WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:08.250 align:middle line:84%
I think the rest of the time
I'll just read newer poems.

00:00:08.250 --> 00:00:10.380 align:middle line:84%
I read recently at the
University of New Hampshire

00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:13.213 align:middle line:84%
and a student asked
me ahead of time

00:00:13.213 --> 00:00:14.880 align:middle line:84%
whether I would be
reading from my books

00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:16.590 align:middle line:90%
or reading future work.

00:00:16.590 --> 00:00:18.940 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:21.760 align:middle line:90%


00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.090 align:middle line:84%
And I like that phrase
so much that I like

00:00:24.090 --> 00:00:25.710 align:middle line:90%
to think of future work, so.

00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:30.182 align:middle line:90%


00:00:30.182 --> 00:00:31.640 align:middle line:84%
It's a little poem
called The Wish.

00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.025 align:middle line:90%


00:00:35.025 --> 00:00:36.900 align:middle line:84%
I trust you all can hear
me all right, right?

00:00:36.900 --> 00:00:39.543 align:middle line:90%
Mhm.

00:00:39.543 --> 00:00:40.960 align:middle line:84%
That sounded like
an all in grunt.

00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.630 align:middle line:90%


00:00:43.630 --> 00:00:46.390 align:middle line:90%
I recognize that sound.

00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:48.970 align:middle line:90%
The Wish.

00:00:48.970 --> 00:00:52.120 align:middle line:84%
My daughter comes to
me with her sorrow.

00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:57.520 align:middle line:84%
She is not yet 10, not yet
insistent for her father.

00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.980 align:middle line:84%
As if waiting out
a sentence, she

00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:04.090 align:middle line:84%
sits at the round table,
her long black shawl of hair

00:01:04.090 --> 00:01:06.490 align:middle line:90%
framing high cheekbones.

00:01:06.490 --> 00:01:11.350 align:middle line:84%
She thinks she is ugly,
thinks she has no friends.

00:01:11.350 --> 00:01:12.820 align:middle line:90%
How can I comfort?

00:01:12.820 --> 00:01:17.800 align:middle line:84%
What should I try to tell this
radiant coincidence of genes?

00:01:17.800 --> 00:01:21.250 align:middle line:84%
That children can be
beasts to one another?

00:01:21.250 --> 00:01:25.150 align:middle line:84%
That envy eats us
from the inside?

00:01:25.150 --> 00:01:30.070 align:middle line:84%
All great beauties doubted
their beauty, I tell her,

00:01:30.070 --> 00:01:32.380 align:middle line:90%
but why should she believe me?

00:01:32.380 --> 00:01:36.430 align:middle line:84%
I am her mother and ask
repeatedly for beauty,

00:01:36.430 --> 00:01:38.610 align:middle line:90%
meaning happiness.

00:01:38.610 --> 00:01:43.000 align:middle line:90%