WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:05.520 align:middle line:84%
I got married
recently, a year ago.

00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:10.050 align:middle line:84%
It was a very traumatic
event because I

00:00:10.050 --> 00:00:13.020 align:middle line:84%
had formed a life in
which I was comfortable,

00:00:13.020 --> 00:00:17.670 align:middle line:84%
which I had mastered,
and one of its features

00:00:17.670 --> 00:00:23.160 align:middle line:84%
was the recalcitrant beloved,
or the absent beloved,

00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:25.410 align:middle line:90%
or the thorny beloved.

00:00:25.410 --> 00:00:32.290 align:middle line:84%
And I married someone who
threatened to make me happy.

00:00:32.290 --> 00:00:32.790 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:32.790 --> 00:00:37.590 align:middle line:90%
This was very frightening.

00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:43.320 align:middle line:84%
And right before we got married,
I was really distressed.

00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.650 align:middle line:84%
And he understood the
source of the distress,

00:00:46.650 --> 00:00:48.630 align:middle line:84%
and he took my hand and
he said, well, Louise,

00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:52.920 align:middle line:84%
I can't promise to make you
unhappy, and then he paused

00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.130 align:middle line:84%
and then he said, you might
try reading the newspapers.

00:00:56.130 --> 00:01:00.460 align:middle line:90%


00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:04.599 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, it's a poem that I wrote
for my husband which is called,

00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:06.340 align:middle line:90%
"For John," which is his name.

00:01:06.340 --> 00:01:12.680 align:middle line:90%


00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:19.910 align:middle line:84%
Look at my hand, poor beast,
too frightened to be fed.

00:01:19.910 --> 00:01:24.650 align:middle line:90%
It holds to what it knows.

00:01:24.650 --> 00:01:30.590 align:middle line:84%
A whole mind can be like
that, like a sky ruled

00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:35.000 align:middle line:84%
by the clean black of
directive, when the limbs are

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.700 align:middle line:90%
free of blossom and subterfuge.

00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:46.220 align:middle line:84%
There are lives
sustained by negation.

00:01:46.220 --> 00:01:49.990 align:middle line:84%
Do you know what
it means to let go?

00:01:49.990 --> 00:01:52.000 align:middle line:90%