WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:04.310 align:middle line:84% Our next reading will be one week from tonight 00:00:04.310 --> 00:00:07.010 align:middle line:84% in the Terrace Lounge at the Student Union, 00:00:07.010 --> 00:00:10.370 align:middle line:84% and that will be to honor Persona magazine. 00:00:10.370 --> 00:00:17.720 align:middle line:84% And the readers will be the contributors to Persona 1981. 00:00:17.720 --> 00:00:20.630 align:middle line:84% I regret to announce that one of our October readings 00:00:20.630 --> 00:00:22.010 align:middle line:90% has been canceled. 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:24.420 align:middle line:84% Bill Knott has canceled his reading, 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:28.700 align:middle line:84% so we'll be letting you know soon if another reading will 00:00:28.700 --> 00:00:32.368 align:middle line:90% be scheduled in that time. 00:00:32.368 --> 00:00:34.910 align:middle line:84% I'd like to invite you to come to the Poetry Center following 00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:37.250 align:middle line:84% tonight's reading for some punch and cookies. 00:00:37.250 --> 00:00:41.180 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.180 --> 00:00:41.900 align:middle line:90% Where? 00:00:41.900 --> 00:00:42.890 align:middle line:90% The Poetry Center. 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:44.330 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] 00:00:44.330 --> 00:00:47.480 align:middle line:84% If it's raining we'll go inside, and if it's not raining 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:48.830 align:middle line:90% we'll go outside. 00:00:48.830 --> 00:00:49.330 align:middle line:90% OK? 00:00:49.330 --> 00:00:51.747 align:middle line:84% And if it's raining and you don't want to come over there, 00:00:51.747 --> 00:00:54.427 align:middle line:84% come by tomorrow, and I'll give you some cookies tomorrow. 00:00:54.427 --> 00:00:57.230 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:01.140 align:middle line:84% If I don't eat them all for breakfast. 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:04.250 align:middle line:84% It's a great pleasure to introduce Pamela Stewart again. 00:01:04.250 --> 00:01:06.890 align:middle line:90% Most of you know her as Jody. 00:01:06.890 --> 00:01:11.720 align:middle line:84% Her books include The St. Vlas Elegies and Cascades, both 00:01:11.720 --> 00:01:15.380 align:middle line:90% published by L'Epervier Press. 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:17.300 align:middle line:84% She's published in such magazines 00:01:17.300 --> 00:01:22.670 align:middle line:84% as Poetry, Antaeus, The New Yorker, Ironwood. 00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:24.620 align:middle line:84% Her work's represented in many anthologies, 00:01:24.620 --> 00:01:28.940 align:middle line:84% including the Pushcart Prize V and Borestone Mountain Poetry 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:32.460 align:middle line:90% Awards Best Poems of 1976. 00:01:32.460 --> 00:01:36.162 align:middle line:84% She has just joined our faculty teaching poetry classes here 00:01:36.162 --> 00:01:38.120 align:middle line:84% at the university, and we're very happy for her 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:39.530 align:middle line:90% to read for us tonight. 00:01:39.530 --> 00:01:40.370 align:middle line:90% Pamela Stewart. 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:45.190 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:45.190 --> 00:01:51.460 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.460 --> 00:01:52.075 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:52.075 --> 00:01:55.010 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:01:55.010 --> 00:01:55.510 align:middle line:90% Yes? 00:01:55.510 --> 00:01:56.410 align:middle line:90% No? 00:01:56.410 --> 00:01:58.882 align:middle line:90% I can't hear me. 00:01:58.882 --> 00:02:00.340 align:middle line:84% I don't know how these things work. 00:02:00.340 --> 00:02:03.130 align:middle line:90% Do I have to lean into it? 00:02:03.130 --> 00:02:03.926 align:middle line:90% Better? 00:02:03.926 --> 00:02:04.426 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:02:04.426 --> 00:02:04.926 align:middle line:90% Ooh. 00:02:04.926 --> 00:02:07.650 align:middle line:84% That means I have to go like this the whole night. 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:08.150 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:08.150 --> 00:02:12.400 align:middle line:90% 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.410 align:middle line:84% This will probably not be too long 00:02:14.410 --> 00:02:16.180 align:middle line:84% a reading, because I'm going to read poems 00:02:16.180 --> 00:02:18.670 align:middle line:84% that I've written in the last 18 months, which 00:02:18.670 --> 00:02:20.380 align:middle line:90% is not that many poems. 00:02:20.380 --> 00:02:22.210 align:middle line:90% And they seem to get-- 00:02:22.210 --> 00:02:24.535 align:middle line:84% or for a period, they seem to get shorter and shorter. 00:02:24.535 --> 00:02:28.210 align:middle line:90% 00:02:28.210 --> 00:02:31.360 align:middle line:84% The first set of poems is from a series 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:33.560 align:middle line:90% called The One and the Other. 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:37.960 align:middle line:84% And since my favorite activities are smoking cigarettes 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:40.060 align:middle line:84% and plotting my obsessions, you will see 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.460 align:middle line:90% that these poems speak to that. 00:02:42.460 --> 00:02:45.820 align:middle line:84% The cigarettes I'm saving for my first novel. 00:02:45.820 --> 00:02:47.530 align:middle line:84% And so basically, these poems are 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:51.040 align:middle line:84% about acknowledging an obsession and trying 00:02:51.040 --> 00:02:55.000 align:middle line:84% to work one's way out of it into something like the real world. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.490 align:middle line:84% But I don't fool myself and pretend that I did that 00:02:57.490 --> 00:02:58.390 align:middle line:90% in any way at all. 00:02:58.390 --> 00:03:01.930 align:middle line:90% 00:03:01.930 --> 00:03:07.060 align:middle line:84% The epigraph for the series is from the Spanish novelist Cela, 00:03:07.060 --> 00:03:10.270 align:middle line:84% and it reads, "To not remember the story leaves 00:03:10.270 --> 00:03:12.430 align:middle line:84% you incomplete," and I believe that's true. 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:24.670 align:middle line:90% 00:03:24.670 --> 00:03:26.710 align:middle line:84% The first poem is called "Vespertine," 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:29.380 align:middle line:84% which is a very nice word I found in the dictionary, 00:03:29.380 --> 00:03:31.510 align:middle line:84% and it simply means of or pertaining 00:03:31.510 --> 00:03:33.430 align:middle line:90% to the time of vespers at dusk. 00:03:33.430 --> 00:03:37.390 align:middle line:90% 00:03:37.390 --> 00:03:39.850 align:middle line:84% "Now light falls out of the garden, 00:03:39.850 --> 00:03:44.530 align:middle line:84% unchaining its trees and blossoms still. 00:03:44.530 --> 00:03:47.890 align:middle line:90% A wedge sky deepens purely. 00:03:47.890 --> 00:03:51.430 align:middle line:84% I know that God moves in to break our hearts so we 00:03:51.430 --> 00:03:54.010 align:middle line:90% may choose reshaping them. 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:58.030 align:middle line:84% These are the words you told me, the no words unfolding 00:03:58.030 --> 00:04:00.250 align:middle line:90% from the face of wall. 00:04:00.250 --> 00:04:03.130 align:middle line:90% I touch my mouth, my tongue. 00:04:03.130 --> 00:04:06.550 align:middle line:84% I touch the air a bird went through. 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:11.110 align:middle line:84% The dog barking down the street is certain of his purpose. 00:04:11.110 --> 00:04:14.980 align:middle line:84% There's a crack in the walk, a spider's husk. 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:19.390 align:middle line:84% And far across the world, rooms with iron bars 00:04:19.390 --> 00:04:21.115 align:middle line:90% are calling down the night." 00:04:21.115 --> 00:04:25.790 align:middle line:90% 00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:27.950 align:middle line:90% "Weather." 00:04:27.950 --> 00:04:31.520 align:middle line:84% "The room is torn into a light you haven't dreamed of. 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:34.040 align:middle line:84% Clouds fall between two mountains 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.230 align:middle line:90% where blue deer graze. 00:04:36.230 --> 00:04:37.910 align:middle line:90% You know this is true. 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:41.480 align:middle line:84% You know how his face has gone into rain. 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:45.560 align:middle line:84% The cat leaps to the sill and curtains don't open. 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:48.500 align:middle line:90% Still, the light. 00:04:48.500 --> 00:04:51.350 align:middle line:84% The deer have slipped into a thicket. 00:04:51.350 --> 00:04:53.750 align:middle line:90% He is miles from there. 00:04:53.750 --> 00:04:55.940 align:middle line:90% How dark it's become. 00:04:55.940 --> 00:05:00.650 align:middle line:84% The blue-nosed deer step near a pond which fills with rain, 00:05:00.650 --> 00:05:03.980 align:middle line:84% and certain things are finally forbidden. 00:05:03.980 --> 00:05:08.390 align:middle line:84% Low notes rooted in the corners, long, white hands 00:05:08.390 --> 00:05:10.850 align:middle line:90% folding paper. 00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:14.600 align:middle line:84% The room is full of love that may not remain. 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:17.750 align:middle line:84% The doors for these walls that hold you, 00:05:17.750 --> 00:05:23.180 align:middle line:84% the door is for later and cannot keep away the eye of God, 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:24.785 align:middle line:90% burning across the plains." 00:05:24.785 --> 00:05:29.292 align:middle line:90% 00:05:29.292 --> 00:05:31.250 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I'm not sure how these poems connect. 00:05:31.250 --> 00:05:34.220 align:middle line:90% 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:36.860 align:middle line:90% "Eurydice." 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:39.050 align:middle line:90% "I molt in the face. 00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:42.770 align:middle line:84% The lake skin toughens this summer. 00:05:42.770 --> 00:05:46.070 align:middle line:84% Yellow chintz hangs in the window. 00:05:46.070 --> 00:05:48.860 align:middle line:90% Water pulls along my eyes. 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:53.000 align:middle line:84% Yet you stand nearby where I am not in love 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.030 align:middle line:90% and fire fills the lake. 00:05:56.030 --> 00:05:59.360 align:middle line:84% Paper boats sail off the island's lip. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.435 align:middle line:84% I lived there once as air above the flames. 00:06:02.435 --> 00:06:04.980 align:middle line:90% 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:09.080 align:middle line:84% There are times a man's torso in the concave clench of love 00:06:09.080 --> 00:06:11.210 align:middle line:90% makes an animal's face. 00:06:11.210 --> 00:06:13.850 align:middle line:84% At those moments, I want to send you 00:06:13.850 --> 00:06:18.800 align:middle line:84% a postcard saying, slow dance, dusk, thunder over trees, 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:20.720 align:middle line:90% saying, I am not air. 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:23.060 align:middle line:90% I am just not. 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:28.160 align:middle line:84% Lift your head and reach for me across the world. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:32.180 align:middle line:84% Shouts from the island, tall pines, and a clearing 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:35.300 align:middle line:84% where blueberries ripen from their blood color of someone 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:37.370 align:middle line:90% stabbed yesterday. 00:06:37.370 --> 00:06:42.050 align:middle line:84% The boats have caught fire, are dying in water. 00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:44.540 align:middle line:90% An edge of yellow in my mouth. 00:06:44.540 --> 00:06:46.790 align:middle line:90% I bite down hard. 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:49.580 align:middle line:84% That face, surging in window glass. 00:06:49.580 --> 00:06:51.380 align:middle line:90% Is it mine? 00:06:51.380 --> 00:06:53.720 align:middle line:90% Someone's opening the door. 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:54.560 align:middle line:90% I won't look." 00:06:54.560 --> 00:07:01.802 align:middle line:90% 00:07:01.802 --> 00:07:03.530 align:middle line:90% The next one is called "Sand." 00:07:03.530 --> 00:07:05.360 align:middle line:84% I was really into one-word titles, 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:07.310 align:middle line:84% because I had written all these wonderful titles that went on 00:07:07.310 --> 00:07:09.410 align:middle line:84% for two or three lines before you read the poem, 00:07:09.410 --> 00:07:12.380 align:middle line:90% and I was really tired of that. 00:07:12.380 --> 00:07:14.810 align:middle line:84% And it was very hard to find one-word titles, 00:07:14.810 --> 00:07:17.090 align:middle line:84% so I tried to find the most elemental thing that 00:07:17.090 --> 00:07:19.550 align:middle line:90% applied to the poem. 00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:21.830 align:middle line:84% At this time, I was reading "Wind, Sand and Stars," 00:07:21.830 --> 00:07:23.150 align:middle line:90% which made it a lot easier. 00:07:23.150 --> 00:07:25.310 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:07:25.310 --> 00:07:27.627 align:middle line:84% And the image of the dogs in this poem-- 00:07:27.627 --> 00:07:29.210 align:middle line:84% I don't know why I keep telling people 00:07:29.210 --> 00:07:30.680 align:middle line:90% this-- it was very striking. 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:34.190 align:middle line:84% On New Year's Day, I was driving down I-10 a couple of years 00:07:34.190 --> 00:07:38.180 align:middle line:84% ago, and I saw a big black hound dog with his ribs 00:07:38.180 --> 00:07:41.060 align:middle line:84% showing right in the middle of the road eating roadkill, 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:43.160 align:middle line:84% and the blood was coming out of his mouth. 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.870 align:middle line:84% It was like 1980, and it seemed like the black dogs 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:49.820 align:middle line:90% of the plague in medieval times. 00:07:49.820 --> 00:07:51.148 align:middle line:90% And he seemed really an omen. 00:07:51.148 --> 00:07:53.190 align:middle line:84% And all these cars were going by him really fast, 00:07:53.190 --> 00:07:56.270 align:middle line:84% and he just stood there, absolutely obsessed with having 00:07:56.270 --> 00:07:58.680 align:middle line:90% to eat, he was so hungry. 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:00.680 align:middle line:84% It doesn't have a lot to do with the poem, but-- 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:02.125 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:08:02.125 --> 00:08:03.125 align:middle line:90% --it didn't at the time. 00:08:03.125 --> 00:08:05.700 align:middle line:90% 00:08:05.700 --> 00:08:08.390 align:middle line:90% "Sand." 00:08:08.390 --> 00:08:12.830 align:middle line:84% "I reach for you in sleep, touch a nervous wrist. 00:08:12.830 --> 00:08:15.050 align:middle line:90% You pull away your hand. 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:18.200 align:middle line:84% I see the dogs of war eating sand. 00:08:18.200 --> 00:08:22.790 align:middle line:84% I see the blood blacken at their feet. 00:08:22.790 --> 00:08:26.660 align:middle line:84% A child puts his face deep into his mother's skirt, 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:29.540 align:middle line:90% his mouth gritty with thirst. 00:08:29.540 --> 00:08:35.840 align:middle line:84% The prelude continues one hour while its piano stands forever. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.309 align:middle line:90% He is my subject. 00:08:37.309 --> 00:08:40.730 align:middle line:84% It is not what you think, a face perceived and never 00:08:40.730 --> 00:08:42.740 align:middle line:90% really seen. 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:47.570 align:middle line:84% I move my body towards him, white of washed root. 00:08:47.570 --> 00:08:51.080 align:middle line:84% The blue veil at my mouth keeps out the sand, 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:55.400 align:middle line:84% and wind is the same over and over. 00:08:55.400 --> 00:08:59.870 align:middle line:84% Today, I cut my leg, black twig drawing. 00:08:59.870 --> 00:09:02.360 align:middle line:84% Once a man took my blood through his teeth. 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.330 align:middle line:90% His lips shone. 00:09:05.330 --> 00:09:09.950 align:middle line:84% With salt-red eyes, I see how the clouds are jaws spilling 00:09:09.950 --> 00:09:12.560 align:middle line:90% sand around the street lamps. 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:16.490 align:middle line:84% His voice across the world is a gap in the wind. 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:18.530 align:middle line:84% The subject is not what you think. 00:09:18.530 --> 00:09:24.230 align:middle line:84% It howls, and his face falls into my lap, a black key 00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:26.840 align:middle line:90% pressed and never released." 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:34.500 align:middle line:90% 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.785 align:middle line:84% The next couple of poems are sort of marriage poems. 00:09:37.785 --> 00:09:39.660 align:middle line:84% I like to think that they're not my marriage, 00:09:39.660 --> 00:09:42.090 align:middle line:90% but they may have been. 00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:42.900 align:middle line:90% "Gravity." 00:09:42.900 --> 00:09:45.940 align:middle line:90% 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:50.200 align:middle line:84% "My mouth flicks into red points of air as you hit me. 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:55.900 align:middle line:84% A hand flies up through mantles of space I cannot fill or keep. 00:09:55.900 --> 00:09:58.300 align:middle line:90% This is the bodiless night. 00:09:58.300 --> 00:10:02.890 align:middle line:84% This is where innocence frays along speckled air. 00:10:02.890 --> 00:10:06.940 align:middle line:84% I touch one thread, its pain drifting from house 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:10.000 align:middle line:90% to house, ashes, ashes. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.790 align:middle line:90% Sleep while you can. 00:10:12.790 --> 00:10:17.020 align:middle line:84% Black spots in the corner of my eye float between us, 00:10:17.020 --> 00:10:20.530 align:middle line:84% between the dust-pocked glare of broken glass, 00:10:20.530 --> 00:10:26.170 align:middle line:84% and you hard into the wall go spinning along the edge of me. 00:10:26.170 --> 00:10:27.940 align:middle line:90% One of us falls. 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:30.250 align:middle line:90% The children don't wake. 00:10:30.250 --> 00:10:33.760 align:middle line:84% Their small arms and legs hold on. 00:10:33.760 --> 00:10:37.720 align:middle line:84% I won't stay, though your heart, disembodied, 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:39.085 align:middle line:90% is sewn to my hair." 00:10:39.085 --> 00:10:48.720 align:middle line:90% 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.840 align:middle line:90% "Insomnia." 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:55.110 align:middle line:84% "Someone sleeps with his back to you, or he doesn't. 00:10:55.110 --> 00:10:57.990 align:middle line:90% He sweats as he dreams. 00:10:57.990 --> 00:11:01.050 align:middle line:84% On his lip, a small blue spot gathering 00:11:01.050 --> 00:11:03.990 align:middle line:90% clouds beyond a mountain pass. 00:11:03.990 --> 00:11:06.900 align:middle line:84% Miles from here, you see another man 00:11:06.900 --> 00:11:10.350 align:middle line:84% staring into himself at the face of a woman. 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:12.600 align:middle line:90% She turns at the gate. 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.540 align:middle line:84% He looks so hard, she becomes transparent. 00:11:15.540 --> 00:11:18.780 align:middle line:84% He looks through her, right into the Earth. 00:11:18.780 --> 00:11:19.950 align:middle line:90% He wakes. 00:11:19.950 --> 00:11:21.690 align:middle line:90% You both wake. 00:11:21.690 --> 00:11:24.900 align:middle line:84% On the mountain the deer stand betrayed. 00:11:24.900 --> 00:11:27.210 align:middle line:90% One of them is you. 00:11:27.210 --> 00:11:29.550 align:middle line:90% The sky loose and snow. 00:11:29.550 --> 00:11:32.580 align:middle line:84% A flash of hooves circles your room. 00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:35.700 align:middle line:90% Black spots on the horizon. 00:11:35.700 --> 00:11:38.130 align:middle line:90% In each hand, you hold a story. 00:11:38.130 --> 00:11:42.540 align:middle line:84% Between them, your heart wedges into the Earth, not 00:11:42.540 --> 00:11:50.310 align:middle line:84% flower, mouth, or star, but an eye half shut, waiting." 00:11:50.310 --> 00:11:52.470 align:middle line:84% Incidentally, black spots on the horizon 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:57.630 align:middle line:84% I found in the thesaurus, and it was an old 19th century 00:11:57.630 --> 00:11:59.160 align:middle line:90% term for being depressed. 00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:07.050 align:middle line:90% 00:12:07.050 --> 00:12:08.443 align:middle line:90% A lot of hearts in these poems. 00:12:08.443 --> 00:12:09.860 align:middle line:84% There's nothing I can do about it. 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:11.210 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:11.210 --> 00:12:12.560 align:middle line:90% 00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:15.320 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:18.320 align:middle line:84% Two-word title, "Tabula Rasa," blank slate. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.570 align:middle line:90% 00:12:22.570 --> 00:12:26.170 align:middle line:84% Tonight, the moon flings against our walls. 00:12:26.170 --> 00:12:28.660 align:middle line:84% What it does to us makes a heart split, 00:12:28.660 --> 00:12:32.440 align:middle line:84% forgetting the prettiness of its origin. 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:36.940 align:middle line:84% Inside my fingers, the blood shakes into unpainted poppies 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:39.460 align:middle line:90% that scatter their tissue reds. 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:42.310 align:middle line:90% Each holds your face. 00:12:42.310 --> 00:12:45.260 align:middle line:84% You pull the sheet over your chest. 00:12:45.260 --> 00:12:49.240 align:middle line:84% My hands tremble to dig through toward that cluster of ribs 00:12:49.240 --> 00:12:51.190 align:middle line:90% and wrench them open. 00:12:51.190 --> 00:12:54.110 align:middle line:84% I want to listen to what's there. 00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:55.930 align:middle line:90% I'm inside two people. 00:12:55.930 --> 00:12:58.600 align:middle line:90% The other is not you. 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.960 align:middle line:84% I want to understand the moment he died. 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:06.920 align:middle line:84% You are different from me and might know, but you are asleep. 00:13:06.920 --> 00:13:09.280 align:middle line:84% The other is standing by a river. 00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:11.980 align:middle line:90% He turns to say goodbye. 00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:15.370 align:middle line:84% The knife leaves his throat, and what I prayed against 00:13:15.370 --> 00:13:17.800 align:middle line:84% drags me toward where you were sleeping 00:13:17.800 --> 00:13:20.800 align:middle line:90% in the white skin of yourself. 00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:22.390 align:middle line:90% We are nameless. 00:13:22.390 --> 00:13:27.370 align:middle line:84% I hold everything back, asking, where is the time for sorrow? 00:13:27.370 --> 00:13:28.360 align:middle line:90% We must eat." 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:33.130 align:middle line:90% 00:13:33.130 --> 00:13:34.600 align:middle line:84% In this series, there of course has 00:13:34.600 --> 00:13:38.800 align:middle line:84% to be a father poem, as in my second set of poems. 00:13:38.800 --> 00:13:46.110 align:middle line:90% 00:13:46.110 --> 00:13:47.910 align:middle line:84% And again, I find myself returning 00:13:47.910 --> 00:13:49.710 align:middle line:84% to the landscape of my childhood, which 00:13:49.710 --> 00:13:52.110 align:middle line:84% is New England, in the countryside of Western 00:13:52.110 --> 00:13:53.370 align:middle line:90% Massachusetts. 00:13:53.370 --> 00:13:56.400 align:middle line:84% And trillium are a kind of wildflower 00:13:56.400 --> 00:13:58.200 align:middle line:84% that first appears in the spring. 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:02.520 align:middle line:84% They're kind of a real dark, almost blue-red, at least 00:14:02.520 --> 00:14:03.872 align:middle line:90% the ones I'm thinking of. 00:14:03.872 --> 00:14:07.036 align:middle line:90% 00:14:07.036 --> 00:14:08.075 align:middle line:90% "Of My Father." 00:14:08.075 --> 00:14:10.940 align:middle line:90% 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:14.450 align:middle line:84% "A child flings herself into those pine woods 00:14:14.450 --> 00:14:17.570 align:middle line:84% where blue jays snap the air in half. 00:14:17.570 --> 00:14:22.550 align:middle line:84% Blood trillium reduced the shade of Earth unpatching from snow. 00:14:22.550 --> 00:14:26.690 align:middle line:84% I am back in that instant I misplaced years ago, 00:14:26.690 --> 00:14:31.880 align:middle line:84% leading to a summer pond called evening, home. 00:14:31.880 --> 00:14:34.400 align:middle line:84% There's the corpse with countless faces 00:14:34.400 --> 00:14:36.350 align:middle line:90% rising from water. 00:14:36.350 --> 00:14:41.060 align:middle line:84% He calls me toward his gifts scattered among far trees, 00:14:41.060 --> 00:14:45.920 align:middle line:84% terms of endearment, thin lips, and the lilting gold chain 00:14:45.920 --> 00:14:48.240 align:middle line:90% that locks down my throat. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:51.560 align:middle line:90% I have always worn it. 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:55.640 align:middle line:84% Two or three women pulse in the radius of my wrist. 00:14:55.640 --> 00:14:58.910 align:middle line:84% Cassandra, Marie, and delicate Anne. 00:14:58.910 --> 00:15:01.100 align:middle line:90% None of them are me. 00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:05.000 align:middle line:84% I wake from this, a self torn from others 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:08.210 align:middle line:84% who, if she had her way, would be rinsing her arms 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:12.650 align:middle line:84% and legs in the moon's deft, predictable light. 00:15:12.650 --> 00:15:15.290 align:middle line:90% But it's nearly dawn. 00:15:15.290 --> 00:15:18.590 align:middle line:90% A first bird unlatches. 00:15:18.590 --> 00:15:23.120 align:middle line:84% The man beside me sleeps with his long legs walking away. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.210 align:middle line:90% His eyes open briefly. 00:15:26.210 --> 00:15:29.420 align:middle line:84% I lean above him and see how he holds back 00:15:29.420 --> 00:15:32.510 align:middle line:84% the enveloping breath, seeing also 00:15:32.510 --> 00:15:35.180 align:middle line:90% how deeply he could give it. 00:15:35.180 --> 00:15:38.480 align:middle line:84% I kiss his shoulder, and what I say no one 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:43.640 align:middle line:84% hears as the gold scar on my neck breaks and the forest 00:15:43.640 --> 00:15:45.170 align:middle line:90% falls toward me. 00:15:45.170 --> 00:15:49.010 align:middle line:84% Blood lover of night face down in water, 00:15:49.010 --> 00:15:52.220 align:middle line:90% the wildflowers want gathering. 00:15:52.220 --> 00:15:54.875 align:middle line:84% The name is in my mouth, and I'm not able." 00:15:54.875 --> 00:16:00.520 align:middle line:90% 00:16:00.520 --> 00:16:04.240 align:middle line:84% This is the attempted return to reality. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:04.810 align:middle line:90% "What Is." 00:16:04.810 --> 00:16:08.400 align:middle line:90% 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:14.670 align:middle line:84% "I was sick of myself, a bell of desire always shaking. 00:16:14.670 --> 00:16:17.970 align:middle line:84% Music pulled my skin inside out, upsetting 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:21.060 align:middle line:90% the house where I lived. 00:16:21.060 --> 00:16:23.880 align:middle line:84% I met a man with white hands who pulled illusions 00:16:23.880 --> 00:16:25.950 align:middle line:90% from under blue fingernails. 00:16:25.950 --> 00:16:29.160 align:middle line:90% They were wafers on my tongue. 00:16:29.160 --> 00:16:32.070 align:middle line:84% The leaves outside our imaginary window 00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:36.960 align:middle line:84% gathered an adagio of light from the cruising moon. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:39.600 align:middle line:84% The dark edges of our arms and legs 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:44.350 align:middle line:84% tightened until it was easy to say yes, always, we are, 00:16:44.350 --> 00:16:45.015 align:middle line:90% we are. 00:16:45.015 --> 00:16:47.580 align:middle line:90% 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:49.830 align:middle line:84% The paper and tastes were so nearly 00:16:49.830 --> 00:16:53.220 align:middle line:84% true I think he would hit me now if he could. 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:57.660 align:middle line:84% He might even believe in blood on the wall. 00:16:57.660 --> 00:16:59.760 align:middle line:84% But the days are what they wish to be. 00:16:59.760 --> 00:17:03.810 align:middle line:84% There is you, and language is harder. 00:17:03.810 --> 00:17:08.250 align:middle line:84% I move one leg at a time to a few clear tones. 00:17:08.250 --> 00:17:11.880 align:middle line:84% In the morning, coffee and the exhalation of night 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:16.410 align:middle line:84% work, steam above the dusty smell of sex. 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:19.290 align:middle line:84% I don't pretend to know if God loves me, 00:17:19.290 --> 00:17:23.640 align:middle line:84% but outside, a sky is opening with light 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:28.710 align:middle line:84% as two people stumble from sleep, arriving at a table 00:17:28.710 --> 00:17:31.530 align:middle line:84% where only newsprint is certain of its lies." 00:17:31.530 --> 00:17:41.280 align:middle line:90% 00:17:41.280 --> 00:17:45.300 align:middle line:84% And this is the last poem of the series. 00:17:45.300 --> 00:17:48.150 align:middle line:84% "October," which is my favorite month except in Arizona. 00:17:48.150 --> 00:17:50.110 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:17:50.110 --> 00:17:54.530 align:middle line:90% 00:17:54.530 --> 00:17:57.500 align:middle line:90% "October." 00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:01.490 align:middle line:84% "My mouth starts speaking in another direction of how apples 00:18:01.490 --> 00:18:05.270 align:middle line:84% are falling into red smoke and the sun no longer 00:18:05.270 --> 00:18:09.200 align:middle line:90% publishes each leaf or name. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:12.050 align:middle line:84% I want to know what's forbidden, to enter 00:18:12.050 --> 00:18:16.700 align:middle line:84% that space an apple takes from the heart of tree. 00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:20.300 align:middle line:84% Dark radiance, your hands have unpeeled this story 00:18:20.300 --> 00:18:22.610 align:middle line:90% to the edge of the world. 00:18:22.610 --> 00:18:26.960 align:middle line:84% It falls against a man who turns to look back on a field 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:30.740 align:middle line:84% where blue deer descend, stitching the heartland up 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:32.990 align:middle line:90% for winter. 00:18:32.990 --> 00:18:37.730 align:middle line:84% From the hills, leaves shiver back, a sound no one can name, 00:18:37.730 --> 00:18:42.470 align:middle line:84% speechless as what's caught behind my teeth. 00:18:42.470 --> 00:18:45.500 align:middle line:84% The branches now fill up with sky, 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:49.610 align:middle line:84% holding that horizon where a man slowly 00:18:49.610 --> 00:18:54.830 align:middle line:84% opens his hands to the shape of apples and the deer lie down, 00:18:54.830 --> 00:18:57.590 align:middle line:84% where leaf and fruit must sleep forever." 00:18:57.590 --> 00:19:01.280 align:middle line:90% 00:19:01.280 --> 00:19:04.400 align:middle line:84% I wrote all those poems drunk on vodka. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:07.000 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:07.550 align:middle line:90% It's true. 00:19:07.550 --> 00:19:10.658 align:middle line:84% I realized it when I went over them before this reading, 00:19:10.658 --> 00:19:12.200 align:middle line:84% except for the very first one where I 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.720 align:middle line:90% was outdoors and very healthy. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:16.580 align:middle line:84% But I drank all this vodka and listened 00:19:16.580 --> 00:19:18.830 align:middle line:84% to Pat Metheny's American Garage, which 00:19:18.830 --> 00:19:21.020 align:middle line:84% is great for writing, because you're 00:19:21.020 --> 00:19:25.315 align:middle line:84% so involved in the vortex of the music, of improvisational jazz. 00:19:25.315 --> 00:19:26.690 align:middle line:84% Every time you choose a word, you 00:19:26.690 --> 00:19:29.760 align:middle line:84% have to force it out of yourself from the bottom up, 00:19:29.760 --> 00:19:32.180 align:middle line:84% so it makes for a more declarative poetry 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:33.110 align:middle line:90% than I used to write. 00:19:33.110 --> 00:19:36.110 align:middle line:90% 00:19:36.110 --> 00:19:40.790 align:middle line:84% The next set of poems are newer, and they're still 00:19:40.790 --> 00:19:42.140 align:middle line:90% being revised all the time. 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:46.780 align:middle line:90% 00:19:46.780 --> 00:19:48.640 align:middle line:84% And I suppose they're a section of a book. 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:49.210 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:19:49.210 --> 00:19:52.360 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure if books should be sectioned anymore or what. 00:19:52.360 --> 00:19:57.760 align:middle line:84% And the epigraph for this is from Thomas Mann. 00:19:57.760 --> 00:20:01.120 align:middle line:84% "In all of us is the wish to return to the has-been 00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:04.510 align:middle line:84% and to repeat it, that if it were once unblessed, 00:20:04.510 --> 00:20:05.620 align:middle line:90% it may now be blessed." 00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:12.550 align:middle line:90% 00:20:12.550 --> 00:20:13.510 align:middle line:90% I love epigraphs. 00:20:13.510 --> 00:20:16.430 align:middle line:90% They give a lot of information. 00:20:16.430 --> 00:20:17.590 align:middle line:90% And so do dedications. 00:20:17.590 --> 00:20:20.416 align:middle line:90% That can save you a lot of time. 00:20:20.416 --> 00:20:24.580 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:20:24.580 --> 00:20:25.600 align:middle line:90% Seems logical to me. 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:29.638 align:middle line:90% 00:20:29.638 --> 00:20:31.180 align:middle line:84% I don't know about this poem, but I'm 00:20:31.180 --> 00:20:32.560 align:middle line:90% going to read it anyway. 00:20:32.560 --> 00:20:34.480 align:middle line:90% It's called "A Little Place." 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:36.430 align:middle line:90% And again, it has an epigraph. 00:20:36.430 --> 00:20:38.500 align:middle line:90% Maybe I shouldn't put it here. 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:41.020 align:middle line:84% And it's a sort of crippled epigraph 00:20:41.020 --> 00:20:43.030 align:middle line:84% from a Charles Wright poem that said, 00:20:43.030 --> 00:20:44.980 align:middle line:90% "This world is a little place. 00:20:44.980 --> 00:20:45.850 align:middle line:90% Hold hands. 00:20:45.850 --> 00:20:46.465 align:middle line:90% Hold hands." 00:20:46.465 --> 00:20:49.480 align:middle line:90% 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:50.410 align:middle line:90% It's a father poem. 00:20:50.410 --> 00:20:53.180 align:middle line:90% 00:20:53.180 --> 00:20:53.750 align:middle line:90% Of course. 00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:56.922 align:middle line:90% 00:20:56.922 --> 00:20:57.630 align:middle line:90% "A Little Place." 00:20:57.630 --> 00:21:00.450 align:middle line:90% 00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:03.000 align:middle line:84% "From the yellow eaves of our house, 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.480 align:middle line:90% two pigeons shoot into the sun. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:09.840 align:middle line:84% What matters is the way my eyes follow 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:13.920 align:middle line:84% and how desert sparrows stitch up the blankness between grass 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:15.480 align:middle line:90% and trees. 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:19.440 align:middle line:84% I move closer to touch that invisible seam 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:24.240 align:middle line:84% where your face pulls back from light into a little place. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.380 align:middle line:84% Stupid, stupid ecstasy that tires my mouth, 00:21:28.380 --> 00:21:31.800 align:middle line:90% I move closer without you. 00:21:31.800 --> 00:21:36.450 align:middle line:84% The mourning dove sob loosens at the core of my throat. 00:21:36.450 --> 00:21:38.790 align:middle line:84% I've been faithful, never brushing 00:21:38.790 --> 00:21:41.280 align:middle line:90% the slope of your skull. 00:21:41.280 --> 00:21:44.340 align:middle line:84% Father, in August the birds won't even 00:21:44.340 --> 00:21:49.230 align:middle line:84% remember how they fell violently up into leaves. 00:21:49.230 --> 00:21:53.040 align:middle line:84% Shadows shook the grit of their songs in the sun. 00:21:53.040 --> 00:21:55.890 align:middle line:84% And Father, like you, the birds will 00:21:55.890 --> 00:21:59.730 align:middle line:84% forget how they started everything over and flew." 00:21:59.730 --> 00:22:03.690 align:middle line:90% 00:22:03.690 --> 00:22:06.600 align:middle line:84% The next poem is bizarre, I think. 00:22:06.600 --> 00:22:07.230 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:22:07.230 --> 00:22:11.190 align:middle line:90% 00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:13.530 align:middle line:84% Before a poker game, some people were talking at dinner, 00:22:13.530 --> 00:22:15.013 align:middle line:90% and I heard about sin eaters. 00:22:15.013 --> 00:22:16.680 align:middle line:84% And I don't know if you know about them. 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:18.300 align:middle line:90% I had never heard of them. 00:22:18.300 --> 00:22:22.800 align:middle line:84% It's a Celtic tradition where a member of a town or a community 00:22:22.800 --> 00:22:26.100 align:middle line:90% who is kind of a-- 00:22:26.100 --> 00:22:28.470 align:middle line:84% not exactly a favorite member of the community 00:22:28.470 --> 00:22:30.780 align:middle line:84% will eat all the food on the table. 00:22:30.780 --> 00:22:33.420 align:middle line:84% Before somebody is buried, next to the corpse, 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:34.890 align:middle line:90% the food's all laid out. 00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:38.490 align:middle line:84% And by so doing, absorbs the sins of the deceased. 00:22:38.490 --> 00:22:40.230 align:middle line:84% And then leaves the house in the morning, 00:22:40.230 --> 00:22:41.910 align:middle line:84% and the people in the community throw him money, 00:22:41.910 --> 00:22:43.368 align:middle line:84% and that's how he makes his living. 00:22:43.368 --> 00:22:45.000 align:middle line:90% And it's an inherited job. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:47.462 align:middle line:90% And so this guy's son-- 00:22:47.462 --> 00:22:48.420 align:middle line:90% he's got to have a son. 00:22:48.420 --> 00:22:49.920 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, he's in real big trouble. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.220 align:middle line:84% When he dies, the son takes the sins 00:22:53.220 --> 00:22:55.170 align:middle line:84% of the father, consequently taking 00:22:55.170 --> 00:22:57.600 align:middle line:84% the sins of the whole community and his own father, 00:22:57.600 --> 00:23:00.930 align:middle line:84% and keeps on working, eating this stuff, all these cakes 00:23:00.930 --> 00:23:02.190 align:middle line:90% and things. 00:23:02.190 --> 00:23:05.220 align:middle line:84% And it seems a really fascinating notion. 00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:08.190 align:middle line:84% Apparently, there was a Night Gallery show about a sin eater, 00:23:08.190 --> 00:23:10.080 align:middle line:90% and I don't know what happened. 00:23:10.080 --> 00:23:15.390 align:middle line:84% And so I'm trying to write in the voice of the son eating 00:23:15.390 --> 00:23:20.250 align:middle line:84% the stuff around his father's coffin. 00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:24.420 align:middle line:84% And it was a strange experience, because before I 00:23:24.420 --> 00:23:28.440 align:middle line:84% wrote this poem, I started doing drawings with my left hand. 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:32.000 align:middle line:84% And I'm right-handed, so I was using another part of my brain. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.250 align:middle line:90% And it was really interesting. 00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:37.050 align:middle line:84% I had about three different voices that seemed to have-- 00:23:37.050 --> 00:23:40.320 align:middle line:84% one was male and one was female, and one was sort of in between. 00:23:40.320 --> 00:23:43.590 align:middle line:84% And amongst all that, I sort of tried to arrange this poem. 00:23:43.590 --> 00:23:51.980 align:middle line:90% 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:55.160 align:middle line:90% "The Sin Eater." 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:58.610 align:middle line:84% "Outside, the wind has not stopped. 00:23:58.610 --> 00:24:02.300 align:middle line:84% It tunnels, and the birds fall in. 00:24:02.300 --> 00:24:08.150 align:middle line:84% The cabled shadow and sway are making a chill on my skin. 00:24:08.150 --> 00:24:12.350 align:middle line:84% On the table are trays, a chalice, and the long box 00:24:12.350 --> 00:24:16.670 align:middle line:84% where he lies with his waxed, unstitched mouth. 00:24:16.670 --> 00:24:19.550 align:middle line:84% Small leaves are clicking at the window, 00:24:19.550 --> 00:24:23.540 align:middle line:84% and tonight I'm as far away from my name as on the day 00:24:23.540 --> 00:24:25.250 align:middle line:90% it was given. 00:24:25.250 --> 00:24:30.080 align:middle line:84% It is not the cake, not the pastries nor slabs of ham. 00:24:30.080 --> 00:24:33.260 align:middle line:84% It is not the white fat rinsed in milk, 00:24:33.260 --> 00:24:36.740 align:middle line:84% but how all breath pushes against me, 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:42.200 align:middle line:84% a crumb of salt from love's encrusted feet. 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:46.160 align:middle line:84% The name of this man I do not know is hurting my mouth. 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:49.730 align:middle line:84% It's the name of my father with his ladle of darkness 00:24:49.730 --> 00:24:51.890 align:middle line:90% between my ribs. 00:24:51.890 --> 00:24:56.060 align:middle line:84% White stones flow from his eyes and the wind 00:24:56.060 --> 00:25:00.320 align:middle line:84% repeats his fingers tapping at the sill. 00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:05.090 align:middle line:84% They have left me here, mortal and in love, holding the slope 00:25:05.090 --> 00:25:07.610 align:middle line:90% of his woman to my lips. 00:25:07.610 --> 00:25:10.370 align:middle line:90% She unleashes against me. 00:25:10.370 --> 00:25:13.160 align:middle line:84% I lick the blood from beneath her nails 00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:18.080 align:middle line:84% and kneel to cradle the stones that have gathered to feed me." 00:25:18.080 --> 00:25:32.520 align:middle line:90% 00:25:32.520 --> 00:25:36.420 align:middle line:84% Next poem is-- wants to write about the most 00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:40.740 align:middle line:84% cliche and beautiful sunset you ever saw without mentioning 00:25:40.740 --> 00:25:43.110 align:middle line:90% the word sun. 00:25:43.110 --> 00:25:44.550 align:middle line:90% Not very easy. 00:25:44.550 --> 00:25:48.450 align:middle line:84% And it makes reference to a Chinese painting, 00:25:48.450 --> 00:25:51.840 align:middle line:84% which probably most of you know called "Six Persimmons," which 00:25:51.840 --> 00:25:54.705 align:middle line:84% is done in bluish and gray colors. 00:25:54.705 --> 00:25:58.520 align:middle line:90% 00:25:58.520 --> 00:25:59.600 align:middle line:90% Called "Postcard." 00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:03.240 align:middle line:90% 00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:04.620 align:middle line:90% "Dusk. 00:26:04.620 --> 00:26:08.850 align:middle line:84% The sea is between colors and our medallion star 00:26:08.850 --> 00:26:11.730 align:middle line:90% is ready to leave for China. 00:26:11.730 --> 00:26:16.980 align:middle line:84% This is the brush stroke hour we have already befriended. 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:21.090 align:middle line:84% I'm here for the first time taking a rush of water 00:26:21.090 --> 00:26:23.250 align:middle line:90% into my mouth. 00:26:23.250 --> 00:26:26.190 align:middle line:84% My ribs fold with a white salt weight. 00:26:26.190 --> 00:26:28.710 align:middle line:90% 00:26:28.710 --> 00:26:34.530 align:middle line:84% Centuries ago, Mu Ch'i slipped his eye from fog to indigo. 00:26:34.530 --> 00:26:39.600 align:middle line:84% A grain of sand dislodged from a monastery wall. 00:26:39.600 --> 00:26:44.520 align:middle line:84% His six bitter orbs of fruit are still blindingly pure. 00:26:44.520 --> 00:26:48.480 align:middle line:84% And every day, his seventh unpainted persimmon 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:51.450 align:middle line:90% ripens across the sky. 00:26:51.450 --> 00:26:55.950 align:middle line:84% The bell blossom moon follows behind. 00:26:55.950 --> 00:27:01.530 align:middle line:84% Here in California, the day shakes once and falls. 00:27:01.530 --> 00:27:04.500 align:middle line:90% The ocean pulls closer. 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:07.110 align:middle line:84% With luck, you say, a sudden streak 00:27:07.110 --> 00:27:10.800 align:middle line:84% will flash toward the stars as the flaming persimmon 00:27:10.800 --> 00:27:17.490 align:middle line:84% dips into salt. In this way, the eye will complete the day. 00:27:17.490 --> 00:27:20.250 align:middle line:90% It will root in the heart. 00:27:20.250 --> 00:27:23.020 align:middle line:90% My hands return from water. 00:27:23.020 --> 00:27:26.550 align:middle line:90% The water returns from China. 00:27:26.550 --> 00:27:30.030 align:middle line:84% I would unstain my heart to carry it with me." 00:27:30.030 --> 00:27:50.850 align:middle line:90% 00:27:50.850 --> 00:27:53.460 align:middle line:84% I was just reading Louise Bogan's autobiography, 00:27:53.460 --> 00:27:56.380 align:middle line:84% and so I wrote a poem for her, because I really like her. 00:27:56.380 --> 00:27:58.990 align:middle line:84% I think she had a lot of integrity and a lot of guts, 00:27:58.990 --> 00:28:00.990 align:middle line:84% and I think we should all read her and love her. 00:28:00.990 --> 00:28:02.361 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:28:02.361 --> 00:28:06.020 align:middle line:90% 00:28:06.020 --> 00:28:10.310 align:middle line:84% It's called "Back Through Song" for Louise Bogan. 00:28:10.310 --> 00:28:14.670 align:middle line:90% 00:28:14.670 --> 00:28:18.810 align:middle line:84% "I spend all day in the sound of soaking rain. 00:28:18.810 --> 00:28:23.520 align:middle line:84% I lean at her desk as she thinks how all the streets once 00:28:23.520 --> 00:28:25.860 align:middle line:90% had wooden houses. 00:28:25.860 --> 00:28:29.220 align:middle line:84% At dusk, through open summer windows, 00:28:29.220 --> 00:28:31.800 align:middle line:90% children repeat their scales. 00:28:31.800 --> 00:28:36.840 align:middle line:84% Long, awkward songs plunge from the pianos. 00:28:36.840 --> 00:28:39.720 align:middle line:84% The maple leaves take on a certain light 00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:42.300 align:middle line:90% like a wide yellow drape. 00:28:42.300 --> 00:28:46.350 align:middle line:84% Each day still holds unbearable promise, 00:28:46.350 --> 00:28:50.490 align:middle line:84% and each night the secret reason for it. 00:28:50.490 --> 00:28:52.380 align:middle line:90% Not eyes, she thinks. 00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:55.380 align:middle line:90% Rain fills these city streets. 00:28:55.380 --> 00:29:00.510 align:middle line:84% It's not good to be so shut away from stars. 00:29:00.510 --> 00:29:06.060 align:middle line:84% In just hours, the clouds break through to pink and gray. 00:29:06.060 --> 00:29:11.400 align:middle line:84% The pavement holds that scent of freshly ironed cloth. 00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:15.060 align:middle line:84% She walks across one street toward those metal 00:29:15.060 --> 00:29:18.260 align:middle line:90% gates which divide the world. 00:29:18.260 --> 00:29:22.470 align:middle line:84% There, children play inside the park. 00:29:22.470 --> 00:29:27.570 align:middle line:84% They hoot and cry until a mother calls. 00:29:27.570 --> 00:29:34.920 align:middle line:84% A ball thuds against a tree, once, twice, soft as bright." 00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:45.650 align:middle line:90% 00:29:45.650 --> 00:29:47.160 align:middle line:90% This is just a little poem. 00:29:47.160 --> 00:29:53.150 align:middle line:84% And I wrote it for women characters in novels. 00:29:53.150 --> 00:29:57.560 align:middle line:84% It's called "From the Attic" for Lily Bart and Mrs. Rochester. 00:29:57.560 --> 00:30:00.050 align:middle line:90% Why not? 00:30:00.050 --> 00:30:02.550 align:middle line:84% I think it's nice to write for characters as well as people. 00:30:02.550 --> 00:30:05.890 align:middle line:90% 00:30:05.890 --> 00:30:09.100 align:middle line:90% "From the Attic." 00:30:09.100 --> 00:30:14.770 align:middle line:84% At home, each bird I saw sang in tune with my ears and teeth. 00:30:14.770 --> 00:30:18.430 align:middle line:90% Red flowers flew into my hair. 00:30:18.430 --> 00:30:21.610 align:middle line:90% Now it snows when it wants to. 00:30:21.610 --> 00:30:23.980 align:middle line:84% The month of the 10th moon is back 00:30:23.980 --> 00:30:27.160 align:middle line:90% with its cold carpet of light. 00:30:27.160 --> 00:30:32.980 align:middle line:84% Snow crowds the chimneys and the pond is cracking in its shroud. 00:30:32.980 --> 00:30:35.440 align:middle line:84% Through my window, the bloodless moon 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:38.920 align:middle line:90% drops her white face onto mine. 00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:42.010 align:middle line:90% Ice flowers open on the pane. 00:30:42.010 --> 00:30:47.480 align:middle line:84% And what is true streaks across my eyelids into my mouth. 00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:51.130 align:middle line:84% It is a spider weaving her bright corner, 00:30:51.130 --> 00:30:53.260 align:middle line:90% the lock clicking into place." 00:30:53.260 --> 00:31:01.380 align:middle line:90% 00:31:01.380 --> 00:31:04.070 align:middle line:90% This is another little poem. 00:31:04.070 --> 00:31:05.300 align:middle line:90% This is a double imitation. 00:31:05.300 --> 00:31:07.212 align:middle line:90% I never did an imitation before. 00:31:07.212 --> 00:31:08.420 align:middle line:90% I mean, I didn't think I did. 00:31:08.420 --> 00:31:11.880 align:middle line:90% I guess I did a lot of them. 00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:13.400 align:middle line:90% This is after a poem-- 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:18.950 align:middle line:84% after content and two poems by Li Po, and in style 00:31:18.950 --> 00:31:21.980 align:middle line:84% it's after a Charles Wright poem called "Portrait of the Artist 00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:22.880 align:middle line:90% with Li Po." 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:27.590 align:middle line:84% So I figured, you know, it's an exercise. 00:31:27.590 --> 00:31:30.020 align:middle line:90% "She Thinks of Him After Li Po." 00:31:30.020 --> 00:31:33.590 align:middle line:90% 00:31:33.590 --> 00:31:38.090 align:middle line:84% "A white bell narcissus nods beneath pines. 00:31:38.090 --> 00:31:42.050 align:middle line:84% Her mouth makes a word that follows you. 00:31:42.050 --> 00:31:46.310 align:middle line:84% The stream beyond slows bright to dark. 00:31:46.310 --> 00:31:50.900 align:middle line:84% From the temple, a pulse and a breath chime their distance. 00:31:50.900 --> 00:31:54.800 align:middle line:84% You the moon have touched that flower's face. 00:31:54.800 --> 00:31:56.240 align:middle line:90% Small weapon. 00:31:56.240 --> 00:31:59.660 align:middle line:84% Your light still does not cut through water. 00:31:59.660 --> 00:32:04.430 align:middle line:84% One hour, and you've slackened toward another day. 00:32:04.430 --> 00:32:07.850 align:middle line:90% Her sorrow leans into the pines. 00:32:07.850 --> 00:32:11.180 align:middle line:84% The trees rise as the stream breaks open 00:32:11.180 --> 00:32:14.600 align:middle line:90% its inescapable river of stars. 00:32:14.600 --> 00:32:19.040 align:middle line:84% They are gods, both here and up there. 00:32:19.040 --> 00:32:22.340 align:middle line:84% Water tears the flower from her stem. 00:32:22.340 --> 00:32:26.330 align:middle line:84% Wind bears a current of grief into the air. 00:32:26.330 --> 00:32:30.275 align:middle line:84% When you turn, you will see its bright, ringing mouth." 00:32:30.275 --> 00:32:47.262 align:middle line:90% 00:32:47.262 --> 00:32:49.220 align:middle line:84% When I was little, it was really my grandmother 00:32:49.220 --> 00:32:51.000 align:middle line:90% who took care of me. 00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:56.000 align:middle line:90% And so I wrote a poem for her. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:59.138 align:middle line:84% At one point, I thought that I would not see her again. 00:32:59.138 --> 00:32:59.930 align:middle line:90% But it wasn't true. 00:32:59.930 --> 00:33:01.580 align:middle line:90% She's really tough. 00:33:01.580 --> 00:33:04.850 align:middle line:84% She's just hanging on and traveling and stuff. 00:33:04.850 --> 00:33:08.390 align:middle line:84% And for lack of anything else, I call it "Benediction 00:33:08.390 --> 00:33:09.818 align:middle line:90% For My Grandmother." 00:33:09.818 --> 00:33:13.310 align:middle line:90% 00:33:13.310 --> 00:33:17.330 align:middle line:84% "Everywhere around is the city and its noise, 00:33:17.330 --> 00:33:23.060 align:middle line:84% except for that space the wind makes in dry, tall grasses. 00:33:23.060 --> 00:33:27.440 align:middle line:84% I'm told the dead live on the other side of a single leaf, 00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.110 align:middle line:90% close to my mouth. 00:33:30.110 --> 00:33:33.170 align:middle line:84% The breath I send travels each vein 00:33:33.170 --> 00:33:37.010 align:middle line:84% to the deep other world where the wind lies down 00:33:37.010 --> 00:33:37.895 align:middle line:90% by the roadside. 00:33:37.895 --> 00:33:40.850 align:middle line:90% 00:33:40.850 --> 00:33:45.710 align:middle line:84% Last night, I dreamed I was a child against your knees. 00:33:45.710 --> 00:33:49.820 align:middle line:84% I was braced there between blood and bone, that moment 00:33:49.820 --> 00:33:55.250 align:middle line:84% before waking when everything is true and not true. 00:33:55.250 --> 00:33:59.360 align:middle line:84% Still, the small use of walking here tonight 00:33:59.360 --> 00:34:03.860 align:middle line:84% makes beautiful, the knowing that the moon is dark inside 00:34:03.860 --> 00:34:06.950 align:middle line:90% with the dark of tunneled bone. 00:34:06.950 --> 00:34:11.179 align:middle line:84% A haze among these leaves I gather in my hands 00:34:11.179 --> 00:34:14.900 align:middle line:84% toward you, toward the wind that wants touching." 00:34:14.900 --> 00:34:17.234 align:middle line:90% 00:34:17.234 --> 00:34:18.484 align:middle line:90% There's just a few more poems. 00:34:18.484 --> 00:34:26.320 align:middle line:90% 00:34:26.320 --> 00:34:28.750 align:middle line:84% I have nothing to tell you about this one particularly, 00:34:28.750 --> 00:34:32.170 align:middle line:84% except that Sebago is a lake in Maine, 00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:33.790 align:middle line:84% and there are things that are facts 00:34:33.790 --> 00:34:36.040 align:middle line:84% and there are things that are psychologically true. 00:34:36.040 --> 00:34:42.844 align:middle line:90% 00:34:42.844 --> 00:34:44.509 align:middle line:90% "The Wind of Late Summer." 00:34:44.509 --> 00:34:49.580 align:middle line:90% 00:34:49.580 --> 00:34:54.080 align:middle line:84% "At first, what flew hard from my grandfather's mouth 00:34:54.080 --> 00:34:57.139 align:middle line:84% into my mother's ribs was a feeling. 00:34:57.139 --> 00:34:59.930 align:middle line:90% No more, no less. 00:34:59.930 --> 00:35:03.890 align:middle line:84% Call it anger, call it love, call it thunder 00:35:03.890 --> 00:35:07.220 align:middle line:90% cracking against the pines. 00:35:07.220 --> 00:35:09.800 align:middle line:84% She never spoke of that moon, looking up 00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:14.330 align:middle line:84% from the lake, or the loons with their terrible noise. 00:35:14.330 --> 00:35:16.640 align:middle line:90% The doorknob turned. 00:35:16.640 --> 00:35:21.920 align:middle line:84% His hands became two red knots slipping at her breasts. 00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:24.650 align:middle line:84% Don't tell me I can't speak of this. 00:35:24.650 --> 00:35:28.640 align:middle line:84% My mother hummed in her sleep as the mist from Sebago 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:31.790 align:middle line:84% sucked all the light from the windows. 00:35:31.790 --> 00:35:33.770 align:middle line:84% Grandfather stomped through the house 00:35:33.770 --> 00:35:37.190 align:middle line:90% like it was still outdoors. 00:35:37.190 --> 00:35:41.270 align:middle line:84% My mother wakes now, over and over. 00:35:41.270 --> 00:35:44.120 align:middle line:84% What truth there is lives in the air that 00:35:44.120 --> 00:35:47.270 align:middle line:90% thickens the clock's grief. 00:35:47.270 --> 00:35:51.530 align:middle line:84% Those sheets, once pale beneath her storm-bound hair, 00:35:51.530 --> 00:35:54.470 align:middle line:90% have rotted and gone. 00:35:54.470 --> 00:35:58.550 align:middle line:84% Curled into myself, I think how he sent his breath 00:35:58.550 --> 00:36:04.790 align:middle line:84% hurtling down her throat as the wind rose on its hind legs. 00:36:04.790 --> 00:36:07.400 align:middle line:84% Leaving my dress on the floor, I rise 00:36:07.400 --> 00:36:13.475 align:middle line:84% to open the window on ancestral hands ticking at the sill." 00:36:13.475 --> 00:36:23.700 align:middle line:90% 00:36:23.700 --> 00:36:25.230 align:middle line:90% Next poem is called "Spring." 00:36:25.230 --> 00:36:26.910 align:middle line:90% Real simple title. 00:36:26.910 --> 00:36:30.930 align:middle line:84% I woke up one morning trying to write a sonnet about cows, 00:36:30.930 --> 00:36:34.320 align:middle line:84% and I should have known better, because it was early March 00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:37.140 align:middle line:84% in Phoenix, and I always write an orange blossom poem. 00:36:37.140 --> 00:36:39.390 align:middle line:84% Because in New England there are no such things, 00:36:39.390 --> 00:36:41.190 align:middle line:84% and they're still miraculous to me. 00:36:41.190 --> 00:36:43.470 align:middle line:84% They have this-- they just smell great. 00:36:43.470 --> 00:36:44.070 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:36:44.070 --> 00:36:47.795 align:middle line:90% 00:36:47.795 --> 00:36:48.295 align:middle line:90% "Spring." 00:36:48.295 --> 00:36:52.030 align:middle line:90% 00:36:52.030 --> 00:36:57.630 align:middle line:84% "The scent is back, a bridal weave across the city. 00:36:57.630 --> 00:37:01.680 align:middle line:84% All night, the kiss won't leave our mouths and memory steps 00:37:01.680 --> 00:37:06.630 align:middle line:84% with dark measure between us and the flowers. 00:37:06.630 --> 00:37:11.760 align:middle line:84% If we rise to this, the white-budded stars will shake, 00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:15.720 align:middle line:90% the sky fall back to air. 00:37:15.720 --> 00:37:18.930 align:middle line:84% I know what I've worn in my bones since birth, 00:37:18.930 --> 00:37:22.080 align:middle line:84% hands at my throat, hands at my knees, 00:37:22.080 --> 00:37:26.340 align:middle line:84% that swift red stain between my teeth. 00:37:26.340 --> 00:37:30.270 align:middle line:90% The future of memory flares. 00:37:30.270 --> 00:37:31.650 align:middle line:90% We age. 00:37:31.650 --> 00:37:34.650 align:middle line:90% The flowers return. 00:37:34.650 --> 00:37:39.750 align:middle line:84% The trees I pass each day fill up with birds. 00:37:39.750 --> 00:37:44.760 align:middle line:84% I pick a single orange blossom, which I crush to my wrist. 00:37:44.760 --> 00:37:49.140 align:middle line:84% I could rub its skin to music, break a man's bones 00:37:49.140 --> 00:37:51.210 align:middle line:90% to get to the heart. 00:37:51.210 --> 00:37:57.210 align:middle line:84% I have only one slow breath, riveted to breath. 00:37:57.210 --> 00:38:00.810 align:middle line:84% The stars stammer back their light. 00:38:00.810 --> 00:38:02.700 align:middle line:90% Oil of flowers. 00:38:02.700 --> 00:38:03.880 align:middle line:90% Bright enemy. 00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:04.380 align:middle line:90% Heart." 00:38:04.380 --> 00:38:08.280 align:middle line:90% 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:13.320 align:middle line:84% And this is the last poem, which I kind of like, 00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:17.190 align:middle line:84% because it started in such an ordinary-- 00:38:17.190 --> 00:38:18.690 align:middle line:84% such an ordinary event like going 00:38:18.690 --> 00:38:20.640 align:middle line:90% to the store for cigarettes. 00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:26.040 align:middle line:84% And the lovers that are mentioned here 00:38:26.040 --> 00:38:31.770 align:middle line:84% are Paolo and Francesca, of course. 00:38:31.770 --> 00:38:35.250 align:middle line:90% It's called "The Eye of Heaven." 00:38:35.250 --> 00:38:38.880 align:middle line:90% Actually, I like the title best. 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:39.810 align:middle line:90% "The Eye of Heaven." 00:38:39.810 --> 00:38:44.300 align:middle line:90% 00:38:44.300 --> 00:38:49.580 align:middle line:84% "Walking home, brown sack hugged to my hip, 00:38:49.580 --> 00:38:53.600 align:middle line:84% the wind lunges brightly around me. 00:38:53.600 --> 00:38:57.950 align:middle line:84% Across the street, figs ripen within the fingery green 00:38:57.950 --> 00:39:00.320 align:middle line:90% of their tree. 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:05.870 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, I hear the clacking arpeggio of a fallen muffler. 00:39:05.870 --> 00:39:09.240 align:middle line:90% The car pulls up behind me. 00:39:09.240 --> 00:39:14.600 align:middle line:84% I turn as a Navajo boy jumps out, sees me, and grins. 00:39:14.600 --> 00:39:18.830 align:middle line:84% I grin back, eyes filling with the shape of him, 00:39:18.830 --> 00:39:24.860 align:middle line:84% the spine's knobs of light, his hair a black globe of sun. 00:39:24.860 --> 00:39:30.710 align:middle line:84% And for just a moment, an impersonal lust raids the sky. 00:39:30.710 --> 00:39:34.790 align:middle line:84% My eyes take all parts of him until I wear 00:39:34.790 --> 00:39:39.740 align:middle line:90% his brown other skin as mine. 00:39:39.740 --> 00:39:43.350 align:middle line:84% Back in the kitchen and no one is home. 00:39:43.350 --> 00:39:47.300 align:middle line:84% There is no one to talk to or touch. 00:39:47.300 --> 00:39:50.480 align:middle line:90% The sky leaps against its light. 00:39:50.480 --> 00:39:54.560 align:middle line:84% Trees still with the weight of an incoming storm. 00:39:54.560 --> 00:40:00.680 align:middle line:84% The birds stop and low belly clouds fill with dust. 00:40:00.680 --> 00:40:03.290 align:middle line:84% Rinsing lettuce and beans, I think 00:40:03.290 --> 00:40:06.410 align:middle line:84% of how Dante said lust is a lesser sin. 00:40:06.410 --> 00:40:08.450 align:middle line:90% How can I tell? 00:40:08.450 --> 00:40:14.390 align:middle line:84% Those lovers continually weeping circle a torn black sky. 00:40:14.390 --> 00:40:19.880 align:middle line:84% Mouth on mouth they fell into a war of winds, opening the eye 00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:22.430 align:middle line:90% of heaven. 00:40:22.430 --> 00:40:26.780 align:middle line:84% Then you come home, put your hand on my hair. 00:40:26.780 --> 00:40:30.560 align:middle line:84% The windows darken as across the street, 00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:34.100 align:middle line:84% figs swell and shine in the rain. 00:40:34.100 --> 00:40:39.530 align:middle line:84% We lie ankle to thigh, but limitless world admits me. 00:40:39.530 --> 00:40:43.220 align:middle line:84% There are words not for my mouth. 00:40:43.220 --> 00:40:49.070 align:middle line:84% Caught, whirling in the eyelid of dusk, I cry, don't close. 00:40:49.070 --> 00:40:52.010 align:middle line:90% Don't close until I must." 00:40:52.010 --> 00:40:53.430 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:40:53.430 --> 00:40:57.680 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:04.000 align:middle line:90%