middle line:84% He has named the vase after someone 00:04:15.740 --> 00:04:19.790 align:middle line:84% who moves about his dreams while his step stutters 00:04:19.790 --> 00:04:21.380 align:middle line:90% on the staircase. 00:04:21.380 --> 00:04:23.090 align:middle line:90% Where is she, this woman? 00:04:23.090 --> 00:04:24.860 align:middle line:90% Not within his reach. 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:28.670 align:middle line:84% Swimming somewhere under, he wants her to rise to suffer. 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:30.950 align:middle line:90% His sanity depends upon it. 00:04:30.950 --> 00:04:34.610 align:middle line:84% And she does after she has drowned. 00:04:34.610 --> 00:04:36.260 align:middle line:90% The river is wonderful, you say. 00:04:36.260 --> 00:04:39.080 align:middle line:84% Its energy connects to the center of the universe, 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:42.390 align:middle line:84% and that is why it is transformed to a greater thing. 00:04:42.390 --> 00:04:46.820 align:middle line:84% That is why the Chesapeake smiles at hurricanes. 00:04:46.820 --> 00:04:48.110 align:middle line:90% He wonders. 00:04:48.110 --> 00:04:49.760 align:middle line:90% He is not a swimmer. 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:51.860 align:middle line:90% He cannot cope with drownings. 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:55.310 align:middle line:84% She surfaces, takes him under as he leaves his house, 00:04:55.310 --> 00:04:57.590 align:middle line:84% locks his door, enters the water. 00:04:57.590 --> 00:05:01.340 align:middle line:84% Stunned in her embrace, soon they rise. 00:05:01.340 --> 00:05:04.340 align:middle line:84% He does his day's work at the office, 00:05:04.340 --> 00:05:07.160 align:middle line:84% surrenders his vision to another time, 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:10.700 align:middle line:84% a river of the redemptive, and knows 00:05:10.700 --> 00:05:15.440 align:middle line:84% that life regenerates itself in a single promised 00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:22.220 align:middle line:84% moment awaiting his touch that smiles at hurricanes." 00:05:22.220 --> 00:05:28.915 align:middle line:90% 00:05:28.915 --> 00:05:30.770 align:middle line:84% It's kind of poem you sort of have to read. 00:05:30.770 --> 00:05:32.437 align:middle line:84% If you don't understand it, don't worry. 00:05:32.437 --> 00:05:34.970 align:middle line:84% Some of it I don't understand either. 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:37.910 align:middle line:84% There's that old saying from Robert Browning 00:05:37.910 --> 00:05:40.490 align:middle line:84% one of his poems that when he wrote it, 00:05:40.490 --> 00:05:42.290 align:middle line:90% he and God knew what it meant. 00:05:42.290 --> 00:05:44.630 align:middle line:84% And at that point, only God knew. 00:05:44.630 --> 00:05:46.670 align:middle line:84% So there are times when the poem takes you 00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:49.300 align:middle line:90% beyond yourself and whatnot.