WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:19.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:20.670 align:middle line:90% You saw this thing? 00:00:20.670 --> 00:00:21.170 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I did. 00:00:21.170 --> 00:00:23.096 align:middle line:90% You should be so close. 00:00:23.096 --> 00:00:26.420 align:middle line:84% It's a Chairman pleasing things, you know. 00:00:26.420 --> 00:00:35.060 align:middle line:90% 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:37.700 align:middle line:84% Now that you got it where you want it, I'll mute it. 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:38.200 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:45.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:47.960 align:middle line:84% I apologize for your inconvenience tonight. 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.700 align:middle line:84% Somewhere along the way, there was a failure to communicate, 00:00:50.700 --> 00:00:53.810 align:middle line:90% and I think it was probably me. 00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:56.494 align:middle line:84% And the auditorium was double-scheduled. 00:00:56.494 --> 00:01:00.450 align:middle line:90% 00:01:00.450 --> 00:01:02.700 align:middle line:84% Robert Houston said he's been on campus for 17 years. 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:04.117 align:middle line:84% It's the first time he's ever been 00:01:04.117 --> 00:01:05.880 align:middle line:84% on this part of the campus, so I think 00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:07.547 align:middle line:84% it was good to get him over here anyway. 00:01:07.547 --> 00:01:09.638 align:middle line:90% 00:01:09.638 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84% I hope you'll stay afterwards and have some punch and cookies 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:14.370 align:middle line:90% and talk to David Kirby. 00:01:14.370 --> 00:01:17.070 align:middle line:84% I'd like to announce some upcoming meetings. 00:01:17.070 --> 00:01:21.510 align:middle line:90% Yes Livermore? 00:01:21.510 --> 00:01:22.590 align:middle line:90% What? 00:01:22.590 --> 00:01:24.150 align:middle line:84% Why not move down a little closer? 00:01:24.150 --> 00:01:33.250 align:middle line:90% 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:35.330 align:middle line:90% Next Wednesday night. 00:01:35.330 --> 00:01:37.380 align:middle line:84% That's what happens when we turned up. 00:01:37.380 --> 00:01:38.513 align:middle line:90% I'll go, yeah. 00:01:38.513 --> 00:01:42.460 align:middle line:90% 00:01:42.460 --> 00:01:43.050 align:middle line:90% I'm going on. 00:01:43.050 --> 00:01:45.790 align:middle line:90% I'll be out louder. 00:01:45.790 --> 00:01:48.040 align:middle line:84% Next Wednesday night we have our first student reading 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.660 align:middle line:84% of the semester in the Modern Languages Auditorium. 00:01:52.660 --> 00:01:56.500 align:middle line:84% And tomorrow night, in the Modern Languages Auditorium, 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:59.230 align:middle line:84% the poet and scholar Houston Baker 00:01:59.230 --> 00:02:01.370 align:middle line:90% will be reading from his poetry. 00:02:01.370 --> 00:02:05.680 align:middle line:84% He's the director of the Black Studies 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.830 align:middle line:84% at the University of Pennsylvania. 00:02:08.830 --> 00:02:11.612 align:middle line:84% He'll also will be lecturing Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock 00:02:11.612 --> 00:02:12.820 align:middle line:90% in Modern Languages Building. 00:02:12.820 --> 00:02:15.400 align:middle line:90% 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.280 align:middle line:84% And upcoming is a two-day festival 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:22.180 align:middle line:84% of poets of the Southwest, that's November 1 and 2. 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:26.855 align:middle line:84% And I've put a lot of fliers about this out on the table. 00:02:26.855 --> 00:02:28.480 align:middle line:84% Maybe to convince myself that I'm still 00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:31.930 align:middle line:84% alive because they do sound a little bit like obituaries, 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:34.270 align:middle line:90% don't they? 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:39.310 align:middle line:84% But that's not the only mixed up feeling 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:40.630 align:middle line:90% I'm having this evening. 00:02:40.630 --> 00:02:42.700 align:middle line:84% I would say that I'm at a loss for words 00:02:42.700 --> 00:02:48.400 align:middle line:84% but that will not be the case as you will see. 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:51.250 align:middle line:84% I've been in Arizona for a week now, 00:02:51.250 --> 00:02:55.090 align:middle line:84% thanks to Alan Woodman at NAU and Karla Elling 00:02:55.090 --> 00:02:59.260 align:middle line:84% at ASU and Lois Shelton here, and thanks to the father 00:02:59.260 --> 00:03:01.180 align:middle line:84% of us all, the National Endowment 00:03:01.180 --> 00:03:05.170 align:middle line:84% for the Arts, that that's making this trip possible, 00:03:05.170 --> 00:03:06.580 align:middle line:90% and tonight's my last night. 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:08.725 align:middle line:90% This is my last reading. 00:03:08.725 --> 00:03:12.400 align:middle line:90% 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.850 align:middle line:90% Many things are luring me home. 00:03:15.850 --> 00:03:19.270 align:middle line:84% The prospect of a biweekly paycheck is one. 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:22.630 align:middle line:84% I'd stay forever if I could get them to send it out here, 00:03:22.630 --> 00:03:26.470 align:middle line:90% but I better go back. 00:03:26.470 --> 00:03:30.220 align:middle line:84% But what could be better than meeting people like Steve 00:03:30.220 --> 00:03:36.740 align:middle line:84% and Bob Houston and Jane and Jon Anderson and Dick and Peter, 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:38.860 align:middle line:84% it's like meeting movie stars in a sense 00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:40.780 align:middle line:84% and that you encounter someone for years 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:42.340 align:middle line:84% through a certain medium and then you 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:46.270 align:middle line:84% see this person up-close and you say, 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:48.100 align:middle line:90% oh, you're a real human being. 00:03:48.100 --> 00:03:50.917 align:middle line:90% It's a real treat. 00:03:50.917 --> 00:03:53.500 align:middle line:84% I know you don't feel that way if they gave you a C on a test, 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:55.912 align:middle line:84% but I'm talking about me right now. 00:03:55.912 --> 00:03:57.370 align:middle line:84% This is my time and I'm telling you 00:03:57.370 --> 00:04:00.770 align:middle line:84% it's wonderful to meet these people. 00:04:00.770 --> 00:04:05.040 align:middle line:84% But if I don't go back, how will I 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:07.230 align:middle line:84% be able to walk down to the end of my driveway 00:04:07.230 --> 00:04:10.920 align:middle line:84% and get my copy of the Tallahassee Democrat 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:12.180 align:middle line:90% every morning? 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:19.019 align:middle line:84% Whence comes the following original work of vers libre. 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:22.440 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that came from a the newspaper, 00:04:22.440 --> 00:04:25.560 align:middle line:84% the local Florida newspaper that I was reading. 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:29.730 align:middle line:84% So I ask you now to picture the professor of creative poetry 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:32.910 align:middle line:84% sitting there in his smoking jacket with his Ascot 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:35.820 align:middle line:84% and reading his Tallahassee Democrat 00:04:35.820 --> 00:04:38.010 align:middle line:84% and sitting bolt upright when he realizes that he 00:04:38.010 --> 00:04:41.310 align:middle line:90% has the subject of a poem. 00:04:41.310 --> 00:04:44.760 align:middle line:84% What I was reading at the time was a little article 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:47.190 align:middle line:84% on the country of Paraguay that said that Paraguay 00:04:47.190 --> 00:04:50.730 align:middle line:84% was the most landlocked country in the world, which struck me 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:55.000 align:middle line:90% as a metaphor for something. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:56.160 align:middle line:90% But what? 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.710 align:middle line:84% Well, the only way to find out what I thought 00:04:58.710 --> 00:05:01.500 align:middle line:84% would be to go to the library and get out all the books 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:04.790 align:middle line:90% on Paraguay, which I did. 00:05:04.790 --> 00:05:07.680 align:middle line:84% There were two of them at the time I wrote the poem. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.680 align:middle line:84% There may be a third now but at that time, there were only two. 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:13.470 align:middle line:84% And I began to read and take notes much like someone 00:05:13.470 --> 00:05:17.453 align:middle line:84% writing an essay or a term paper and found out 00:05:17.453 --> 00:05:18.870 align:middle line:84% some absolutely fascinating things 00:05:18.870 --> 00:05:23.790 align:middle line:84% about the country which has an official language, Spanish, 00:05:23.790 --> 00:05:26.407 align:middle line:84% and an unofficial language, Guarani, 00:05:26.407 --> 00:05:28.740 align:middle line:84% the Indian language, which is the language that everyone 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:29.240 align:middle line:90% uses. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:31.470 align:middle line:84% They use the unofficial more than the official. 00:05:31.470 --> 00:05:33.750 align:middle line:84% If you saw that movie, The Mission, 00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:36.630 align:middle line:84% with Jeremy Irons and Robert de Niro, the Indians, 00:05:36.630 --> 00:05:40.350 align:middle line:84% they were the Guarani Indians and speaking that language. 00:05:40.350 --> 00:05:44.380 align:middle line:84% I found out also that they have an unusual theology. 00:05:44.380 --> 00:05:47.340 align:middle line:84% There's a God named Tupang who is in everything. 00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:48.540 align:middle line:90% I mean, he's in everything. 00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:51.030 align:middle line:84% The Judeo-Christian God is sort of-- 00:05:51.030 --> 00:05:53.220 align:middle line:84% he's in every building and he's in the air, 00:05:53.220 --> 00:05:55.260 align:middle line:90% and he's all around us. 00:05:55.260 --> 00:05:59.820 align:middle line:84% But Tupang is in this microphone, in this poem, 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:01.080 align:middle line:90% it's in your shoe soles. 00:06:01.080 --> 00:06:04.420 align:middle line:84% Literally his spirit is infused everywhere. 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:07.960 align:middle line:84% And as I began to read and take notes on this complicated 00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:13.350 align:middle line:84% and often conflicted country, I realized 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:16.680 align:middle line:90% that what I was working-- 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:18.570 align:middle line:84% by the way, the landlocked country business 00:06:18.570 --> 00:06:20.080 align:middle line:90% had long since disappeared. 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:24.300 align:middle line:84% That was that was no longer of any interest or use to me. 00:06:24.300 --> 00:06:26.850 align:middle line:84% I found out that I was putting together a love poem, 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:28.710 align:middle line:84% and so the poem is called "I Think I'm Going 00:06:28.710 --> 00:06:32.370 align:middle line:90% To Call My Wife Paraguay." 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:35.400 align:middle line:84% I think I'm going to call my wife Paraguay for she is truly 00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:37.740 align:middle line:84% bilingual, even though she speaks 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:41.880 align:middle line:84% no Guarani and, except for Cucaracha and Taco, 00:06:41.880 --> 00:06:44.640 align:middle line:90% hardly any Spanish at all. 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:49.200 align:middle line:84% She has two zones though, one a forest luxuriant with orchids 00:06:49.200 --> 00:06:52.860 align:middle line:84% and the smell of fruit trees where the Indians worship 00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:56.850 align:middle line:84% the pure and formless Tupang, who shines in the lightning 00:06:56.850 --> 00:06:59.010 align:middle line:90% and roars and the thunder. 00:06:59.010 --> 00:07:02.670 align:middle line:84% And another zone, a dry place, a flat plane 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:07.530 align:middle line:84% with the sole of a mountain, motionless and hard as a rock. 00:07:07.530 --> 00:07:10.770 align:middle line:84% During the day, the sun blazes on the red dust of Paraguay 00:07:10.770 --> 00:07:12.810 align:middle line:84% as dark-eyed straight-backed women walk home 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:16.470 align:middle line:84% from the river with bundles of laundry on their head, 00:07:16.470 --> 00:07:19.560 align:middle line:84% hoping to avoid trouble, for the Paraguayans are always 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:23.280 align:middle line:84% fighting, young conscripts lolling in faded cotton 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:26.250 align:middle line:84% uniforms, have no idea whether they 00:07:26.250 --> 00:07:28.980 align:middle line:84% will be summoned next to overthrow the government 00:07:28.980 --> 00:07:31.310 align:middle line:90% or defend it. 00:07:31.310 --> 00:07:32.960 align:middle line:84% My wife, Paraguay, and I ourselves 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:35.210 align:middle line:84% had to fight the War of the Triple Alliance. 00:07:35.210 --> 00:07:39.240 align:middle line:84% Although in our case, it wasn't Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:44.630 align:middle line:84% but Harry, Edward, and Morris, her former boyfriends. 00:07:44.630 --> 00:07:46.610 align:middle line:90% I won. 00:07:46.610 --> 00:07:48.920 align:middle line:84% War does not silence Paraguay or dismay her 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:52.310 align:middle line:84% in any way for still her people shout on the football fields 00:07:52.310 --> 00:07:55.700 align:middle line:84% and whisper declarations of love on the darkened patios 00:07:55.700 --> 00:07:59.630 align:middle line:84% of the old colonial houses, just as my wife, Paraguay, says 00:07:59.630 --> 00:08:03.830 align:middle line:84% that she loves me as the parakeet and toucan fly over 00:08:03.830 --> 00:08:06.440 align:middle line:84% and the perfume of the lime and orange tree blow 00:08:06.440 --> 00:08:09.590 align:middle line:84% through the windows of our big house, which 00:08:09.590 --> 00:08:13.760 align:middle line:84% I call South America because it contains Paraguay and is shaped 00:08:13.760 --> 00:08:14.720 align:middle line:90% like a sweet potato. 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:17.960 align:middle line:90% 00:08:17.960 --> 00:08:21.500 align:middle line:84% I'm trying to do something in my family life 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:25.760 align:middle line:84% by watching my children grow up and identify the precise moment 00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:27.860 align:middle line:84% when children stop having pure moods. 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:31.130 align:middle line:84% If you can remember, when you were about eight or nine, 00:08:31.130 --> 00:08:33.320 align:middle line:84% someone would hand you an ice cream cone 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.030 align:middle line:84% and you'd be transfixed with ecstasy. 00:08:35.030 --> 00:08:38.210 align:middle line:84% You'd look like that Bernini statue of Saint Teresa 00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:41.510 align:middle line:84% as she becomes, becomes Saint Teresa. 00:08:41.510 --> 00:08:44.720 align:middle line:84% Whereas if you take a child just a few years older 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:49.160 align:middle line:84% and say look, look, keys, car keys, car keys, 00:08:49.160 --> 00:08:53.000 align:middle line:84% the child will look at you, like, what's the catch? 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.340 align:middle line:90% Who's going to pay for the gas? 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:58.640 align:middle line:84% Because they begin to become like us. 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:01.400 align:middle line:84% Their moods begin to penetrate and become 00:09:01.400 --> 00:09:05.910 align:middle line:84% bittersweet and sweet and sour and they get all mixed up. 00:09:05.910 --> 00:09:11.060 align:middle line:84% So I was looking for a metaphor for this mixture of moods 00:09:11.060 --> 00:09:14.540 align:middle line:84% and I settled upon overcast skies 00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:18.128 align:middle line:84% because that's the best condition for driving, when 00:09:18.128 --> 00:09:19.670 align:middle line:84% it looks as though it's going to rain 00:09:19.670 --> 00:09:23.270 align:middle line:84% but it's not yet wet because there's no glare. 00:09:23.270 --> 00:09:25.460 align:middle line:84% You can drive without skidding off the road, 00:09:25.460 --> 00:09:27.860 align:middle line:90% but it's not bright either. 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:32.090 align:middle line:84% So let me tell you about a couple of things in the poem. 00:09:32.090 --> 00:09:36.080 align:middle line:84% I like to give you sometimes a little rough chronometer 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.520 align:middle line:84% of the three or four things they're going to show up. 00:09:38.520 --> 00:09:40.550 align:middle line:84% So as they do show up, you can check them off 00:09:40.550 --> 00:09:43.310 align:middle line:84% and you can feel yourself approaching the end 00:09:43.310 --> 00:09:45.350 align:middle line:90% of the poem with relief. 00:09:45.350 --> 00:09:49.730 align:middle line:84% There's a French phrase, le bonheur humain, 00:09:49.730 --> 00:09:53.440 align:middle line:90% which means human happiness. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:57.128 align:middle line:84% The foreign language is I guess a blessing for the poet 00:09:57.128 --> 00:09:59.420 align:middle line:84% and a curse for the readers because sometimes something 00:09:59.420 --> 00:10:00.937 align:middle line:84% will look corny or stupid in English 00:10:00.937 --> 00:10:03.020 align:middle line:84% and you always just throw it into another language 00:10:03.020 --> 00:10:03.928 align:middle line:90% if you know it. 00:10:03.928 --> 00:10:05.970 align:middle line:84% But then the poor reader's got to deal with that. 00:10:05.970 --> 00:10:10.490 align:middle line:84% So I thought I would explain that a little earlier. 00:10:10.490 --> 00:10:12.500 align:middle line:84% There's a story in here too, a little anecdote 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:15.350 align:middle line:90% that someone told me recently. 00:10:15.350 --> 00:10:20.990 align:middle line:84% I was in Hawaii in a deserted valley 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:23.900 align:middle line:84% with some straight, very verdant cliff walls going up, 00:10:23.900 --> 00:10:25.260 align:middle line:90% and it was a scar-- 00:10:25.260 --> 00:10:27.470 align:middle line:84% well there were two scars coming down. 00:10:27.470 --> 00:10:30.823 align:middle line:84% And I asked one of the few persons who 00:10:30.823 --> 00:10:32.740 align:middle line:84% lived in this valley where the scars came from 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:35.180 align:middle line:84% and he said, well, one fellow was driving a road grader 00:10:35.180 --> 00:10:37.097 align:middle line:84% and he got a little bit too close to the edge. 00:10:37.097 --> 00:10:39.230 align:middle line:84% And the other one involves the story 00:10:39.230 --> 00:10:40.670 align:middle line:84% that I'm going to tell you, which 00:10:40.670 --> 00:10:45.710 align:middle line:84% involves a political conflict between some locals, 00:10:45.710 --> 00:10:49.460 align:middle line:84% some Hawaiian locals who were more politically 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:53.900 align:middle line:84% conservative than the people that they had a conflict with. 00:10:53.900 --> 00:10:58.340 align:middle line:84% And then also there's a little quote 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:02.132 align:middle line:84% from Darwin, a quote from the Origin of Species. 00:11:02.132 --> 00:11:04.340 align:middle line:84% And let me read that to you so you'll be ready for it 00:11:04.340 --> 00:11:05.060 align:middle line:90% when it comes. 00:11:05.060 --> 00:11:09.530 align:middle line:84% Darwin said, "I am almost convinced, 00:11:09.530 --> 00:11:13.700 align:middle line:84% quite contrary to the opinion I started with, 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:19.730 align:middle line:84% that species are not, it is like confessing a murder, 00:11:19.730 --> 00:11:20.870 align:middle line:90% immutable." 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:23.630 align:middle line:84% So you see he had this very simple short sentence 00:11:23.630 --> 00:11:26.120 align:middle line:90% about the light bulb coming on. 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.360 align:middle line:84% But in it he inserted all these guilty parenthetical 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:31.130 align:middle line:90% expressions. 00:11:31.130 --> 00:11:36.030 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "For Overcast Skies." 00:11:36.030 --> 00:11:39.020 align:middle line:84% It is when sunny too hot if dry and when 00:11:39.020 --> 00:11:42.530 align:middle line:84% rainy to cool but slippery, therefore 00:11:42.530 --> 00:11:46.322 align:middle line:84% overcast skies constitute the best conditions pour le 00:11:46.322 --> 00:11:48.890 align:middle line:90% bonheur humain. 00:11:48.890 --> 00:11:51.350 align:middle line:84% But it takes one a while to realize these things. 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:54.020 align:middle line:84% When I was young, I wasn't fit for much 00:11:54.020 --> 00:11:56.690 align:middle line:84% except going for pizza with the guys. 00:11:56.690 --> 00:11:59.000 align:middle line:90% But I was good at that. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.010 align:middle line:84% To paraphrase Voltaire, had I not existed, 00:12:04.010 --> 00:12:08.870 align:middle line:84% guys going for pizza would have had to invent me. 00:12:08.870 --> 00:12:12.090 align:middle line:84% Now I am wiser, happier, and also sadder though 00:12:12.090 --> 00:12:13.940 align:middle line:90% just a little bit. 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:16.280 align:middle line:84% Indeed, the wisdom may consist in realizing 00:12:16.280 --> 00:12:19.640 align:middle line:84% one can be happy and sad at the same time. 00:12:19.640 --> 00:12:22.160 align:middle line:84% I talked to a guy who used to be a hippie. 00:12:22.160 --> 00:12:24.320 align:middle line:84% He'd been camping in his van with other hirsute 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:26.960 align:middle line:84% types on the Big Island of Hawaii 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.630 align:middle line:84% when some locals, not eager to be bombed again by the Japanese 00:12:31.630 --> 00:12:33.940 align:middle line:84% and outraged at the van's peace symbols, 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:36.520 align:middle line:84% pushed it into the Waipi'o Valley, 00:12:36.520 --> 00:12:39.940 align:middle line:84% while the hippies, tripping on this really great acid 00:12:39.940 --> 00:12:43.810 align:middle line:84% thought, Groovy, it looks like those dudes are destroying 00:12:43.810 --> 00:12:46.360 align:middle line:90% our van. 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:49.130 align:middle line:84% He was sad he'd lost his means of transportation. 00:12:49.130 --> 00:12:51.460 align:middle line:84% But happy that he has a good story to tell. 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:54.735 align:middle line:84% Besides, all this had taken place years ago. 00:12:54.735 --> 00:12:56.110 align:middle line:84% Same thing when Darwin discovered 00:12:56.110 --> 00:12:58.300 align:middle line:90% the principle of evolution. 00:12:58.300 --> 00:13:01.630 align:middle line:84% A cloud of shame came between him and his happiness. 00:13:01.630 --> 00:13:05.450 align:middle line:84% In the second draft of On the Origin of Species, 1844, 00:13:05.450 --> 00:13:08.980 align:middle line:84% he wrote, "I am almost convinced, quite 00:13:08.980 --> 00:13:12.400 align:middle line:84% contrary to the opinion I started with, 00:13:12.400 --> 00:13:18.190 align:middle line:84% that species are not, it is like confessing a murder, immutable. 00:13:18.190 --> 00:13:21.850 align:middle line:84% You monkey's uncle, you knew you were doing something wrong, you 00:13:21.850 --> 00:13:28.920 align:middle line:90% and your adorable--" 00:13:28.920 --> 00:13:33.310 align:middle line:84% OK, people always hate me when I say I was in Hawaii, and this 00:13:33.310 --> 00:13:33.810 align:middle line:90% and that. 00:13:33.810 --> 00:13:35.640 align:middle line:84% But I have in-laws there, so you see 00:13:35.640 --> 00:13:37.905 align:middle line:90% there's a price to be exacted. 00:13:37.905 --> 00:13:42.000 align:middle line:90% 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:49.860 align:middle line:84% I talked to a lot of different people in the Arizona cities 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:52.140 align:middle line:84% I've been, and part of this grant involved 00:13:52.140 --> 00:13:54.690 align:middle line:84% community service, which I thought 00:13:54.690 --> 00:13:56.885 align:middle line:84% meant picking up trash by the side of the road 00:13:56.885 --> 00:13:58.260 align:middle line:84% when they first offered it to me. 00:13:58.260 --> 00:14:02.610 align:middle line:84% But it turned out no, that I would talk to some high school 00:14:02.610 --> 00:14:04.770 align:middle line:84% students and separate them from their angel dust 00:14:04.770 --> 00:14:07.860 align:middle line:84% and their switchblade knives and enlist them 00:14:07.860 --> 00:14:11.970 align:middle line:84% in the cause of poetry and turn their lives right around. 00:14:11.970 --> 00:14:17.070 align:middle line:84% So the verdict isn't in on that yet, but I did my darndest-- 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:22.110 align:middle line:84% One poem that I tried to teach them really 00:14:22.110 --> 00:14:25.800 align:middle line:84% quickly is a poem I call A Marriage, which means simply 00:14:25.800 --> 00:14:27.840 align:middle line:84% that you get two things that don't have 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.330 align:middle line:84% a thing in the world in common and you put them together 00:14:30.330 --> 00:14:32.790 align:middle line:84% and you make a poem out of that, which 00:14:32.790 --> 00:14:37.110 align:middle line:84% also happens to be like some human marriages as well. 00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:40.200 align:middle line:84% But I'm only expert in the poetic kind, 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:44.730 align:middle line:84% so this was the kind that I taught to these young punks 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:46.890 align:middle line:90% and punkettes. 00:14:46.890 --> 00:14:48.030 align:middle line:90% And here's one. 00:14:48.030 --> 00:14:51.990 align:middle line:84% It's called The Cows Are Going to Paris: A Pastoral. 00:14:51.990 --> 00:14:59.430 align:middle line:84% What happened was I was on a train in England actually 00:14:59.430 --> 00:15:03.690 align:middle line:84% and saw some cows lurching toward the train. 00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:07.320 align:middle line:84% It was one of those small, small English tracks with the fields 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:09.150 align:middle line:90% virtually just inches away. 00:15:09.150 --> 00:15:13.000 align:middle line:84% And the cows came up to look as cows will do. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.290 align:middle line:84% And I think some more curious cows in the back 00:15:16.290 --> 00:15:18.630 align:middle line:84% pushed and caused the others to lurch forward. 00:15:18.630 --> 00:15:20.880 align:middle line:84% And for a split-second, I thought oh, my God, the cows 00:15:20.880 --> 00:15:25.963 align:middle line:84% are going to get on the train and commit cow mayhem. 00:15:25.963 --> 00:15:27.630 align:middle line:84% And so I began to write this poem called 00:15:27.630 --> 00:15:30.090 align:middle line:84% The Cows Are Going to London, the cows are going to London. 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:33.120 align:middle line:90% And it kept being that one line. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.780 align:middle line:84% So somehow I got them across the channel. 00:15:36.780 --> 00:15:39.900 align:middle line:84% And it worked out better with them going to Paris. 00:15:39.900 --> 00:15:46.200 align:middle line:84% Your chronometrical note here is that in the last stanza, 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:48.780 align:middle line:84% I'll be referring to a celebrated painting 00:15:48.780 --> 00:15:52.350 align:middle line:84% by Watteau called "The Voyage to Cythera," 00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:59.670 align:middle line:84% which shows some comely young men and women about to leave 00:15:59.670 --> 00:16:00.780 align:middle line:90% the Isle of Love. 00:16:00.780 --> 00:16:03.210 align:middle line:84% They have to go back to the real world. 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:06.150 align:middle line:84% They have to leave the earthly paradise that's 00:16:06.150 --> 00:16:07.380 align:middle line:90% depicted in the painting. 00:16:07.380 --> 00:16:08.880 align:middle line:90% And they look very sad about it. 00:16:08.880 --> 00:16:11.130 align:middle line:84% They're going to have to go back to the world of bills 00:16:11.130 --> 00:16:13.590 align:middle line:84% and backaches and they're looking over their shoulders, 00:16:13.590 --> 00:16:15.630 align:middle line:90% and they want to stay there. 00:16:15.630 --> 00:16:17.580 align:middle line:90% The Cows Are Going to Paris. 00:16:17.580 --> 00:16:20.250 align:middle line:84% When they boarded the train at Corbet and Fontainebleau, 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:21.930 align:middle line:84% the people were frightened and ran out 00:16:21.930 --> 00:16:26.820 align:middle line:84% into the fields and meadows and chewed the grass in terror. 00:16:26.820 --> 00:16:29.790 align:middle line:84% And now, the cows are going to shop at the galerie Lafayette, 00:16:29.790 --> 00:16:32.250 align:middle line:84% stroll in the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume, 00:16:32.250 --> 00:16:35.520 align:middle line:84% see plays produced and directed by cows. 00:16:35.520 --> 00:16:37.830 align:middle line:84% A farce in the manner of Georges Feydeau, 00:16:37.830 --> 00:16:42.390 align:middle line:84% for example, in which a certain Monsieur Bull wishes 00:16:42.390 --> 00:16:43.830 align:middle line:90% to deceive his wife. 00:16:43.830 --> 00:16:46.620 align:middle line:84% So he arranges to meet the wife of a friend 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:49.470 align:middle line:90% in a hotel of low repute. 00:16:49.470 --> 00:16:53.460 align:middle line:84% The only one who can betray him is another Monsieur 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.490 align:middle line:90% who stutters whenever it rains. 00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:59.970 align:middle line:84% And of course it rains, "ma-ma-ma-moo", he says, 00:16:59.970 --> 00:17:03.090 align:middle line:90% "mama-mama-mama-moo". 00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:05.022 align:middle line:90% The cows are delighted. 00:17:05.022 --> 00:17:06.480 align:middle line:84% They have never thought of the rain 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:09.420 align:middle line:84% as having so much meaning until now. 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:12.869 align:middle line:84% And when the deceived Monsieur grabs a sword in order 00:17:12.869 --> 00:17:15.810 align:middle line:84% to pierce the innards of his false friend, 00:17:15.810 --> 00:17:19.920 align:middle line:84% the cows are absolutely enthralled, it having never 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:23.010 align:middle line:84% occurred to them that the slaughter of their species 00:17:23.010 --> 00:17:26.160 align:middle line:84% could be occasioned by anything other than the desire 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:30.930 align:middle line:84% to eat or make money, that it could have rage as its cause, 00:17:30.930 --> 00:17:33.885 align:middle line:84% a feeling of betrayal, the breaking of a heart. 00:17:33.885 --> 00:17:36.220 align:middle line:90% 00:17:36.220 --> 00:17:37.720 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, the people from the train 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.120 align:middle line:84% have made themselves comfortable under the trees. 00:17:40.120 --> 00:17:43.300 align:middle line:84% The diet of the cows is nourishing and unrefined, 00:17:43.300 --> 00:17:45.940 align:middle line:84% and somehow it seems natural to stand in small groups 00:17:45.940 --> 00:17:48.910 align:middle line:90% for hours saying nothing. 00:17:48.910 --> 00:17:51.400 align:middle line:84% Indeed when the cows return to the fields and meadows, 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.320 align:middle line:84% the people will not get back on board 00:17:53.320 --> 00:17:56.710 align:middle line:84% and must be prodded before they enter the cars. 00:17:56.710 --> 00:17:58.720 align:middle line:84% Having been to the city, the cows 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:01.840 align:middle line:84% understand, to them, the people are 00:18:01.840 --> 00:18:05.260 align:middle line:84% like the nymphs and shepherds in the painting by Watteau, 00:18:05.260 --> 00:18:07.930 align:middle line:84% who are made to leave the Isle of Forgetfulness 00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:10.390 align:middle line:84% and so set out for the fallen world, 00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:14.190 align:middle line:84% but slowly and not without a mournful backward glance. 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:19.390 align:middle line:90% 00:18:19.390 --> 00:18:23.800 align:middle line:84% Another little tip I've been giving to the high schoolers 00:18:23.800 --> 00:18:28.910 align:middle line:84% is to simply retell stories that they've had in mind for years. 00:18:28.910 --> 00:18:33.640 align:middle line:84% The family stories or the stories 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:36.760 align:middle line:84% that they dine out on or hog-face out on, 00:18:36.760 --> 00:18:40.450 align:middle line:84% or pig-face out on, or whatever it is that they do. 00:18:40.450 --> 00:18:42.670 align:middle line:90% And here's mine. 00:18:42.670 --> 00:18:47.020 align:middle line:84% This is the story that I've been telling for years. 00:18:47.020 --> 00:18:49.540 align:middle line:84% Although like almost everything else in these poems, 00:18:49.540 --> 00:18:54.460 align:middle line:84% it's something that I stole from someone else. 00:18:54.460 --> 00:18:56.560 align:middle line:84% I guess I told that to the high school kids too, 00:18:56.560 --> 00:18:58.180 align:middle line:90% don't let that stop you. 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:01.810 align:middle line:90% But this is a story that-- 00:19:01.810 --> 00:19:05.690 align:middle line:84% this will be the creepy part of tonight's presentation here, 00:19:05.690 --> 00:19:07.720 align:middle line:84% a couple of creepy poems coming up. 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:12.760 align:middle line:84% This is a story that man in Florence, Italy, told me, 00:19:12.760 --> 00:19:21.550 align:middle line:84% FSU has a foreign study program in Florence. 00:19:21.550 --> 00:19:25.292 align:middle line:84% And the director at that time had some people over, 00:19:25.292 --> 00:19:27.250 align:middle line:84% some faculty over for dinner and began to tell. 00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:30.490 align:middle line:84% It's absolutely horrifying story as the light went down 00:19:30.490 --> 00:19:33.160 align:middle line:84% and the hills grew black and cold. 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:37.150 align:middle line:84% Somehow their hills grow blacker and colder than our hills, 00:19:37.150 --> 00:19:40.300 align:middle line:84% or maybe it was the story itself. 00:19:40.300 --> 00:19:47.950 align:middle line:84% What happened was that this man had been married 00:19:47.950 --> 00:19:49.930 align:middle line:90% and had a child. 00:19:49.930 --> 00:19:53.620 align:middle line:84% And he and his wife were absolutely desperate to get 00:19:53.620 --> 00:19:54.950 align:middle line:90% away from the child. 00:19:54.950 --> 00:19:57.070 align:middle line:90% They just wanted an evening out. 00:19:57.070 --> 00:19:58.690 align:middle line:84% They were married, graduate students 00:19:58.690 --> 00:20:01.780 align:middle line:84% in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and they 00:20:01.780 --> 00:20:05.110 align:middle line:84% were suffering that the pain that all of you 00:20:05.110 --> 00:20:07.930 align:middle line:84% feel if you've ever been married and had a child and you 00:20:07.930 --> 00:20:13.270 align:middle line:84% don't know people with just squadrons of teenage girls 00:20:13.270 --> 00:20:16.690 align:middle line:84% that you can draw upon to use as babysitters because-- 00:20:16.690 --> 00:20:23.120 align:middle line:84% The problem is if you're 25 and you have a six-month-old child, 00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:25.925 align:middle line:84% the people who are old enough to have teenage girls 00:20:25.925 --> 00:20:27.550 align:middle line:84% are not going to be in your peer group, 00:20:27.550 --> 00:20:29.008 align:middle line:84% so they just couldn't find anybody. 00:20:29.008 --> 00:20:34.240 align:middle line:84% You'd think in a city that size they could, but they couldn't. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.090 align:middle line:84% And so finally they resorted to the yellow pages 00:20:37.090 --> 00:20:42.190 align:middle line:84% and found a church babysitting service. 00:20:42.190 --> 00:20:44.230 align:middle line:90% Sounds good, doesn't it? 00:20:44.230 --> 00:20:47.170 align:middle line:90% Well, hold on for a second. 00:20:47.170 --> 00:20:50.740 align:middle line:84% The poem is called Your Famous Story. 00:20:50.740 --> 00:20:54.023 align:middle line:84% The table has been cleared, and the guests 00:20:54.023 --> 00:20:55.690 align:middle line:84% are sitting around the fire with glasses 00:20:55.690 --> 00:20:58.330 align:middle line:84% of brandy and chartreuse as you begin 00:20:58.330 --> 00:21:01.990 align:middle line:84% to tell your famous story, how you and your wife 00:21:01.990 --> 00:21:04.930 align:middle line:84% were desperate to go somewhere, anywhere 00:21:04.930 --> 00:21:07.780 align:middle line:84% after the birth of your first child 00:21:07.780 --> 00:21:11.800 align:middle line:84% and finally found a service in the yellow pages, a church 00:21:11.800 --> 00:21:17.590 align:middle line:84% group that would send a babysitter, a gentle woman, 00:21:17.590 --> 00:21:20.500 align:middle line:84% a grandmotherly type who came highly recommended, 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:24.070 align:middle line:84% someone who had raised children of her own. 00:21:24.070 --> 00:21:27.850 align:middle line:84% You went to a movie and a coffee house. 00:21:27.850 --> 00:21:29.320 align:middle line:84% And when you got back, the sitter 00:21:29.320 --> 00:21:32.920 align:middle line:84% was just as you had left her, calm and smiling, 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:35.440 align:middle line:84% assuring you that everything had been fine, 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:38.620 align:middle line:84% that your little girl was an angel. 00:21:38.620 --> 00:21:40.360 align:middle line:84% When you left saying that she must not 00:21:40.360 --> 00:21:45.130 align:middle line:84% have changed the baby's diapers or she would have seen 00:21:45.130 --> 00:21:48.070 align:middle line:90% it was a boy. 00:21:48.070 --> 00:21:51.670 align:middle line:84% The sitter looked at the wall and said in a voice 00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:55.330 align:middle line:84% you had never heard before, that while the baby might 00:21:55.330 --> 00:22:01.920 align:middle line:84% have been a boy when you left, he was certainly a girl now. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:04.150 align:middle line:84% You dashed upstairs and tore off the baby's pajamas, 00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:05.338 align:middle line:90% but of course he was fine. 00:22:05.338 --> 00:22:07.630 align:middle line:84% And that evening you told your story for the first time 00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:11.440 align:middle line:84% to the police, and then next morning, the church group. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.360 align:middle line:84% They hid nothing, said the sitter 00:22:13.360 --> 00:22:16.570 align:middle line:84% had a history of threatening children with knives. 00:22:16.570 --> 00:22:18.700 align:middle line:84% But they were told all that was in the past, 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:20.470 align:middle line:84% and now the good liberal church women 00:22:20.470 --> 00:22:22.780 align:middle line:84% were trying to rehabilitate her with lay counseling 00:22:22.780 --> 00:22:24.250 align:middle line:90% and the offer of regular work. 00:22:24.250 --> 00:22:27.130 align:middle line:90% 00:22:27.130 --> 00:22:31.150 align:middle line:84% There was a hearing, and you told your story again. 00:22:31.150 --> 00:22:33.790 align:middle line:84% The babysitter went behind walls. 00:22:33.790 --> 00:22:36.070 align:middle line:84% Your son grew up healthy and strong, 00:22:36.070 --> 00:22:39.910 align:middle line:84% and now he dines out on the story you are telling us now, 00:22:39.910 --> 00:22:42.640 align:middle line:84% the night coming down around your house 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:47.650 align:middle line:84% like a hand that closes around the heart, opens a little, 00:22:47.650 --> 00:22:48.610 align:middle line:90% never lets go. 00:22:48.610 --> 00:22:51.570 align:middle line:90% 00:22:51.570 --> 00:22:52.980 align:middle line:84% I'm still in love with that idea. 00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:53.880 align:middle line:90% Sure. 00:22:53.880 --> 00:22:58.770 align:middle line:84% You had this criminal past, we'll fix it. 00:22:58.770 --> 00:23:01.080 align:middle line:90% Honest. 00:23:01.080 --> 00:23:04.830 align:middle line:84% So use those yellow pages for the pizza services, audience, 00:23:04.830 --> 00:23:08.070 align:middle line:84% and not the babysitting services. 00:23:08.070 --> 00:23:10.270 align:middle line:90% Second creepy poem. 00:23:10.270 --> 00:23:13.560 align:middle line:90% It's called After Midnight. 00:23:13.560 --> 00:23:17.910 align:middle line:84% And I'm reading it because it gave Peter Wild a long distance 00:23:17.910 --> 00:23:18.780 align:middle line:90% creeps. 00:23:18.780 --> 00:23:22.800 align:middle line:84% He wrote me and said he said he had the chicken skin, 00:23:22.800 --> 00:23:24.690 align:middle line:84% and so I figured I would try it and see 00:23:24.690 --> 00:23:28.590 align:middle line:90% if I can unsettle him here. 00:23:28.590 --> 00:23:31.020 align:middle line:84% From the heart of this house come 00:23:31.020 --> 00:23:34.450 align:middle line:84% sounds, the soft bump of a receiver, 00:23:34.450 --> 00:23:40.050 align:middle line:84% the almost noiseless swish of the cord against the wall. 00:23:40.050 --> 00:23:43.890 align:middle line:84% Someone is hanging up the phone in the kitchen. 00:23:43.890 --> 00:23:47.130 align:middle line:84% Yet you are asleep, your nightgown 00:23:47.130 --> 00:23:48.840 align:middle line:90% bunched around your waist. 00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:54.030 align:middle line:84% And we are alone or should be, and I am afraid, though 00:23:54.030 --> 00:23:56.580 align:middle line:90% not for us. 00:23:56.580 --> 00:24:00.510 align:middle line:84% I think it must be someone who is in great danger. 00:24:00.510 --> 00:24:04.498 align:middle line:84% I think it must be someone made crazy by pain. 00:24:04.498 --> 00:24:06.540 align:middle line:84% I think it must be someone who has been wandering 00:24:06.540 --> 00:24:09.660 align:middle line:84% from yard to yard and is now in our kitchen 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:13.650 align:middle line:84% calling people in other cities, other countries, 00:24:13.650 --> 00:24:18.450 align:middle line:84% other worlds, saying, "A child is missing," 00:24:18.450 --> 00:24:25.635 align:middle line:84% or "Everyone is dead in there," or "I don't love you anymore." 00:24:25.635 --> 00:24:28.250 align:middle line:90% 00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.380 align:middle line:90% How about it Peter? 00:24:30.380 --> 00:24:30.900 align:middle line:90% Still work. 00:24:30.900 --> 00:24:31.400 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:32.510 align:middle line:90% All right, it's all I ask. 00:24:32.510 --> 00:24:35.390 align:middle line:90% It's all I ask. 00:24:35.390 --> 00:24:37.620 align:middle line:84% Another poem I did for this-- this 00:24:37.620 --> 00:24:42.830 align:middle line:84% was a group of high schoolers in Scottsdale. 00:24:42.830 --> 00:24:46.730 align:middle line:84% And what I did was read them some poems 00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:49.430 align:middle line:84% and talk about some general principles. 00:24:49.430 --> 00:24:51.800 align:middle line:84% And you can't give high school kids the creeps, 00:24:51.800 --> 00:24:54.110 align:middle line:84% so I didn't even bother with the creepy poems there. 00:24:54.110 --> 00:24:59.750 align:middle line:84% But I read them a couple of more comic pieces. 00:24:59.750 --> 00:25:01.820 align:middle line:84% And then I asked for questions, which 00:25:01.820 --> 00:25:06.530 align:middle line:84% is always a big mistake, because first guy puts his hand up. 00:25:06.530 --> 00:25:09.512 align:middle line:84% And he says, what's it like to be a wretch and an outcast 00:25:09.512 --> 00:25:10.970 align:middle line:84% and to have people look down on you 00:25:10.970 --> 00:25:16.370 align:middle line:84% and think of you as a scum bum and-- 00:25:16.370 --> 00:25:19.920 align:middle line:84% so I'm always so cool-headed in these matters. 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:23.660 align:middle line:84% And I got defensive and angry and said, look, look-- 00:25:23.660 --> 00:25:29.870 align:middle line:84% I've got an 85 Toyota Corolla factory air, an AM radio. 00:25:29.870 --> 00:25:30.830 align:middle line:90% I'm OK. 00:25:30.830 --> 00:25:31.820 align:middle line:90% I have a house. 00:25:31.820 --> 00:25:33.920 align:middle line:84% I take my family on vacations and-- 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.770 align:middle line:84% But then I realized that my questioner was right, 00:25:36.770 --> 00:25:38.990 align:middle line:84% that there is a kind of marginal status 00:25:38.990 --> 00:25:42.680 align:middle line:84% that poets ought to have, and they ought to cling to it 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:47.313 align:middle line:84% and hang on to it and keep getting themselves 00:25:47.313 --> 00:25:49.730 align:middle line:84% on the outside, keep positioning themselves on the outside 00:25:49.730 --> 00:25:52.220 align:middle line:90% and looking in. 00:25:52.220 --> 00:25:55.380 align:middle line:84% And I had this one poem I think that speaks to that issue. 00:25:55.380 --> 00:26:01.830 align:middle line:84% And so I so I pulled it out, and read it to them. 00:26:01.830 --> 00:26:05.210 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "Still the Only Investment Guide You'll 00:26:05.210 --> 00:26:07.740 align:middle line:90% Ever Need." 00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:09.950 align:middle line:90% And it begins with the idea-- 00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:13.310 align:middle line:84% this is outside of the poem but it leads into it-- 00:26:13.310 --> 00:26:17.180 align:middle line:84% begins with the idea that everybody loves a poet. 00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:21.830 align:middle line:84% Whenever people find out there's a poet in their midst, 00:26:21.830 --> 00:26:26.870 align:middle line:84% their hearts leap up and they're happy because-- 00:26:26.870 --> 00:26:28.343 align:middle line:90% I don't know why. 00:26:28.343 --> 00:26:30.260 align:middle line:84% Maybe they feel he is a wretch and an outcast, 00:26:30.260 --> 00:26:33.110 align:middle line:90% and they feel superior. 00:26:33.110 --> 00:26:36.603 align:middle line:84% I think in my more weepy and romantic moments 00:26:36.603 --> 00:26:39.020 align:middle line:84% that I tell myself it's because they see the poet as being 00:26:39.020 --> 00:26:41.570 align:middle line:84% a lineal descendant of Homer and Milton 00:26:41.570 --> 00:26:47.000 align:middle line:84% and all of these sort of shaggy ancestors there in our past. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:48.590 align:middle line:84% So everyone I've ever met has always 00:26:48.590 --> 00:26:53.360 align:middle line:84% been absolutely delighted to meet a poet except this one 00:26:53.360 --> 00:26:57.170 align:middle line:84% person, who was somebody I was trying 00:26:57.170 --> 00:27:04.580 align:middle line:84% to buy a house from in Tallahassee, which is small. 00:27:04.580 --> 00:27:08.660 align:middle line:84% One's name, even one's photo, appears in the paper every once 00:27:08.660 --> 00:27:09.440 align:middle line:90% in a while. 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:15.200 align:middle line:84% And so most people have been around Tallahassee, 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:17.930 align:middle line:84% for any period of time, have a little bit of an idea who I am. 00:27:17.930 --> 00:27:20.840 align:middle line:84% So I think this guy was probably sizing me up and figuring, 00:27:20.840 --> 00:27:21.590 align:middle line:90% well, he's a poet. 00:27:21.590 --> 00:27:23.090 align:middle line:90% He can't be too bright. 00:27:23.090 --> 00:27:25.280 align:middle line:90% I'll work him over. 00:27:25.280 --> 00:27:27.830 align:middle line:90% So we began to negotiate. 00:27:27.830 --> 00:27:29.540 align:middle line:84% And I actually think that I was getting 00:27:29.540 --> 00:27:32.540 align:middle line:84% the better of this fellow, which of course, brought out 00:27:32.540 --> 00:27:36.380 align:middle line:90% the worst in him. 00:27:36.380 --> 00:27:39.410 align:middle line:84% The only time I was ever scorned for being a poet 00:27:39.410 --> 00:27:41.930 align:middle line:84% was when I was trying to buy a house 00:27:41.930 --> 00:27:45.830 align:middle line:84% and negotiations fell through and the seller got angry. 00:27:45.830 --> 00:27:48.290 align:middle line:84% And he said, "You're a poet, aren't you?" 00:27:48.290 --> 00:27:51.950 align:middle line:84% And I admitted I was, knowing something terrible 00:27:51.950 --> 00:27:56.870 align:middle line:84% was coming next yet unable to deny my passion, my livelihood, 00:27:56.870 --> 00:27:59.662 align:middle line:90% my identity no less. 00:27:59.662 --> 00:28:01.370 align:middle line:84% But what he said was no worse than that I 00:28:01.370 --> 00:28:04.190 align:middle line:84% should go back to my poems and leave the cold hard world 00:28:04.190 --> 00:28:09.590 align:middle line:84% of business to men like himself, real men, practical types who 00:28:09.590 --> 00:28:10.715 align:middle line:90% understand how things work. 00:28:10.715 --> 00:28:13.860 align:middle line:90% 00:28:13.860 --> 00:28:16.830 align:middle line:84% You think poets don't understand how things work? 00:28:16.830 --> 00:28:20.610 align:middle line:84% Mr, I know you backward and forward, that's for sure. 00:28:20.610 --> 00:28:23.520 align:middle line:84% You're the kind of guy who thinks his wife is ugly 00:28:23.520 --> 00:28:27.055 align:middle line:84% and his kids are dumb, and who sits next to me on the airplane 00:28:27.055 --> 00:28:28.680 align:middle line:84% and says, "Is there any money in that?" 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:30.090 align:middle line:90% After I confessed my secret. 00:28:30.090 --> 00:28:32.495 align:middle line:90% 00:28:32.495 --> 00:28:33.870 align:middle line:84% See, I never wanted you to know I 00:28:33.870 --> 00:28:35.790 align:middle line:84% was a poet in the first place, even 00:28:35.790 --> 00:28:37.660 align:middle line:90% though I'm proud of what I do. 00:28:37.660 --> 00:28:43.380 align:middle line:84% I work hard, take chances, hell I'm up all night sometimes. 00:28:43.380 --> 00:28:46.950 align:middle line:84% What's more I'm an American poet, got a lot of dark humor 00:28:46.950 --> 00:28:48.600 align:middle line:84% in these poems, a lot of narrative 00:28:48.600 --> 00:28:51.390 align:middle line:84% and more colloquialisms than you could shake a stick at. 00:28:51.390 --> 00:28:54.030 align:middle line:90% 00:28:54.030 --> 00:28:58.410 align:middle line:84% I do what Whitman did, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos 00:28:58.410 --> 00:29:01.860 align:middle line:90% Williams, and you belittle me? 00:29:01.860 --> 00:29:06.120 align:middle line:90% You traitor, you communist. 00:29:06.120 --> 00:29:10.470 align:middle line:84% Shame on you for hating your country so much. 00:29:10.470 --> 00:29:12.210 align:middle line:90% Look, I'm not angry. 00:29:12.210 --> 00:29:13.890 align:middle line:90% I feel sorry for you. 00:29:13.890 --> 00:29:16.890 align:middle line:84% Frankly, you've wasted your life. 00:29:16.890 --> 00:29:20.190 align:middle line:84% You used to write poetry, why did you stop? 00:29:20.190 --> 00:29:21.750 align:middle line:90% A deal is a deal. 00:29:21.750 --> 00:29:23.790 align:middle line:90% It just leads to other deals. 00:29:23.790 --> 00:29:25.443 align:middle line:84% But a poem is a summary of everything 00:29:25.443 --> 00:29:27.360 align:middle line:84% that the poet feels and knows up to that point 00:29:27.360 --> 00:29:28.830 align:middle line:90% in his or her life. 00:29:28.830 --> 00:29:31.980 align:middle line:84% A poem therefore is the greatest economy, a bargain. 00:29:31.980 --> 00:29:35.490 align:middle line:84% It's like two for the price of one, only better. 00:29:35.490 --> 00:29:37.450 align:middle line:90% See what I mean? 00:29:37.450 --> 00:29:39.300 align:middle line:90% You're not a real man after all. 00:29:39.300 --> 00:29:40.723 align:middle line:90% Let's face it. 00:29:40.723 --> 00:29:42.390 align:middle line:84% You don't know how to handle your money. 00:29:42.390 --> 00:29:51.420 align:middle line:90% 00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:53.130 align:middle line:84% The high school students always like 00:29:53.130 --> 00:29:57.870 align:middle line:84% that because they see their parents in there 00:29:57.870 --> 00:30:00.180 align:middle line:90% often somewhere. 00:30:00.180 --> 00:30:05.420 align:middle line:90% 00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:11.030 align:middle line:84% I'd like to say something about the male sex, which 00:30:11.030 --> 00:30:16.040 align:middle line:84% is that when they do not have their clothes on, audience, 00:30:16.040 --> 00:30:16.955 align:middle line:90% they are ugly. 00:30:16.955 --> 00:30:20.720 align:middle line:90% 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:22.940 align:middle line:84% I came to this astonishing conclusion 00:30:22.940 --> 00:30:26.450 align:middle line:84% after signing up at a health club 00:30:26.450 --> 00:30:30.320 align:middle line:84% and getting a chance to hang around with a lot of naked men 00:30:30.320 --> 00:30:34.730 align:middle line:90% and study them. 00:30:34.730 --> 00:30:38.540 align:middle line:84% The title of this poem is one that students 00:30:38.540 --> 00:30:43.010 align:middle line:84% of musical history will recognize as a James Brown song 00:30:43.010 --> 00:30:43.640 align:middle line:90% title. 00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:46.790 align:middle line:84% The title of the other one, "Still the Only Investment 00:30:46.790 --> 00:30:48.650 align:middle line:84% Guide You'll Ever Need" is the title 00:30:48.650 --> 00:30:50.935 align:middle line:90% of a book by Andrew Tobias. 00:30:50.935 --> 00:30:52.310 align:middle line:84% If you don't know already, titles 00:30:52.310 --> 00:30:55.892 align:middle line:84% can't be copyright, which is why my next book of poetry 00:30:55.892 --> 00:30:57.350 align:middle line:84% is-- it's either going to be called 00:30:57.350 --> 00:31:01.640 align:middle line:84% the Bible or the dictionary, I'm not quite sure. 00:31:01.640 --> 00:31:04.460 align:middle line:84% But one of those or maybe the biblical dictionary 00:31:04.460 --> 00:31:07.820 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 00:31:07.820 --> 00:31:10.820 align:middle line:84% This one is called "Money Won't Change You, 00:31:10.820 --> 00:31:14.720 align:middle line:90% But Time Will Take You Out." 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:16.940 align:middle line:84% It doesn't take very many visits to the men's locker 00:31:16.940 --> 00:31:19.160 align:middle line:84% at the pool where I go from my daily swim 00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:21.830 align:middle line:84% to realize why it is that men chase women. 00:31:21.830 --> 00:31:24.350 align:middle line:90% 00:31:24.350 --> 00:31:28.730 align:middle line:84% First, there is the baggy skin, ultimately too white 00:31:28.730 --> 00:31:33.200 align:middle line:84% or too red, then the hair, thin or gray, 00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:37.580 align:middle line:84% or worst of all, a near transparent almost colorless 00:31:37.580 --> 00:31:41.090 align:middle line:90% color like oatmeal. 00:31:41.090 --> 00:31:44.030 align:middle line:84% And the overall effect of being grizzled 00:31:44.030 --> 00:31:50.090 align:middle line:84% like once shaggy beasts gone balding and slack in the gut. 00:31:50.090 --> 00:31:57.350 align:middle line:84% The men look like big possums, patchily haired and irritable, 00:31:57.350 --> 00:32:00.830 align:middle line:84% or livestock whose hides have been scraped and boiled 00:32:00.830 --> 00:32:04.610 align:middle line:90% on the way to a final cure. 00:32:04.610 --> 00:32:08.240 align:middle line:84% Then you have your wins, your buboes, your bosses, 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:09.550 align:middle line:90% your separating pustules. 00:32:09.550 --> 00:32:12.320 align:middle line:90% 00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:20.000 align:middle line:84% And the penises, great warty ropes, or stupid one-eyed slugs 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.500 align:middle line:84% asleep beneath the ponderous overhang of belly. 00:32:24.500 --> 00:32:27.230 align:middle line:84% I am thinking of asking permission 00:32:27.230 --> 00:32:28.730 align:middle line:90% to change on the women's side. 00:32:28.730 --> 00:32:31.430 align:middle line:90% 00:32:31.430 --> 00:32:33.363 align:middle line:84% With the express understanding of course, 00:32:33.363 --> 00:32:35.030 align:middle line:84% that I would be as business like theirs, 00:32:35.030 --> 00:32:39.357 align:middle line:84% I am across the hall with members of my own sex. 00:32:39.357 --> 00:32:40.940 align:middle line:84% But what if the women turned out to be 00:32:40.940 --> 00:32:44.360 align:middle line:84% as unwholesome in their appearance as the men? 00:32:44.360 --> 00:32:49.610 align:middle line:84% What if they were themselves a bunch of buffaloes? 00:32:49.610 --> 00:32:53.210 align:middle line:84% Today in the newspaper, a woman described herself 00:32:53.210 --> 00:32:57.710 align:middle line:84% in the personals section as, "smart, silly, 00:32:57.710 --> 00:33:00.950 align:middle line:90% and good-looking." 00:33:00.950 --> 00:33:02.930 align:middle line:84% But time gives us such a blackening 00:33:02.930 --> 00:33:06.290 align:middle line:84% as it would scour the height of an alligator and the newspapers 00:33:06.290 --> 00:33:08.870 align:middle line:90% themselves make us stupid. 00:33:08.870 --> 00:33:12.920 align:middle line:84% Silliness is all that is left to us. 00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:16.460 align:middle line:84% Silly means foolish or unreasoning these days, 00:33:16.460 --> 00:33:19.190 align:middle line:84% but in Middle English it meant blessed, look it up. 00:33:19.190 --> 00:33:27.430 align:middle line:90% 00:33:27.430 --> 00:33:30.550 align:middle line:84% A little while back, I came across a wonderful anecdote 00:33:30.550 --> 00:33:34.810 align:middle line:84% about a meeting of the conductor Toscanini 00:33:34.810 --> 00:33:38.680 align:middle line:84% and the composer Strauss, an anecdote 00:33:38.680 --> 00:33:41.680 align:middle line:84% that I checked out through several different biographies 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:44.710 align:middle line:84% and found that they were wildly varying accounts of it. 00:33:44.710 --> 00:33:47.800 align:middle line:84% But I picked the one that worked into the poem best. 00:33:47.800 --> 00:33:53.350 align:middle line:84% It has to do with Toscanini's use of his trademark Hamburg 00:33:53.350 --> 00:33:55.870 align:middle line:90% hat. 00:33:55.870 --> 00:33:59.620 align:middle line:84% Toscanini apparently was a right-minded fellow. 00:33:59.620 --> 00:34:02.050 align:middle line:84% Strauss had something of a reputation 00:34:02.050 --> 00:34:07.630 align:middle line:90% as a Nazi sympathizer. 00:34:07.630 --> 00:34:10.150 align:middle line:84% And Toscanini did not like Strauss 00:34:10.150 --> 00:34:13.465 align:middle line:84% and was rude to him in a very effective way 00:34:13.465 --> 00:34:14.840 align:middle line:84% that you will hear about shortly. 00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:21.040 align:middle line:84% But really this poem starts with a more common feeling, one 00:34:21.040 --> 00:34:25.060 align:middle line:84% that I'm sure each and every one of you 00:34:25.060 --> 00:34:27.670 align:middle line:90% has felt in the last week. 00:34:27.670 --> 00:34:29.530 align:middle line:84% It's a feeling that comes with sitting 00:34:29.530 --> 00:34:36.159 align:middle line:84% around a table under a single bare light bulb and thinking, 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.969 align:middle line:90% I've got to do something noble. 00:34:39.969 --> 00:34:43.030 align:middle line:84% I've got to learn how to teach people to read, 00:34:43.030 --> 00:34:47.679 align:middle line:84% or I've got to volunteer at the health clinic, 00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:50.650 align:middle line:84% or help the homeless, or do something like that, 00:34:50.650 --> 00:34:52.255 align:middle line:90% wanting to do something better. 00:34:52.255 --> 00:34:53.380 align:middle line:90% That's how the poem begins. 00:34:53.380 --> 00:34:56.440 align:middle line:90% It's called "Soft Black Hat." 00:34:56.440 --> 00:35:00.100 align:middle line:84% I feel like doing something especially high-minded tonight. 00:35:00.100 --> 00:35:02.723 align:middle line:90% Only the little ones-- 00:35:02.723 --> 00:35:04.390 align:middle line:84% only the little things are the ones that 00:35:04.390 --> 00:35:05.980 align:middle line:90% are often the most attractive. 00:35:05.980 --> 00:35:10.330 align:middle line:84% For instance, you can pull the head off a mechanical chicken 00:35:10.330 --> 00:35:12.970 align:middle line:84% and mount your friend's picture on the mechanism 00:35:12.970 --> 00:35:15.430 align:middle line:84% and wind it up and watch your friend bounce around 00:35:15.430 --> 00:35:18.910 align:middle line:84% on the kitchen table until he falls off. 00:35:18.910 --> 00:35:21.700 align:middle line:84% And you wouldn't even have to dress up. 00:35:21.700 --> 00:35:23.860 align:middle line:84% As Thoreau says, beware of any enterprise 00:35:23.860 --> 00:35:26.530 align:middle line:90% that calls for new clothes. 00:35:26.530 --> 00:35:28.600 align:middle line:84% Clothes are nice though, and sometimes you 00:35:28.600 --> 00:35:30.250 align:middle line:90% can use them to make a point. 00:35:30.250 --> 00:35:33.370 align:middle line:84% As when Toscanini met Richard Strauss, composer 00:35:33.370 --> 00:35:38.320 align:middle line:84% of the Rosenkavalier but also a Nazi sympathizer and said, 00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:44.020 align:middle line:84% "I take my hat off to you as a musician, R. Strauss," here 00:35:44.020 --> 00:35:47.500 align:middle line:84% removing his trademark Hamburg, "But as a man, 00:35:47.500 --> 00:35:52.118 align:middle line:84% I put it on again 10 times," which he did on off on off 00:35:52.118 --> 00:35:53.035 align:middle line:90% until he had finished. 00:35:53.035 --> 00:35:55.870 align:middle line:90% 00:35:55.870 --> 00:36:01.540 align:middle line:84% That settled R. Strauss's swastika loving ass for sure. 00:36:01.540 --> 00:36:03.730 align:middle line:84% But villains are hard to come by, especially 00:36:03.730 --> 00:36:06.070 align:middle line:90% in a big country like America. 00:36:06.070 --> 00:36:08.890 align:middle line:84% Signore Toscanini was lucky since Herr Strauss sought him 00:36:08.890 --> 00:36:12.460 align:middle line:84% out in his dressing room at La Scala and not vice versa. 00:36:12.460 --> 00:36:16.600 align:middle line:84% With you, it might be different, but scoundrels seldom 00:36:16.600 --> 00:36:20.440 align:middle line:90% come to me for my disapproval. 00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:23.380 align:middle line:84% So maybe each of us should work on his or her specialty, 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:26.890 align:middle line:84% conducting whatever and become the kind of person others flock 00:36:26.890 --> 00:36:30.070 align:middle line:84% to, hero and villain alike, though the latter would not 00:36:30.070 --> 00:36:32.470 align:middle line:90% always look villainous. 00:36:32.470 --> 00:36:35.920 align:middle line:84% Indeed, they'd try to be as presentable as possible. 00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:41.410 align:middle line:84% Therefore, it is our duty to be better-looking than they are. 00:36:41.410 --> 00:36:46.450 align:middle line:84% We'll be like Toscanini: artists, humanitarians, 00:36:46.450 --> 00:36:47.320 align:middle line:90% snappy dressers. 00:36:47.320 --> 00:36:55.220 align:middle line:90% 00:36:55.220 --> 00:36:58.460 align:middle line:84% Being as close as I'll ever be possibly to Las Vegas, 00:36:58.460 --> 00:37:01.310 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read a poem called "Dracula 00:37:01.310 --> 00:37:11.720 align:middle line:84% in Las Vegas," which features the caped Count as a hero 00:37:11.720 --> 00:37:20.935 align:middle line:84% and puts him up against Elvis, who is a monster in the poem, 00:37:20.935 --> 00:37:22.990 align:middle line:84% and I suppose was a kind of nocturnal monster 00:37:22.990 --> 00:37:27.730 align:middle line:84% at the end of his life, bloating and growing fatter and eating 00:37:27.730 --> 00:37:31.600 align:middle line:84% too much and doing all the things that we 00:37:31.600 --> 00:37:34.330 align:middle line:84% heart healthy types know that we shouldn't do. 00:37:34.330 --> 00:37:38.440 align:middle line:84% So there's a part that is a little difficult 00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:42.640 align:middle line:84% to follow in which Elvis undergoes a transformation. 00:37:42.640 --> 00:37:48.010 align:middle line:84% And I'll try to lead you through that 00:37:48.010 --> 00:37:51.280 align:middle line:90% with a little bit of dispatch. 00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:53.915 align:middle line:84% Just hang on, hang on because that part will-- 00:37:53.915 --> 00:37:56.290 align:middle line:84% when you get to the part where you get confused and lost, 00:37:56.290 --> 00:37:58.880 align:middle line:84% hang on because it'll be over very shortly. 00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:01.690 align:middle line:84% What happens is that there's a epic struggle 00:38:01.690 --> 00:38:03.970 align:middle line:90% and Las Vegas is redeemed. 00:38:03.970 --> 00:38:06.400 align:middle line:84% I'm sure they're very interested in being redeemed 00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:10.810 align:middle line:84% by David Kirby, but that's what happens at least in the poem. 00:38:10.810 --> 00:38:14.470 align:middle line:84% As Dracula is killing the pimps of Las Vegas, 00:38:14.470 --> 00:38:16.870 align:middle line:84% begging them not to sell their sisters into bondage 00:38:16.870 --> 00:38:20.290 align:middle line:84% and then flying into a rage and tearing their throats out 00:38:20.290 --> 00:38:24.250 align:middle line:84% when they laugh at him and call him a jive chump, 00:38:24.250 --> 00:38:26.920 align:middle line:84% Elvis is crawling out of the penthouse window 00:38:26.920 --> 00:38:29.470 align:middle line:90% at the Hilton International. 00:38:29.470 --> 00:38:32.200 align:middle line:84% Tonight he is going to make his stand before the over 30 00:38:32.200 --> 00:38:35.470 align:middle line:84% crowd, pacing back and forth like a cat footed killer. 00:38:35.470 --> 00:38:37.540 align:middle line:84% He's going to give them all he's got 00:38:37.540 --> 00:38:40.900 align:middle line:84% and then wipe the sweat from his face with scarves and fling 00:38:40.900 --> 00:38:42.460 align:middle line:90% them into the audience. 00:38:42.460 --> 00:38:45.100 align:middle line:84% But right now he's crawling down the side of the Hilton head 00:38:45.100 --> 00:38:49.780 align:middle line:84% first, wrapped in a red monk's robe over black nylon pajamas 00:38:49.780 --> 00:38:52.030 align:middle line:84% and patent leather boots, his eyes 00:38:52.030 --> 00:38:55.630 align:middle line:84% screened by tinted aviator glasses with the initials EP 00:38:55.630 --> 00:38:57.640 align:middle line:90% across the bridge. 00:38:57.640 --> 00:39:00.220 align:middle line:84% He reaches the sidewalk and lands lightly 00:39:00.220 --> 00:39:02.470 align:middle line:84% on his feet just as Dracula steps 00:39:02.470 --> 00:39:07.600 align:middle line:84% forward and raises a hand as if to say, stop. 00:39:07.600 --> 00:39:10.990 align:middle line:84% "Ma-aa" cries Elvis like a mountain lion with an arrow 00:39:10.990 --> 00:39:16.030 align:middle line:84% in his ribs as behind him appear the dead of the desert, 00:39:16.030 --> 00:39:19.990 align:middle line:84% the naked Paiute Indians who bet their wives on the toss 00:39:19.990 --> 00:39:21.610 align:middle line:90% of a stick. 00:39:21.610 --> 00:39:24.070 align:middle line:84% The horse soldiers in blue, their skin 00:39:24.070 --> 00:39:27.190 align:middle line:84% hanging from their faces, the Mormons 00:39:27.190 --> 00:39:29.770 align:middle line:84% who slaughtered gentle immigrants from Arkansas 00:39:29.770 --> 00:39:32.710 align:middle line:84% and the strength of a revelation. 00:39:32.710 --> 00:39:35.530 align:middle line:90% Dracula shakes his head. 00:39:35.530 --> 00:39:38.140 align:middle line:84% "I see you are afraid to face me alone," he says. 00:39:38.140 --> 00:39:40.750 align:middle line:90% 00:39:40.750 --> 00:39:44.470 align:middle line:84% "I've got to have my power," Elvis snarls. 00:39:44.470 --> 00:39:50.030 align:middle line:84% "I've got to have my dynamics. " "You lounge lizard," 00:39:50.030 --> 00:39:52.760 align:middle line:84% says the sanguinary count, "whatever happened 00:39:52.760 --> 00:39:56.060 align:middle line:90% to my Transylvania twist?" 00:39:56.060 --> 00:39:58.910 align:middle line:84% Elvis screams and writhes like a man in flames. 00:39:58.910 --> 00:40:02.960 align:middle line:84% The monk's robe changes color, becomes light blue and vaporous 00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:05.600 align:middle line:84% like the screams of millions of television sets on Sunday 00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:07.400 align:middle line:84% night when America sat down in a body 00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:09.200 align:middle line:84% to watch Ed Sullivan wring his hands 00:40:09.200 --> 00:40:11.300 align:middle line:84% and bring out Elvis in his prime, 00:40:11.300 --> 00:40:13.850 align:middle line:84% along with Lesley Gore, the Doodle Town Pipers, Gary Lewis 00:40:13.850 --> 00:40:15.380 align:middle line:84% and the Playboys, and Mary Hopkins 00:40:15.380 --> 00:40:17.630 align:middle line:90% singing "Those Were the Days." 00:40:17.630 --> 00:40:19.670 align:middle line:84% And the robe becomes bluer still as it 00:40:19.670 --> 00:40:22.610 align:middle line:84% gathers at the legs and waist, settling over 00:40:22.610 --> 00:40:25.880 align:middle line:84% the shoulders like a jacket from which someone has forgotten 00:40:25.880 --> 00:40:31.400 align:middle line:84% to remove the hanger, the lapels as lumpy as cold gravy, 00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:35.660 align:middle line:84% the suit as blue now as the jowls of former US President 00:40:35.660 --> 00:40:40.730 align:middle line:84% Richard M. Nixon, whose head floats where Elvis's did. 00:40:40.730 --> 00:40:45.510 align:middle line:84% The eyes wide, the lips silently mouthing the words, 00:40:45.510 --> 00:40:47.180 align:middle line:90% "I am not a crook." 00:40:47.180 --> 00:40:49.430 align:middle line:84% And then freezing in an inaudible 00:40:49.430 --> 00:40:53.690 align:middle line:84% scream as the dead of the desert burst into laughter 00:40:53.690 --> 00:40:58.190 align:middle line:84% and melt dervish-like into the first rays of the sun. 00:40:58.190 --> 00:41:02.390 align:middle line:84% Something stirs at Dracula's foot, a green shoot, 00:41:02.390 --> 00:41:05.870 align:middle line:90% then another, and another. 00:41:05.870 --> 00:41:09.110 align:middle line:84% A carpet of grass rolls across the desert, 00:41:09.110 --> 00:41:12.470 align:middle line:84% a tide of vegetation broken here and there by shade trees 00:41:12.470 --> 00:41:16.220 align:middle line:84% and pools where the chorines and the croupiers bathe, 00:41:16.220 --> 00:41:20.090 align:middle line:84% the call girls, the mobsters come down from their meat 00:41:20.090 --> 00:41:24.900 align:middle line:84% hooks, all children again, children in the slowly warming 00:41:24.900 --> 00:41:25.400 align:middle line:90% air. 00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:28.440 align:middle line:90% 00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:30.680 align:middle line:84% OK, just got two more for you here 00:41:30.680 --> 00:41:32.420 align:middle line:90% to wake you up and get you out. 00:41:32.420 --> 00:41:35.600 align:middle line:90% I have a poem about coffee. 00:41:35.600 --> 00:41:40.550 align:middle line:84% This poem appeared in a little magazine find-- 00:41:40.550 --> 00:41:45.435 align:middle line:84% magazine called Fine Madness, which is published in Seattle. 00:41:45.435 --> 00:41:47.060 align:middle line:84% It's a poem I think you all ought to be 00:41:47.060 --> 00:41:50.490 align:middle line:90% sending your poems to as well. 00:41:50.490 --> 00:41:54.620 align:middle line:84% It's one of those poems-- it was the kind of poem you sneak in. 00:41:54.620 --> 00:41:58.550 align:middle line:84% It's the second best poem in a manuscript. 00:41:58.550 --> 00:42:00.860 align:middle line:84% You put the first best poem in so 00:42:00.860 --> 00:42:03.890 align:middle line:84% that the editor will of course just 00:42:03.890 --> 00:42:08.660 align:middle line:84% grab it and call the printing factory 00:42:08.660 --> 00:42:10.150 align:middle line:90% and say, stop the presses. 00:42:10.150 --> 00:42:11.900 align:middle line:84% And then you put the second best one in so 00:42:11.900 --> 00:42:14.900 align:middle line:84% that the editor will see how fine the first one is. 00:42:14.900 --> 00:42:16.550 align:middle line:90% And of course, that never works. 00:42:16.550 --> 00:42:19.400 align:middle line:84% The editor, in his misguided way, 00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:22.410 align:middle line:84% never takes the best poem but always the second best. 00:42:22.410 --> 00:42:24.080 align:middle line:90% And so I didn't-- 00:42:24.080 --> 00:42:25.310 align:middle line:90% I was happy. 00:42:25.310 --> 00:42:27.590 align:middle line:84% I didn't mind that it appeared at all. 00:42:27.590 --> 00:42:31.080 align:middle line:84% But it didn't feel anything special about it. 00:42:31.080 --> 00:42:33.770 align:middle line:84% But here's where the harmonic convergence comes in. 00:42:33.770 --> 00:42:37.400 align:middle line:84% The day that I was to leave for Arizona, 00:42:37.400 --> 00:42:41.870 align:middle line:84% that is to say a week ago, last Wednesday, October 4th, 00:42:41.870 --> 00:42:44.690 align:middle line:84% I got a letter from Naomi Nye, whom I understand 00:42:44.690 --> 00:42:48.260 align:middle line:84% is to appear here in just a couple of weeks. 00:42:48.260 --> 00:42:50.118 align:middle line:84% And she heard-- the effect of her letter 00:42:50.118 --> 00:42:52.160 align:middle line:84% which to say I really like this poem about coffee 00:42:52.160 --> 00:42:56.060 align:middle line:84% in Fine Madness, which I took as a omen, 00:42:56.060 --> 00:43:02.000 align:middle line:84% not about the poem's success but about the net of poetry that we 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:05.330 align:middle line:84% all bounce around in, and also about the possibility 00:43:05.330 --> 00:43:09.980 align:middle line:84% for connection because if she could connect with me, then 00:43:09.980 --> 00:43:11.990 align:middle line:84% it made me think that I could connect with you 00:43:11.990 --> 00:43:13.760 align:middle line:84% or that if I couldn't connect with you, 00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:16.970 align:middle line:84% it would not be for any lack of trying on my part. 00:43:16.970 --> 00:43:19.773 align:middle line:90% So here's one more shot at it. 00:43:19.773 --> 00:43:21.440 align:middle line:84% And the poem is called "Bottomless Cup." 00:43:21.440 --> 00:43:24.340 align:middle line:90% 00:43:24.340 --> 00:43:27.610 align:middle line:84% The best thing in the world is coffee, especially the cup 00:43:27.610 --> 00:43:31.360 align:middle line:84% I have with my wife every day, three scoops of espresso 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:34.750 align:middle line:84% and one of American coffee with chicory filtered. 00:43:34.750 --> 00:43:37.960 align:middle line:84% Around town, it's commercially prepared and lousy. 00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:40.060 align:middle line:84% But I drink it anyway in honor of that first cup 00:43:40.060 --> 00:43:42.880 align:middle line:84% which makes the subsequent ones not so bad, 00:43:42.880 --> 00:43:45.670 align:middle line:90% and because I love this stuff. 00:43:45.670 --> 00:43:48.520 align:middle line:84% Of course, various hosts and hostesses in this city 00:43:48.520 --> 00:43:51.160 align:middle line:84% make very serviceable coffee after the dinners 00:43:51.160 --> 00:43:53.620 align:middle line:84% to which I am often invited, having something 00:43:53.620 --> 00:43:56.890 align:middle line:84% of a reputation as a useful hand in the kitchen and more 00:43:56.890 --> 00:43:59.335 align:middle line:90% than passable conversationalist. 00:43:59.335 --> 00:44:01.960 align:middle line:84% But by then it's too late in the evening for good coffee, which 00:44:01.960 --> 00:44:04.420 align:middle line:84% only disturbs sleep thus dulling one's 00:44:04.420 --> 00:44:10.870 align:middle line:84% appreciation of that matutinal cup, the first one every day. 00:44:10.870 --> 00:44:13.390 align:middle line:84% It's silly to get caught up in rituals, I know. 00:44:13.390 --> 00:44:16.270 align:middle line:84% But a friend told me his father recovered from his mother's 00:44:16.270 --> 00:44:19.150 align:middle line:84% death by taking up again the little routines he'd 00:44:19.150 --> 00:44:22.150 align:middle line:90% practiced daily all his life. 00:44:22.150 --> 00:44:25.390 align:middle line:84% So coffee might save me from despair one of these days 00:44:25.390 --> 00:44:27.640 align:middle line:84% since I certainly don't expect to go through it 00:44:27.640 --> 00:44:29.170 align:middle line:90% without my share of blows. 00:44:29.170 --> 00:44:30.550 align:middle line:90% Well, you see that ruins it. 00:44:30.550 --> 00:44:32.980 align:middle line:84% Now, all this coffee drinking has a purpose which it 00:44:32.980 --> 00:44:33.820 align:middle line:90% shouldn't. 00:44:33.820 --> 00:44:35.290 align:middle line:84% I don't even need the stuff to wake 00:44:35.290 --> 00:44:39.340 align:middle line:84% up with being fairly jumpy most of the time anyway. 00:44:39.340 --> 00:44:40.810 align:middle line:84% I suppose I drank it because I want 00:44:40.810 --> 00:44:43.990 align:middle line:84% to be more like coffee myself, the thing people 00:44:43.990 --> 00:44:45.490 align:middle line:84% need when they get up in the morning 00:44:45.490 --> 00:44:50.080 align:middle line:84% and then all day long, something even the poor can afford. 00:44:50.080 --> 00:44:53.652 align:middle line:84% I want to find myself everywhere. 00:44:53.652 --> 00:44:55.360 align:middle line:84% I want to be the thing that's bad for you 00:44:55.360 --> 00:44:56.335 align:middle line:90% if you get too much. 00:44:56.335 --> 00:45:01.067 align:middle line:90% 00:45:01.067 --> 00:45:01.900 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:45:01.900 --> 00:45:06.020 align:middle line:84% I very much appreciate your attendance and your attention. 00:45:06.020 --> 00:45:08.410 align:middle line:90% This is the last poem. 00:45:08.410 --> 00:45:11.235 align:middle line:84% I always-- no matter how much community service I'm doing 00:45:11.235 --> 00:45:12.610 align:middle line:84% and no matter how much trash I've 00:45:12.610 --> 00:45:14.890 align:middle line:84% picked up by the side of the road, 00:45:14.890 --> 00:45:18.880 align:middle line:84% I always try to calm students down, 00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:20.950 align:middle line:84% my students, your students, anybody students 00:45:20.950 --> 00:45:23.985 align:middle line:90% by telling them to start small. 00:45:23.985 --> 00:45:26.110 align:middle line:84% Poetry is hard enough to write without you tackling 00:45:26.110 --> 00:45:30.060 align:middle line:90% the cosmos or truth or beauty. 00:45:30.060 --> 00:45:32.920 align:middle line:84% Start small, and let the effort come in later 00:45:32.920 --> 00:45:35.860 align:middle line:84% when you're refining your small concept. 00:45:35.860 --> 00:45:41.110 align:middle line:84% And this last poem is an illustration of that. 00:45:41.110 --> 00:45:47.320 align:middle line:84% It was stimulated by the visit of a friend of my wife 00:45:47.320 --> 00:45:52.090 align:middle line:84% who was talking to my wife as I was preparing supper. 00:45:52.090 --> 00:45:57.740 align:middle line:84% And in the other room, I heard this friend say, "What's 00:45:57.740 --> 00:46:01.550 align:middle line:90% it like being married to Dave?" 00:46:01.550 --> 00:46:04.130 align:middle line:84% And the title of the poem is "The Meaning 00:46:04.130 --> 00:46:05.540 align:middle line:90% of Women's Laughter." 00:46:05.540 --> 00:46:11.120 align:middle line:90% 00:46:11.120 --> 00:46:12.800 align:middle line:84% Through the kitchen's thin walls, 00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:16.340 align:middle line:84% I hear my wife's girlfriend in from California 00:46:16.340 --> 00:46:21.080 align:middle line:84% ask, "What's it like being married to Dave?" 00:46:21.080 --> 00:46:24.380 align:middle line:84% My wife says something I cannot hear, 00:46:24.380 --> 00:46:31.650 align:middle line:84% and then there is a chuckle, two, 00:46:31.650 --> 00:46:33.300 align:middle line:90% a torrent of helpless laughter. 00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:36.030 align:middle line:90% 00:46:36.030 --> 00:46:39.600 align:middle line:84% I think of Miss Parham, my third grade teacher, 00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:41.850 align:middle line:84% who used to say, "We're not laughing at you, honey. 00:46:41.850 --> 00:46:45.750 align:middle line:84% We're laughing with you," whenever a child came close 00:46:45.750 --> 00:46:47.490 align:middle line:90% to tears. 00:46:47.490 --> 00:46:50.370 align:middle line:84% Only once, when Putsy Trice came back 00:46:50.370 --> 00:46:55.110 align:middle line:84% from the bathroom with toilet paper hanging out of her pants, 00:46:55.110 --> 00:46:57.330 align:middle line:84% Miss Parham mixed up her prepositions 00:46:57.330 --> 00:47:01.590 align:middle line:84% and told Putsy we were laughing at her. 00:47:01.590 --> 00:47:02.355 align:middle line:90% And it was true. 00:47:02.355 --> 00:47:05.460 align:middle line:90% 00:47:05.460 --> 00:47:09.640 align:middle line:84% Only Putsy Trice was a showoff and didn't care. 00:47:09.640 --> 00:47:12.240 align:middle line:90% I care. 00:47:12.240 --> 00:47:14.430 align:middle line:84% Standing in my kitchen, I care whether or not 00:47:14.430 --> 00:47:32.390 align:middle line:84% my wife thinks [AUDIO OUT] It loves someone no matter 00:47:32.390 --> 00:47:35.240 align:middle line:90% how badly they treat you. 00:47:35.240 --> 00:47:37.280 align:middle line:84% And then I hear the voices of the two women 00:47:37.280 --> 00:47:41.060 align:middle line:84% begging me to come in and dance with them. 00:47:41.060 --> 00:47:46.610 align:middle line:84% We do the hitchhike, we do the swim. 00:47:46.610 --> 00:47:49.250 align:middle line:84% The song stops and another starts. 00:47:49.250 --> 00:47:52.490 align:middle line:84% It says, "Sometimes I clown, back up 00:47:52.490 --> 00:47:55.370 align:middle line:90% and do the James Brown." 00:47:55.370 --> 00:48:02.360 align:middle line:84% My wife slips into my arms, and we dip, glide, tango. 00:48:02.360 --> 00:48:06.440 align:middle line:84% The friend from California has left the room. 00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:12.320 align:middle line:84% We kiss long and slow and keep dancing. 00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:13.430 align:middle line:90% Thanks very much. 00:48:13.430 --> 00:48:16.780 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:48:16.780 --> 00:48:50.000 align:middle line:90%