WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.080 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:02.490 align:middle line:90%
Good evening, everyone.

00:00:02.490 --> 00:00:04.080 align:middle line:84%
Am I a fist away
from the microphone?

00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:05.370 align:middle line:90%
Is that perfect?

00:00:05.370 --> 00:00:06.720 align:middle line:90%
Wonderful.

00:00:06.720 --> 00:00:08.430 align:middle line:90%
So I asked my poetry students--

00:00:08.430 --> 00:00:09.900 align:middle line:90%
I'm like scanning the crowd.

00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:11.700 align:middle line:90%
Hopefully, some of you are here.

00:00:11.700 --> 00:00:14.070 align:middle line:90%
Yeah.

00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:16.860 align:middle line:84%
I didn't actually make you
all do this but I will.

00:00:16.860 --> 00:00:19.380 align:middle line:84%
--to think about a poem that
is rushed into their life

00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:22.100 align:middle line:84%
just when they
needed it the most.

00:00:22.100 --> 00:00:24.170 align:middle line:84%
Art can really be
magic like this,

00:00:24.170 --> 00:00:26.150 align:middle line:84%
as if it has its
own consciousness

00:00:26.150 --> 00:00:30.020 align:middle line:84%
and knows exactly when
and where to find you.

00:00:30.020 --> 00:00:34.320 align:middle line:84%
This morning, my consciousness
was barely functioning.

00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:37.020 align:middle line:84%
I'm here to introduce the
award-winning poet and teacher

00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:38.670 align:middle line:90%
Timothy Donnelly.

00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:40.121 align:middle line:90%
Applause.

00:00:40.121 --> 00:00:42.426 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:00:42.426 --> 00:00:43.350 align:middle line:90%


00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:45.270 align:middle line:84%
So I'm going to give
you the abridged version

00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:46.680 align:middle line:90%
of this personal anecdote.

00:00:46.680 --> 00:00:48.780 align:middle line:90%
And I promise, it's topical.

00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:52.410 align:middle line:84%
I have been having a really
difficult time processing

00:00:52.410 --> 00:00:57.810 align:middle line:84%
multiple layers of grief, both
local, particular, and global.

00:00:57.810 --> 00:01:01.290 align:middle line:84%
These endless waves of
suffering, human and otherwise.

00:01:01.290 --> 00:01:03.930 align:middle line:84%
And my mind this morning
was having such a hard time

00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:06.450 align:middle line:84%
contemplating
everyday tasks that I

00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:09.570 align:middle line:84%
managed to lose my cell phone,
which had been in my hand,

00:01:09.570 --> 00:01:11.830 align:middle line:90%
in my car.

00:01:11.830 --> 00:01:13.660 align:middle line:84%
It was still connected
to the Bluetooth.

00:01:13.660 --> 00:01:15.490 align:middle line:90%
I knew it was there.

00:01:15.490 --> 00:01:17.680 align:middle line:90%
I could not find it.

00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.800 align:middle line:84%
After looking for an endless
15 minutes, like, the longest

00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:23.200 align:middle line:84%
15 minutes ever, I knew
I would have to cancel

00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:25.660 align:middle line:90%
my introductory poetry class.

00:01:25.660 --> 00:01:27.160 align:middle line:90%
Yep, my daughter has been sick.

00:01:27.160 --> 00:01:28.240 align:middle line:84%
I was like, the school
is going to call.

00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:29.115 align:middle line:90%
It was a whole thing.

00:01:29.115 --> 00:01:30.070 align:middle line:90%
So what did I do?

00:01:30.070 --> 00:01:33.340 align:middle line:84%
I sat in my car and
I reread a poem.

00:01:33.340 --> 00:01:37.870 align:middle line:84%
I read Not Much More To It
Than That, a poem Timothy

00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:39.857 align:middle line:84%
Donnelly published in a
recent issue of Prairie

00:01:39.857 --> 00:01:42.190 align:middle line:84%
Schooner, which I was hoping
to talk about in my poetry.

00:01:42.190 --> 00:01:43.690 align:middle line:84%
So you know, we'll
get to it though.

00:01:43.690 --> 00:01:44.410 align:middle line:90%
It'll be great.

00:01:44.410 --> 00:01:48.980 align:middle line:84%
It starts, "one
thing hides another.

00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:52.410 align:middle line:84%
I can't help but laugh at
myself at this predicament.

00:01:52.410 --> 00:01:59.210 align:middle line:84%
Thing A can't hide without
thing B. Thing A can't

00:01:59.210 --> 00:02:01.710 align:middle line:84%
hide without--" I'm like, crap,
I'm reading your poem to you

00:02:01.710 --> 00:02:02.377 align:middle line:90%
in front of you.

00:02:02.377 --> 00:02:04.440 align:middle line:90%
I got to start again.

00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:06.630 align:middle line:84%
"Thing A can't hide
without thing B

00:02:06.630 --> 00:02:09.240 align:middle line:90%
to hide behind or in or under.

00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:12.570 align:middle line:84%
And when it hides, it must
be hiding from a third.

00:02:12.570 --> 00:02:15.030 align:middle line:84%
Everything is hiding
in some regard,

00:02:15.030 --> 00:02:17.680 align:middle line:90%
if only you can find it.

00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:19.060 align:middle line:90%
Take your time.

00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:23.530 align:middle line:84%
If things were easy, wouldn't
that defeat the purpose?"

00:02:23.530 --> 00:02:26.680 align:middle line:84%
And don't you want to know
what the purpose is, everyone?

00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:29.140 align:middle line:84%
Because Donnelly's
poetry never shies away

00:02:29.140 --> 00:02:30.790 align:middle line:90%
from my mean questions.

00:02:30.790 --> 00:02:33.490 align:middle line:84%
The line continues,
"the purpose is

00:02:33.490 --> 00:02:37.810 align:middle line:84%
to make things hard, lasting,
and beautiful to see.

00:02:37.810 --> 00:02:40.960 align:middle line:84%
Sunset is gorgeous
but it doesn't last.

00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.620 align:middle line:84%
That the sun sinks under
the horizon is the cause.

00:02:44.620 --> 00:02:49.050 align:middle line:84%
That it hides there is the
cost of all that beauty."

00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:53.010 align:middle line:84%
I wish you could see the line
breaks, how he hovers on cost,

00:02:53.010 --> 00:02:56.590 align:middle line:84%
makes me wait an entire stanza
break before handing over

00:02:56.590 --> 00:02:58.560 align:middle line:90%
"defeat the purpose."

00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.900 align:middle line:84%
I love the way I am invited
to follow the poet's

00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:02.640 align:middle line:90%
thinking as it unfolds.

00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:05.850 align:middle line:84%
This line of thinking feels
fresh and unfussed over,

00:03:05.850 --> 00:03:09.470 align:middle line:90%
yet also comfortingly careful.

00:03:09.470 --> 00:03:11.900 align:middle line:84%
Now I'm pushed to
the question, given

00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:13.880 align:middle line:84%
what we know humans
are capable of,

00:03:13.880 --> 00:03:17.180 align:middle line:84%
how can beauty ever
be purpose enough?

00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:20.850 align:middle line:84%
Well, Sara, if this
presents a moral quandary,

00:03:20.850 --> 00:03:23.520 align:middle line:84%
remember, we are
merely its onlookers.

00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:27.000 align:middle line:84%
An onlooker is a form
of thing C against which

00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.630 align:middle line:84%
the efforts of thing A are
failing, in spite of itself

00:03:30.630 --> 00:03:32.580 align:middle line:90%
or on purpose.

00:03:32.580 --> 00:03:34.860 align:middle line:84%
To fail on purpose
is a form of beauty

00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.650 align:middle line:84%
that leaves the
onlooker reassured.

00:03:37.650 --> 00:03:40.320 align:middle line:84%
"We see what's happening
right in front of us,"

00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:43.530 align:middle line:84%
he writes, then
pauses, letting me

00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:45.780 align:middle line:84%
simmer for a beat in
how I don't get it.

00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:50.590 align:middle line:84%
How can failure be reassuring
just for being real?

00:03:50.590 --> 00:03:54.490 align:middle line:84%
We see what's happening
right in front of us, albeit

00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:56.840 align:middle line:90%
after a pause.

00:03:56.840 --> 00:04:00.230 align:middle line:84%
We never or hardly get
it in real time, do we?

00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:02.370 align:middle line:90%
That's the rub.

00:04:02.370 --> 00:04:07.320 align:middle line:84%
Albeit after a pause, the bird
sickens, the roof collapses,

00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:11.530 align:middle line:84%
the sun declines, failing
to remain overhead.

00:04:11.530 --> 00:04:15.490 align:middle line:84%
Even our words, as we
cross one last time here

00:04:15.490 --> 00:04:18.430 align:middle line:84%
in this ill suited cabin,
what, with a banging

00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:21.190 align:middle line:84%
and rapidly decreasing
oxygen level--

00:04:21.190 --> 00:04:26.180 align:middle line:84%
even our words are hiding
and failing to hide.

00:04:26.180 --> 00:04:28.200 align:middle line:90%
Even our words as we cross--

00:04:28.200 --> 00:04:31.760 align:middle line:84%
line break one last time--
from knowing to not knowing,

00:04:31.760 --> 00:04:35.390 align:middle line:84%
from the real to the imagined,
from one sadness to the next,

00:04:35.390 --> 00:04:37.500 align:middle line:90%
from living to not--

00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:40.710 align:middle line:84%
even our words are failing
to hide these trembling

00:04:40.710 --> 00:04:42.420 align:middle line:90%
obfuscating clarifying words.

00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.750 align:middle line:84%
And I am thrilled that the
words themselves get agency here

00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:47.520 align:middle line:90%
in the penultimate stanza.

00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.340 align:middle line:84%
By now, I am considering
my own inability

00:04:50.340 --> 00:04:52.890 align:middle line:84%
to know what I'm feeling
or thinking to use words

00:04:52.890 --> 00:04:55.960 align:middle line:90%
to think through these storms.

00:04:55.960 --> 00:04:58.390 align:middle line:84%
So it's comforting, the
thought that words will reveal

00:04:58.390 --> 00:05:02.080 align:middle line:90%
themselves to me or they won't.

00:05:02.080 --> 00:05:04.630 align:middle line:84%
Same goes for the
pain my lost phone is

00:05:04.630 --> 00:05:07.570 align:middle line:84%
trying to stand in for
in some weird inanimate

00:05:07.570 --> 00:05:08.920 align:middle line:90%
act of metonymy.

00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:11.620 align:middle line:90%


00:05:11.620 --> 00:05:14.110 align:middle line:84%
Our words are hiding
and failing to hide,

00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:17.020 align:middle line:84%
which proves a comfort
in our hour of need.

00:05:17.020 --> 00:05:19.480 align:middle line:90%
Plus it's beautiful to see.

00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:23.980 align:middle line:84%
Things fall to pieces as they
intend to or even as they must,

00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:27.250 align:middle line:84%
so long as you've prepared
yourself, eyes open,

00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:30.430 align:middle line:84%
gloves off one hand placed
firmly in the other,

00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:33.160 align:middle line:84%
the other placed
firmly in a third.

00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:35.080 align:middle line:84%
And if this is a
little hard to track,

00:05:35.080 --> 00:05:38.620 align:middle line:84%
it's because Donnelly's poetry
asks us to do heavy lifting.

00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:41.410 align:middle line:84%
Let's get cozy and
uncertainty for a minute, OK?

00:05:41.410 --> 00:05:44.140 align:middle line:84%
We've got three hands here
in the last stanza echoing

00:05:44.140 --> 00:05:48.250 align:middle line:84%
thing A, thing B, and of course,
the poet, or as I'm seeing it,

00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:53.110 align:middle line:84%
myself, thing C. Thing C gets to
be the poet watching the sunset

00:05:53.110 --> 00:05:56.320 align:middle line:90%
and me watching the poem.

00:05:56.320 --> 00:05:58.600 align:middle line:90%
I'm almost done.

00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:01.900 align:middle line:84%
Here's what I want to know-- how
do you prepare yourself, Sara?

00:06:01.900 --> 00:06:04.180 align:middle line:84%
How do you really see
the world around you

00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:07.930 align:middle line:84%
when even your own self goes
about its daily efforts hiding

00:06:07.930 --> 00:06:10.348 align:middle line:90%
from itself?

00:06:10.348 --> 00:06:12.640 align:middle line:84%
I'm thrilled to introduce to
you the poet who taught me

00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:14.590 align:middle line:84%
this morning, with
just the right amount

00:06:14.590 --> 00:06:17.320 align:middle line:84%
of self-deprecation in the
title, that there is not

00:06:17.320 --> 00:06:20.120 align:middle line:90%
much more to it than that.

00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:24.170 align:middle line:84%
You guided me to the exit from
the search of the hidden thing

00:06:24.170 --> 00:06:27.440 align:middle line:84%
inside the hidden thing for long
enough to ensure I have my eyes

00:06:27.440 --> 00:06:30.560 align:middle line:84%
open, gloves off, one
hand placed firmly

00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.380 align:middle line:84%
in front of the-- one hand
placed firmly in the other,

00:06:33.380 --> 00:06:38.400 align:middle line:84%
the other placed firmly
in a third, and so forth.

00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:40.920 align:middle line:84%
I believe that so forth
is about connection

00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.410 align:middle line:84%
and about shutting the
defenses and pretenses that

00:06:43.410 --> 00:06:44.400 align:middle line:90%
discourage it.

00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:47.700 align:middle line:84%
It's about thing
D, the fourth hand.

00:06:47.700 --> 00:06:49.920 align:middle line:84%
And with that, I'll leave
you in the poet's hands.

00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:54.480 align:middle line:84%
And these are decidedly good
hands, award-winning hands, OK?

00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.130 align:middle line:90%
Please welcome Timothy Donnelly.

00:06:56.130 --> 00:06:58.880 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:06:58.880 --> 00:07:05.000 align:middle line:90%