WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:03.960 align:middle line:84% And the other one I'm going to read is call More, 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.170 align:middle line:84% and happens to be for another poet who has died. 00:00:07.170 --> 00:00:11.040 align:middle line:84% This one is for James Wright, a poet whose work I 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:90% truly, truly admire. 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:18.900 align:middle line:84% One could even say that I love Wright's poetry actually. 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:22.295 align:middle line:84% He-- to me he was a very American poet. 00:00:22.295 --> 00:00:23.670 align:middle line:84% Well of course, his themes were-- 00:00:23.670 --> 00:00:28.740 align:middle line:84% any fool could see that if you read the books of course, 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:31.200 align:middle line:84% but there was more than that, more than just 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:32.100 align:middle line:90% a word or anything. 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:38.310 align:middle line:84% There was a real feeling that one senses that is American 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:43.530 align:middle line:84% and I think Galway Kinnell too has that, a few poets that you 00:00:43.530 --> 00:00:45.900 align:middle line:84% really feel like came out of the earth, 00:00:45.900 --> 00:00:49.590 align:middle line:90% out of the American soil. 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:52.350 align:middle line:84% Wright was certainly one of them. 00:00:52.350 --> 00:00:54.090 align:middle line:90% This is called More. 00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:56.340 align:middle line:90% Last night I dreamed of America. 00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:57.960 align:middle line:90% It was prom night. 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.270 align:middle line:84% She lay down under the spinning globes 00:01:00.270 --> 00:01:04.379 align:middle line:84% at the makeshift bandstand in her worn out dress and two 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:05.580 align:middle line:90% high heels. 00:01:05.580 --> 00:01:09.210 align:middle line:84% The gardenia pinned at her waist was brown and crumbling 00:01:09.210 --> 00:01:10.800 align:middle line:90% into itself. 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:12.630 align:middle line:90% What's it worth, she cried, 00:01:12.630 --> 00:01:15.210 align:middle line:90% this land of Pilgrims' pride? 00:01:15.210 --> 00:01:16.920 align:middle line:90% As much as love, I answered. 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:17.910 align:middle line:90% More. 00:01:17.910 --> 00:01:19.680 align:middle line:90% The globe spun. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:21.540 align:middle line:90% I never want anything, I said. 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:25.050 align:middle line:84% I lost time and lovers, years, but you, purple mountains, 00:01:25.050 --> 00:01:30.210 align:middle line:84% you amber waves of grain belong to me, as much as I do to you. 00:01:30.210 --> 00:01:35.310 align:middle line:84% She sighed, the band played, the skin fell away from her bones, 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:38.830 align:middle line:84% then the room went black and I woke. 00:01:38.830 --> 00:01:42.870 align:middle line:84% I want my life back, the days of too much clarity, 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:46.570 align:middle line:84% the nights smelling of rage, but it's gone. 00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:49.920 align:middle line:84% If I could shift my body that is too weak now, 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:52.860 align:middle line:84% I'd lie face down on this hospital bed, 00:01:52.860 --> 00:01:56.010 align:middle line:84% this icy water called Ohio River. 00:01:56.010 --> 00:02:00.180 align:middle line:84% I'd float past all the sad towns, past all the dreamers 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:02.430 align:middle line:90% on shore with their hands out. 00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:05.490 align:middle line:84% I'd hold on, I'd hold till the weight, 00:02:05.490 --> 00:02:09.630 align:middle line:84% till the awful heaviness tore from me, sank to the bottom 00:02:09.630 --> 00:02:10.919 align:middle line:90% and stayed. 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:17.090 align:middle line:84% Then I'd stand up like Lazarus and walk home across the water.