Well, you don't mind if one's funny and one isn't.
[LAUGHTER]
See, that can be a problem if you read at a really bad place.
I've read at some really, really, really
out of the way places.
I shouldn't mention them by name but really, really bad.
And there was this forced attendance.
[LAUGHING]
This place-- we're talking 19th century.
I'm not kidding you.
And so it turns out that in spite of the fact
that it's one of the worst colleges in the United States
that it was a huge audience because everybody was required.
[LAUGHING]
They had to sign in.
So they didn't know where they were, and I felt sorry
for them.
So I thought I'd start out and try and loosen them
up because they were terrified that the whip was
going to crack any minute behind their backs.
Their teachers were going to come down
on them with some horse whip.
So I-- intentionally I picked some poem that I thought
was funnier, that they would have had access to
or something.
And they really enjoyed that.
It broke the tension great.
That was it.
[LAUGHING]
They laughed for the solid hour.
[LAUGHING]
They would not stop-- they wouldn't stop laughing.
I read some of the saddest, most tragic poems--
[LAUGHING]
--you've ever heard in your life.
[LAUGHING]
There was no stopping them.
But you guys go-- apparently go to about three poetry
of readings a day.
[LAUGHING]
So I won't put up markers.
[LAUGHTER]
But I'll just try and fool you then.
I don't why I told you all that, but it was true.
It was just--
I hated myself for it afterwards.
I thought, well, it's all your fault. You got them laughing,
and that was it.
Now you're-- you can't blame them.
Now I'm trying to think of the name.
It's in the northwest corner of Alabama.
I won't say the name.
[LAUGHING]
This next poem's called "Five Years Old."
Stars fell all night.
The ice man had been very generous that day
with his chips and slivers.
And I had buried my pouch of jewels inside a stone casket
under the porch, their beauty saved for another world.
And then my sister came home, and I threw a dart
through her cheek and cried all night,
so much that I worship her.