WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.445 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.445 --> 00:00:03.570 align:middle line:84% For those of you who are in the writing department, 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:05.610 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read something that has 00:00:05.610 --> 00:00:07.980 align:middle line:84% to do with something that Jon Anderson said to his class 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:09.780 align:middle line:90% the other day. 00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:84% He said that the first lines of a poem 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:90% tell you how to read the poem. 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:17.091 align:middle line:90% 00:00:17.091 --> 00:00:26.470 align:middle line:84% They're like music, the time signature, the speed, the mood, 00:00:26.470 --> 00:00:33.780 align:middle line:84% whether it's con brio or it's sketch or whatever. 00:00:33.780 --> 00:00:38.370 align:middle line:84% So you have your stance with which to enter the poem. 00:00:38.370 --> 00:00:41.487 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.487 --> 00:00:43.320 align:middle line:84% And I want to give an example, and also I've 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.860 align:middle line:84% talked to several poets about my interest in what I think 00:00:46.860 --> 00:00:49.530 align:middle line:84% of as an attack, how you get into a poem 00:00:49.530 --> 00:00:52.830 align:middle line:84% instead of just wandering into it. 00:00:52.830 --> 00:00:53.940 align:middle line:90% How you feel. 00:00:53.940 --> 00:00:55.332 align:middle line:90% It's like a singer phrasing. 00:00:55.332 --> 00:00:56.790 align:middle line:84% Does she come in on the first beat, 00:00:56.790 --> 00:00:58.530 align:middle line:90% the second, third, fourth beat? 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:00.150 align:middle line:84% She's going to sing the same music, 00:01:00.150 --> 00:01:04.665 align:middle line:84% but it changes the music according to how she phrases. 00:01:04.665 --> 00:01:08.740 align:middle line:90% 00:01:08.740 --> 00:01:12.150 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that you'll know from the first line is not 00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:14.190 align:middle line:90% a realistic poem. 00:01:14.190 --> 00:01:17.430 align:middle line:84% It's an attempt to fold all history together. 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:21.960 align:middle line:84% It folds in my living in Paris for the years right 00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:24.240 align:middle line:84% after the Second World War when-- 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:26.700 align:middle line:84% so poor that the streets had no cars on them. 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.920 align:middle line:90% There was no gasoline. 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.328 align:middle line:84% I lived in, it's called a mansard, 00:01:31.328 --> 00:01:32.370 align:middle line:90% which we called a garret. 00:01:32.370 --> 00:01:35.010 align:middle line:90% 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:37.360 align:middle line:84% Paris is very flat and up in the North 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:40.830 align:middle line:84% there are two little bumps, one of which is Montparnasse, 00:01:40.830 --> 00:01:48.555 align:middle line:84% and the unfashionable one is Bachaumont. 00:01:48.555 --> 00:01:53.790 align:middle line:90% It's where my mansard was. 00:01:53.790 --> 00:01:55.800 align:middle line:90% And it's wonderful. 00:01:55.800 --> 00:01:59.100 align:middle line:84% The French are very proud of their bells, 00:01:59.100 --> 00:02:02.310 align:middle line:84% so they don't all ring the time at the same time. 00:02:02.310 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% There'd be a bell downstream, which 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:09.880 align:middle line:84% will ring like at five minutes of midnight 00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:12.240 align:middle line:84% and then the next bell will take its turn, next bell, 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.450 align:middle line:84% and we'll get to Notre Dame's turn at exactly midnight 00:02:15.450 --> 00:02:20.340 align:middle line:84% and you hear the wonderful 12 tones rung. 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:23.130 align:middle line:90% 00:02:23.130 --> 00:02:25.380 align:middle line:84% These bells afterwards have always 00:02:25.380 --> 00:02:26.490 align:middle line:90% been a touchstone for me. 00:02:26.490 --> 00:02:31.170 align:middle line:84% I remember them as an essence of some kind of bliss. 00:02:31.170 --> 00:02:35.640 align:middle line:84% I'm living in absolute poverty in beauty, 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:38.070 align:middle line:90% in such a lucky life. 00:02:38.070 --> 00:02:43.420 align:middle line:90% 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:51.310 align:middle line:84% It's mixed in, folded in with Louis XVI fleeing 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:54.430 align:middle line:84% the Reign of Terror, being chased through the-- 00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:58.930 align:middle line:84% in my poem I have running through the forests 00:02:58.930 --> 00:03:05.110 align:middle line:84% of Pennsylvania and it doesn't keep on very much, 00:03:05.110 --> 00:03:08.980 align:middle line:84% but the things like that are all mixed together. 00:03:08.980 --> 00:03:11.140 align:middle line:84% It's called Pewter because pewter 00:03:11.140 --> 00:03:14.080 align:middle line:84% is one of the very few things that grows 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:16.510 align:middle line:90% larger as it grows colder. 00:03:16.510 --> 00:03:21.820 align:middle line:84% That's why, I understand, it's used in pipe molding, 00:03:21.820 --> 00:03:25.840 align:middle line:84% that it doesn't swell and contract. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.880 align:middle line:84% If you think it swells enough to fill up the font so 00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:32.710 align:middle line:84% you get an absolutely clear letter. 00:03:32.710 --> 00:03:38.560 align:middle line:84% It's my dream of getting older, getting bigger. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:40.570 align:middle line:90% Pewter. 00:03:40.570 --> 00:03:42.370 align:middle line:84% I read this also because of something Dick 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:45.850 align:middle line:84% said about the importance of sound in his workshop 00:03:45.850 --> 00:03:48.580 align:middle line:90% last night. 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:51.790 align:middle line:84% I spent 14 years trying to write this poem 00:03:51.790 --> 00:03:55.900 align:middle line:84% and the whole time it's a poem that's based on music I hear, 00:03:55.900 --> 00:03:57.970 align:middle line:84% not metrical or that kind of music, 00:03:57.970 --> 00:04:00.430 align:middle line:84% but there's a certain music I heard in the poem. 00:04:00.430 --> 00:04:02.783 align:middle line:84% In all those 14 years I was afraid 00:04:02.783 --> 00:04:05.200 align:middle line:84% that one day I would take the wrong step that it would all 00:04:05.200 --> 00:04:10.210 align:middle line:84% fall apart I would never get the sense of the music back. 00:04:10.210 --> 00:04:12.970 align:middle line:84% But the microphone-- I kept fiddling with it 00:04:12.970 --> 00:04:15.100 align:middle line:90% until it satisfied me. 00:04:15.100 --> 00:04:18.010 align:middle line:90% Pewter. 00:04:18.010 --> 00:04:22.300 align:middle line:84% Thrushes flying under the lake, nightingales 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:25.120 align:middle line:90% singing underground. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.400 align:middle line:90% Yes, my king. 00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:32.470 align:middle line:84% Paris, hungry and leisurely just after the war. 00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:33.940 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:04:33.940 --> 00:04:37.090 align:middle line:90% America falling into history. 00:04:37.090 --> 00:04:38.680 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:42.310 align:middle line:84% Those silent winter afternoons along the Seine 00:04:42.310 --> 00:04:43.720 align:middle line:90% when I was always alone. 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:49.570 align:middle line:90% 00:04:49.570 --> 00:04:50.590 align:middle line:90% Yes, my king. 00:04:50.590 --> 00:04:53.830 align:middle line:84% Rain everywhere in the forests of Pennsylvania 00:04:53.830 --> 00:04:58.360 align:middle line:84% as the king's coach lumbered and was caught and all stood 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:02.560 align:middle line:84% gathered close while the black trees went on and on. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:07.330 align:middle line:84% Ah, my king, it was the sweet time of our lives. 00:05:07.330 --> 00:05:11.590 align:middle line:84% The rain shining on their faces, the loud sound of rain 00:05:11.590 --> 00:05:18.250 align:middle line:84% around like the nights we waited knowing she was probably warm 00:05:18.250 --> 00:05:21.670 align:middle line:90% and moaning under someone else. 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:25.690 align:middle line:84% That cold mansard looked out over the huge hospital 00:05:25.690 --> 00:05:31.510 align:middle line:84% of the poor and far down on Paris, gray and beautiful 00:05:31.510 --> 00:05:34.240 align:middle line:90% under the February rain. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:38.230 align:middle line:84% Between that and this, that yes and this 00:05:38.230 --> 00:05:43.870 align:middle line:84% yes, between, my king, that forgotten girl, forgotten pain, 00:05:43.870 --> 00:05:46.810 align:middle line:90% and the consequence. 00:05:46.810 --> 00:05:50.140 align:middle line:84% Those lovely, long ago night bells 00:05:50.140 --> 00:05:54.790 align:middle line:84% that I did not notice grow more and more apparent in me, 00:05:54.790 --> 00:05:58.090 align:middle line:84% like pewter expanding as it cools. 00:05:58.090 --> 00:05:58.960 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:02.770 align:middle line:84% Like a king halted in the great forest of Pennsylvania, 00:06:02.770 --> 00:06:07.210 align:middle line:84% like me singing these prison songs to praise the gray, 00:06:07.210 --> 00:06:13.590 align:middle line:84% to praise her, to tell of me, yes, and of you, my king.