WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.950 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:84% This one is a poem called "Grey Sweaters," which 00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:11.190 align:middle line:84% is dedicated to James Laughlin, who many of you 00:00:11.190 --> 00:00:13.800 align:middle line:84% will have heard when he was here, 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:15.240 align:middle line:90% I believe, not very long ago. 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:22.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:22.660 align:middle line:90% Oh. 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:25.210 align:middle line:84% I thought I had brought a poem of his 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:31.690 align:middle line:84% that this poem sort of responds to, 00:00:31.690 --> 00:00:38.860 align:middle line:84% but what I did bring instead was a bad copy of a poem of mine. 00:00:38.860 --> 00:00:41.830 align:middle line:84% The thing is that he wrote a poem, a very beautiful poem. 00:00:41.830 --> 00:00:43.270 align:middle line:90% I like it a lot. 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:52.270 align:middle line:84% A recent poem of his, about an old grey sweater of his, 00:00:52.270 --> 00:00:55.750 align:middle line:84% and what he would like done with it. 00:00:55.750 --> 00:00:57.910 align:middle line:84% And that he does not want to give it away, 00:00:57.910 --> 00:01:00.565 align:middle line:84% but he'd like it tacked up to an oak tree in the woods. 00:01:00.565 --> 00:01:06.520 align:middle line:90% 00:01:06.520 --> 00:01:08.660 align:middle line:84% I can't really even paraphrase the poem. 00:01:08.660 --> 00:01:11.950 align:middle line:84% It's so beautiful, I don't want to ruin it. 00:01:11.950 --> 00:01:17.800 align:middle line:84% After I had read his poem, which I'm 00:01:17.800 --> 00:01:22.570 align:middle line:84% sure you'll see around before too long, 00:01:22.570 --> 00:01:26.170 align:middle line:84% I had a dream which related to his poem. 00:01:26.170 --> 00:01:30.880 align:middle line:84% And I wrote this poem out of the dream, 00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:35.450 align:middle line:84% and I hope that it sort of stands on its own. 00:01:35.450 --> 00:01:38.120 align:middle line:84% It's got to now, since I've launched into talking about it, 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.150 align:middle line:84% and then found that I didn't have his. 00:01:40.150 --> 00:01:42.820 align:middle line:90% Well, it's got to. 00:01:42.820 --> 00:01:46.480 align:middle line:84% As a matter of fact, I wrote this poem 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.730 align:middle line:84% without further reference to his poem. 00:01:48.730 --> 00:01:55.030 align:middle line:84% And only after I stuck it in the mail and sent it off to him, 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:59.590 align:middle line:84% after typing it up, did I reread his poem. 00:01:59.590 --> 00:02:02.110 align:middle line:84% And I had sort of made a mistake about his, 00:02:02.110 --> 00:02:04.515 align:middle line:84% because he didn't say that his was lost. 00:02:04.515 --> 00:02:05.890 align:middle line:84% He was giving directions for what 00:02:05.890 --> 00:02:10.210 align:middle line:84% to do with his gray sweater when he's dead, actually. 00:02:10.210 --> 00:02:15.790 align:middle line:84% But in my dream and in the poem, it was a question of where is 00:02:15.790 --> 00:02:18.950 align:middle line:84% that old grey sweater of mine, and is it part of me? 00:02:18.950 --> 00:02:20.960 align:middle line:84% So this is mine, and it's called Grey Sweaters. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:21.460 align:middle line:90% Plural. 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:27.260 align:middle line:90% 00:02:27.260 --> 00:02:31.790 align:middle line:84% You want your old grey sweater lost or given away. 00:02:31.790 --> 00:02:34.310 align:middle line:90% You need it for life and death. 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:39.590 align:middle line:84% Your lines are cast to pull it back around you. 00:02:39.590 --> 00:02:41.870 align:middle line:90% Last night, I dreamed one. 00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:43.160 align:middle line:90% A sweater, I mean. 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:44.870 align:middle line:90% Found in the woods. 00:02:44.870 --> 00:02:47.330 align:middle line:90% Knit by an oriole. 00:02:47.330 --> 00:02:48.560 align:middle line:90% Once I had. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:50.090 align:middle line:90% Have you seen one, ever? 00:02:50.090 --> 00:02:55.550 align:middle line:84% An orioles nest, woven of silvery milkweed silk, 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:59.420 align:middle line:84% and weathered light as a spindrift timber, 00:02:59.420 --> 00:03:03.470 align:middle line:90% tempered ten saltwater seasons. 00:03:03.470 --> 00:03:06.980 align:middle line:84% I wore it, the perfect chatelaine at my waist, 00:03:06.980 --> 00:03:11.780 align:middle line:84% till it slipped off and was lost again in orchard leaves. 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:15.200 align:middle line:84% The sweater I dreamed was like that. 00:03:15.200 --> 00:03:19.520 align:middle line:84% I meant, waking, to offer it as a replacement. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:22.370 align:middle line:90% It would stretch to fit you. 00:03:22.370 --> 00:03:24.740 align:middle line:84% But then I recalled that indeed you 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:28.400 align:middle line:84% had conjured yours already into a poem. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:32.600 align:middle line:84% It and your need for it are the knit and purl 00:03:32.600 --> 00:03:36.790 align:middle line:90% of the poem's rows, re-raveled. 00:03:36.790 --> 00:03:38.489 align:middle line:90%