WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.479 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:03.479 --> 00:00:06.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.970 --> 00:00:09.910 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Alison. 00:00:09.910 --> 00:00:11.000 align:middle line:90% And good evening. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:12.920 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:13.420 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:13.420 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:19.740 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me now? 00:00:19.740 --> 00:00:22.260 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:23.250 align:middle line:90% Can anybody hear me? 00:00:23.250 --> 00:00:26.666 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:26.666 --> 00:00:32.040 align:middle line:90% 00:00:32.040 --> 00:00:33.560 align:middle line:84% I have no control over this thing. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:38.130 align:middle line:90% 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:41.130 align:middle line:84% As Alison said, I come from the Northeast 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:44.370 align:middle line:84% and lived for many years in the part of Vermont-- 00:00:44.370 --> 00:00:47.730 align:middle line:84% where she also lived-- up in the North. 00:00:47.730 --> 00:00:50.820 align:middle line:84% And I wrote about that country and about the people there. 00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:56.340 align:middle line:84% And my first poem is called, "Regarding Chainsaws." 00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:59.550 align:middle line:90% 00:00:59.550 --> 00:01:02.490 align:middle line:84% "The first chainsaw I owned was years ago-- 00:01:02.490 --> 00:01:06.060 align:middle line:84% an old yellow McCulloch that wouldn't start. 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:09.300 align:middle line:84% Bo Bremmer give it to me, that was my friend. 00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:13.620 align:middle line:84% Though I've had enemies couldn't have done no worse. 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:16.410 align:middle line:84% I took it to Ward's over to Morrisville. 00:01:16.410 --> 00:01:18.930 align:middle line:84% And no doubt, they tinkered it as best they could. 00:01:18.930 --> 00:01:21.780 align:middle line:90% But it still wouldn't start. 00:01:21.780 --> 00:01:25.920 align:middle line:84% One time later, I took it down to the last bolt and gasket 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.520 align:middle line:84% and put it together again, hoping somehow I'd 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:32.880 align:middle line:84% do something accidental-like that would make it go. 00:01:32.880 --> 00:01:38.700 align:middle line:84% And then, I yanked on it 450 times, as I figured afterwards, 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:43.140 align:middle line:84% and give myself a bursitis in the elbow that went five years. 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:46.890 align:middle line:84% Even after Doc Arrowsmith shot it full of cortisone and near 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:49.110 align:middle line:84% killed me when he hit a nerve dead on. 00:01:49.110 --> 00:01:52.530 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:52.530 --> 00:01:54.720 align:middle line:90% Old Stan wanted that saw-- 00:01:54.720 --> 00:01:56.820 align:middle line:90% wanted it bad. 00:01:56.820 --> 00:01:59.400 align:middle line:84% Figured I was a greenhorn didn't know nothing, 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:01.350 align:middle line:90% and he could fix it. 00:02:01.350 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% Well, I was, you could say, being only 40 at the time. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:09.060 align:middle line:84% But a fair hand at tinkering, Stan, I said, 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:10.710 align:middle line:90% you're a neighbor. 00:02:10.710 --> 00:02:12.000 align:middle line:90% I like you. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.220 align:middle line:84% I wouldn't sell that thing to nobody, 00:02:14.220 --> 00:02:16.050 align:middle line:84% except maybe Vice President Nixon. 00:02:16.050 --> 00:02:18.630 align:middle line:90% 00:02:18.630 --> 00:02:20.700 align:middle line:90% But Stan persisted. 00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:22.620 align:middle line:90% He always did. 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:26.490 align:middle line:84% One time, we was loafing and gabbin' in his front dooryard. 00:02:26.490 --> 00:02:30.270 align:middle line:84% And he spied that saw in the back of my pickup. 00:02:30.270 --> 00:02:34.140 align:middle line:84% He run quick inside, then come out and stuck a double sawbuck 00:02:34.140 --> 00:02:35.850 align:middle line:90% in my shirt pocket. 00:02:35.850 --> 00:02:39.600 align:middle line:84% And he grabbed that saw and lugged it off. 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:41.970 align:middle line:84% Next day, when I drove past, I seen 00:02:41.970 --> 00:02:45.390 align:middle line:84% he had it snugged down tight with a tow chain on the bed 00:02:45.390 --> 00:02:48.120 align:middle line:90% of his old Dodge Powerwagon. 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:51.870 align:middle line:84% And he was yanking on it with both hands. 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:55.950 align:middle line:84% Two or three days after, I asked him, how you getting along 00:02:55.950 --> 00:02:58.740 align:middle line:90% with that McCulloch Stan? 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:02.520 align:middle line:84% Well, he says, I tooken it down to scrap, 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:05.640 align:middle line:84% and I buried it in three separate places 00:03:05.640 --> 00:03:10.200 align:middle line:84% yonder on the upper side of the potato piece. 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:12.420 align:middle line:84% You can't be too careful, he says, 00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:14.265 align:middle line:90% when you're disposing of a hex. 00:03:14.265 --> 00:03:17.406 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:17.406 --> 00:03:20.270 align:middle line:90% 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:23.930 align:middle line:84% The next saw I had was a god-awful ancient Homelite 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:26.990 align:middle line:84% that I give Dry Dryden 30 bucks for. 00:03:26.990 --> 00:03:30.680 align:middle line:84% Temperamental as a ram too, but I liked it. 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:32.870 align:middle line:84% It used to remind me of Dry, and how 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:35.030 align:middle line:84% he clapped that saw a couple times 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:39.140 align:middle line:84% with the flat of his double blade ax to make it go. 00:03:39.140 --> 00:03:42.440 align:middle line:84% And how he honed the chain with a worn down file 00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:45.290 align:middle line:90% stuck in an old baseball. 00:03:45.290 --> 00:03:47.990 align:middle line:90% I worked that saw for years. 00:03:47.990 --> 00:03:51.290 align:middle line:84% I put up 45 run them days each summer 00:03:51.290 --> 00:03:55.310 align:middle line:84% and fall to keep my stoves het through the winter. 00:03:55.310 --> 00:03:58.580 align:middle line:90% I couldn't now, it'd kill me. 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:01.730 align:middle line:84% Of course, they got these here modern Swedish saws now. 00:04:01.730 --> 00:04:04.340 align:middle line:84% They can take all the worry out of it. 00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:06.380 align:middle line:90% What's the good of that? 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:09.290 align:middle line:84% Takes all the fun out too, don't it? 00:04:09.290 --> 00:04:12.650 align:middle line:84% Why, I reckon, I mind when Gilles Boivin snagged 00:04:12.650 --> 00:04:15.770 align:middle line:84% an old sap spout buried in a chunk of maple, 00:04:15.770 --> 00:04:19.700 align:middle line:84% and it tore up his mouth so bad, he couldn't play Tea for Two 00:04:19.700 --> 00:04:23.360 align:middle line:84% on his cornet in the town band no more. 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:26.420 align:middle line:84% And then, when Toby Fox was holding a beech limb 00:04:26.420 --> 00:04:28.430 align:middle line:90% that Rob Bowen was bucking up. 00:04:28.430 --> 00:04:31.610 align:middle line:84% And the saw skidded crossways and nipped off 00:04:31.610 --> 00:04:33.830 align:middle line:90% one of Toby's fingers. 00:04:33.830 --> 00:04:35.660 align:middle line:90% Ain't that more like it? 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:37.380 align:middle line:90% Makes you know you're livin'. 00:04:37.380 --> 00:04:39.830 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:39.830 --> 00:04:41.900 align:middle line:84% But mostly, they weren't dangerous. 00:04:41.900 --> 00:04:45.200 align:middle line:84% And the only thing they broke was your back. 00:04:45.200 --> 00:04:49.860 align:middle line:84% Old Stan, he was a buller and a jammer in his time, 00:04:49.860 --> 00:04:52.340 align:middle line:90% no two ways about that. 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:55.220 align:middle line:90% But he never sawed himself. 00:04:55.220 --> 00:04:57.380 align:middle line:90% Stan had the sugar all his life. 00:04:57.380 --> 00:04:59.990 align:middle line:84% And he weren't always too careful about the diet 00:04:59.990 --> 00:05:01.940 align:middle line:90% and the injections. 00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:06.530 align:middle line:84% He lost all the feeling in his legs from the knees down. 00:05:06.530 --> 00:05:10.010 align:middle line:84% One time, he started up his Powerwagon out in the barn, 00:05:10.010 --> 00:05:12.740 align:middle line:84% and his foot slipped off the clutch. 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:15.470 align:middle line:84% And she jumped forward, right through the wall 00:05:15.470 --> 00:05:18.110 align:middle line:90% and into the manure pit. 00:05:18.110 --> 00:05:20.480 align:middle line:84% He just set there, swearing like you could 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:22.940 align:middle line:90% have heard it in St. Johnsbury. 00:05:22.940 --> 00:05:27.510 align:middle line:84% Till his wife come out and said, Stan, what's got into you? 00:05:27.510 --> 00:05:30.710 align:middle line:84% Misses, he says, ain't nothing got into me. 00:05:30.710 --> 00:05:32.030 align:middle line:90% Can't you see? 00:05:32.030 --> 00:05:35.480 align:middle line:84% It's me that's got into this here pile of shit. 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.875 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:38.875 --> 00:05:39.850 align:middle line:90% 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:42.820 align:middle line:84% Not much later, they took away one of his legs. 00:05:42.820 --> 00:05:45.315 align:middle line:84% And six months after that, they took the other, 00:05:45.315 --> 00:05:49.210 align:middle line:84% and left him sitting in his old chair with a tank of oxygen 00:05:49.210 --> 00:05:53.650 align:middle line:84% to sip at whenever he felt himself sinking. 00:05:53.650 --> 00:05:55.880 align:middle line:90% I remember that chair. 00:05:55.880 --> 00:05:58.750 align:middle line:84% Stan reupholstered it with an old bearskin 00:05:58.750 --> 00:06:01.810 align:middle line:84% that must have come down from his great great grandfather. 00:06:01.810 --> 00:06:04.870 align:middle line:84% And had grit in it, left over from the Civil War, 00:06:04.870 --> 00:06:08.980 align:middle line:84% and a bullet hole as big as a yawning cat. 00:06:08.980 --> 00:06:13.750 align:middle line:84% Stan latched the pieces together with rawhide, cross-fashion. 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:18.010 align:middle line:84% But the stitches was always breaking and coming undone. 00:06:18.010 --> 00:06:21.550 align:middle line:84% About then, I quit stop-- stopping by to see old Stan. 00:06:21.550 --> 00:06:24.520 align:middle line:84% And I don't feel so good about that neither. 00:06:24.520 --> 00:06:28.060 align:middle line:84% But my mother was having her strokes then. 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:30.340 align:middle line:84% I figured, one person coming apart 00:06:30.340 --> 00:06:33.970 align:middle line:90% was as much as a man can stand. 00:06:33.970 --> 00:06:39.160 align:middle line:84% Then Stan was taken away to the nursing home, and then he died. 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:41.350 align:middle line:84% I always remember how he planted them 00:06:41.350 --> 00:06:45.910 align:middle line:84% pieces of spooked McCulloch up above the potatoes. 00:06:45.910 --> 00:06:47.830 align:middle line:90% One time, I went up and dug. 00:06:47.830 --> 00:06:52.030 align:middle line:84% And I took the old sprocket, all pitted and et away, 00:06:52.030 --> 00:06:55.120 align:middle line:84% and set it on the windowsill, right there next 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:56.800 align:middle line:90% to the butter mold. 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:01.090 align:middle line:90% But I'm damned if I know why." 00:07:01.090 --> 00:07:02.548 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:07:02.548 --> 00:07:04.006 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:07:04.006 --> 00:07:04.978 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:07:04.978 --> 00:07:09.360 align:middle line:90% 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:13.350 align:middle line:84% That Tom is in the speech of Northwestern Vermont, 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:16.620 align:middle line:90% the Champlain Valley. 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:19.150 align:middle line:90% Two levels of speech. 00:07:19.150 --> 00:07:27.510 align:middle line:84% The speaker in the poem is literate. 00:07:27.510 --> 00:07:31.310 align:middle line:90% Stan is probably not literate.