WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.370 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.370 --> 00:00:03.150 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:00:03.150 --> 00:00:05.298 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:05.298 --> 00:00:07.230 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:08.340 align:middle line:90% Oh, this way? 00:00:08.340 --> 00:00:09.690 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:09.690 --> 00:00:12.872 align:middle line:90% Those are for sale. 00:00:12.872 --> 00:00:16.350 align:middle line:84% Well, that's a good start for a reading that's 00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:19.830 align:middle line:84% going to be different from any reading I've ever given before. 00:00:19.830 --> 00:00:23.920 align:middle line:84% And perhaps I should explain why. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:24.420 align:middle line:90% Excuse me. 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:27.540 align:middle line:84% In the past, I've mainly read my poems 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:30.510 align:middle line:90% in a rather straightforward way. 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:90% And that was it. 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.830 align:middle line:84% But it seems most people don't do that anymore 00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:39.420 align:middle line:90% in our looser, groovier age. 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:41.630 align:middle line:84% So I thought that I would just turn loose 00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:43.020 align:middle line:90% and instead of being serious. 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:47.970 align:middle line:84% I would, throughout the evening, tell you the deepest, innermost 00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:51.900 align:middle line:84% secrets of my life, as you will see when I get to the poems. 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:55.007 align:middle line:84% I have prizes tonight, three of them. 00:00:55.007 --> 00:00:57.490 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:57.490 --> 00:00:57.990 align:middle line:90% Jokes. 00:00:57.990 --> 00:01:01.680 align:middle line:90% 00:01:01.680 --> 00:01:06.540 align:middle line:84% Even the poem, the very poem that I wrote today-- 00:01:06.540 --> 00:01:07.900 align:middle line:90% everything but balloons. 00:01:07.900 --> 00:01:10.570 align:middle line:84% These books, however, have somewhat gloomy titles. 00:01:10.570 --> 00:01:12.510 align:middle line:90% I must forewarn you. 00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:14.760 align:middle line:84% The first one-- these are books I've reviewed and are 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:15.600 align:middle line:90% giving away now. 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:17.070 align:middle line:90% I don't need them anymore. 00:01:17.070 --> 00:01:18.240 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:21.030 align:middle line:84% The first one has the gloomy title 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:24.615 align:middle line:84% of "The Future is Not What It Used To Be." 00:01:24.615 --> 00:01:28.230 align:middle line:90% 00:01:28.230 --> 00:01:32.430 align:middle line:84% The second one is "The Poverty of Affluence." 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:35.760 align:middle line:90% 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:37.290 align:middle line:90% And the third one-- 00:01:37.290 --> 00:01:40.290 align:middle line:90% this will be the grand prize. 00:01:40.290 --> 00:01:44.970 align:middle line:84% Although it's not gloomy, it's terribly non sexy. 00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:49.660 align:middle line:84% Its title is "Cities, Law, and Social Policy." 00:01:49.660 --> 00:01:51.850 align:middle line:84% So someone would be the lucky winner out there. 00:01:51.850 --> 00:01:54.540 align:middle line:90% 00:01:54.540 --> 00:02:00.270 align:middle line:84% OK, I better get the serious poem out of the way first then. 00:02:00.270 --> 00:02:03.120 align:middle line:84% There is a lot of poems about writing poetry 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.180 align:middle line:84% and some poems about poetry readings, 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:07.410 align:middle line:90% but not too many of those. 00:02:07.410 --> 00:02:10.260 align:middle line:90% And this is of the latter. 00:02:10.260 --> 00:02:12.870 align:middle line:84% It came out of experience I had some time 00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:14.580 align:middle line:84% back as the first time I wrote a poem 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:20.760 align:middle line:84% when there was someone up to one side, signing for deaf people. 00:02:20.760 --> 00:02:25.290 align:middle line:84% And it was a bit distracting because I hadn't expected it. 00:02:25.290 --> 00:02:27.540 align:middle line:84% But it was also a rather unique experience 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:31.920 align:middle line:84% because I found myself wondering whether I was following her 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:34.350 align:middle line:90% or she was following me. 00:02:34.350 --> 00:02:37.980 align:middle line:84% Almost as if she were making the signs and I was following what 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:39.840 align:middle line:90% she had to say. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.380 align:middle line:84% So this is a poem that came out of it. 00:02:43.380 --> 00:02:47.040 align:middle line:90% It's called "Signing." 00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:50.550 align:middle line:84% "Out of the corner of my eye, I can see you. 00:02:50.550 --> 00:02:51.910 align:middle line:90% So beautiful. 00:02:51.910 --> 00:02:54.270 align:middle line:90% What do you have to do with me? 00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:58.500 align:middle line:84% A hula dancer going through her pantomiming gestures, 00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:01.140 align:middle line:84% practicing what you'll say to her lover. 00:03:01.140 --> 00:03:04.050 align:middle line:84% A girl sitting on her rock, trying 00:03:04.050 --> 00:03:07.980 align:middle line:84% to tempt the fish in his crown out of the starlit sea 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:10.410 align:middle line:84% who will bring her messages as one 00:03:10.410 --> 00:03:13.470 align:middle line:90% read about once in the legend. 00:03:13.470 --> 00:03:17.880 align:middle line:84% But looking straight ahead, when you stop, I stop. 00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:20.190 align:middle line:90% Your hands fall into your lap. 00:03:20.190 --> 00:03:22.170 align:middle line:90% Rest, then start again. 00:03:22.170 --> 00:03:25.800 align:middle line:84% Flying before your face when I start. 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:29.880 align:middle line:84% As for me, I'm doing the best I can to keep up, 00:03:29.880 --> 00:03:32.860 align:middle line:84% trying to remember, say what you say, 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:34.500 align:middle line:90% though, I don't know what it is. 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:38.160 align:middle line:84% And not sure now as I stand here commanding the audience, 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:42.700 align:middle line:84% that I had written these words down weeks, months before, 00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:45.510 align:middle line:84% which I thought of then as my labor. 00:03:45.510 --> 00:03:47.790 align:middle line:84% When it's over, like any lover, you 00:03:47.790 --> 00:03:51.450 align:middle line:84% come up, say how enjoyable it was." 00:03:51.450 --> 00:03:54.500 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:55.338 align:middle line:90%