WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 align:middle line:90% OK, I'd like to read about-- 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:04.800 align:middle line:84% half the poems I'll be reading will be from this book, 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:08.750 align:middle line:90% and half the poems will be new. 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:10.970 align:middle line:84% First poem is called Ukrainian Pastoral. 00:00:10.970 --> 00:00:15.380 align:middle line:84% And when I was a kid, there was always 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:16.940 align:middle line:84% lots of photographs around the house. 00:00:16.940 --> 00:00:20.510 align:middle line:84% My father was an avid amateur photographer. 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:22.910 align:middle line:84% My grandfather, my great grandfather 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:25.610 align:middle line:84% and all my great uncles were professional portrait 00:00:25.610 --> 00:00:26.630 align:middle line:90% photographers. 00:00:26.630 --> 00:00:32.119 align:middle line:84% And there was one photograph, a beautiful pastoral photograph 00:00:32.119 --> 00:00:34.700 align:middle line:84% of a woman standing on a hillside 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:40.760 align:middle line:84% and a man rowing in a boat towards the shore. 00:00:40.760 --> 00:00:43.100 align:middle line:84% And those were pictures of my grandparents, 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:44.540 align:middle line:90% when they were fairly young. 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:47.105 align:middle line:84% I don't even know if they were married yet at the time. 00:00:47.105 --> 00:00:49.640 align:middle line:90% 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.055 align:middle line:84% The photograph was taken in Russia. 00:00:52.055 --> 00:00:53.825 align:middle line:84% The poem's called Ukrainian Pastoral. 00:00:53.825 --> 00:00:57.020 align:middle line:90% 00:00:57.020 --> 00:00:59.840 align:middle line:84% On a wooded hillside by a river, a woman 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.030 align:middle line:90% pauses to catch her breath. 00:01:02.030 --> 00:01:04.819 align:middle line:90% Leans against the silver birch. 00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:09.380 align:middle line:84% What she sees, we can't know for her eyes are shut. 00:01:09.380 --> 00:01:11.870 align:middle line:90% She is stocky, young. 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:14.690 align:middle line:90% Her calves glisten in sunlight. 00:01:14.690 --> 00:01:17.120 align:middle line:84% When she opens her eyes to admit us, 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:22.240 align:middle line:84% the Earth is a maypole around which she sweeps a clearing. 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:26.560 align:middle line:84% Upon the water, a small boat is making its way toward shore. 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:29.290 align:middle line:84% A man rowing, his muscular shoulders 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:31.960 align:middle line:90% propelling him through mist. 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:35.230 align:middle line:84% Perhaps he envisions the shape on the hillside, 00:01:35.230 --> 00:01:38.620 align:middle line:84% who might be a wife or a sweetheart waiting, 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.050 align:middle line:90% but his back is to us. 00:01:41.050 --> 00:01:45.730 align:middle line:84% Perhaps he shuts his eyes to hear the river's pulse. 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:48.100 align:middle line:84% When I enter the parlor, I think you've 00:01:48.100 --> 00:01:52.300 align:middle line:84% been reading the book on your lap, but your eyes are shut. 00:01:52.300 --> 00:01:54.700 align:middle line:90% I remove my old coat. 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.400 align:middle line:84% I see a parakeet preening in its cage. 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:01.060 align:middle line:84% And the salad of onion and cucumber sat on a table, 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:03.820 align:middle line:90% by evasive yellow iris. 00:02:03.820 --> 00:02:05.920 align:middle line:84% Was it something you heard, my foot 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.470 align:middle line:90% on the walk, that woke you? 00:02:08.470 --> 00:02:12.340 align:middle line:84% Or does light convert us into people, husband and wife? 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:15.520 align:middle line:84% The one reading, the other entering an arch 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.550 align:middle line:90% as he does each day of his life. 00:02:18.550 --> 00:02:21.100 align:middle line:84% On the wall, a woman partially hidden 00:02:21.100 --> 00:02:25.060 align:middle line:84% by trees and a man gliding over water, 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:30.990 align:middle line:84% about whom we can invent a story or better say nothing and wait.