WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:07.680 align:middle line:84% I felt that since Arizona is a hotbed of writers. 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:10.470 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.470 --> 00:00:11.610 align:middle line:90% It is. 00:00:11.610 --> 00:00:13.032 align:middle line:90% That didn't sound right. 00:00:13.032 --> 00:00:14.880 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:15.810 align:middle line:90% Jesus. 00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:17.460 align:middle line:84% I meant that as a big compliment. 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:19.650 align:middle line:90% It didn't come out that way. 00:00:19.650 --> 00:00:21.720 align:middle line:84% Since there's so many writers here, 00:00:21.720 --> 00:00:25.080 align:middle line:84% and I have been spending the last couple of months going 00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:30.250 align:middle line:84% over student theses at Irvine, and people ask me, 00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.060 align:middle line:84% am I going to write like this all the time, forever? 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.996 align:middle line:90% And I said, of course you won't. 00:00:35.996 --> 00:00:37.170 align:middle line:90% You will change. 00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:40.470 align:middle line:90% And we all change. 00:00:40.470 --> 00:00:42.660 align:middle line:84% And I was asked that question a couple of times, 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:45.190 align:middle line:90% in a couple of classes today. 00:00:45.190 --> 00:00:47.490 align:middle line:84% And so I thought I would show how 00:00:47.490 --> 00:00:49.750 align:middle line:90% I think my writing has changed. 00:00:49.750 --> 00:00:51.060 align:middle line:90% I've never really done this. 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:54.900 align:middle line:84% But I think I would like to read very early poems 00:00:54.900 --> 00:01:00.810 align:middle line:84% all the way through what I've just finished to show that-- 00:01:00.810 --> 00:01:03.720 align:middle line:84% not necessarily changed for the better, but certainly, 00:01:03.720 --> 00:01:05.370 align:middle line:90% a change. 00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:08.620 align:middle line:84% And I thought I would start with four or five poems 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:12.040 align:middle line:84% from a book called The Grave Of The Right Hand, the title 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:16.120 align:middle line:84% of which is the best part of the book, I think, really. 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:18.480 align:middle line:90% It's strange. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.010 align:middle line:90% You look back on your-- 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:22.500 align:middle line:84% Thom Gunn once told me years ago, 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:24.540 align:middle line:84% when I was trying to put a first book together, 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:28.050 align:middle line:84% he said you're going to love your first book someday. 00:01:28.050 --> 00:01:29.803 align:middle line:90% I'm still waiting, Thom. 00:01:29.803 --> 00:01:30.610 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:30.610 --> 00:01:31.950 align:middle line:90% But maybe it will happen. 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:34.710 align:middle line:90% 00:01:34.710 --> 00:01:36.540 align:middle line:84% Anyone could have written this book. 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:38.670 align:middle line:90% As it turned out, I wrote it. 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:40.950 align:middle line:84% Then I started writing poems that only I could write. 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:43.320 align:middle line:84% And those are the ones that we're all interested in, 00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:45.240 align:middle line:90% of course. 00:01:45.240 --> 00:01:50.610 align:middle line:84% But as I said, let me start with some earlier poems, 00:01:50.610 --> 00:01:56.802 align:middle line:84% and then move on up, of course, up to the present day. 00:01:56.802 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% The first thing I'd like to read is 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.070 align:middle line:90% called The Daughters Of Blum. 00:02:00.070 --> 00:02:02.970 align:middle line:90% 00:02:02.970 --> 00:02:05.700 align:middle line:84% As I was looking over these this evening, 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:08.009 align:middle line:84% I realized that each one of these poems-- 00:02:08.009 --> 00:02:10.199 align:middle line:84% and of course, this is very natural-- 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:13.770 align:middle line:84% is trying to work on a technical situation, 00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:20.560 align:middle line:84% learning how to do something, rather than learning 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:24.100 align:middle line:90% how to say something. 00:02:24.100 --> 00:02:26.230 align:middle line:84% There's some difference there, which I'm 00:02:26.230 --> 00:02:27.910 align:middle line:90% sure you all are aware of, too. 00:02:27.910 --> 00:02:30.880 align:middle line:84% This one was trying to write a five syllable line-- 00:02:30.880 --> 00:02:31.640 align:middle line:90% it's in syllabic. 00:02:31.640 --> 00:02:34.570 align:middle line:84% It's called The Daughters of Blum. 00:02:34.570 --> 00:02:36.700 align:middle line:84% Blum-- only because it's a one syllable word. 00:02:36.700 --> 00:02:37.900 align:middle line:90% It could have been any-- 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:41.530 align:middle line:84% The Daughters of Woods, The Daughters of Smith. 00:02:41.530 --> 00:02:45.370 align:middle line:84% But I was thinking of Blum's candies in San Francisco. 00:02:45.370 --> 00:02:48.550 align:middle line:84% The Daughters Of Blum are growing older. 00:02:48.550 --> 00:02:51.070 align:middle line:84% These children today, each locking their rooms. 00:02:51.070 --> 00:02:54.040 align:middle line:84% They seem to pause, checking, perhaps, 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:57.100 align:middle line:84% for the lights, the window curtain, or something 00:02:57.100 --> 00:03:01.120 align:middle line:84% they want to remember that keeps slipping their minds. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:04.960 align:middle line:84% You have seen them, how they stand there perplexed 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:09.460 align:middle line:84% and a little shocked, as though they had spied unexpectedly 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:12.430 align:middle line:84% from one corner of one eye the lies 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:16.990 align:middle line:84% they must have left somewhere, once on a dresser, gloves 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:19.110 align:middle line:90% waiting for hands. 00:03:19.110 --> 00:03:20.125 align:middle line:90%