Yeah?
Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, this way?
Yeah.
Those are for sale.
Well, that's a good start for a reading that's
going to be different from any reading I've ever given before.
And perhaps I should explain why.
Excuse me.
In the past, I've mainly read my poems
in a rather straightforward way.
And that was it.
But it seems most people don't do that anymore
in our looser, groovier age.
So I thought that I would just turn loose
and instead of being serious.
I would, throughout the evening, tell you the deepest, innermost
secrets of my life, as you will see when I get to the poems.
I have prizes tonight, three of them.
[LAUGHTER]
Jokes.
Even the poem, the very poem that I wrote today--
everything but balloons.
These books, however, have somewhat gloomy titles.
I must forewarn you.
The first one-- these are books I've reviewed and are
giving away now.
I don't need them anymore.
[LAUGHTER]
The first one has the gloomy title
of "The Future is Not What It Used To Be."
The second one is "The Poverty of Affluence."
And the third one--
this will be the grand prize.
Although it's not gloomy, it's terribly non sexy.
Its title is "Cities, Law, and Social Policy."
So someone would be the lucky winner out there.
OK, I better get the serious poem out of the way first then.
There is a lot of poems about writing poetry
and some poems about poetry readings,
but not too many of those.
And this is of the latter.
It came out of experience I had some time
back as the first time I wrote a poem
when there was someone up to one side, signing for deaf people.
And it was a bit distracting because I hadn't expected it.
But it was also a rather unique experience
because I found myself wondering whether I was following her
or she was following me.
Almost as if she were making the signs and I was following what
she had to say.
So this is a poem that came out of it.
It's called "Signing."
"Out of the corner of my eye, I can see you.
So beautiful.
What do you have to do with me?
A hula dancer going through her pantomiming gestures,
practicing what you'll say to her lover.
A girl sitting on her rock, trying
to tempt the fish in his crown out of the starlit sea
who will bring her messages as one
read about once in the legend.
But looking straight ahead, when you stop, I stop.
Your hands fall into your lap.
Rest, then start again.
Flying before your face when I start.
As for me, I'm doing the best I can to keep up,
trying to remember, say what you say,
though, I don't know what it is.
And not sure now as I stand here commanding the audience,
that I had written these words down weeks, months before,
which I thought of then as my labor.
When it's over, like any lover, you
come up, say how enjoyable it was."
[LAUGHTER]