WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:05.100 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read not two more poems, but one more poem 00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:84% because that one took longer than I thought. 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:13.650 align:middle line:84% This is one I started to read in Richard and Jon's classes 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:14.310 align:middle line:90% last night. 00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:90% And I'll finish it tonight. 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:20.220 align:middle line:84% This is also set in Berkeley from all of the hedonists 00:00:20.220 --> 00:00:23.190 align:middle line:90% in the opening lines. 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:24.210 align:middle line:90% And I don't know-- 00:00:24.210 --> 00:00:25.275 align:middle line:90% I'm still working on it. 00:00:25.275 --> 00:00:27.150 align:middle line:84% I don't really know quite where it came from, 00:00:27.150 --> 00:00:28.913 align:middle line:84% but the feeling that started was this 00:00:28.913 --> 00:00:30.330 align:middle line:84% I was just walking down the street 00:00:30.330 --> 00:00:34.700 align:middle line:84% and it was sort of like a Tolstoyan sense. 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:41.980 align:middle line:84% I just sort of looking and thought, why? 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:42.480 align:middle line:90% Why? 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:48.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.470 --> 00:00:52.100 align:middle line:84% "Sunlight on the streets in afternoons and shadows 00:00:52.100 --> 00:00:55.400 align:middle line:84% on the faces in the open air cafes. 00:00:55.400 --> 00:00:56.930 align:middle line:90% What for? 00:00:56.930 --> 00:00:58.730 align:middle line:90% Wrong question. 00:00:58.730 --> 00:01:01.880 align:middle line:84% You knock without knowing that you knocked. 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:06.290 align:middle line:84% The door opens on a century of clouds and centuries 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:08.570 align:middle line:90% of centuries of clouds. 00:01:08.570 --> 00:01:12.860 align:middle line:84% The bird sings among the berries in the spring's diligence 00:01:12.860 --> 00:01:14.720 align:middle line:90% of rain. 00:01:14.720 --> 00:01:16.370 align:middle line:90% And then, what? 00:01:16.370 --> 00:01:17.900 align:middle line:90% Hand on your heart. 00:01:17.900 --> 00:01:20.000 align:middle line:90% Would you die for spring? 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.525 align:middle line:90% What would you die for? 00:01:21.525 --> 00:01:22.025 align:middle line:90% Anything? 00:01:22.025 --> 00:01:24.530 align:middle line:90% 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:26.240 align:middle line:90% Anything. 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:29.270 align:middle line:84% It may be I can't find it and they can. 00:01:29.270 --> 00:01:32.030 align:middle line:84% The spooners of whipped cream and espresso 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:35.180 align:middle line:84% at the sunny tables, the women with their children 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:36.440 align:middle line:90% in the stores. 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:39.170 align:middle line:90% You want to sing, tra-la. 00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:41.930 align:middle line:90% Empty, and he wants to sing. 00:01:41.930 --> 00:01:45.350 align:middle line:84% A pretty river but there were no fish. 00:01:45.350 --> 00:01:49.160 align:middle line:84% Smart fish, they will be feeding for a while. 00:01:49.160 --> 00:01:50.330 align:middle line:90% He wants to sing. 00:01:50.330 --> 00:01:50.990 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:01:50.990 --> 00:01:52.580 align:middle line:90% Poverty or death. 00:01:52.580 --> 00:01:56.120 align:middle line:84% Piety or death, you meant, you dope? 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:57.620 align:middle line:90% You fool. 00:01:57.620 --> 00:01:59.240 align:middle line:90% Bloody little fool. 00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:00.830 align:middle line:90% She slammed the door. 00:02:00.830 --> 00:02:05.600 align:middle line:84% He was, of course, forlorn and "lorn," and "afterlorn." 00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:07.880 align:middle line:90% It made a busy afternoon. 00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:10.940 align:middle line:84% The nights were difficult. No doors. 00:02:10.940 --> 00:02:12.230 align:middle line:90% No drama. 00:02:12.230 --> 00:02:14.780 align:middle line:90% The moon ached aimlessly. 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:19.310 align:middle line:84% Dogs in the morning had their dog masks on. 00:02:19.310 --> 00:02:21.920 align:middle line:90% It did not seem good, the moss. 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:23.930 align:middle line:90% The apples. 00:02:23.930 --> 00:02:28.490 align:middle line:84% The gold meander in her hair cast one vote then, 00:02:28.490 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:90% sinuous as wrists. 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:33.230 align:middle line:84% He attended to her earnestness as well. 00:02:33.230 --> 00:02:35.330 align:middle line:90% And the child liked breakfast. 00:02:35.330 --> 00:02:37.100 align:middle line:90% He believed in that. 00:02:37.100 --> 00:02:40.760 align:middle line:84% Every morning was a present he pretended that he brought. 00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:42.020 align:middle line:90% The sun came up. 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:43.220 align:middle line:90% Nothing to it. 00:02:43.220 --> 00:02:44.780 align:middle line:90% I'll do it again tomorrow. 00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:46.370 align:middle line:90% And it did. 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:50.225 align:middle line:84% Sundays, he fetched croissants, the frank nipples of brioche 00:02:50.225 --> 00:02:52.490 align:middle line:90% that say it's day, eat up. 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:53.750 align:middle line:90% The phone will ring. 00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:55.130 align:middle line:90% The mail arrive. 00:02:55.130 --> 00:02:58.430 align:middle line:84% Someone who heard you sing the moss, the apples. 00:02:58.430 --> 00:02:59.510 align:middle line:90% And they were. 00:02:59.510 --> 00:03:03.710 align:middle line:84% For sure they were, and good, though over there. 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:07.580 align:middle line:84% Gold hair, a lucky guy with the head on his shoulders, 00:03:07.580 --> 00:03:08.810 align:middle line:90% and all heart. 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:10.820 align:middle line:90% You can skip this part. 00:03:10.820 --> 00:03:15.080 align:middle line:84% The moss, the apples, and the morning news, apartheid, 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:18.470 align:middle line:84% terror, lesions on the children's skin. 00:03:18.470 --> 00:03:23.450 align:middle line:84% Yes, yes, and justice in tropical climates is appalling. 00:03:23.450 --> 00:03:26.660 align:middle line:84% I knew that I had my own work to do. 00:03:26.660 --> 00:03:31.280 align:middle line:84% The ones who wear the boots and vests decide all that. 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:35.900 align:middle line:84% He wants to sing one thing so true that it is true. 00:03:35.900 --> 00:03:39.170 align:middle line:84% I cast a vote across the river, skipped another on the pond 00:03:39.170 --> 00:03:43.520 align:middle line:84% and skittered for a while triumphantly, then sank. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:45.650 align:middle line:84% And we were naked on the riverbank. 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:48.120 align:middle line:84% I believed a little in her breast, 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:51.650 align:middle line:84% the color of the aureoles that afternoon and something 00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:54.890 align:middle line:84% she said about her sister that seemed shrewd. 00:03:54.890 --> 00:03:58.070 align:middle line:84% Afterwards, we watched a woman making masks 00:03:58.070 --> 00:04:01.070 align:middle line:84% mostly with feathers and a plastered cast of face 00:04:01.070 --> 00:04:02.570 align:middle line:90% she glued them to. 00:04:02.570 --> 00:04:04.490 align:middle line:90% The mouths formed circles. 00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:06.410 align:middle line:90% The mouths formed cries. 00:04:06.410 --> 00:04:08.930 align:middle line:84% They were the part that weren't there, 00:04:08.930 --> 00:04:11.600 align:middle line:90% implied by what surrounded them. 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:14.780 align:middle line:90% They were a cunning emptiness. 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:16.940 align:middle line:84% I think you ought to start again. 00:04:16.940 --> 00:04:18.860 align:middle line:90% The fish were smart. 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:21.860 align:middle line:84% They mouthed the salmon eggs, or so you felt. 00:04:21.860 --> 00:04:25.790 align:middle line:84% The boys kept reeling in, casting and reeling in. 00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:29.240 align:middle line:84% You'll never catch a fish that way, you said. 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:31.490 align:middle line:90% One caught a fish that way. 00:04:31.490 --> 00:04:34.610 align:middle line:84% One perched in a chair, abandoned on the sand, 00:04:34.610 --> 00:04:37.760 align:middle line:84% drank orange soda, watched his rod twitter 00:04:37.760 --> 00:04:39.620 align:middle line:90% in a fork of willow twig. 00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:41.540 align:middle line:90% I'm getting a bite, Dad. 00:04:41.540 --> 00:04:44.390 align:middle line:84% It was the river current or the wind. 00:04:44.390 --> 00:04:47.900 align:middle line:84% In every language in the world, I bet. 00:04:47.900 --> 00:04:49.280 align:middle line:90% Do you believe in that? 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:50.540 align:middle line:90% Not especially. 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.460 align:middle line:90% It means the race is old. 00:04:52.460 --> 00:04:55.550 align:middle line:84% And full of hope, he wants to sing. 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:59.300 align:middle line:84% "You bastard," she said and slammed the door. 00:04:59.300 --> 00:05:01.250 align:middle line:84% You've been in this part already. 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:03.550 align:middle line:90% Say before. 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:04.910 align:middle line:90% "Before." 00:05:04.910 --> 00:05:06.620 align:middle line:90% She shut the door. 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:08.660 align:middle line:90% It couldn't have been otherwise. 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:10.100 align:middle line:90% How sick you were. 00:05:10.100 --> 00:05:14.150 align:middle line:84% The mouth, the apples, the buttons on a blouse. 00:05:14.150 --> 00:05:19.250 align:middle line:84% The bone was pearl and small and very shiny. 00:05:19.250 --> 00:05:22.310 align:middle line:84% Fat child's face was flecked with Santa Rosa plum. 00:05:22.310 --> 00:05:23.240 align:middle line:90% She cried. 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:24.410 align:middle line:90% Her mother hit her. 00:05:24.410 --> 00:05:27.650 align:middle line:84% Then, it seemed like blood, a flood of tears then. 00:05:27.650 --> 00:05:30.230 align:middle line:90% You remember never to interfere? 00:05:30.230 --> 00:05:31.880 align:middle line:90% It humiliates them. 00:05:31.880 --> 00:05:34.500 align:middle line:84% They beat the child again when they get home. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:36.260 align:middle line:90% It's only your own feeling. 00:05:36.260 --> 00:05:37.430 align:middle line:90% You assuage. 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:39.980 align:middle line:90% You didn't interfere. 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:42.530 align:middle line:90% Her gold wandering of hair. 00:05:42.530 --> 00:05:44.840 align:middle line:90% She told you that another time. 00:05:44.840 --> 00:05:46.610 align:middle line:84% The father at the County fair was 00:05:46.610 --> 00:05:48.620 align:middle line:90% wailing on the boy with fists. 00:05:48.620 --> 00:05:50.570 align:middle line:84% There was music in the background. 00:05:50.570 --> 00:05:54.080 align:middle line:84% And a clown walked by and looked away. 00:05:54.080 --> 00:05:57.440 align:middle line:84% She told you then, gold and practical advice. 00:05:57.440 --> 00:06:01.670 align:middle line:84% You wanted one and craved the other, saying, mother, 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:03.080 align:middle line:90% no, say it. 00:06:03.080 --> 00:06:03.800 align:middle line:90% No. 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:05.120 align:middle line:90% She shut the door. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:06.620 align:middle line:90% I wish she had. 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:09.840 align:middle line:84% I saw the shadow cast there on the floor. 00:06:09.840 --> 00:06:11.090 align:middle line:90% What did you think? 00:06:11.090 --> 00:06:12.860 align:middle line:90% I asked her, actually. 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:17.390 align:middle line:84% She said she hurt her lip and took a drink or the shadow did. 00:06:17.390 --> 00:06:18.140 align:middle line:90% I didn't think. 00:06:18.140 --> 00:06:19.610 align:middle line:90% I knew she was lying. 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:21.680 align:middle line:90% A child could see that. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.630 align:middle line:90% You were a child. 00:06:24.630 --> 00:06:27.900 align:middle line:84% This is the part where he parades his wound. 00:06:27.900 --> 00:06:30.000 align:middle line:90% It is the law of things. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.090 align:middle line:84% The little billy goat goes first happily. 00:06:33.090 --> 00:06:36.020 align:middle line:90% He's not a morsel for the troll. 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:38.670 align:middle line:90% Say, Dad, I've got a bite. 00:06:38.670 --> 00:06:40.380 align:middle line:90% That's different. 00:06:40.380 --> 00:06:42.870 align:middle line:90% Then, you say, reel it in. 00:06:42.870 --> 00:06:44.970 align:middle line:84% They're feeling fear and wonder then. 00:06:44.970 --> 00:06:48.060 align:middle line:84% That's when you teach them they can take the world in hand. 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:49.770 align:middle line:90% You do. 00:06:49.770 --> 00:06:52.710 align:middle line:90% Sometimes I do, carefully. 00:06:52.710 --> 00:06:55.410 align:middle line:84% They beat the child again when they get home. 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:56.880 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:06:56.880 --> 00:06:59.640 align:middle line:84% Assume the children are all right. 00:06:59.640 --> 00:07:02.310 align:middle line:84% They're singing in the kibbutzim. 00:07:02.310 --> 00:07:03.930 align:middle line:90% The sun is rising. 00:07:03.930 --> 00:07:06.060 align:middle line:90% Let's get past this part. 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:09.480 align:middle line:84% The kindergarten is a garden, and they face their fears 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:10.350 align:middle line:90% in stories. 00:07:10.350 --> 00:07:12.120 align:middle line:90% Your voice makes musical. 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:13.830 align:middle line:90% And then they sleep. 00:07:13.830 --> 00:07:15.390 align:middle line:90% They hear the sirens. 00:07:15.390 --> 00:07:17.250 align:middle line:90% Yes, they hear the sirens. 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:19.500 align:middle line:90% That part can't be helped. 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:21.180 align:middle line:90% No one beats them, though. 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:24.330 align:middle line:84% And there are no lies they recognize. 00:07:24.330 --> 00:07:27.510 align:middle line:84% They know you're with them, and they fall asleep. 00:07:27.510 --> 00:07:28.320 align:middle line:90% What then? 00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:30.300 align:middle line:90% Get past this part. 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:33.600 align:middle line:84% It is a garden, then they're grown. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:35.920 align:middle line:90% What then? 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:37.150 align:middle line:90% Let's say "groan." 00:07:37.150 --> 00:07:38.560 align:middle line:90% I say what to say. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:39.310 align:middle line:90% You don't. 00:07:39.310 --> 00:07:41.710 align:middle line:90% They're all OK and grown. 00:07:41.710 --> 00:07:42.385 align:middle line:90% What then? 00:07:42.385 --> 00:07:45.270 align:middle line:90% 00:07:45.270 --> 00:07:48.480 align:middle line:90% Then, then, the truth is-- 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.420 align:middle line:90% then, they fall in love. 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:52.530 align:middle line:90% Oh, no. 00:07:52.530 --> 00:07:54.090 align:middle line:90% Oh, yes. 00:07:54.090 --> 00:07:55.530 align:middle line:90% Big subject. 00:07:55.530 --> 00:07:57.270 align:middle line:90% Big shadow. 00:07:57.270 --> 00:08:01.500 align:middle line:84% I saw it slant across the floor, linoleum, in fact 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:03.330 align:middle line:90% and very dirty. 00:08:03.330 --> 00:08:07.590 align:middle line:84% Sad and dirty because it lacked intention. 00:08:07.590 --> 00:08:09.510 align:middle line:90% Well, it did lack art. 00:08:09.510 --> 00:08:11.340 align:middle line:84% Let's leave the shadow part alone. 00:08:11.340 --> 00:08:12.510 align:middle line:90% They fall in love. 00:08:12.510 --> 00:08:14.670 align:middle line:90% What then? 00:08:14.670 --> 00:08:15.900 align:middle line:90% I want to leave this too. 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:17.850 align:middle line:90% It has its songs too many. 00:08:17.850 --> 00:08:18.720 align:middle line:90% I know them all. 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:20.700 align:middle line:84% It doesn't seem appropriate somehow. 00:08:20.700 --> 00:08:21.690 align:middle line:90% It was summer. 00:08:21.690 --> 00:08:24.090 align:middle line:84% He saw her wandering through a field of grass. 00:08:24.090 --> 00:08:25.710 align:middle line:90% It was the sweetest fire. 00:08:25.710 --> 00:08:28.440 align:middle line:90% Later in the fall, it rained. 00:08:28.440 --> 00:08:30.630 align:middle line:90% You loved her then, in rain? 00:08:30.630 --> 00:08:32.429 align:middle line:90% And gold October? 00:08:32.429 --> 00:08:34.590 align:middle line:90% I would have died for her. 00:08:34.590 --> 00:08:36.210 align:middle line:90% We took long walks. 00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:40.110 align:middle line:84% And once there was a flood, rain swell the creeks 00:08:40.110 --> 00:08:41.250 align:middle line:90% and then the tide came in. 00:08:41.250 --> 00:08:42.929 align:middle line:90% I left her house at midnight. 00:08:42.929 --> 00:08:44.220 align:middle line:90% It was pouring rain. 00:08:44.220 --> 00:08:46.590 align:middle line:90% I hitched a ride which stalled. 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:48.810 align:middle line:84% The car in front of us had stopped. 00:08:48.810 --> 00:08:51.960 align:middle line:84% The water rose across the road and ran downhill. 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:53.310 align:middle line:90% You'd forgotten this. 00:08:53.310 --> 00:08:54.450 align:middle line:90% I remember now. 00:08:54.450 --> 00:08:56.190 align:middle line:90% My knee was in a cast. 00:08:56.190 --> 00:08:59.130 align:middle line:84% I hopped the car in front, the one that stalled. 00:08:59.130 --> 00:09:02.640 align:middle line:84% The driver's tongue stuck out a pale, fat, plum. 00:09:02.640 --> 00:09:06.150 align:middle line:84% His eyes bulged, an old man in a gray felt hat. 00:09:06.150 --> 00:09:09.570 align:middle line:84% And the red lids flickered, so he wasn't dead. 00:09:09.570 --> 00:09:10.570 align:middle line:90% What did you do? 00:09:10.570 --> 00:09:13.980 align:middle line:84% I got in, shoved him aside, and tried to start the car. 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:15.360 align:middle line:90% What did you feel then? 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:16.380 align:middle line:90% Wonderful. 00:09:16.380 --> 00:09:17.880 align:middle line:90% Like cleaning fish. 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:20.340 align:middle line:84% Your hands are dirty and you do the job. 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:22.170 align:middle line:90% It reminds you of a poem now? 00:09:22.170 --> 00:09:24.990 align:middle line:84% Yes, the one about the fall that Basho liked. 00:09:24.990 --> 00:09:27.930 align:middle line:84% The maple leaf becomes a midwife's hand. 00:09:27.930 --> 00:09:31.380 align:middle line:84% The engine skipped and sank twice, then it started. 00:09:31.380 --> 00:09:31.950 align:middle line:90% I drove. 00:09:31.950 --> 00:09:35.250 align:middle line:84% The hospital was just a mile away, but near the creek, 00:09:35.250 --> 00:09:37.800 align:middle line:84% I thought the water might be even higher. 00:09:37.800 --> 00:09:41.010 align:middle line:84% Interesting, of course, this is the part about falling in love. 00:09:41.010 --> 00:09:42.090 align:middle line:90% I left her house. 00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:46.320 align:middle line:84% We were necking, remember, on a soft, green velvet couch. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:47.310 align:middle line:90% What then? 00:09:47.310 --> 00:09:49.560 align:middle line:84% I took the downhill road in Florida. 00:09:49.560 --> 00:09:52.200 align:middle line:84% The gush spewed up and blurred the windshield. 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:53.280 align:middle line:90% I couldn't see a thing. 00:09:53.280 --> 00:09:58.140 align:middle line:84% The car sputtered, surged, sputtered, surged, and died. 00:09:58.140 --> 00:09:59.850 align:middle line:90% And he was dead. 00:09:59.850 --> 00:10:01.200 align:middle line:90% Who was he? 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:02.970 align:middle line:90% Some old man. 00:10:02.970 --> 00:10:05.280 align:middle line:84% That was the winter that you fell in love? 00:10:05.280 --> 00:10:06.900 align:middle line:90% It was. 00:10:06.900 --> 00:10:08.490 align:middle line:90% Did you feel bad? 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:10.350 align:middle line:90% No, I tried. 00:10:10.350 --> 00:10:12.360 align:middle line:90% Do you believe in that? 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:14.850 align:middle line:90% Now, I'm not sure. 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:17.220 align:middle line:84% He looked like a baby when they got him out. 00:10:17.220 --> 00:10:20.640 align:middle line:84% And raindrops bounced off raindrops on his face. 00:10:20.640 --> 00:10:22.023 align:middle line:90% It didn't cost me anything. 00:10:22.023 --> 00:10:28.110 align:middle line:90% 00:10:28.110 --> 00:10:29.010 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:10:29.010 --> 00:10:32.360 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:56.484 align:middle line:90%