WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.230 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.230 --> 00:00:03.990 align:middle line:84% I don't have any poems about academic life, really, 00:00:03.990 --> 00:00:07.330 align:middle line:84% or deans or professors or anything, except one. 00:00:07.330 --> 00:00:08.460 align:middle line:90% And it's very recent. 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:10.140 align:middle line:90% And I'll never publish it. 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.960 align:middle line:84% It's only six lines long, and I stole the first three 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:14.280 align:middle line:90% from Oliver Sigworth. 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:19.530 align:middle line:90% But I'm going to read it anyway. 00:00:19.530 --> 00:00:21.870 align:middle line:84% Oliver Sigworth is an enormously witty man. 00:00:21.870 --> 00:00:24.660 align:middle line:84% But many of you, perhaps, don't know that because he 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:25.920 align:middle line:90% doesn't usually share his wit. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.660 align:middle line:84% He's a professor in our department. 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:29.535 align:middle line:84% He doesn't usually share his wit with others. 00:00:29.535 --> 00:00:31.560 align:middle line:90% He talks to himself. 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:34.640 align:middle line:84% And he mutters under his breath as he's walking down the hall. 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:37.570 align:middle line:84% And he says these wonderfully witty things. 00:00:37.570 --> 00:00:43.410 align:middle line:84% So if you run along behind him and are very quiet and listen, 00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:46.297 align:middle line:84% you can hear these wonderfully witty things. 00:00:46.297 --> 00:00:48.380 align:middle line:84% The first three lines of this little six line poem 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:49.880 align:middle line:90% are something he said. 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:52.873 align:middle line:84% And he was referring to the architecture of some 00:00:52.873 --> 00:00:55.040 align:middle line:84% of the buildings near this one, but I won't tell you 00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:55.790 align:middle line:90% in which direction. 00:00:55.790 --> 00:00:57.123 align:middle line:90% You'll be able to figure it out. 00:00:57.123 --> 00:00:59.510 align:middle line:90% It's called "Point of View." 00:00:59.510 --> 00:01:05.690 align:middle line:84% Professors who work in buildings with tall, narrow windows 00:01:05.690 --> 00:01:09.020 align:middle line:90% have tall, narrow minds. 00:01:09.020 --> 00:01:12.170 align:middle line:84% Each has an office with only one view, 00:01:12.170 --> 00:01:16.250 align:middle line:90% and there is no point to it. 00:01:16.250 --> 00:01:18.840 align:middle line:84% That's a joint poem, me and Oliver Sigworth. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.470 align:middle line:84% Now that was a joke, but I do have 00:01:21.470 --> 00:01:23.170 align:middle line:90% a poem called "Point of View." 00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:25.610 align:middle line:90% It's a new poem. 00:01:25.610 --> 00:01:28.610 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to start with it because it exposes me 00:01:28.610 --> 00:01:30.560 align:middle line:84% as a frustrated painter, I suppose. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:34.415 align:middle line:84% I think most poets are more or less frustrated painters, 00:01:34.415 --> 00:01:35.510 align:middle line:90% in one way or another. 00:01:35.510 --> 00:01:37.610 align:middle line:84% I've never had any training, but I'm 00:01:37.610 --> 00:01:42.530 align:middle line:84% fascinated with painting and with visual arts. 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:45.710 align:middle line:84% I'm always concerned about the manipulation of light 00:01:45.710 --> 00:01:48.905 align:middle line:84% in a poem, as in a painting, whether it 00:01:48.905 --> 00:01:50.780 align:middle line:84% comes from outside the painting or whether it 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:52.550 align:middle line:84% comes from inside the painting, or so on. 00:01:52.550 --> 00:01:55.400 align:middle line:84% As a matter of fact, I once had a poem 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:59.840 align:middle line:84% in which I think I created the most unusual source of light 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:04.070 align:middle line:84% in any poem that I know about, written recently anyway. 00:02:04.070 --> 00:02:05.610 align:middle line:84% And I'm not going to read that poem. 00:02:05.610 --> 00:02:09.169 align:middle line:84% But I think I can remember the last stanza. 00:02:09.169 --> 00:02:13.420 align:middle line:84% And it was about my life on the farm as a child, 00:02:13.420 --> 00:02:15.110 align:middle line:90% where I was raised. 00:02:15.110 --> 00:02:20.510 align:middle line:84% And it says, the last stanza, we knew we would never be famous 00:02:20.510 --> 00:02:23.250 align:middle line:90% or anything out of the ordinary. 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:26.870 align:middle line:84% But for a while, after grandpa dropped the flashlight 00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.855 align:middle line:84% into the outhouse hole, we had a kind of glory. 00:02:29.855 --> 00:02:34.870 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:39.070 align:middle line:84% It continued to shine, pointing straight up from down there, 00:02:39.070 --> 00:02:41.950 align:middle line:84% and our most private moments were illuminated. 00:02:41.950 --> 00:02:46.500 align:middle line:90% 00:02:46.500 --> 00:02:51.690 align:middle line:84% So this "Point of View" poem is about the visual process, 00:02:51.690 --> 00:02:52.320 align:middle line:90% I suppose. 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:54.750 align:middle line:84% And the opening line or two, a couple of lines, 00:02:54.750 --> 00:02:55.960 align:middle line:90% may be confusing. 00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:58.170 align:middle line:84% I don't know if this is true of all horses, 00:02:58.170 --> 00:03:01.200 align:middle line:84% but I used to have a horse when I was a child who 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:02.760 align:middle line:90% had the most beautiful eyes. 00:03:02.760 --> 00:03:03.510 align:middle line:90% They were blue. 00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:04.440 align:middle line:90% It was a sorrel horse. 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:08.402 align:middle line:84% And there was a line of little, like, rosettes across the iris. 00:03:08.402 --> 00:03:10.860 align:middle line:84% Now, I don't know if that's common, because this horse went 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:11.700 align:middle line:90% blind, eventually. 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:14.220 align:middle line:84% And it may have been the disease I was seeing. 00:03:14.220 --> 00:03:15.690 align:middle line:90% But it was very beautiful. 00:03:15.690 --> 00:03:17.610 align:middle line:84% That's just in the first part of the poem. 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:19.950 align:middle line:90% "Point of View" 00:03:19.950 --> 00:03:22.350 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes of a horse whose 00:03:22.350 --> 00:03:28.830 align:middle line:84% irises are rows of blue flowers: the world is green and edible. 00:03:28.830 --> 00:03:31.260 align:middle line:84% See with the small eyes of a pig: 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:33.780 align:middle line:90% the world is dim and narrow. 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:37.290 align:middle line:90% People are tall and hungry. 00:03:37.290 --> 00:03:40.320 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes and glass eye of an old stove 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:44.010 align:middle line:84% while the fire in its belly looks out 00:03:44.010 --> 00:03:46.980 align:middle line:90% at a combustible world. 00:03:46.980 --> 00:03:51.690 align:middle line:84% See with the eye of a window facing east, light and darkness 00:03:51.690 --> 00:03:55.440 align:middle line:90% rising, never coming down again. 00:03:55.440 --> 00:03:57.090 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes of a believer who 00:03:57.090 --> 00:04:01.830 align:middle line:84% does not believe what he sees, but sees what he believes. 00:04:01.830 --> 00:04:06.510 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes of a painter who paints what he cannot see 00:04:06.510 --> 00:04:09.150 align:middle line:90% until he has painted it. 00:04:09.150 --> 00:04:13.320 align:middle line:84% See with the practical eye of a woman's sex: 00:04:13.320 --> 00:04:16.589 align:middle line:84% the world is hard but not durable, 00:04:16.589 --> 00:04:19.470 align:middle line:90% fails when most needed. 00:04:19.470 --> 00:04:23.250 align:middle line:84% See with the curious eye of a man's sex: 00:04:23.250 --> 00:04:29.670 align:middle line:84% many worlds full of mystery, the same secret hidden in each. 00:04:29.670 --> 00:04:31.710 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes of a lover who sees 00:04:31.710 --> 00:04:36.120 align:middle line:84% his reflection in a thumbnail and falls in love. 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:38.490 align:middle line:84% See with the eyes of a prophet who 00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:41.370 align:middle line:84% sees a hammer approaching a thumbnail 00:04:41.370 --> 00:04:43.800 align:middle line:84% and a new nail growing beneath it. 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:50.880 align:middle line:90% 00:04:50.880 --> 00:04:53.670 align:middle line:84% See with the bright eye of a lake, the sky, 00:04:53.670 --> 00:04:58.260 align:middle line:84% and reflect it, the mountains, and reflect them. 00:04:58.260 --> 00:05:02.040 align:middle line:84% See with the dark eye of a lake, great depths 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:04.560 align:middle line:90% where fish undulate. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:09.150 align:middle line:84% Let that eye go to sleep at night while the other eye stays 00:05:09.150 --> 00:05:13.990 align:middle line:90% open, a trap for the moon. 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:14.880 align:middle line:90% I wanted to start-- 00:05:14.880 --> 00:05:18.338 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:05:18.338 --> 00:05:18.822 align:middle line:90% 00:05:18.822 --> 00:05:21.280 align:middle line:84% I wanted to start with that because it ended with the moon. 00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:24.432 align:middle line:84% And I noticed, after I'd chosen the poems to read this evening, 00:05:24.432 --> 00:05:25.390 align:middle line:90% they all have the moon. 00:05:25.390 --> 00:05:28.720 align:middle line:84% All except maybe the last two have the moon in them. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:32.090 align:middle line:84% And it's obviously one of my things. 00:05:32.090 --> 00:05:35.170 align:middle line:84% I'm very concerned about the moon 00:05:35.170 --> 00:05:37.990 align:middle line:84% and, again, the manipulation of light, 00:05:37.990 --> 00:05:42.210 align:middle line:84% the moon as a source of light in the various poems.