WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.660 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.660 --> 00:00:07.390 align:middle line:84%
This is the title
poem of this book.

00:00:07.390 --> 00:00:10.550 align:middle line:84%
I realized when I was reading
last night in Flagstaff

00:00:10.550 --> 00:00:14.630 align:middle line:84%
that most of these poems do
have some oblique, geographical

00:00:14.630 --> 00:00:15.170 align:middle line:90%
reference.

00:00:15.170 --> 00:00:18.140 align:middle line:84%
I wrote this while I
was living in Vermont.

00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:22.460 align:middle line:84%
The title is In Winter and the
first line is, "At 4 o'clock,

00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:24.965 align:middle line:84%
it's dark," and I
realize, it probably--

00:00:24.965 --> 00:00:29.810 align:middle line:84%
it doesn't get dark in Flagstaff
until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.

00:00:29.810 --> 00:00:32.950 align:middle line:90%


00:00:32.950 --> 00:00:34.150 align:middle line:90%
In Winter.

00:00:34.150 --> 00:00:35.260 align:middle line:90%
It's a love poem.

00:00:35.260 --> 00:00:40.610 align:middle line:90%


00:00:40.610 --> 00:00:44.300 align:middle line:90%
"At 4 o'clock, it's dark.

00:00:44.300 --> 00:00:49.160 align:middle line:84%
Today, looking out through
dusk at three gray women

00:00:49.160 --> 00:00:52.970 align:middle line:84%
in stretch slacks, chatting
in front of the post

00:00:52.970 --> 00:00:55.460 align:middle line:90%
office, their steps--

00:00:55.460 --> 00:01:00.470 align:middle line:84%
left, and right, and
back, like some quick folk

00:01:00.470 --> 00:01:03.440 align:middle line:90%
dance of kindness.

00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:07.925 align:middle line:84%
I remembered the winter we spent
crying in each other's laps.

00:01:07.925 --> 00:01:10.610 align:middle line:90%


00:01:10.610 --> 00:01:15.320 align:middle line:84%
What could you be
thinking at this moment?

00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:21.110 align:middle line:84%
How lovely and strange
the gangly spines of trees

00:01:21.110 --> 00:01:24.200 align:middle line:84%
against the
thickening sky, as you

00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:30.170 align:middle line:84%
drive from the library,
humming off-key,

00:01:30.170 --> 00:01:34.460 align:middle line:84%
or are you smiling at
an idea met in a book,

00:01:34.460 --> 00:01:37.880 align:middle line:84%
the way you smiled
with your whole body

00:01:37.880 --> 00:01:39.410 align:middle line:90%
the first night we talked?

00:01:39.410 --> 00:01:42.220 align:middle line:90%


00:01:42.220 --> 00:01:47.110 align:middle line:84%
I was so sure my love
of you was perfect,

00:01:47.110 --> 00:01:53.680 align:middle line:84%
and the light today reminded
me of the winter you drove home

00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:58.600 align:middle line:84%
each day in the
dark at 4 o'clock,

00:01:58.600 --> 00:02:04.930 align:middle line:84%
and would come into my study
to kiss me despite mistake

00:02:04.930 --> 00:02:07.749 align:middle line:90%
after mistake after mistake."

00:02:07.749 --> 00:02:11.933 align:middle line:90%


00:02:11.933 --> 00:02:13.790 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:13.790 --> 00:02:15.440 align:middle line:84%
It's really better--
it's really better

00:02:15.440 --> 00:02:20.120 align:middle line:84%
if you don't do that, because
as my friend, Louise Glück says,

00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.880 align:middle line:84%
if after a certain
poem, you do not clap,

00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:25.520 align:middle line:84%
then she wonders what you're
doing-- what she's doing wrong.

00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:30.740 align:middle line:90%


00:02:30.740 --> 00:02:33.280 align:middle line:84%
Just save it all for the
end, and then carry me out

00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:34.030 align:middle line:90%
of the auditorium.

00:02:34.030 --> 00:02:37.380 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:37.380 --> 00:02:46.000 align:middle line:90%