WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.860 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:02.860 --> 00:00:05.410 align:middle line:84% Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. 00:00:05.410 --> 00:00:09.580 align:middle line:84% Tonight we are going to hear from a poet to whom it 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:14.020 align:middle line:84% may be said, the younger generation is listening. 00:00:14.020 --> 00:00:16.780 align:middle line:84% It is high praise, indeed, when a writer is 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:23.020 align:middle line:84% as awarded and feted as James Tate has been for books that 00:00:23.020 --> 00:00:28.210 align:middle line:84% have broken open the American idiom as a surreal and stylish 00:00:28.210 --> 00:00:29.410 align:middle line:90% place. 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:34.270 align:middle line:84% But when it is especially true that he is beloved and followed 00:00:34.270 --> 00:00:36.970 align:middle line:84% by young writers, then we know there 00:00:36.970 --> 00:00:41.380 align:middle line:84% is something really pulsing and singing and tortured 00:00:41.380 --> 00:00:43.600 align:middle line:90% and arrived in his language. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:48.850 align:middle line:84% Because the voice must be living and kept alive by new blood. 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:52.900 align:middle line:84% James Tate has written sonorous and beautiful and haunting 00:00:52.900 --> 00:00:57.550 align:middle line:84% books, instantly recognized as his by their genius titles, 00:00:57.550 --> 00:01:01.540 align:middle line:84% ratcheting up English higher than anyone's heard it. 00:01:01.540 --> 00:01:02.620 align:middle line:90% Listen. 00:01:02.620 --> 00:01:09.310 align:middle line:84% The Oblivion Ha-Ha, Riven Doggeries, Viper Jazz, 00:01:09.310 --> 00:01:11.510 align:middle line:90% Worshipful Company of Fletchers. 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:14.140 align:middle line:84% These are just a few of his books for which he's 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:17.380 align:middle line:84% won the Tanning Prize of the Academy of American Poets, 00:01:17.380 --> 00:01:20.170 align:middle line:84% the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the William 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:23.530 align:middle line:84% Carlos Williams Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. 00:01:23.530 --> 00:01:26.920 align:middle line:84% Though the awards, perhaps, speak for themselves, 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:32.290 align:middle line:84% James Tate speaks for us with a hilariously dark clarity. 00:01:32.290 --> 00:01:37.240 align:middle line:84% Tonight we're lucky to be that darkness into which he sings. 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:42.700 align:middle line:84% Among the grand names of living American poets, 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:47.380 align:middle line:84% it's to James Tate we turn for the magical landscape we 00:01:47.380 --> 00:01:50.740 align:middle line:84% desperately recognize as the place the soul 00:01:50.740 --> 00:01:53.290 align:middle line:90% arrives for comfort. 00:01:53.290 --> 00:01:56.020 align:middle line:84% Don't mistake me, it is not always 00:01:56.020 --> 00:02:00.670 align:middle line:84% comfy in a James Tate poem, for we're traveling fast. 00:02:00.670 --> 00:02:04.120 align:middle line:84% It's dazzling, scary, and humbling. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.229 align:middle line:84% But it's liberating, and by the end, it is healing. 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:11.860 align:middle line:84% Please join me in warmly welcoming, quite 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:14.620 align:middle line:90% a guy, the poet, James Tate. 00:02:14.620 --> 00:02:18.036 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:18.036 --> 00:02:28.790 align:middle line:90% 00:02:28.790 --> 00:02:31.050 align:middle line:90% That was really nice. 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:33.860 align:middle line:84% I think quite a guy would have sufficed. 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:36.746 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:36.746 --> 00:02:41.570 align:middle line:90% 00:02:41.570 --> 00:02:42.620 align:middle line:90% That was very nice. 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:44.690 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much Jane. 00:02:44.690 --> 00:02:46.030 align:middle line:90% It's really nice to be here. 00:02:46.030 --> 00:02:47.180 align:middle line:90% Thank you for coming out. 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:51.220 align:middle line:90% 00:02:51.220 --> 00:02:53.050 align:middle line:90% Oh, you're here, too. 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:55.360 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:56.833 align:middle line:90% You can raise the mic. 00:02:56.833 --> 00:02:58.000 align:middle line:90% I probably ought to do that. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.575 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.575 --> 00:03:01.075 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:01.075 --> 00:03:05.662 align:middle line:90% 00:03:05.662 --> 00:03:08.965 align:middle line:84% I'll begin with a poem called "A Knock on the Door." 00:03:08.965 --> 00:03:12.720 align:middle line:90% 00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:17.080 align:middle line:84% They ask me if I've ever thought about the end of the world. 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:20.160 align:middle line:90% And I say, come in, come in. 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:23.940 align:middle line:84% Let me give you some lunch for God's sake. 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:27.180 align:middle line:84% After a few bites it's the afterlife 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:29.100 align:middle line:90% they want to talk about. 00:03:29.100 --> 00:03:30.180 align:middle line:90% Ouch, I say. 00:03:30.180 --> 00:03:34.740 align:middle line:84% Did you see that grape leaf skeletonizer? 00:03:34.740 --> 00:03:37.140 align:middle line:84% Then they're talking about redemption 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:41.710 align:middle line:84% and the chosen few sitting right by his side. 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:43.120 align:middle line:90% Doing what, I ask. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.970 align:middle line:90% Just sitting? 00:03:45.970 --> 00:03:50.300 align:middle line:84% I am surrounded by burned up zombies. 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:53.410 align:middle line:84% Let's have some lemon chiffon pie I bought yesterday 00:03:53.410 --> 00:03:56.130 align:middle line:90% at the Three Dog Bakery. 00:03:56.130 --> 00:03:59.640 align:middle line:84% But they want to talk about my soul. 00:03:59.640 --> 00:04:03.270 align:middle line:84% I'm getting drowsy and see butterflies everywhere. 00:04:03.270 --> 00:04:05.700 align:middle line:84% Would you gentlemen like to take a nap? 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:06.780 align:middle line:90% I know I would. 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:10.050 align:middle line:90% 00:04:10.050 --> 00:04:15.390 align:middle line:84% They stand and back away from me out the door 00:04:15.390 --> 00:04:21.510 align:middle line:84% walking toward my neighbors, a black cloud over their heads, 00:04:21.510 --> 00:04:23.745 align:middle line:84% and they see nothing without end. 00:04:23.745 --> 00:04:35.250 align:middle line:90% 00:04:35.250 --> 00:04:38.730 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "I Left My Couch in Tatamagouche." 00:04:38.730 --> 00:04:44.570 align:middle line:90% 00:04:44.570 --> 00:04:46.490 align:middle line:90% I desired lemonade. 00:04:46.490 --> 00:04:50.630 align:middle line:84% It was hot, and I had been walking for hours, 00:04:50.630 --> 00:04:54.530 align:middle line:84% but after much wrestling, pushing, and shoving, 00:04:54.530 --> 00:05:00.380 align:middle line:84% I simply could not get my couch through the restaurant door. 00:05:00.380 --> 00:05:03.920 align:middle line:84% Several customers and the owner and the owner's son 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:06.570 align:middle line:84% were kinder than they should have been. 00:05:06.570 --> 00:05:08.900 align:middle line:84% But finally it was time to close, 00:05:08.900 --> 00:05:12.050 align:middle line:84% and I urged them to return to their homes. 00:05:12.050 --> 00:05:15.230 align:middle line:90% Their families needed them. 00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:17.630 align:middle line:84% The question of who needs what was hardly 00:05:17.630 --> 00:05:20.690 align:middle line:90% my field of expertise. 00:05:20.690 --> 00:05:23.510 align:middle line:84% That night while sleeping peacefully 00:05:23.510 --> 00:05:28.610 align:middle line:84% outside the train station on my little green couch, 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:33.530 align:middle line:84% I met a giantess by the name of Anna Swan. 00:05:33.530 --> 00:05:37.250 align:middle line:84% She knelt beside my couch and stroked my brow 00:05:37.250 --> 00:05:39.260 align:middle line:90% with tenderness. 00:05:39.260 --> 00:05:42.350 align:middle line:84% She was like a mother to me for a few moments 00:05:42.350 --> 00:05:45.800 align:middle line:90% there under the night sky. 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:50.540 align:middle line:84% In the morning, I left my couch in Tatamagouche, 00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:53.420 align:middle line:84% and that has made a big difference. 00:05:53.420 --> 00:05:56.913 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:56.913 --> 00:06:12.410 align:middle line:90% 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:15.785 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "Where Babies Come From." 00:06:15.785 --> 00:06:20.380 align:middle line:90% 00:06:20.380 --> 00:06:25.180 align:middle line:84% Most are from the Maldives, Southwest of India, 00:06:25.180 --> 00:06:29.740 align:middle line:84% and must begin collecting shells almost immediately. 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:33.940 align:middle line:84% The larger ones may prefer coconuts. 00:06:33.940 --> 00:06:36.370 align:middle line:84% Survivors move from island to island, 00:06:36.370 --> 00:06:40.420 align:middle line:84% hopping over one another and never looking back. 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:43.300 align:middle line:84% After the typhoons have had their pick, 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:47.150 align:middle line:84% and the birds of prey have finished with theirs, 00:06:47.150 --> 00:06:51.800 align:middle line:84% the remaining few must build boats, and in this, of course, 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:54.740 align:middle line:90% they can have no experience. 00:06:54.740 --> 00:06:58.790 align:middle line:84% They build their boats of palm leaves and vines. 00:06:58.790 --> 00:07:02.390 align:middle line:84% Once the work is completed they lie down 00:07:02.390 --> 00:07:05.450 align:middle line:84% thoroughly exhausted and confused, 00:07:05.450 --> 00:07:09.170 align:middle line:84% and a huge wave washes them out to sea. 00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:12.610 align:middle line:84% And that is the last they see of one another. 00:07:12.610 --> 00:07:16.090 align:middle line:84% In their dreams, mama and papa are 00:07:16.090 --> 00:07:20.680 align:middle line:84% standing on the shore for what seems like an eternity, 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:23.635 align:middle line:84% and it is almost always the wrong shore. 00:07:23.635 --> 00:07:33.300 align:middle line:90% 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:35.520 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "My Felisberto." 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:41.300 align:middle line:90% 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:44.960 align:middle line:84% My felisberto is handsomer than your mergotroid, 00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:47.660 align:middle line:84% although admittedly your mergotroid 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:50.930 align:middle line:90% may be the wiser of the two. 00:07:50.930 --> 00:07:54.470 align:middle line:84% Whereas your mergotroid never winces or quails, 00:07:54.470 --> 00:07:59.540 align:middle line:84% my felisberto is a titan of inconsistencies. 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:03.140 align:middle line:84% For a night of wit and danger and temptation, 00:08:03.140 --> 00:08:07.050 align:middle line:84% my felisberto would be the obvious choice. 00:08:07.050 --> 00:08:11.600 align:middle line:84% However, at dawn or dusk when serenity is desired, 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:14.360 align:middle line:84% your mergotroid cannot be [? ignored ?].. 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:16.730 align:middle line:84% Merely to sit near it in the garden 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:21.590 align:middle line:84% and watch the fabrications of the world swirl by, 00:08:21.590 --> 00:08:24.950 align:middle line:84% the deep sea's bathymetry wash your eyes, 00:08:24.950 --> 00:08:27.740 align:middle line:84% not to mention the little fawns of the forest 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:30.230 align:middle line:84% and their flip-floppy gymnastics. 00:08:30.230 --> 00:08:33.620 align:middle line:84% Ah, for this and so much more, your mergotroid 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:36.409 align:middle line:90% is infinitely preferable. 00:08:36.409 --> 00:08:39.409 align:middle line:84% But there is a place for darkness and obscurity 00:08:39.409 --> 00:08:42.980 align:middle line:84% without which life can seem sometimes too 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:47.370 align:middle line:84% much, too frivolous, and too profound simultaneously. 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:51.410 align:middle line:84% And that is when my felisberto is needed, is longed for, 00:08:51.410 --> 00:08:52.490 align:middle line:90% and loved. 00:08:52.490 --> 00:08:55.250 align:middle line:90% And then the sun can rise again. 00:08:55.250 --> 00:08:58.190 align:middle line:84% The bee and the hummingbird drink of the world, 00:08:58.190 --> 00:09:02.090 align:middle line:84% and your mergotroid elaborates the silent concert 00:09:02.090 --> 00:09:05.210 align:middle line:84% that is always, and always about to begin. 00:09:05.210 --> 00:09:22.720 align:middle line:90% 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:25.435 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "Days of Pie and Coffee." 00:09:25.435 --> 00:09:31.960 align:middle line:90% 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:34.930 align:middle line:84% A motorist once said to me, and this 00:09:34.930 --> 00:09:39.340 align:middle line:84% was in the country on a county lane, 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:41.590 align:middle line:84% a motorist slowed his vehicle as I 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:44.950 align:middle line:84% was walking my dear old collie, Sithney, 00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:47.380 align:middle line:90% by the side of the road. 00:09:47.380 --> 00:09:50.620 align:middle line:84% And the motorist came to a halt, mildly alarming 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:55.630 align:middle line:84% both Sithney and myself, not yet accustomed to automobiles. 00:09:55.630 --> 00:09:59.080 align:middle line:84% And this particular motorist sent a little spasm of fright 00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:03.250 align:middle line:84% up our spines, which in turn panicked the driver a bit. 00:10:03.250 --> 00:10:06.250 align:middle line:84% And it seemed as if we were off to a bad start, 00:10:06.250 --> 00:10:09.130 align:middle line:84% and that's when Sithney began to bark, 00:10:09.130 --> 00:10:11.180 align:middle line:90% and the man could not be heard. 00:10:11.180 --> 00:10:14.350 align:middle line:84% That is, if he was speaking or trying to speak, 00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:17.080 align:middle line:84% because I was commanding Sithney to be silent, 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:22.000 align:middle line:84% though indeed I was sympathetic to his emotional excitement. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.410 align:middle line:84% It was, as I recall, a day of prodigious beauty. 00:10:26.410 --> 00:10:33.100 align:middle line:84% April 21, 1932, clouds like the inside of your head explained. 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:36.340 align:middle line:84% Blue birds too numerous to mention. 00:10:36.340 --> 00:10:41.680 align:middle line:84% The clover calling you by name, and fields oozing green. 00:10:41.680 --> 00:10:44.530 align:middle line:84% And this motorist from nowhere moving his lips 00:10:44.530 --> 00:10:48.100 align:middle line:84% like the wings of a butterfly and nothing coming out. 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.140 align:middle line:90% And Sithney silent now. 00:10:50.140 --> 00:10:53.590 align:middle line:84% He was no longer looking at us, but straight ahead 00:10:53.590 --> 00:10:56.530 align:middle line:90% where his election was in doubt. 00:10:56.530 --> 00:11:00.130 align:middle line:90% That's a fine dog, he said. 00:11:00.130 --> 00:11:03.260 align:middle line:90% Collies are made in heaven. 00:11:03.260 --> 00:11:08.420 align:middle line:84% Well, if I were a voting man I'd vote for you, I said. 00:11:08.420 --> 00:11:12.840 align:middle line:84% A bedoozling day to be lost in the country, I say. 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:16.940 align:middle line:84% Leastways, I am a misplaced individual. 00:11:16.940 --> 00:11:21.160 align:middle line:84% We introduced ourselves and swapped a few stories. 00:11:21.160 --> 00:11:25.490 align:middle line:84% He was a veteran salesman who didn't believe in his product. 00:11:25.490 --> 00:11:27.500 align:middle line:90% I've forgotten what it was. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:32.480 align:middle line:84% Hair restorer, parrot feed, and he employed nothing more-- 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.600 align:middle line:84% and he enjoyed nothing more than a day spent meandering 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:39.310 align:middle line:90% the back roads in his jalopy. 00:11:39.310 --> 00:11:42.370 align:middle line:84% I gave him directions to the Denton farm, 00:11:42.370 --> 00:11:44.470 align:middle line:84% but I doubt that he followed them. 00:11:44.470 --> 00:11:48.190 align:middle line:84% He didn't seem to be listening, and it was getting late, 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:51.470 align:middle line:84% and Sithney had an idea of his own. 00:11:51.470 --> 00:11:55.070 align:middle line:84% And I don't know why I'm remembering this now. 00:11:55.070 --> 00:11:59.000 align:middle line:84% Just that he summed himself up by saying, 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.720 align:middle line:84% I've missed too many boats, and all these years later I 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:10.120 align:middle line:84% keep thinking that was a man who loved to miss boats. 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:12.130 align:middle line:84% But he didn't miss them that much. 00:12:12.130 --> 00:12:27.250 align:middle line:90% 00:12:27.250 --> 00:12:29.470 align:middle line:84% Did I say that it's extraordinarily nice 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:30.305 align:middle line:90% to be here? 00:12:30.305 --> 00:12:30.805 align:middle line:90% It is. 00:12:30.805 --> 00:12:42.340 align:middle line:90% 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:44.905 align:middle line:84% This is a poem called "Brave Face." 00:12:44.905 --> 00:12:49.600 align:middle line:90% 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:53.650 align:middle line:84% It seemed as if for as long as we could remember, 00:12:53.650 --> 00:12:58.840 align:middle line:84% evil days and hard times stalked us, singled out the weak 00:12:58.840 --> 00:13:01.220 align:middle line:90% and the strong as well. 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:04.390 align:middle line:84% The beautiful and the good were shown no mercy, 00:13:04.390 --> 00:13:09.160 align:middle line:84% and all the while we believed in a better day. 00:13:09.160 --> 00:13:13.690 align:middle line:84% We sang the songs of praise and the songs of parting. 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:15.790 align:middle line:84% And at those gatherings when food 00:13:15.790 --> 00:13:19.060 align:middle line:84% was prepared in celebration, a wolf 00:13:19.060 --> 00:13:25.710 align:middle line:84% circled in the spirit world where only his whims mattered. 00:13:25.710 --> 00:13:30.870 align:middle line:84% Not nice to admit it, but one ached for normalcy. 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:34.890 align:middle line:84% To enjoy what was left, one would be considered a traitor 00:13:34.890 --> 00:13:36.420 align:middle line:90% to the cause. 00:13:36.420 --> 00:13:39.990 align:middle line:84% And this increasingly angered me. 00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:43.470 align:middle line:84% I eventually confided to my wife, 00:13:43.470 --> 00:13:47.560 align:middle line:84% half expecting her to throttle me on the spot. 00:13:47.560 --> 00:13:50.850 align:middle line:84% And that is precisely what she did. 00:13:50.850 --> 00:13:54.900 align:middle line:84% And then we made sweet love and watched the sunset. 00:13:54.900 --> 00:13:57.600 align:middle line:84% What you are feeling is not different than the rest, 00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:58.980 align:middle line:90% she said. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:02.400 align:middle line:84% I was feeling her breast at the time, and the rest were not. 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:05.767 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:14:05.767 --> 00:14:11.060 align:middle line:90% 00:14:11.060 --> 00:14:14.420 align:middle line:84% A story like this doesn't really end. 00:14:14.420 --> 00:14:17.390 align:middle line:84% A wolf goes from door to door through all the streets 00:14:17.390 --> 00:14:18.980 align:middle line:90% of the village. 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:23.150 align:middle line:84% It pauses here and there, but we do not know what it thinks, 00:14:23.150 --> 00:14:25.340 align:middle line:90% or if it thinks at all. 00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:29.870 align:middle line:84% Laughter of almost any kind seems to frighten it. 00:14:29.870 --> 00:14:32.450 align:middle line:84% That, and the sound of its own name. 00:14:32.450 --> 00:14:47.090 align:middle line:90% 00:14:47.090 --> 00:14:49.940 align:middle line:84% And this is called "Shroud of the Gnome." 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:54.690 align:middle line:90% 00:14:54.690 --> 00:14:58.050 align:middle line:84% And what amazes me is that none of our modern inventions 00:14:58.050 --> 00:15:01.110 align:middle line:84% surprise or interest him even a little. 00:15:01.110 --> 00:15:05.100 align:middle line:84% I tell him it his time he got his booster shots, 00:15:05.100 --> 00:15:09.330 align:middle line:84% but then I realized I have no power over him whatsoever. 00:15:09.330 --> 00:15:11.520 align:middle line:84% He becomes increasingly light-footed 00:15:11.520 --> 00:15:13.650 align:middle line:84% until I lose sight of him downtown 00:15:13.650 --> 00:15:17.340 align:middle line:84% between the federal building and the post office. 00:15:17.340 --> 00:15:20.220 align:middle line:84% A registered nurse is taking her coffee break. 00:15:20.220 --> 00:15:23.640 align:middle line:84% I myself need a break, so I sat down next to her 00:15:23.640 --> 00:15:25.230 align:middle line:90% at the counter. 00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:28.770 align:middle line:84% Don't mind me, I said, I'm just a hungry little Gnostic 00:15:28.770 --> 00:15:32.070 align:middle line:90% in need of a sandwich. 00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:34.410 align:middle line:84% This old line of mine had met with great success 00:15:34.410 --> 00:15:36.780 align:middle line:84% on any number of previous occasions. 00:15:36.780 --> 00:15:39.450 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:15:39.450 --> 00:15:43.890 align:middle line:84% I thought a deaf, dumb, and blind nurse sounds ideal. 00:15:43.890 --> 00:15:46.950 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:15:46.950 --> 00:15:50.280 align:middle line:84% But then I remembered that some of the earliest Paleolithic 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:52.800 align:middle line:84% office workers also feigned blindness 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:55.710 align:middle line:84% when approached by non-office workers. 00:15:55.710 --> 00:15:58.560 align:middle line:84% Paid my bill and disappeared down an alley, 00:15:58.560 --> 00:16:01.440 align:middle line:90% where I composed myself. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:05.370 align:middle line:84% Amid the piles of outcast citizenry and burning barrels 00:16:05.370 --> 00:16:08.070 align:middle line:90% of waste and rot, the plump-- 00:16:08.070 --> 00:16:12.960 align:middle line:84% the plump rats darting freely, the havoc of blown newspapers 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.010 align:middle line:84% lay the little shroud of my lost friend. 00:16:17.010 --> 00:16:19.980 align:middle line:84% Small and gray and threadbare, when 00:16:19.980 --> 00:16:23.430 align:middle line:84% worn by the ages of scurrying hither and thither. 00:16:23.430 --> 00:16:26.610 align:middle line:84% Battered by the avalanches and private tornadoes 00:16:26.610 --> 00:16:30.480 align:middle line:84% of just being a gnome, but surely there 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:32.790 align:middle line:90% were good times too. 00:16:32.790 --> 00:16:36.720 align:middle line:84% And now, rejuvenated by the wind the shroud moves forward, 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.140 align:middle line:84% hesitates, dances sideways, brushes my foot 00:16:40.140 --> 00:16:43.080 align:middle line:84% as if for a kiss, and flies upward, 00:16:43.080 --> 00:16:47.520 align:middle line:84% whistling a little known ballad about the pitiful, raw 00:16:47.520 --> 00:16:49.710 align:middle line:90% etiquette of the underworld. 00:16:49.710 --> 00:17:01.260 align:middle line:90% 00:17:01.260 --> 00:17:07.319 align:middle line:84% I've got three glasses of water and a very dry throat, 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:10.440 align:middle line:84% but I have this terrible memory once of-- 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:12.480 align:middle line:84% Years ago now, so I may have overcome it. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:14.050 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:17:14.050 --> 00:17:17.010 align:middle line:84% --of reaching for a glass in the middle of the reading 00:17:17.010 --> 00:17:20.220 align:middle line:90% and just going, wah. 00:17:20.220 --> 00:17:23.655 align:middle line:84% So I'm looking at these glasses, I'm very thirsty. 00:17:23.655 --> 00:17:29.083 align:middle line:90% 00:17:29.083 --> 00:17:29.625 align:middle line:90% Have a drink? 00:17:29.625 --> 00:17:30.210 align:middle line:90% Go ahead. 00:17:30.210 --> 00:17:31.080 align:middle line:90% All right? 00:17:31.080 --> 00:17:31.920 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:34.118 align:middle line:90% You going to cover for me? 00:17:34.118 --> 00:17:37.112 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:17:37.112 --> 00:17:38.610 align:middle line:90% 00:17:38.610 --> 00:17:40.140 align:middle line:90% I did it. 00:17:40.140 --> 00:17:42.326 align:middle line:90% Well that felt good. 00:17:42.326 --> 00:17:45.284 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:17:45.284 --> 00:17:50.220 align:middle line:90% 00:17:50.220 --> 00:17:52.035 align:middle line:84% This is called "Acting on a Tip." 00:17:52.035 --> 00:17:55.490 align:middle line:90% 00:17:55.490 --> 00:17:58.160 align:middle line:90% We went to the bug-eating state. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:02.120 align:middle line:84% We sat down on some little bluestem grass. 00:18:02.120 --> 00:18:07.760 align:middle line:84% Grasshoppers plagued the state, so who's eating the bugs? 00:18:07.760 --> 00:18:10.790 align:middle line:84% Acting on a tip, we brushed our teeth. 00:18:10.790 --> 00:18:14.420 align:middle line:84% This was going to be a very long drive. 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:18.410 align:middle line:84% Recumbent bison decorated the airwaves. 00:18:18.410 --> 00:18:21.350 align:middle line:84% Acting on a tip, I got dressed and walked down to the river 00:18:21.350 --> 00:18:23.360 align:middle line:84% and washed my face and combed my hair 00:18:23.360 --> 00:18:28.340 align:middle line:84% and picked the bugs from my teeth and urinated on a leaf. 00:18:28.340 --> 00:18:30.800 align:middle line:84% The leaf was a moving target, as a crack 00:18:30.800 --> 00:18:34.790 align:middle line:84% squadron of soldier ants had big plans for it elsewhere. 00:18:34.790 --> 00:18:37.310 align:middle line:90% 00:18:37.310 --> 00:18:42.020 align:middle line:84% My yellow rain was meant to amuse them, nothing more. 00:18:42.020 --> 00:18:45.200 align:middle line:84% What a glorious morning for bugs, in general. 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:49.190 align:middle line:84% For caterpillars speeding toward their destiny in the sky. 00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:51.590 align:middle line:90% Dragonflies mating in flight. 00:18:51.590 --> 00:18:54.590 align:middle line:84% Ancient beetles lugging their excess wisdom 00:18:54.590 --> 00:18:56.270 align:middle line:90% to the auction block. 00:18:56.270 --> 00:18:59.660 align:middle line:84% And katydids in charge of cryptography. 00:18:59.660 --> 00:19:05.000 align:middle line:84% And walking sticks, to remind us of how long the road can be. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.170 align:middle line:84% And this is by no means an exhaustive catalog. 00:19:09.170 --> 00:19:12.140 align:middle line:84% One could prattle on about a variety of mites 00:19:12.140 --> 00:19:14.810 align:middle line:90% until the cows come home. 00:19:14.810 --> 00:19:18.650 align:middle line:84% Instead, let's talk about cows no more. 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:22.340 align:middle line:84% Acting on a tip, I zipped up and returned to the beefsteak club 00:19:22.340 --> 00:19:25.220 align:middle line:84% in progress, the raving, looting, windswept, 00:19:25.220 --> 00:19:29.750 align:middle line:84% boomeranging family of vacationers to which I belong. 00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:34.520 align:middle line:84% They were seated on a log discussing pork futures. 00:19:34.520 --> 00:19:38.630 align:middle line:84% My beloved daughter Tabitha was breathing heavily. 00:19:38.630 --> 00:19:42.440 align:middle line:84% There was a common earwig exiting her right ear, 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:45.860 align:middle line:90% or so I told her. 00:19:45.860 --> 00:19:50.330 align:middle line:84% Daddy, that earwings crawl into people's ears at night 00:19:50.330 --> 00:19:53.750 align:middle line:84% and bite them is a totally unfounded superstition. 00:19:53.750 --> 00:19:56.810 align:middle line:84% Earwigs are harmless, only occasionally damaging 00:19:56.810 --> 00:19:59.680 align:middle line:90% flower blossoms. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:01.950 align:middle line:90% I scanned the horizon. 00:20:01.950 --> 00:20:04.500 align:middle line:90% Let's camp here, I said. 00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:08.670 align:middle line:84% But daddy, they announced in unison, We are camped here. 00:20:08.670 --> 00:20:12.058 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:20:12.058 --> 00:20:24.080 align:middle line:90% 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:26.470 align:middle line:84% This is called "The Definition of Gardening." 00:20:26.470 --> 00:20:29.700 align:middle line:90% 00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:31.660 align:middle line:90% Jim just loves to garden. 00:20:31.660 --> 00:20:33.670 align:middle line:90% Yes he does. 00:20:33.670 --> 00:20:35.730 align:middle line:84% He likes nothing better than to pull out 00:20:35.730 --> 00:20:39.210 align:middle line:84% his little-- to put on his little overalls and his straw 00:20:39.210 --> 00:20:40.830 align:middle line:90% hat. 00:20:40.830 --> 00:20:45.690 align:middle line:84% He says, let's go get those tools, Jim. 00:20:45.690 --> 00:20:53.190 align:middle line:84% And then begins to set in, he says, what is a garden, anyway? 00:20:53.190 --> 00:20:55.860 align:middle line:84% And thoughts about a modernistic garden 00:20:55.860 --> 00:21:00.690 align:middle line:84% begin to trouble him, eat away at his resolve. 00:21:00.690 --> 00:21:05.140 align:middle line:84% He stands in the driveway a long time. 00:21:05.140 --> 00:21:08.950 align:middle line:84% Horticulture is a groping in the dark 00:21:08.950 --> 00:21:12.220 align:middle line:90% into the obscure and unfamiliar. 00:21:12.220 --> 00:21:15.220 align:middle line:84% Kneeling before a disinterested secret. 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:18.670 align:middle line:84% Slapping it, punching it like a Chinese puzzle. 00:21:18.670 --> 00:21:22.720 align:middle line:84% birdbrained, babbling gibberish, dig and destroy, pull out 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:26.350 align:middle line:84% and apply salt, hoe and spray before it spreads, 00:21:26.350 --> 00:21:31.990 align:middle line:84% burn roots where not desired with gloved hands poisonous. 00:21:31.990 --> 00:21:33.790 align:middle line:90% The self-sacrifice of it. 00:21:33.790 --> 00:21:36.880 align:middle line:84% The self-love into the interior, thunderclap, 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:41.480 align:middle line:84% excruciating, through the nose, the earsplitting necrology 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:41.980 align:middle line:90% of it. 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:45.580 align:middle line:84% The withering, shriveling, the handy hose holder 00:21:45.580 --> 00:21:48.685 align:middle line:84% and Persian insect powder and smut fungi. 00:21:48.685 --> 00:21:52.970 align:middle line:84% Enemies of the iris, wire worms are worse than their parents. 00:21:52.970 --> 00:21:54.350 align:middle line:90% There is no way out. 00:21:54.350 --> 00:21:56.140 align:middle line:90% Flowers as big as heads. 00:21:56.140 --> 00:22:00.250 align:middle line:84% Pockmarked, disfigured, blinking insolently at me. 00:22:00.250 --> 00:22:03.520 align:middle line:84% The me who so loves to garden because it prevents 00:22:03.520 --> 00:22:07.180 align:middle line:84% the heaving of the ground and the untimely death of porch 00:22:07.180 --> 00:22:12.070 align:middle line:84% furniture and dark murky days in a large city and the dream home 00:22:12.070 --> 00:22:17.530 align:middle line:84% under a permanent storm is also a factor to keep in mind. 00:22:17.530 --> 00:22:20.967 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:22:20.967 --> 00:22:30.300 align:middle line:90% 00:22:30.300 --> 00:22:31.530 align:middle line:90% This is called "Per Diem." 00:22:31.530 --> 00:22:35.890 align:middle line:90% 00:22:35.890 --> 00:22:40.780 align:middle line:84% Spherically wondrous sunbeam dwelling in the mansion 00:22:40.780 --> 00:22:43.390 align:middle line:90% of the pine of chastity. 00:22:43.390 --> 00:22:48.950 align:middle line:84% Today we bought an ice pack for Mildred's injured foot. 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:52.720 align:middle line:84% Luminous shadow in the plumflower chamber. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.350 align:middle line:84% Edna quit her job yesterday, got drunk, stayed drunk, 00:22:57.350 --> 00:22:59.660 align:middle line:84% behaved like a defective monster, 00:22:59.660 --> 00:23:03.620 align:middle line:84% collapsing in the mansion of self-pity. 00:23:03.620 --> 00:23:08.960 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, the great sea of compassion rolled in, 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:15.410 align:middle line:84% rolled out, rolled in, and the blue mountain of itself 00:23:15.410 --> 00:23:17.030 align:middle line:90% remains. 00:23:17.030 --> 00:23:21.740 align:middle line:84% And the blind shampooers never tire of their work. 00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:36.030 align:middle line:90% 00:23:36.030 --> 00:23:36.600 align:middle line:90% Blind. 00:23:36.600 --> 00:23:39.510 align:middle line:90% Oh yes, here's another blind. 00:23:39.510 --> 00:23:41.205 align:middle line:84% This poem is called "The Blind Heron." 00:23:41.205 --> 00:23:46.130 align:middle line:90% 00:23:46.130 --> 00:23:50.710 align:middle line:84% Now Kiki's gone and lost her cockatiel, Lilith. 00:23:50.710 --> 00:23:55.090 align:middle line:84% She's put signs up all over town offering a reward. 00:23:55.090 --> 00:23:56.470 align:middle line:90% I don't hold-- 00:23:56.470 --> 00:24:00.730 align:middle line:84% I don't hold out much hope for Lilith's return. 00:24:00.730 --> 00:24:03.070 align:middle line:84% Given our New England climate, she's probably 00:24:03.070 --> 00:24:06.040 align:middle line:90% halfway to Australia by now. 00:24:06.040 --> 00:24:09.520 align:middle line:84% Kiki mopes around feeling rejected, of course. 00:24:09.520 --> 00:24:13.000 align:middle line:84% Taking it personally, of course, as if Lilith 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.760 align:middle line:90% were the final judge. 00:24:15.760 --> 00:24:18.050 align:middle line:84% And it is true, Kiki has her problems. 00:24:18.050 --> 00:24:20.620 align:middle line:90% 00:24:20.620 --> 00:24:22.360 align:middle line:90% She's a liar, for one thing. 00:24:22.360 --> 00:24:24.980 align:middle line:90% 00:24:24.980 --> 00:24:28.850 align:middle line:84% And not just your average prevaricator. 00:24:28.850 --> 00:24:31.130 align:middle line:84% Kiki once arrived at a party at my house 00:24:31.130 --> 00:24:34.850 align:middle line:84% and announced to everyone that the president has just 00:24:34.850 --> 00:24:37.230 align:middle line:90% been shot. 00:24:37.230 --> 00:24:40.470 align:middle line:84% We turned on the radio immediately, 00:24:40.470 --> 00:24:43.290 align:middle line:84% and it was true the president had just been shot, 00:24:43.290 --> 00:24:45.270 align:middle line:90% but Kiki didn't know this. 00:24:45.270 --> 00:24:48.644 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:24:48.644 --> 00:24:52.020 align:middle line:90% 00:24:52.020 --> 00:24:56.745 align:middle line:84% It was her idea of an entrance, or so we thought. 00:24:56.745 --> 00:25:00.630 align:middle line:90% 00:25:00.630 --> 00:25:03.090 align:middle line:84% But perhaps that was a poor example 00:25:03.090 --> 00:25:06.990 align:middle line:84% of Kiki's essentially prevaricating nature. 00:25:06.990 --> 00:25:07.950 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:25:07.950 --> 00:25:10.770 align:middle line:84% One time I asked Kiki what she did over the weekend. 00:25:10.770 --> 00:25:13.920 align:middle line:90% She said, I went to Tasmania. 00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:15.900 align:middle line:90% That's nice, I said. 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:18.960 align:middle line:84% But please don't insult my credulity. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:21.420 align:middle line:90% Tasmania, hmm. 00:25:21.420 --> 00:25:23.490 align:middle line:90% What's the capital of Tasmania? 00:25:23.490 --> 00:25:26.250 align:middle line:90% Hobart, she said. 00:25:26.250 --> 00:25:29.250 align:middle line:84% I captured a very nice cockatiel while I was there. 00:25:29.250 --> 00:25:31.830 align:middle line:84% Would you like to-- would you care to meet it? 00:25:31.830 --> 00:25:34.320 align:middle line:84% Well I met Lilith, a nice looking bird. 00:25:34.320 --> 00:25:35.670 align:middle line:90% Very nice. 00:25:35.670 --> 00:25:38.325 align:middle line:84% But I really don't think Lilith is her real name. 00:25:38.325 --> 00:25:42.270 align:middle line:90% 00:25:42.270 --> 00:25:44.730 align:middle line:84% If I had flown to Tasmania for the weekend 00:25:44.730 --> 00:25:46.890 align:middle line:84% and had captured a fine bird like that, 00:25:46.890 --> 00:25:51.395 align:middle line:84% I would have called her Christina the Astonishing. 00:25:51.395 --> 00:25:52.770 align:middle line:84% I would have known beyond a doubt 00:25:52.770 --> 00:25:55.620 align:middle line:90% that that was her true name. 00:25:55.620 --> 00:26:00.900 align:middle line:84% Why Kiki lies about such elementary truths is beyond me. 00:26:00.900 --> 00:26:02.970 align:middle line:84% You can see why I considered it my duty 00:26:02.970 --> 00:26:06.360 align:middle line:84% to remove the bird from Kiki's care, Poor 00:26:06.360 --> 00:26:10.200 align:middle line:84% Kiki, and beautiful, glorious Christina 00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:16.590 align:middle line:84% the Astonishing, who by the way, is from Australia, not 00:26:16.590 --> 00:26:17.820 align:middle line:90% Tasmania. 00:26:17.820 --> 00:26:20.070 align:middle line:90% Of that I am almost certain. 00:26:20.070 --> 00:26:23.528 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:26:23.528 --> 00:26:31.940 align:middle line:90% 00:26:31.940 --> 00:26:34.445 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "Chronology of Events." 00:26:34.445 --> 00:26:38.260 align:middle line:90% 00:26:38.260 --> 00:26:40.330 align:middle line:84% God knows we've never thought of you 00:26:40.330 --> 00:26:44.320 align:middle line:90% as insufficiently frou-frou. 00:26:44.320 --> 00:26:46.120 align:middle line:84% I actually said that this morning 00:26:46.120 --> 00:26:55.000 align:middle line:84% to my coffee, and the word recherché was not far away, 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:58.210 align:middle line:90% scowling at me. 00:26:58.210 --> 00:27:01.060 align:middle line:84% I had a stranglehold on a straw man. 00:27:01.060 --> 00:27:03.910 align:middle line:84% The son of a bitch was dying fast, 00:27:03.910 --> 00:27:07.560 align:middle line:84% and then I let go and floated for a while. 00:27:07.560 --> 00:27:10.950 align:middle line:84% Time passed like a butterfly in the room. 00:27:10.950 --> 00:27:14.160 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, I was in a bathtub sinking. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:17.490 align:middle line:84% And then I was on a couch for a long time. 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:20.070 align:middle line:84% Long, long time, and the butterfly landed on me 00:27:20.070 --> 00:27:23.190 align:middle line:84% and held me in its scissors grip. 00:27:23.190 --> 00:27:26.970 align:middle line:84% Page upon page of blank transcript. 00:27:26.970 --> 00:27:30.390 align:middle line:84% A room inched sideways, only slightly, 00:27:30.390 --> 00:27:33.690 align:middle line:84% A nuthatch clung to the window screen. 00:27:33.690 --> 00:27:37.680 align:middle line:84% Moments of great clarity inhabited me. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:41.810 align:middle line:84% I was their anthill, and they were my ants. 00:27:41.810 --> 00:27:45.830 align:middle line:84% And they too must sleep according to a lot of prophets. 00:27:45.830 --> 00:27:50.900 align:middle line:84% And they will be nameless, yes, and faceless, yes. 00:27:50.900 --> 00:27:53.510 align:middle line:84% The prophets will boss them around and insult 00:27:53.510 --> 00:27:56.990 align:middle line:84% their mothers, and the little ants of clarity 00:27:56.990 --> 00:28:00.680 align:middle line:84% will just work harder and harder for they 00:28:00.680 --> 00:28:06.380 align:middle line:84% are blind and dedicated and stupid, stupid, stupid. 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:12.372 align:middle line:84% This was revealed to me around 2:24 PM, 9/27/95. 00:28:12.372 --> 00:28:25.715 align:middle line:90% 00:28:25.715 --> 00:28:26.215 align:middle line:90% Exciting. 00:28:26.215 --> 00:28:29.190 align:middle line:90% 00:28:29.190 --> 00:28:30.700 align:middle line:90% I can do that. 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:31.440 align:middle line:90% if I want. 00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:34.200 align:middle line:90% 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:35.040 align:middle line:90% I'm getting better. 00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:38.540 align:middle line:90% 00:28:38.540 --> 00:28:40.950 align:middle line:84% This next poem is called "The New Ergonomics." 00:28:40.950 --> 00:28:45.570 align:middle line:90% 00:28:45.570 --> 00:28:47.940 align:middle line:84% The new ergonomics were delivered just 00:28:47.940 --> 00:28:52.560 align:middle line:84% before lunchtime, so we ignored them. 00:28:52.560 --> 00:28:54.510 align:middle line:84% Without revealing the particulars, 00:28:54.510 --> 00:28:58.260 align:middle line:84% let me just say that lunch was most satisfying. 00:28:58.260 --> 00:29:02.490 align:middle line:84% Jack and Roberta went with the corned beef, for a change. 00:29:02.490 --> 00:29:05.580 align:middle line:84% Jack believes in alien abduction, and Roberta does 00:29:05.580 --> 00:29:09.270 align:middle line:84% not, although she has had several lost weekends lately. 00:29:09.270 --> 00:29:12.090 align:middle line:90% 00:29:12.090 --> 00:29:15.060 align:middle line:84% And one or two unexplained scars on her buttocks. 00:29:15.060 --> 00:29:17.940 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:29:17.940 --> 00:29:20.340 align:middle line:90% 00:29:20.340 --> 00:29:23.040 align:middle line:84% I thought I recognized someone from my childhood 00:29:23.040 --> 00:29:25.110 align:middle line:90% at a table across the room. 00:29:25.110 --> 00:29:29.700 align:middle line:84% The same teeth, the same hair, but when he stood up I 00:29:29.700 --> 00:29:31.440 align:middle line:90% wasn't sure. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:34.530 align:middle line:90% Squid, with a red tie? 00:29:34.530 --> 00:29:36.840 align:middle line:90% Impossible. 00:29:36.840 --> 00:29:40.290 align:middle line:84% I finished my quiche Lorraine and returned my thoughts 00:29:40.290 --> 00:29:42.480 align:middle line:90% to Jack's new jag. 00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:45.960 align:middle line:84% Well, I guess anything's possible. 00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.130 align:middle line:90% People disappear all the time. 00:29:48.130 --> 00:29:50.340 align:middle line:84% And most of them have no explanation, 00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:52.560 align:middle line:90% when and if they return. 00:29:52.560 --> 00:29:53.700 align:middle line:90% Look at Tony-- 00:29:53.700 --> 00:29:57.660 align:middle line:84% Look at Tony's daughter, and she's never been the same. 00:29:57.660 --> 00:30:02.460 align:middle line:84% Jack was looking as if he'd bet on the right horse now. 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:05.970 align:middle line:84% And these new ergonomics, who really designed them? 00:30:05.970 --> 00:30:07.860 align:middle line:90% Does anybody know? 00:30:07.860 --> 00:30:09.810 align:middle line:90% Do they tell us anything? 00:30:09.810 --> 00:30:10.800 align:middle line:90% A name? 00:30:10.800 --> 00:30:12.120 align:middle line:90% An address? 00:30:12.120 --> 00:30:14.500 align:middle line:90% Hell no. 00:30:14.500 --> 00:30:20.440 align:middle line:84% Squid was paying his bill in a standard-issue blue blazer. 00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:23.890 align:middle line:84% He looked across the room at me several times. 00:30:23.890 --> 00:30:26.740 align:middle line:84% He looked tired, like he wanted to sleep 00:30:26.740 --> 00:30:32.380 align:middle line:84% for a long time in a barn somewhere in Kansas. 00:30:32.380 --> 00:30:34.000 align:middle line:90% I wanted to sleep there, too. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:55.680 align:middle line:90% 00:30:55.680 --> 00:30:57.720 align:middle line:84% This is called "Think of Your Absent Friend." 00:30:57.720 --> 00:31:01.430 align:middle line:90% 00:31:01.430 --> 00:31:05.750 align:middle line:84% Think of your absent friend, and I say, pig iron. 00:31:05.750 --> 00:31:08.330 align:middle line:84% The bumbershoot is departed for the desert, 00:31:08.330 --> 00:31:11.360 align:middle line:84% using the back staircase and through the back door, 00:31:11.360 --> 00:31:14.270 align:middle line:84% incognito, hush-hush, cat-like, like a cloud. 00:31:14.270 --> 00:31:17.360 align:middle line:84% And what's a friend going to do but cleave and cling, 00:31:17.360 --> 00:31:21.410 align:middle line:84% remembering the flying horse, the chained maiden baroness's 00:31:21.410 --> 00:31:25.190 align:middle line:84% hair, not to mention foreign bodies in the eye. 00:31:25.190 --> 00:31:28.910 align:middle line:84% Convulsions and loss of limb, in addition to forms of address 00:31:28.910 --> 00:31:31.160 align:middle line:84% for persons of rank and public office, 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.470 align:middle line:90% and the Republic of Tonga. 00:31:33.470 --> 00:31:36.480 align:middle line:84% I think of my absent friend and all of this. 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:39.530 align:middle line:84% And so much more whistles through my nervous system. 00:31:39.530 --> 00:31:42.740 align:middle line:84% Snowy tree crickets, toothpick grasshoppers, 00:31:42.740 --> 00:31:45.080 align:middle line:84% immunization schedules for children, 00:31:45.080 --> 00:31:47.780 align:middle line:84% golden parachutes, seasonal adjustments. 00:31:47.780 --> 00:31:51.830 align:middle line:84% My friend, the last gasp of an old regime. 00:31:51.830 --> 00:31:55.490 align:middle line:84% My friend, apogee of central Asian power. 00:31:55.490 --> 00:31:57.530 align:middle line:84% My friend in the home of Knute Rockne, 00:31:57.530 --> 00:32:00.320 align:middle line:84% and who knows the living arrangements of young adults 00:32:00.320 --> 00:32:01.430 align:middle line:90% all too well. 00:32:01.430 --> 00:32:03.290 align:middle line:84% Not to mention most of the injuries 00:32:03.290 --> 00:32:07.100 align:middle line:84% and illnesses in industry, absent now and gone. 00:32:07.100 --> 00:32:10.520 align:middle line:84% Like the cholera epidemic in Peru is now gone. 00:32:10.520 --> 00:32:11.330 align:middle line:90% History. 00:32:11.330 --> 00:32:15.360 align:middle line:84% And even as the jobless rate continues to rise, 00:32:15.360 --> 00:32:18.230 align:middle line:84% so my friend is absent, is a nonpresence, 00:32:18.230 --> 00:32:20.900 align:middle line:90% and is everywhere reminding me. 00:32:20.900 --> 00:32:38.560 align:middle line:90% 00:32:38.560 --> 00:32:40.450 align:middle line:84% This is called "Never Again the Same." 00:32:40.450 --> 00:32:44.760 align:middle line:90% 00:32:44.760 --> 00:32:49.540 align:middle line:84% Speaking of sunsets, last night's was shocking. 00:32:49.540 --> 00:32:53.340 align:middle line:84% I mean, sunsets aren't supposed to frighten you, are they? 00:32:53.340 --> 00:32:55.830 align:middle line:90% Well this one was terrifying. 00:32:55.830 --> 00:32:58.680 align:middle line:84% People were screaming in the streets. 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:02.460 align:middle line:84% Sure, it was beautiful, but far too beautiful. 00:33:02.460 --> 00:33:03.960 align:middle line:90% It wasn't natural. 00:33:03.960 --> 00:33:07.000 align:middle line:84% One climax followed another and then another 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.140 align:middle line:84% until your knees went weak, and you couldn't breathe. 00:33:10.140 --> 00:33:13.590 align:middle line:84% The colors were definitely not of this world. 00:33:13.590 --> 00:33:16.620 align:middle line:84% Peaches dripping opium, pandemonium 00:33:16.620 --> 00:33:20.970 align:middle line:84% of tangerines, inferno of irises, Plutonian emeralds, 00:33:20.970 --> 00:33:25.290 align:middle line:84% all swirling and churning, swabbing, like it was playing 00:33:25.290 --> 00:33:29.310 align:middle line:84% with us, like we were nothing, as if our whole lives were 00:33:29.310 --> 00:33:32.214 align:middle line:90% a preparation for this. 00:33:32.214 --> 00:33:34.470 align:middle line:84% This for which nothing could have prepared us 00:33:34.470 --> 00:33:36.930 align:middle line:84% and for which we could not have been less prepared. 00:33:36.930 --> 00:33:41.070 align:middle line:84% The mockery of it all stung us bitterly, 00:33:41.070 --> 00:33:45.330 align:middle line:84% and when it was finally over, we whimpered and cried and howled. 00:33:45.330 --> 00:33:48.420 align:middle line:84% And then the streetlights came on as always, 00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:51.720 align:middle line:84% and we looked into one another's eyes, 00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:56.670 align:middle line:84% ancient caves with still pools, and those little transparent 00:33:56.670 --> 00:34:00.930 align:middle line:84% fish who have never seen even one ray of light. 00:34:00.930 --> 00:34:05.685 align:middle line:84% And the calm that returned to us was not even our own. 00:34:05.685 --> 00:34:23.000 align:middle line:90% 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:25.250 align:middle line:90% Called "Restless Leg Syndrome." 00:34:25.250 --> 00:34:32.070 align:middle line:90% 00:34:32.070 --> 00:34:35.429 align:middle line:84% After the burial we returned to our units 00:34:35.429 --> 00:34:38.909 align:middle line:90% and assumed our poses. 00:34:38.909 --> 00:34:44.820 align:middle line:84% Our posture was the new posture and not the old sick posture. 00:34:44.820 --> 00:34:48.060 align:middle line:84% When we left our stations it was just to prove we could, 00:34:48.060 --> 00:34:50.730 align:middle line:84% not a serious departure or a search 00:34:50.730 --> 00:34:52.949 align:middle line:90% for yet another beginning. 00:34:52.949 --> 00:34:54.750 align:middle line:90% We were done with all that. 00:34:54.750 --> 00:34:57.690 align:middle line:84% We were settled in, as they say, though it 00:34:57.690 --> 00:35:00.030 align:middle line:90% might have been otherwise. 00:35:00.030 --> 00:35:02.100 align:middle line:90% What a story. 00:35:02.100 --> 00:35:04.440 align:middle line:84% After the burial we returned to our units 00:35:04.440 --> 00:35:07.320 align:middle line:84% and here is where I'm experiencing that leg 00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:10.710 align:middle line:90% kicking syndrome thing. 00:35:10.710 --> 00:35:13.500 align:middle line:84% My leg, for no apparent reason, flies 00:35:13.500 --> 00:35:15.810 align:middle line:90% around the room kicking stuff. 00:35:15.810 --> 00:35:18.540 align:middle line:90% Well, whatever is in the way. 00:35:18.540 --> 00:35:21.240 align:middle line:90% Like a screen or a watering can. 00:35:21.240 --> 00:35:26.910 align:middle line:84% Those are just two examples, and indeed I could give many more. 00:35:26.910 --> 00:35:29.940 align:middle line:84% I could construct a catalog of the things it kicks. 00:35:29.940 --> 00:35:32.730 align:middle line:90% Perhaps I will do that later. 00:35:32.730 --> 00:35:37.020 align:middle line:84% Well, we'll just have to see if it's really wanted. 00:35:37.020 --> 00:35:41.610 align:middle line:84% Or I could do a little now and then return to listing later. 00:35:41.610 --> 00:35:45.360 align:middle line:84% It kicked the scrimshaw collection, yes it did. 00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:48.450 align:middle line:84% It kicked the ocelot, which was rude and uncalled for 00:35:48.450 --> 00:35:51.600 align:middle line:90% and, yes, hurtful. 00:35:51.600 --> 00:35:55.290 align:middle line:84% It kicked the guacamole right out of its bowl, 00:35:55.290 --> 00:35:57.870 align:middle line:84% which made for a grubby and potentially dangerous 00:35:57.870 --> 00:36:00.390 align:middle line:90% workplace. 00:36:00.390 --> 00:36:03.210 align:middle line:84% I was out testing the new speed bump 00:36:03.210 --> 00:36:06.630 align:middle line:84% when it kicked the Viscountess, which she probably 00:36:06.630 --> 00:36:10.080 align:middle line:84% deserved, and I was happy, needless to say, 00:36:10.080 --> 00:36:12.720 align:middle line:90% to not be a witness. 00:36:12.720 --> 00:36:15.720 align:middle line:84% The kicking subsided for a while. 00:36:15.720 --> 00:36:18.430 align:middle line:84% Nobody was keeping track of time, at that time, 00:36:18.430 --> 00:36:22.200 align:middle line:84% so it's impossible to fill out the forms accurately. 00:36:22.200 --> 00:36:27.800 align:middle line:84% Suffice it to say, we remained at our units on constant alert, 00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:29.550 align:middle line:84% and then it kicked over the little cowtown 00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:32.820 align:middle line:84% we had set up for punching and that sort of thing. 00:36:32.820 --> 00:36:35.820 align:middle line:84% A covered wagon filled with cover girls. 00:36:35.820 --> 00:36:39.960 align:middle line:84% But now it was kicked over, and we had a moment of silence, 00:36:39.960 --> 00:36:43.650 align:middle line:84% but it was clear to me that many of our minions 00:36:43.650 --> 00:36:48.740 align:middle line:84% were getting tetchy, and some of them were getting tetchier. 00:36:48.740 --> 00:36:51.140 align:middle line:84% And then it kicked a particularly treasured snuff 00:36:51.140 --> 00:36:54.740 align:middle line:84% box, which legend has it, once belonged 00:36:54.740 --> 00:36:59.300 align:middle line:84% to somebody named Bob Mackey, so we were understandably saddened 00:36:59.300 --> 00:37:02.830 align:middle line:84% and returned to our units rather weary. 00:37:02.830 --> 00:37:06.400 align:middle line:84% No one seemed to think I was in the least bit culpable. 00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:09.580 align:middle line:84% It was my leg, of course, that was doing the actual kissing-- 00:37:09.580 --> 00:37:15.520 align:middle line:84% kicking, of that I am almost certain. 00:37:15.520 --> 00:37:19.960 align:middle line:84% At any rate, we decided to bury it. 00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:23.080 align:middle line:84% After the burial we returned to our units 00:37:23.080 --> 00:37:25.600 align:middle line:90% and assumed our poses. 00:37:25.600 --> 00:37:29.180 align:middle line:84% A little bit of time past, not much. 00:37:29.180 --> 00:37:34.060 align:middle line:84% And then John's legs started acting suspicious. 00:37:34.060 --> 00:37:37.060 align:middle line:84% It looked like it wanted to kick the replica of the White House 00:37:37.060 --> 00:37:42.530 align:middle line:84% we kept on hand just for situations such as this. 00:37:42.530 --> 00:37:46.405 align:middle line:90% And then, sure enough, it did. 00:37:46.405 --> 00:37:49.870 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:37:49.870 --> 00:38:22.100 align:middle line:90% 00:38:22.100 --> 00:38:23.495 align:middle line:90% This is called "Non-Stop." 00:38:23.495 --> 00:38:27.680 align:middle line:90% 00:38:27.680 --> 00:38:31.040 align:middle line:84% It seemed as if the enormous journey was finally 00:38:31.040 --> 00:38:33.686 align:middle line:90% approaching its conclusion. 00:38:33.686 --> 00:38:36.390 align:middle line:84% From the window of the train, the last trees 00:38:36.390 --> 00:38:38.370 align:middle line:90% were dissipating. 00:38:38.370 --> 00:38:41.220 align:middle line:90% A child-like sailor waved once. 00:38:41.220 --> 00:38:44.790 align:middle line:90% A seal-like dog barked and died. 00:38:44.790 --> 00:38:47.070 align:middle line:84% The conductor entered the lavatory 00:38:47.070 --> 00:38:50.250 align:middle line:84% and was not seen again, although his harmonica 00:38:50.250 --> 00:38:52.950 align:middle line:90% playing was appreciated. 00:38:52.950 --> 00:38:56.990 align:middle line:84% It was not without talent, some said. 00:38:56.990 --> 00:38:59.390 align:middle line:84% A botanist with whom I had become acquainted 00:38:59.390 --> 00:39:03.860 align:middle line:84% actually suggested we form a group or something. 00:39:03.860 --> 00:39:07.360 align:middle line:84% I was looking for a familiar signpost in his face 00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:09.310 align:middle line:84% or a landmark that would indicate 00:39:09.310 --> 00:39:13.000 align:middle line:84% the true colors of his tribe, but alas there 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:15.340 align:middle line:84% was not a glass of water anywhere 00:39:15.340 --> 00:39:18.630 align:middle line:90% or even the remains of a trail. 00:39:18.630 --> 00:39:22.530 align:middle line:84% I got a bewildered expression of my own 00:39:22.530 --> 00:39:24.630 align:middle line:84% and slinked to the back of the car 00:39:24.630 --> 00:39:28.200 align:middle line:84% where a nun started to tickle me. 00:39:28.200 --> 00:39:30.870 align:middle line:84% She confided to me that it was her cowboy 00:39:30.870 --> 00:39:33.594 align:middle line:90% pride that got her through. 00:39:33.594 --> 00:39:34.410 align:middle line:90% Through what? 00:39:34.410 --> 00:39:36.930 align:middle line:90% I thought. 00:39:36.930 --> 00:39:40.830 align:middle line:84% Drew my hand close to my imaginary vest. 00:39:40.830 --> 00:39:44.310 align:middle line:84% That's a beautiful vest, she said, 00:39:44.310 --> 00:39:47.280 align:middle line:84% as I began crawling down the aisle. 00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:50.790 align:middle line:84% At last, I pressed my face against the window, 00:39:50.790 --> 00:39:53.790 align:middle line:84% a little fog was licking its chop, 00:39:53.790 --> 00:39:58.620 align:middle line:84% as was the stationmaster licking something. 00:39:58.620 --> 00:40:00.360 align:middle line:90% We didn't stop. 00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:02.820 align:middle line:84% We didn't appear to be arriving, and yet we 00:40:02.820 --> 00:40:05.250 align:middle line:90% were almost out of landscape. 00:40:05.250 --> 00:40:07.260 align:middle line:90% No creeks or rivers. 00:40:07.260 --> 00:40:11.250 align:middle line:84% Nothing even remotely reminding one of a mound. 00:40:11.250 --> 00:40:16.800 align:middle line:84% Oh mound, thou ain't around no more. 00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:19.920 align:middle line:84% A heap of abstract geometrical symbols, 00:40:19.920 --> 00:40:22.800 align:middle line:84% that's what it's coming to, I thought. 00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:26.250 align:middle line:84% And nothing you could sink your teeth into. 00:40:26.250 --> 00:40:30.930 align:middle line:84% Reliefs on the way, a little know-nothing boy said to me. 00:40:30.930 --> 00:40:36.160 align:middle line:84% Imagine my surprise, I said, and reached out to muss his hair, 00:40:36.160 --> 00:40:38.970 align:middle line:84% but he had no hair, and it felt unlucky 00:40:38.970 --> 00:40:40.830 align:middle line:90% touching his skull like that. 00:40:40.830 --> 00:40:42.840 align:middle line:90% Forget what I said, he said. 00:40:42.840 --> 00:40:47.580 align:middle line:84% What did you say, I asked in automatic compliance. 00:40:47.580 --> 00:40:50.940 align:middle line:84% And then it got very dark and quiet. 00:40:50.940 --> 00:40:56.010 align:middle line:84% I closed my eyes and dreamed of an emu I once loved. 00:40:56.010 --> 00:40:58.944 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:40:58.944 --> 00:41:05.800 align:middle line:90% 00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:09.330 align:middle line:90% And this is the last poem. 00:41:09.330 --> 00:41:11.910 align:middle line:90% Been very nice reading to you. 00:41:11.910 --> 00:41:22.110 align:middle line:90% 00:41:22.110 --> 00:41:23.700 align:middle line:90% This poem is called "Dream On." 00:41:23.700 --> 00:41:28.360 align:middle line:90% 00:41:28.360 --> 00:41:31.000 align:middle line:84% Some people go their whole lives without ever 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:33.850 align:middle line:90% writing a single poem. 00:41:33.850 --> 00:41:37.000 align:middle line:84% Extraordinary people who don't hesitate to cut 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:41.290 align:middle line:90% somebody's heart or skull open. 00:41:41.290 --> 00:41:44.170 align:middle line:84% They go to baseball games with the greatest of ease 00:41:44.170 --> 00:41:48.220 align:middle line:84% and play a few rounds of golf as if it were nothing. 00:41:48.220 --> 00:41:50.950 align:middle line:84% These same people stroll into a church 00:41:50.950 --> 00:41:54.520 align:middle line:84% as if that were a natural part of life. 00:41:54.520 --> 00:41:57.520 align:middle line:84% Investing money is second nature to them. 00:41:57.520 --> 00:41:59.830 align:middle line:84% They contribute to political campaigns 00:41:59.830 --> 00:42:02.350 align:middle line:84% that have absolutely no poetry in them 00:42:02.350 --> 00:42:05.200 align:middle line:90% and promise none for the future. 00:42:05.200 --> 00:42:07.240 align:middle line:84% They sit around the dinner table at night 00:42:07.240 --> 00:42:10.030 align:middle line:84% and pretend as though nothing is missing. 00:42:10.030 --> 00:42:12.640 align:middle line:84% Their children get caught shoplifting at the mall, 00:42:12.640 --> 00:42:16.630 align:middle line:84% and no one admits that it is poetry they are missing. 00:42:16.630 --> 00:42:19.900 align:middle line:84% The family dog howls all night, lonely and starving 00:42:19.900 --> 00:42:21.385 align:middle line:90% for more poetry in his life. 00:42:21.385 --> 00:42:24.190 align:middle line:90% 00:42:24.190 --> 00:42:27.430 align:middle line:84% Why is it so difficult for them to see that without poetry 00:42:27.430 --> 00:42:29.800 align:middle line:90% their lives are effluvial. 00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:33.640 align:middle line:84% Sure, they have their banquets, their celebrations, croquet, 00:42:33.640 --> 00:42:36.850 align:middle line:84% fox hunts, their seashores and sunsets, 00:42:36.850 --> 00:42:40.000 align:middle line:84% their cocktails on the balcony, dog races, 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:41.890 align:middle line:84% and all that kissing and hugging. 00:42:41.890 --> 00:42:44.560 align:middle line:84% And don't forget the good deeds, the charity work, 00:42:44.560 --> 00:42:46.810 align:middle line:84% nursing the baby squirrels all through the night, 00:42:46.810 --> 00:42:49.540 align:middle line:84% filling the bird feeders all winter, 00:42:49.540 --> 00:42:53.200 align:middle line:84% helping the stranger change her tire. 00:42:53.200 --> 00:42:57.010 align:middle line:84% Still there's that disagreeable exhalation from decaying 00:42:57.010 --> 00:43:01.050 align:middle line:90% matter, subtle but ever present. 00:43:01.050 --> 00:43:03.440 align:middle line:84% They walk around erect like champions. 00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:06.560 align:middle line:84% They are smooth-spoken, urbane, and witty. 00:43:06.560 --> 00:43:10.100 align:middle line:84% When alone, rare occasion, they stare into the mirror 00:43:10.100 --> 00:43:12.200 align:middle line:90% for hours bewildered. 00:43:12.200 --> 00:43:15.650 align:middle line:84% There was something they meant to say, but didn't. 00:43:15.650 --> 00:43:19.640 align:middle line:84% And if we put the statue of the rhinoceros next to the tweezers 00:43:19.640 --> 00:43:22.790 align:middle line:84% and walk around the room three times, learn to yodel, 00:43:22.790 --> 00:43:27.230 align:middle line:84% shave our heads, call our ancestors back from the dead, 00:43:27.230 --> 00:43:29.240 align:middle line:90% poetry-wise, it's still a bust. 00:43:29.240 --> 00:43:30.770 align:middle line:90% Bankrupt. 00:43:30.770 --> 00:43:33.230 align:middle line:84% You haven't scribbled a syllable of it. 00:43:33.230 --> 00:43:37.370 align:middle line:84% You're a nowhere man, misfiring the very essence of your life, 00:43:37.370 --> 00:43:41.870 align:middle line:84% flustering nothing from nothing and back again. 00:43:41.870 --> 00:43:45.830 align:middle line:84% The hereafter may not last all that long. 00:43:45.830 --> 00:43:49.190 align:middle line:84% Radiant childhood sweetheart, secret code 00:43:49.190 --> 00:43:54.050 align:middle line:84% of everlasting joy and sorrow, fanciful pen strokes 00:43:54.050 --> 00:43:55.220 align:middle line:90% beneath the eyelids. 00:43:55.220 --> 00:43:59.660 align:middle line:84% All day, all night meditation, knot of hope, kernel of desire, 00:43:59.660 --> 00:44:03.080 align:middle line:90% pure ordinariness of life. 00:44:03.080 --> 00:44:06.980 align:middle line:84% Seeking through poetry a benediction or a bed 00:44:06.980 --> 00:44:08.060 align:middle line:90% to lie down on. 00:44:08.060 --> 00:44:11.030 align:middle line:90% To connect, reveal explore. 00:44:11.030 --> 00:44:15.800 align:middle line:84% To imbue meaning on the day's extravagant labor, 00:44:15.800 --> 00:44:20.140 align:middle line:84% and yet it's cruel to expect too much. 00:44:20.140 --> 00:44:25.180 align:middle line:84% It's a rare species of bird that refuses to be recognized. 00:44:25.180 --> 00:44:28.330 align:middle line:90% Its song is barely audible. 00:44:28.330 --> 00:44:30.610 align:middle line:84% It's like a dragonfly in a dream. 00:44:30.610 --> 00:44:34.120 align:middle line:84% Here, then there, then here again. 00:44:34.120 --> 00:44:40.450 align:middle line:84% Low-flying, amber-wing darting upward and then out of sight. 00:44:40.450 --> 00:44:43.480 align:middle line:84% And the dream has a pain in its heart. 00:44:43.480 --> 00:44:47.330 align:middle line:84% The wonders of which are manifold, 00:44:47.330 --> 00:44:51.080 align:middle line:90% or so the story is told. 00:44:51.080 --> 00:44:51.980 align:middle line:90% Thanks again. 00:44:51.980 --> 00:44:55.330 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:44:55.330 --> 00:45:24.467 align:middle line:90%