WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.210 align:middle line:90%


00:00:03.210 --> 00:00:06.990 align:middle line:84%
This is called Elegy, and
this is for my cousin John who

00:00:06.990 --> 00:00:13.050 align:middle line:90%
was killed in Vietnam in 1967.

00:00:13.050 --> 00:00:15.990 align:middle line:84%
I tried to write something
for him since 69,

00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:19.290 align:middle line:84%
actually I started in
69 and I could never

00:00:19.290 --> 00:00:22.950 align:middle line:84%
do anything and then
the spring of 83

00:00:22.950 --> 00:00:26.310 align:middle line:84%
I was finally able
to write this poem.

00:00:26.310 --> 00:00:29.610 align:middle line:84%
And after that
there's just to me

00:00:29.610 --> 00:00:34.560 align:middle line:84%
a flood of poems about Vietnam
I wrote, one poem about Vietnam

00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:39.150 align:middle line:84%
and I watched that
PBS series on Vietnam

00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:42.780 align:middle line:84%
and then I wrote-- then
I read Fire in the Lake,

00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:45.730 align:middle line:84%
and I read the Shawcross
book on Cambodia,

00:00:45.730 --> 00:00:50.400 align:middle line:84%
and then I wrote a poem that
loosely deals with Cambodia.

00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:55.740 align:middle line:84%
And by the end I was just
totally, totally exhausted.

00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:56.700 align:middle line:90%
Just dealing with it--

00:00:56.700 --> 00:00:59.220 align:middle line:84%
I don't think that I'm
through with it yet,

00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:02.940 align:middle line:84%
actually there there's something
else kicking around in there,

00:01:02.940 --> 00:01:04.450 align:middle line:90%
but it's very depressing.

00:01:04.450 --> 00:01:08.130 align:middle line:84%
I went to the killing
fields a few weeks ago too,

00:01:08.130 --> 00:01:11.520 align:middle line:90%
and I made this--

00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:14.210 align:middle line:84%
told myself--
hypnotized myself so

00:01:14.210 --> 00:01:15.960 align:middle line:84%
that I wouldn't think
about it that night,

00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:19.290 align:middle line:84%
but the next morning it just
all came back about 5:00

00:01:19.290 --> 00:01:24.930 align:middle line:84%
in the morning and that
was really so intense.

00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:28.120 align:middle line:84%
This is called The Elegy
for my cousin John.

00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:28.620 align:middle line:90%
One.

00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:32.580 align:middle line:84%
Hundreds of flies
rise from my face

00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:36.930 align:middle line:84%
and I feel as if I'm flying,
but it's only a daydream.

00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:42.930 align:middle line:84%
I'm 75 in the Veterans'
Hospital and this isn't 1917.

00:01:42.930 --> 00:01:47.370 align:middle line:84%
On TV Saigon is splitting apart
like a cheap Moroccan leather

00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:52.290 align:middle line:84%
suitcase, and we are leaving
it all behind, our dirty, dirty

00:01:52.290 --> 00:01:53.550 align:middle line:90%
laundry.

00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:55.620 align:middle line:84%
Maybe it's the
right thing to do,

00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84%
maybe soldiers are
reborn infinitely

00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:01.630 align:middle line:84%
to do each century's
killing and mopping up.

00:02:01.630 --> 00:02:04.470 align:middle line:84%
We stand at attention
in full dress.

00:02:04.470 --> 00:02:08.340 align:middle line:84%
A general rides by in an
open car and we cheer.

00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:11.430 align:middle line:84%
How I cheered: here's to
the trenches, the mud,

00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:13.710 align:middle line:84%
the bullet riddled
days and nights,

00:02:13.710 --> 00:02:17.190 align:middle line:84%
that one night in
November 1917 when

00:02:17.190 --> 00:02:19.800 align:middle line:84%
I thought I was dead,
when I felt myself

00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:24.030 align:middle line:84%
rising straight for the moon's
green cheesy heart, but I

00:02:24.030 --> 00:02:25.150 align:middle line:90%
wasn't dead.

00:02:25.150 --> 00:02:29.670 align:middle line:84%
I was on a troop ship in the
English Channel 27 years later

00:02:29.670 --> 00:02:32.250 align:middle line:90%
and nothing had changed.

00:02:32.250 --> 00:02:34.470 align:middle line:84%
Last night I dreamed
about my mother.

00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:38.160 align:middle line:84%
She was pregnant with me and
I was also there with her

00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:39.660 align:middle line:90%
as a young man.

00:02:39.660 --> 00:02:43.290 align:middle line:84%
I wanted to end it inside
her womb with my bayonet,

00:02:43.290 --> 00:02:46.560 align:middle line:84%
and somehow I cut
my way to the child.

00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:48.780 align:middle line:84%
I took him by the
feet, and flung

00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:51.900 align:middle line:84%
him high over a
smoky black rainbow.

00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:53.400 align:middle line:90%
Two.

00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:57.030 align:middle line:84%
Suddenly my body jerks
forward then back,

00:02:57.030 --> 00:03:00.300 align:middle line:84%
and just as suddenly
the TV screen darkens

00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:02.670 align:middle line:84%
and the voices of
the journalists fade,

00:03:02.670 --> 00:03:05.010 align:middle line:84%
then hang in the
air like whispers,

00:03:05.010 --> 00:03:08.490 align:middle line:84%
as the orderly takes
hold of my wheelchair.

00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:12.480 align:middle line:84%
When we move down the hallway,
small, almond-eyed people

00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:14.760 align:middle line:90%
cheer as I roll by.

00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:17.970 align:middle line:84%
I recognize them all:
that one was with me

00:03:17.970 --> 00:03:21.330 align:middle line:84%
in the trenches, that went
in the concentration camp,

00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:24.510 align:middle line:84%
and that vapor
there from Nagasaki.

00:03:24.510 --> 00:03:28.260 align:middle line:84%
The orderly lifts me into
bed and folds the blanket

00:03:28.260 --> 00:03:30.030 align:middle line:90%
across my chest.

00:03:30.030 --> 00:03:31.860 align:middle line:90%
Imagining things, I say to him.

00:03:31.860 --> 00:03:33.330 align:middle line:90%
Well, what if I am?

00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:37.230 align:middle line:84%
Just lower the coffin, let
those clods of earth come down

00:03:37.230 --> 00:03:38.820 align:middle line:90%
like 100 blows.

00:03:38.820 --> 00:03:42.550 align:middle line:84%
You say never you, never,
but when it's your turn

00:03:42.550 --> 00:03:46.620 align:middle line:84%
you'll pack your sweet dreams
in your old kit bag and go,

00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:49.590 align:middle line:84%
and on that true
last day you and I

00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:53.040 align:middle line:84%
will rise toward heaven
like two great brass

00:03:53.040 --> 00:03:55.350 align:middle line:90%
notes from Gabriel's horn.

00:03:55.350 --> 00:03:58.770 align:middle line:84%
We'll shout, hallelujah,
the war is over.

00:03:58.770 --> 00:04:02.490 align:middle line:84%
We'll shout the
gates of heaven down.

00:04:02.490 --> 00:04:05.240 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:11.000 align:middle line:90%