WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.940 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.940 --> 00:00:06.490 align:middle line:84%
And this poem is a poem written
long before cancer, and kidneys,

00:00:06.490 --> 00:00:07.803 align:middle line:90%
and all of that.

00:00:07.803 --> 00:00:09.970 align:middle line:84%
It was written, one day,
I'm distinguished professor

00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:12.970 align:middle line:84%
of humanities at St Mary's
College of Maryland.

00:00:12.970 --> 00:00:15.820 align:middle line:84%
And right now, I'm Blackburn
professor of creative writing

00:00:15.820 --> 00:00:17.770 align:middle line:90%
at Duke University.

00:00:17.770 --> 00:00:19.330 align:middle line:84%
And everybody in
the world, I think,

00:00:19.330 --> 00:00:22.450 align:middle line:84%
knows that I did not
graduate from college.

00:00:22.450 --> 00:00:26.080 align:middle line:84%
I have-- it wasn't
funny at the time

00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:28.040 align:middle line:90%
but it later became amusing.

00:00:28.040 --> 00:00:31.210 align:middle line:84%
It's fun because I teach grad
students, I think that's fun.

00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:33.910 align:middle line:90%


00:00:33.910 --> 00:00:37.690 align:middle line:84%
But anyway, at St Mary's
College of Maryland,

00:00:37.690 --> 00:00:40.790 align:middle line:84%
I have a colleague who thinks
of herself as really smart,

00:00:40.790 --> 00:00:41.290 align:middle line:90%
and she is.

00:00:41.290 --> 00:00:42.835 align:middle line:90%
She's pretty smart.

00:00:42.835 --> 00:00:45.962 align:middle line:84%
She's not that nice,
but she's doggone smart.

00:00:45.962 --> 00:00:47.290 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]

00:00:47.290 --> 00:00:48.370 align:middle line:90%
And I was--

00:00:48.370 --> 00:00:53.170 align:middle line:84%
I keep my door open, my office
door open because I wish--

00:00:53.170 --> 00:00:54.770 align:middle line:90%
I am there for students.

00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:57.268 align:middle line:84%
I wish to be friendly
for students.

00:00:57.268 --> 00:00:58.810 align:middle line:84%
I should add that
I'm a distinguished

00:00:58.810 --> 00:01:00.893 align:middle line:84%
professor of humanities,
but we have no humanities

00:01:00.893 --> 00:01:01.990 align:middle line:90%
in the department.

00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:05.019 align:middle line:90%
So I'm the department.

00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:08.650 align:middle line:84%
And I can overhear,
I hear pretty well.

00:01:08.650 --> 00:01:11.120 align:middle line:84%
I don't see that
well but I hear.

00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.810 align:middle line:84%
And one day, she was
saying, I don't understand

00:01:13.810 --> 00:01:16.930 align:middle line:90%
why she's here anyway.

00:01:16.930 --> 00:01:18.140 align:middle line:90%
And it hurt my feelings.

00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:20.440 align:middle line:84%
I was being vulnerable
on that day.

00:01:20.440 --> 00:01:22.900 align:middle line:84%
And I thought she
should be happy for me.

00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:25.300 align:middle line:90%
Why isn't she happy for me?

00:01:25.300 --> 00:01:29.290 align:middle line:84%
But then later, I found this
poem applies to so many people,

00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:32.710 align:middle line:84%
so many things, in a way,
to the Poetry Center even,

00:01:32.710 --> 00:01:35.920 align:middle line:84%
to all of us in our lives
when we have struggled.

00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.230 align:middle line:84%
And some of us even
struggle every day

00:01:38.230 --> 00:01:41.740 align:middle line:90%
to try to be better than we are.

00:01:41.740 --> 00:01:46.960 align:middle line:84%
Anyway, this is my
other anthem of a poem.

00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:50.080 align:middle line:84%
Won't you celebrate
with me what I have

00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:54.430 align:middle line:90%
shaped into a kind of life?

00:01:54.430 --> 00:01:58.030 align:middle line:90%
I had no model.

00:01:58.030 --> 00:02:02.690 align:middle line:84%
Born in Babylon, both
non-white and woman,

00:02:02.690 --> 00:02:07.610 align:middle line:84%
what did I see to
be except myself?

00:02:07.610 --> 00:02:12.880 align:middle line:84%
I made it up here on this bridge
between starshine and clay.

00:02:12.880 --> 00:02:17.110 align:middle line:84%
My one hand holding
tight my other hand.

00:02:17.110 --> 00:02:25.600 align:middle line:84%
Come celebrate with me that
every day something has tried

00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:30.730 align:middle line:90%
to kill me and has failed.

00:02:30.730 --> 00:02:31.690 align:middle line:90%
Thank you very much.

00:02:31.690 --> 00:02:34.140 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:34.140 --> 00:03:17.000 align:middle line:90%