WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:04.330 align:middle line:84% I have more announcements than usual 00:00:04.330 --> 00:00:06.540 align:middle line:84% and I know you won't remember them all, 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:09.420 align:middle line:84% but I'm going to make them all anyway. 00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:12.240 align:middle line:84% Our next reading is one week from tonight 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.810 align:middle line:84% in this auditorium, that's February 10. 00:00:15.810 --> 00:00:18.150 align:middle line:84% And the reader is Douglas Canfield, 00:00:18.150 --> 00:00:21.510 align:middle line:84% professor in Literature Department at the University. 00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:27.840 align:middle line:84% And he's reading various voices in British and American poetry. 00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:30.870 align:middle line:84% And then our second reading is two weeks 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:33.990 align:middle line:90% from tonight, the 17th. 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:36.870 align:middle line:84% And that will be a group of graduate students reading 00:00:36.870 --> 00:00:39.570 align:middle line:84% in the Terrace Lounge of the student union. 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:45.360 align:middle line:84% The readers will be Stuart Brown, Nancy Eimers, Ann Guido, 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:49.230 align:middle line:84% Terry Pollock and Cynthia Wilson. 00:00:49.230 --> 00:00:51.030 align:middle line:84% There's a special reading this Sunday night 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:52.950 align:middle line:90% at the Mosaic Cafe. 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:57.330 align:middle line:84% Mosaic is at the corner of Speedway and Silverbell, 00:00:57.330 --> 00:01:00.000 align:middle line:90% west of campus. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.160 align:middle line:90% That's at 7:30. 00:01:02.160 --> 00:01:06.300 align:middle line:84% And the readers are Hal Lenke, Julie Godwin, 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:08.940 align:middle line:90% and Jefferson Carter. 00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:11.820 align:middle line:84% Pima College is having a very special reading 00:01:11.820 --> 00:01:13.440 align:middle line:90% on February 18-- 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:15.360 align:middle line:90% that's two weeks from tomorrow-- 00:01:15.360 --> 00:01:16.905 align:middle line:84% and the reading will be May Swenson. 00:01:16.905 --> 00:01:21.540 align:middle line:90% 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.007 align:middle line:84% Tonight I hope you can come to the Lounge. 00:01:24.007 --> 00:01:25.590 align:middle line:84% We're going back to the Terrace Lounge 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:30.240 align:middle line:84% tonight for a reception for Mr. Stafford. 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:32.610 align:middle line:84% The Terrace Lounge is the most inaccessible room 00:01:32.610 --> 00:01:34.590 align:middle line:90% in the Student Union. 00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.400 align:middle line:84% So if you'll just follow the leader 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:39.690 align:middle line:90% you'll find it eventually. 00:01:39.690 --> 00:01:48.425 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.425 --> 00:01:50.050 align:middle line:84% What do you say about William Stafford? 00:01:50.050 --> 00:01:52.030 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:55.460 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:55.460 --> 00:01:59.380 align:middle line:90% 00:01:59.380 --> 00:02:03.640 align:middle line:84% This is my fifth opportunity to hear Mr. Stafford read. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:07.450 align:middle line:84% Each time it's a great joy and delight. 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:11.020 align:middle line:84% He's published five major collections 00:02:11.020 --> 00:02:12.160 align:middle line:90% with Harper and Row. 00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:16.150 align:middle line:84% Most recent Stories That Could Be True. 00:02:16.150 --> 00:02:18.250 align:middle line:84% And a large number of small press 00:02:18.250 --> 00:02:22.000 align:middle line:84% chapbooks, most recently with Copper Canyon Press. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:25.700 align:middle line:84% The book-- Sometimes Like a Legend. 00:02:25.700 --> 00:02:30.130 align:middle line:84% He's received all the major awards in American literature-- 00:02:30.130 --> 00:02:34.870 align:middle line:84% Guggenheim grant, National Endowment, National Book Award, 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:36.290 align:middle line:90% and on and on. 00:02:36.290 --> 00:02:38.050 align:middle line:84% It's a great pleasure to introduce 00:02:38.050 --> 00:02:39.670 align:middle line:90% our friend, William Stafford. 00:02:39.670 --> 00:02:43.086 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:43.086 --> 00:02:52.360 align:middle line:90% 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:52.860 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:52.860 --> 00:03:00.180 align:middle line:90% 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:04.890 align:middle line:84% "Once when the waves were talking, one said, 00:03:04.890 --> 00:03:07.146 align:middle line:90% "I'll never be back." 00:03:07.146 --> 00:03:10.050 align:middle line:84% And then the rest ran on toward shore but 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:15.340 align:middle line:84% that one went forth so far it's never been seen again. 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:20.290 align:middle line:84% When you walk along sometimes, you think of that absent wave 00:03:20.290 --> 00:03:22.630 align:middle line:84% and of all that doesn't exist anymore. 00:03:22.630 --> 00:03:29.580 align:middle line:84% Things of the other years, they'll never be back, you say. 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:32.070 align:middle line:90% You stop and look out. 00:03:32.070 --> 00:03:35.190 align:middle line:90% It's already tomorrow somewhere. 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:37.710 align:middle line:90% Someone like you is walking. 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:43.020 align:middle line:84% A wave is beginning to speak and the rest shrug and go on. 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:44.250 align:middle line:90% You stand and care. 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:47.100 align:middle line:90% 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:49.650 align:middle line:84% Much has never existed, you know. 00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:54.690 align:middle line:84% You think of things to say; waves come in. 00:03:54.690 --> 00:03:59.190 align:middle line:84% Wherever you walk you see a place for that wave, 00:03:59.190 --> 00:04:02.620 align:middle line:90% but it isn't there." 00:04:02.620 --> 00:04:06.000 align:middle line:90% I didn't know how to begin. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:07.080 align:middle line:90% I've tried this before. 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:11.700 align:middle line:84% I have several beginnings and that was one way. 00:04:11.700 --> 00:04:15.420 align:middle line:84% Just "Once when the waves were talking." 00:04:15.420 --> 00:04:16.649 align:middle line:90% Now I have one-- 00:04:16.649 --> 00:04:17.838 align:middle line:90% it's called "How It Began." 00:04:17.838 --> 00:04:20.130 align:middle line:84% That's why I thought this would be a good way to begin. 00:04:20.130 --> 00:04:23.150 align:middle line:90% 00:04:23.150 --> 00:04:26.450 align:middle line:84% "They struggled their legs and blindly loved, 00:04:26.450 --> 00:04:30.950 align:middle line:84% those puppies inside my jacket as I walk through town. 00:04:30.950 --> 00:04:32.990 align:middle line:84% They crawled for warmth and licked 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:36.650 align:middle line:84% each other, their poor mother dead and one kind boy 00:04:36.650 --> 00:04:38.540 align:middle line:90% to save them. 00:04:38.540 --> 00:04:43.940 align:middle line:84% I spread my arms over their world and hurried along. 00:04:43.940 --> 00:04:47.000 align:middle line:84% At Ellen's place I knocked and waited. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:52.310 align:middle line:84% The tumult invading my sleeves, all my jacket alive. 00:04:52.310 --> 00:04:56.840 align:middle line:84% When she came to the door we tumbled, black, white, gray, 00:04:56.840 --> 00:04:59.490 align:middle line:84% hungry, all over the living room floor together, 00:04:59.490 --> 00:05:03.290 align:middle line:84% rolling, whining, happy, and blind." 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:06.380 align:middle line:84% Now since I've been here someone raised a question 00:05:06.380 --> 00:05:11.960 align:middle line:84% that's been haunting me for the last 24 hours about 00:05:11.960 --> 00:05:15.410 align:middle line:84% whether when you write the things are controlled 00:05:15.410 --> 00:05:18.680 align:middle line:84% by images, or metaphors, or syntax. 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:22.720 align:middle line:84% And I like to make quick moves and then see what happens, 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:24.440 align:middle line:90% so I opted for syntax. 00:05:24.440 --> 00:05:29.090 align:middle line:84% But then I was thinking about reading this: "Carrying 00:05:29.090 --> 00:05:31.640 align:middle line:90% the Puppies Inside my Jacket." 00:05:31.640 --> 00:05:35.150 align:middle line:84% And I won't belabor this because only a few here 00:05:35.150 --> 00:05:36.530 align:middle line:90% are involved in our discussion. 00:05:36.530 --> 00:05:39.630 align:middle line:84% But to me it feels like just telling 00:05:39.630 --> 00:05:42.620 align:middle line:84% about walking through town carrying puppies in my jacket. 00:05:42.620 --> 00:05:43.820 align:middle line:90% That's all. 00:05:43.820 --> 00:05:46.940 align:middle line:84% And can I help it if people get other things out of it? 00:05:46.940 --> 00:05:47.775 align:middle line:90% No, I can't. 00:05:47.775 --> 00:05:51.550 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:05:51.550 --> 00:05:52.050 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:05:52.050 --> 00:05:56.390 align:middle line:90% 00:05:56.390 --> 00:05:58.240 align:middle line:84% This is called "Serving with Gideon." 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:02.370 align:middle line:90% 00:06:02.370 --> 00:06:07.500 align:middle line:84% "Now I remember in our town the druggist 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:11.940 align:middle line:84% prescribed the Coca-Cola mostly in tapered glasses 00:06:11.940 --> 00:06:16.560 align:middle line:84% to us and to the elevator man in a paper cup 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.725 align:middle line:84% so he could drink it elsewhere because he was Black. 00:06:19.725 --> 00:06:22.740 align:middle line:90% 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.950 align:middle line:84% And now I remember the legion gambling 00:06:25.950 --> 00:06:30.210 align:middle line:84% in the back room and no women but girls, 00:06:30.210 --> 00:06:33.900 align:middle line:90% old boys who ran the town. 00:06:33.900 --> 00:06:39.720 align:middle line:84% They were generous to their sons or the sons of friends 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:44.460 align:middle line:90% and of course, I was almost one. 00:06:44.460 --> 00:06:49.080 align:middle line:84% I remember winter light closing its great blue fist slowly 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:54.240 align:middle line:84% eastward along the street, and the dark then deep as war 00:06:54.240 --> 00:07:00.690 align:middle line:84% arched over a radio show called The '30s and the Great Old USA. 00:07:00.690 --> 00:07:05.910 align:middle line:84% Look down, stars, I was almost one of the boys. 00:07:05.910 --> 00:07:08.940 align:middle line:84% My mother was folding her handkerchief, 00:07:08.940 --> 00:07:14.130 align:middle line:84% the library seethed and sparked right and wrong art, 00:07:14.130 --> 00:07:18.630 align:middle line:84% and carefully I walked with my cup toward the elevator man." 00:07:18.630 --> 00:07:21.360 align:middle line:90% 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.490 align:middle line:84% Now when I was reading this I got several little signals 00:07:26.490 --> 00:07:29.310 align:middle line:84% from myself, and those happen I try 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:33.420 align:middle line:84% to disregard them so as to keep up the momentum in the poem. 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:38.940 align:middle line:84% But I was almost derailed by the realization here that one 00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:40.950 align:middle line:90% of the-- 00:07:40.950 --> 00:07:45.540 align:middle line:84% a distinction that I have is being so old. 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:47.340 align:middle line:90% That's what almost derailed me. 00:07:47.340 --> 00:07:50.340 align:middle line:84% That is that I could refer to the '30s, 00:07:50.340 --> 00:07:53.430 align:middle line:84% a radio show called The '30s and the Great Old USA. 00:07:53.430 --> 00:07:56.130 align:middle line:84% And I thought of saying to you, "Children there 00:07:56.130 --> 00:08:00.930 align:middle line:84% was a time when they didn't have television. 00:08:00.930 --> 00:08:03.810 align:middle line:90% It was a radio show." 00:08:03.810 --> 00:08:05.520 align:middle line:84% And the strange vision that comes to me 00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:07.710 align:middle line:84% is standing in the University of Kansas 00:08:07.710 --> 00:08:10.590 align:middle line:84% facing a radio just the way we face a television set 00:08:10.590 --> 00:08:20.090 align:middle line:84% and listening to President Roosevelt. Well, I have-- 00:08:20.090 --> 00:08:21.150 align:middle line:90% I had stopped a minute. 00:08:21.150 --> 00:08:23.280 align:middle line:84% I think I better not get historical. 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:28.030 align:middle line:84% Well, I mean, not hysterical, historical. 00:08:28.030 --> 00:08:30.390 align:middle line:84% I have here a poem that I've often 00:08:30.390 --> 00:08:33.840 align:middle line:90% identified as my weakest poem. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:39.570 align:middle line:84% And as my friends and semi friends know, 00:08:39.570 --> 00:08:43.470 align:middle line:84% I have a lot of candidates for this honor of the weakest. 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:47.490 align:middle line:84% But this is the one that starts with very little 00:08:47.490 --> 00:08:50.620 align:middle line:90% and ends with nothing. 00:08:50.620 --> 00:08:53.160 align:middle line:90% So in that sense we just-- 00:08:53.160 --> 00:08:57.735 align:middle line:84% and this is my theory of writing as my semi friends know, 00:08:57.735 --> 00:09:02.952 align:middle line:84% I start with anything and then just see what happens. 00:09:02.952 --> 00:09:05.160 align:middle line:84% It's called "The Little Girl by the Fence at School." 00:09:05.160 --> 00:09:08.900 align:middle line:90% 00:09:08.900 --> 00:09:13.730 align:middle line:84% "Grass that was moving found all shades of brown, 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:17.630 align:middle line:84% move them along, float autumn away galloping Southward 00:09:17.630 --> 00:09:20.810 align:middle line:90% where summer had gone. 00:09:20.810 --> 00:09:24.350 align:middle line:84% And that was the morning someone's heart stopped 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:27.380 align:middle line:90% and all became still. 00:09:27.380 --> 00:09:31.610 align:middle line:90% A girl said, "Forever?" 00:09:31.610 --> 00:09:38.150 align:middle line:90% And the grass, "Yes, forever." 00:09:38.150 --> 00:09:43.361 align:middle line:90% While the sky-- the sky-- 00:09:43.361 --> 00:09:44.355 align:middle line:90% the sky." 00:09:44.355 --> 00:09:51.810 align:middle line:90% 00:09:51.810 --> 00:09:56.500 align:middle line:84% When I was trying to figure out what to bring 00:09:56.500 --> 00:10:02.050 align:middle line:84% and what to sequence, I wanted to have variety if I could. 00:10:02.050 --> 00:10:09.160 align:middle line:84% I realize some of my limitations and I guess, 00:10:09.160 --> 00:10:11.710 align:middle line:84% I'm begging your indulgence if I seem 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:13.570 align:middle line:84% to be scrambling in various directions 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:16.360 align:middle line:84% here because I have something that-- 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:21.168 align:middle line:84% and I'm not sure how relevant this is to your setting. 00:10:21.168 --> 00:10:22.960 align:middle line:84% Though, when I look at a map of the country 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:25.510 align:middle line:84% there's little dots around it, I believe 00:10:25.510 --> 00:10:27.190 align:middle line:90% maybe it's relevant everywhere. 00:10:27.190 --> 00:10:28.420 align:middle line:90% It's called "Incident." 00:10:28.420 --> 00:10:31.880 align:middle line:90% 00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:35.270 align:middle line:84% "They had this cloud they kept like a Zeppelin tethered 00:10:35.270 --> 00:10:38.240 align:middle line:84% to a smokestack, and you couldn't see it 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:41.360 align:middle line:84% but sent out these strange little rays and after a while 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:42.035 align:middle line:90% you felt funny. 00:10:42.035 --> 00:10:45.320 align:middle line:90% 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:46.820 align:middle line:90% They had this man with a box. 00:10:46.820 --> 00:10:49.340 align:middle line:90% 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:55.100 align:middle line:84% He pointed it at the Zeppelin and it said, "Jesus." 00:10:55.100 --> 00:11:00.170 align:middle line:84% The man hurried farther away and called out, "Hear ye, hear ye." 00:11:00.170 --> 00:11:03.440 align:middle line:84% Then they coaxed the Zeppelin down into the smokestack 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:07.430 align:middle line:84% and they said, "We won't do that anymore." 00:11:07.430 --> 00:11:10.400 align:middle line:84% For a long time the box kept shaking its head, 00:11:10.400 --> 00:11:11.640 align:middle line:90% but it finally said, "OK. 00:11:11.640 --> 00:11:12.560 align:middle line:90% Hit it." 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:16.310 align:middle line:84% But quietly to us it whispered, "Let's get out of here." 00:11:16.310 --> 00:11:20.960 align:middle line:90% 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:25.520 align:middle line:84% One of the things I was thinking of breaking the sequence up 00:11:25.520 --> 00:11:29.090 align:middle line:84% with was confessions about, well, all sorts of things. 00:11:29.090 --> 00:11:32.360 align:middle line:84% But one is just where things are published. 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:39.920 align:middle line:84% And I see Field Magazine, Oberlin, Hampden-Sydney Poetry 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:44.958 align:middle line:90% Review, American Poetry Review. 00:11:44.958 --> 00:11:45.500 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:47.060 align:middle line:84% The one's from a book but it must 00:11:47.060 --> 00:11:48.290 align:middle line:90% have been somewhere else too. 00:11:48.290 --> 00:11:50.990 align:middle line:84% This one-- "Incident"-- the reason I thought of this 00:11:50.990 --> 00:11:54.733 align:middle line:84% at this moment is after I wrote Incident, 00:11:54.733 --> 00:11:56.150 align:middle line:84% I thought where shall I send this? 00:11:56.150 --> 00:12:01.970 align:middle line:84% So I sent it to a magazine in Pennsylvania 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:04.310 align:middle line:90% called the Slow Loris Reader. 00:12:04.310 --> 00:12:09.200 align:middle line:84% And I like to identify these heroic magazines that 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.012 align:middle line:84% are all over the country putting out portraits. 00:12:13.012 --> 00:12:17.402 align:middle line:90% 00:12:17.402 --> 00:12:18.610 align:middle line:90% This is called "Yellow Cars." 00:12:18.610 --> 00:12:21.340 align:middle line:90% 00:12:21.340 --> 00:12:27.190 align:middle line:84% "Some of the cars are yellow that go by. 00:12:27.190 --> 00:12:29.920 align:middle line:84% Those you look at, so glimmering when 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:33.160 align:middle line:90% light glances at their passing. 00:12:33.160 --> 00:12:38.410 align:middle line:84% Think of that hope: someone will like me maybe. 00:12:38.410 --> 00:12:41.560 align:middle line:84% The tan ones don't care, the blue 00:12:41.560 --> 00:12:47.860 align:middle line:84% have made a mistake, the white haven't tried, but the yellow-- 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:49.870 align:middle line:90% you turn your head. 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:51.865 align:middle line:84% Hope lasts a long time if you're happy." 00:12:51.865 --> 00:12:54.890 align:middle line:90% 00:12:54.890 --> 00:12:57.110 align:middle line:84% I just want to stop long enough on this. 00:12:57.110 --> 00:12:58.460 align:middle line:90% And maybe I won't-- 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:02.600 align:middle line:84% I hope I won't trouble this issue very much this evening. 00:13:02.600 --> 00:13:05.880 align:middle line:84% But just stop on it for a minute. 00:13:05.880 --> 00:13:10.130 align:middle line:90% How easy writing is. 00:13:10.130 --> 00:13:16.650 align:middle line:84% How all of us practice every day the language. 00:13:16.650 --> 00:13:21.470 align:middle line:84% We hold resolutions that we're going to get up the energy 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:22.840 align:middle line:90% to compose something today. 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:24.590 align:middle line:84% We get up and say, "What's for breakfast?" 00:13:24.590 --> 00:13:26.150 align:middle line:90% Or whatever we start. 00:13:26.150 --> 00:13:29.630 align:middle line:84% We start talking the great novel of our lives 00:13:29.630 --> 00:13:31.730 align:middle line:84% without even knowing we're doing it. 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:34.100 align:middle line:90% How easy it is! 00:13:34.100 --> 00:13:38.450 align:middle line:84% "Some of the cars are yellow, that go by. 00:13:38.450 --> 00:13:40.940 align:middle line:90% Those you look at," and so on. 00:13:40.940 --> 00:13:46.880 align:middle line:84% And it's as if, well, as I said, I guess I won't belabor this. 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:49.190 align:middle line:84% But to me it's as if you get positioned 00:13:49.190 --> 00:13:53.390 align:middle line:84% right for the experience as it comes to you, 00:13:53.390 --> 00:13:56.540 align:middle line:84% you can even make all kinds of mistakes. 00:13:56.540 --> 00:14:02.240 align:middle line:84% But if you don't get situated right, 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.190 align:middle line:90% then finesse won't save it. 00:14:04.190 --> 00:14:07.710 align:middle line:84% I mean, there's just a way to blunder along 00:14:07.710 --> 00:14:09.380 align:middle line:90% or sometimes it seems so to me. 00:14:09.380 --> 00:14:12.620 align:middle line:84% Maybe it's all too evident to you. 00:14:12.620 --> 00:14:14.270 align:middle line:90% This is called "Anticipating." 00:14:14.270 --> 00:14:18.260 align:middle line:90% 00:14:18.260 --> 00:14:25.220 align:middle line:84% "Keeping your word is bell into a future memory to wait there. 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:28.640 align:middle line:84% You hold that stilled bell hidden, 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:30.320 align:middle line:84% but you know where the sound will 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:36.920 align:middle line:84% be deep and slow, ready to toll all day all night, miles 00:14:36.920 --> 00:14:39.470 align:middle line:90% around. 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:42.930 align:middle line:90% Others may change their word. 00:14:42.930 --> 00:14:47.330 align:middle line:84% They can pile rocks on it, they back away, 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:52.370 align:middle line:84% they dance on the stones, but the bell waits in its crypt 00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:53.615 align:middle line:90% and it slowly moves." 00:14:53.615 --> 00:14:57.960 align:middle line:90% 00:14:57.960 --> 00:15:02.460 align:middle line:84% I neglected to say places where poems are published. 00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:06.510 align:middle line:84% This was published in the magazine called Three Sisters. 00:15:06.510 --> 00:15:09.825 align:middle line:84% I believe it's Georgetown University in DC. 00:15:09.825 --> 00:15:14.490 align:middle line:90% 00:15:14.490 --> 00:15:23.130 align:middle line:84% If you're writing where you are about things that occur to you 00:15:23.130 --> 00:15:29.100 align:middle line:84% and the writings just grow out of how it happens and you're 00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:32.550 align:middle line:84% not aiming for certain magazines or certain markets 00:15:32.550 --> 00:15:37.770 align:middle line:84% or certain fashions, then what happens-- 00:15:37.770 --> 00:15:39.420 align:middle line:90% what happens to you? 00:15:39.420 --> 00:15:40.530 align:middle line:90% Maybe nothing. 00:15:40.530 --> 00:15:43.140 align:middle line:90% But maybe there are-- 00:15:43.140 --> 00:15:46.320 align:middle line:84% over the country, there are these magazines that are not 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:48.530 align:middle line:90% looking where fashions are. 00:15:48.530 --> 00:15:51.150 align:middle line:84% And they're not looking to strengthen the national will 00:15:51.150 --> 00:15:54.060 align:middle line:84% or anything like that or attack it either. 00:15:54.060 --> 00:15:57.840 align:middle line:84% They're just interested in things that happen, 00:15:57.840 --> 00:15:59.880 align:middle line:84% that occur to people over the country. 00:15:59.880 --> 00:16:04.110 align:middle line:84% So that's why I think of mentioning some of these. 00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:07.440 align:middle line:84% I'll mention the place of publication first on this one 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:09.810 align:middle line:84% because probably this is the best, yeah, 00:16:09.810 --> 00:16:11.970 align:middle line:84% this is the best phrase on the page. 00:16:11.970 --> 00:16:14.220 align:middle line:84% It's the name of the magazine where it was published-- 00:16:14.220 --> 00:16:17.760 align:middle line:84% Negative Capability is the name on it. 00:16:17.760 --> 00:16:21.195 align:middle line:84% A new magazine though not a new phrase. 00:16:21.195 --> 00:16:24.030 align:middle line:90% 00:16:24.030 --> 00:16:27.420 align:middle line:90% It's called "Dropout." 00:16:27.420 --> 00:16:32.550 align:middle line:84% "Grundy and Hoagland, and all the rest who ganged our class 00:16:32.550 --> 00:16:36.720 align:middle line:84% and wrecked the high school gym for fun, 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.828 align:middle line:84% you thought of them last night and how they laughed 00:16:39.828 --> 00:16:40.995 align:middle line:90% when they beat up a Mexican. 00:16:40.995 --> 00:16:43.950 align:middle line:90% 00:16:43.950 --> 00:16:47.640 align:middle line:84% Later they marched against Hitler Youth, 00:16:47.640 --> 00:16:49.860 align:middle line:90% but admired them too. 00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.000 align:middle line:90% How they were brave and sang. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:52.500 align:middle line:90% Why? 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:55.440 align:middle line:84% You should see how those troopers fought. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.660 align:middle line:84% And Hoagland came back to a job with the FBI. 00:17:00.660 --> 00:17:06.480 align:middle line:84% Remember the team, the celebration and the Lions Hall 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:11.760 align:middle line:84% with Coach Gist there, a real man, the speeches, 00:17:11.760 --> 00:17:14.490 align:middle line:90% the jackrabbit chili. 00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:18.690 align:middle line:84% You looked through the smoke and the smoky jokes 00:17:18.690 --> 00:17:21.411 align:middle line:84% and vomited and never went back again." 00:17:21.411 --> 00:17:23.766 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:17:23.766 --> 00:17:28.480 align:middle line:90% 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:31.000 align:middle line:84% Best in class yesterday afternoon that this all 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.970 align:middle line:84% started for me just from the names of some people I 00:17:33.970 --> 00:17:38.980 align:middle line:84% began to think of in my high school class. 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:42.640 align:middle line:84% And the names were the best thing 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.400 align:middle line:84% that occurred to me and they were from memory but I had 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:47.080 align:middle line:90% to change the names because-- 00:17:47.080 --> 00:17:50.650 align:middle line:90% 00:17:50.650 --> 00:17:51.655 align:middle line:90% but I did my best. 00:17:51.655 --> 00:17:55.590 align:middle line:90% 00:17:55.590 --> 00:18:01.410 align:middle line:84% "When I came back to Earth, it was my bike threw me. 00:18:01.410 --> 00:18:04.560 align:middle line:90% I woke to day not real day. 00:18:04.560 --> 00:18:06.720 align:middle line:84% Some of the sunlight came like bottles 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:09.270 align:middle line:90% piled in a window frame. 00:18:09.270 --> 00:18:11.610 align:middle line:84% People wore pictures with labels-- 00:18:11.610 --> 00:18:16.020 align:middle line:90% doctor, intern, aid. 00:18:16.020 --> 00:18:18.810 align:middle line:84% I remember a cookie big as the sun that lasted 00:18:18.810 --> 00:18:20.430 align:middle line:90% as long as a glass of milk. 00:18:20.430 --> 00:18:23.650 align:middle line:90% 00:18:23.650 --> 00:18:30.130 align:middle line:84% Someday your world won't last all day. 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:33.970 align:middle line:84% You'll blink, you'll fall to Earth, 00:18:33.970 --> 00:18:36.430 align:middle line:84% and where the ocean was will be that color 00:18:36.430 --> 00:18:39.100 align:middle line:90% here it was before you came. 00:18:39.100 --> 00:18:43.030 align:middle line:84% Your head and what you hit will sound the same." 00:18:43.030 --> 00:18:46.660 align:middle line:90% 00:18:46.660 --> 00:18:49.750 align:middle line:84% Partly just to put some insulation between these poems, 00:18:49.750 --> 00:18:53.650 align:middle line:84% I want to say that I had this brilliant idea of giving 00:18:53.650 --> 00:18:55.760 align:middle line:90% my dog a workout. 00:18:55.760 --> 00:19:00.790 align:middle line:84% And when I'd take it out on the leash, I'd get the workout. 00:19:00.790 --> 00:19:02.830 align:middle line:84% So I decided I'd get on my bicycle 00:19:02.830 --> 00:19:05.440 align:middle line:90% and really make that dog work. 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:11.260 align:middle line:84% And it was fine except there was another dog. 00:19:11.260 --> 00:19:13.720 align:middle line:84% And as you bicycle riders can imagine, 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:17.080 align:middle line:84% all sorts of odd things began to happen. 00:19:17.080 --> 00:19:21.670 align:middle line:84% And that's when I found out it's a good idea 00:19:21.670 --> 00:19:23.260 align:middle line:90% to have a helmet on. 00:19:23.260 --> 00:19:24.280 align:middle line:90% It was just right. 00:19:24.280 --> 00:19:27.130 align:middle line:84% Not too hard but enough that I knew it was real. 00:19:27.130 --> 00:19:32.060 align:middle line:90% 00:19:32.060 --> 00:19:35.000 align:middle line:90% "Once in the '40s." 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:38.975 align:middle line:84% "We were alone one night on a long road in Montana. 00:19:38.975 --> 00:19:41.570 align:middle line:90% 00:19:41.570 --> 00:19:47.580 align:middle line:84% This was in winter, a big night bar to the stars. 00:19:47.580 --> 00:19:50.210 align:middle line:90% We had hitched-- my wife and I-- 00:19:50.210 --> 00:19:54.320 align:middle line:84% and left our ride at a crossing to go on. 00:19:54.320 --> 00:20:00.530 align:middle line:84% Tired and cold but brave, we trudged along. 00:20:00.530 --> 00:20:02.870 align:middle line:90% This, we said, was our life. 00:20:02.870 --> 00:20:07.040 align:middle line:84% Watched over, allowed to go where we wanted. 00:20:07.040 --> 00:20:11.210 align:middle line:84% We said we'd come back sometime when we got rich. 00:20:11.210 --> 00:20:15.350 align:middle line:84% We'd leave the others and find a night like this. 00:20:15.350 --> 00:20:18.950 align:middle line:84% Whatever we had to give, no matter how far, 00:20:18.950 --> 00:20:20.270 align:middle line:90% to be so happy again." 00:20:20.270 --> 00:20:23.000 align:middle line:90% 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:26.120 align:middle line:84% I just want to stop for a minute for insulation 00:20:26.120 --> 00:20:27.290 align:middle line:90% among these poems. 00:20:27.290 --> 00:20:34.610 align:middle line:84% Say, when you think about it, how rich we are. 00:20:34.610 --> 00:20:38.090 align:middle line:84% We can do the things we want to, [? hopefully ?].. 00:20:38.090 --> 00:20:43.430 align:middle line:84% And I can remember going out hiking in the winter. 00:20:43.430 --> 00:20:49.340 align:middle line:84% And it's just fun to get far from any place, cooled, 00:20:49.340 --> 00:20:51.235 align:middle line:90% and just to be able to make it. 00:20:51.235 --> 00:20:55.490 align:middle line:84% Have a good enough jacket and hike along. 00:20:55.490 --> 00:20:58.790 align:middle line:90% And I have some-- 00:20:58.790 --> 00:21:02.300 align:middle line:84% one place where I was I read this poem once in the '40s. 00:21:02.300 --> 00:21:04.160 align:middle line:84% And there was a girl in the audience 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:07.280 align:middle line:84% that was up in Bemidji, Minnesota come to think of it. 00:21:07.280 --> 00:21:10.670 align:middle line:84% And when they say winter they mean winter up there. 00:21:10.670 --> 00:21:14.780 align:middle line:84% And she came up after the reading, she said, 00:21:14.780 --> 00:21:18.240 align:middle line:84% "I hitchhiked 60 miles to get here tonight. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.710 align:middle line:84% And I want to take a look at your poem "Once in the 40s." 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:24.050 align:middle line:84% I felt this kinship with young people. 00:21:24.050 --> 00:21:31.300 align:middle line:90% 00:21:31.300 --> 00:21:34.720 align:middle line:84% Last summer I was at a couple of writer's conferences. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:38.380 align:middle line:84% One was on the East Coast and one on the West. 00:21:38.380 --> 00:21:45.970 align:middle line:84% And at Port Townsend we'd go into big barracks for our lunch 00:21:45.970 --> 00:21:51.520 align:middle line:84% and you'd get your plate, knife and fork and spoon, 00:21:51.520 --> 00:21:53.350 align:middle line:90% and napkin all a certain way. 00:21:53.350 --> 00:21:54.490 align:middle line:90% And this comes from that. 00:21:54.490 --> 00:21:55.600 align:middle line:90% It's called "Objector." 00:21:55.600 --> 00:21:58.240 align:middle line:90% 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:02.530 align:middle line:84% "In line at lunch I cross my fork and spoon 00:22:02.530 --> 00:22:07.060 align:middle line:84% to ward off complicity, the ordered life our leaders 00:22:07.060 --> 00:22:09.970 align:middle line:90% have offered us. 00:22:09.970 --> 00:22:14.080 align:middle line:84% Thin is a knife, our chance to live depends on such a sign 00:22:14.080 --> 00:22:15.920 align:middle line:90% while others talk. 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:20.230 align:middle line:84% The Pentagon from the moon is bouncing exact commands. 00:22:20.230 --> 00:22:24.160 align:middle line:84% Forget your faith, be ready for whatever it takes to win. 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:29.800 align:middle line:84% We face annihilation unless all citizens get in line. 00:22:29.800 --> 00:22:34.210 align:middle line:84% I bow and cross my fork and spoon. 00:22:34.210 --> 00:22:37.060 align:middle line:84% Somewhere other citizens more fearfully 00:22:37.060 --> 00:22:42.250 align:middle line:84% bow in a place terrorized by their kind of oppressive state. 00:22:42.250 --> 00:22:47.560 align:middle line:84% And both mean, you hostages over there will never 00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:50.140 align:middle line:90% be slaughtered by my act. 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:53.815 align:middle line:84% Our vows cross never to kill and call it fate." 00:22:53.815 --> 00:22:56.890 align:middle line:90% 00:22:56.890 --> 00:22:58.330 align:middle line:90% Well, I have here-- 00:22:58.330 --> 00:23:00.910 align:middle line:84% I hurry on to something called "School Days." 00:23:00.910 --> 00:23:04.660 align:middle line:84% It has three parts but they're not very long. 00:23:04.660 --> 00:23:08.080 align:middle line:90% 00:23:08.080 --> 00:23:12.370 align:middle line:84% "After the test they sent an expert questionnaire 00:23:12.370 --> 00:23:14.590 align:middle line:90% to our school. 00:23:14.590 --> 00:23:17.770 align:middle line:90% "Who is this kid Bohr?" 00:23:17.770 --> 00:23:22.000 align:middle line:84% When Bohr came in he asked the expert, "Who are you?" 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:24.940 align:middle line:84% And for a long time they looked at each other 00:23:24.940 --> 00:23:28.540 align:middle line:84% and Bohr said, "Thanks, I thought so." 00:23:28.540 --> 00:23:31.960 align:middle line:84% Then they talked about why the test was given. 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:35.960 align:middle line:84% Afterwards they shook hands and Bohr walked slowly away. 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:40.450 align:middle line:84% He turned and called out, "You passed." 00:23:40.450 --> 00:23:43.570 align:middle line:90% Part 2-- "The School Days." 00:23:43.570 --> 00:23:46.750 align:middle line:84% "Enough sleet had pasted over the window by 3 o'clock 00:23:46.750 --> 00:23:49.270 align:middle line:84% so we couldn't tell if it was dark. 00:23:49.270 --> 00:23:51.670 align:middle line:84% And our pony would be out there in the little shed 00:23:51.670 --> 00:23:54.050 align:middle line:90% waiting to take us home. 00:23:54.050 --> 00:23:57.610 align:middle line:84% Teacher banked the stove with an extra lug. 00:23:57.610 --> 00:24:01.120 align:middle line:90% That was the storm of 1934. 00:24:01.120 --> 00:24:04.570 align:middle line:84% For two days we waited, singing and praying, 00:24:04.570 --> 00:24:07.750 align:middle line:84% and I guess it worked, even though the snow drifted 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:10.060 align:middle line:90% over the roof. 00:24:10.060 --> 00:24:13.870 align:middle line:84% But the pony was dead when they dug us out." 00:24:13.870 --> 00:24:16.840 align:middle line:90% Part 3 of "School Days." 00:24:16.840 --> 00:24:23.740 align:middle line:84% "At a tiny desk inside my desk, a doll bends over a book. 00:24:23.740 --> 00:24:28.780 align:middle line:84% In the book is a feather found at the beach from a dead gull. 00:24:28.780 --> 00:24:31.450 align:middle line:84% While Ms. Leonard reads The Highwayman, 00:24:31.450 --> 00:24:36.280 align:middle line:84% I bend over my book and cry and fly all alone through the night 00:24:36.280 --> 00:24:38.050 align:middle line:90% toward being this person I am." 00:24:38.050 --> 00:24:40.690 align:middle line:90% 00:24:40.690 --> 00:24:43.900 align:middle line:90% Now when I was reading this-- 00:24:43.900 --> 00:24:47.080 align:middle line:84% I don't want you to think about this too seriously-- 00:24:47.080 --> 00:24:53.740 align:middle line:84% but I suddenly had this little ripple of apprehension. 00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:54.730 align:middle line:90% What am I doing? 00:24:54.730 --> 00:24:56.710 align:middle line:90% What sort of thing am I reading? 00:24:56.710 --> 00:24:58.690 align:middle line:90% What are these things? 00:24:58.690 --> 00:25:00.310 align:middle line:90% "School Days." 00:25:00.310 --> 00:25:01.615 align:middle line:90% Who is this kid Bohr? 00:25:01.615 --> 00:25:03.400 align:middle line:90% And so on. 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:08.290 align:middle line:84% Well, I want to face up to this for just a minute. 00:25:08.290 --> 00:25:11.310 align:middle line:90% 00:25:11.310 --> 00:25:13.360 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't quite know how to do it. 00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:15.660 align:middle line:84% They're not, I mean, after all, it's 00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:19.740 align:middle line:84% not charge of the light brigade or anything like that. 00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:21.540 align:middle line:84% It's just little bits of language. 00:25:21.540 --> 00:25:24.450 align:middle line:90% Just little excursions. 00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:28.680 align:middle line:84% And I remember-- and I've even put this in an article 00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:30.510 align:middle line:84% and I know some people here know it. 00:25:30.510 --> 00:25:36.450 align:middle line:84% But I was reading a biography of Niels Bohr-- 00:25:36.450 --> 00:25:39.510 align:middle line:90% the scientist from Denmark. 00:25:39.510 --> 00:25:44.970 align:middle line:84% And they told about how when he was in school-- when 00:25:44.970 --> 00:25:47.100 align:middle line:84% he was a kid in school they tried 00:25:47.100 --> 00:25:49.140 align:middle line:90% to teach him a composition. 00:25:49.140 --> 00:25:51.840 align:middle line:90% 00:25:51.840 --> 00:25:53.430 align:middle line:90% Niels Bohr was a lucky kid. 00:25:53.430 --> 00:25:54.240 align:middle line:90% He must have been. 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.640 align:middle line:84% The torrent of experience going through his head. 00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:01.687 align:middle line:84% But he couldn't get this pattern they had for composition. 00:26:01.687 --> 00:26:03.270 align:middle line:84% They taught him that anything he wrote 00:26:03.270 --> 00:26:06.810 align:middle line:84% had to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. 00:26:06.810 --> 00:26:10.110 align:middle line:84% And Aristotle knew it and everybody since maybe earlier. 00:26:10.110 --> 00:26:11.070 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:26:11.070 --> 00:26:15.090 align:middle line:84% But Niels Bohr-- you know, wheels in his head. 00:26:15.090 --> 00:26:18.450 align:middle line:84% So I memorized the last sentence in one of his themes 00:26:18.450 --> 00:26:20.970 align:middle line:90% he wrote when he was in school. 00:26:20.970 --> 00:26:25.517 align:middle line:84% It was this, "And I would also like to mention aluminum." 00:26:25.517 --> 00:26:28.002 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:26:28.002 --> 00:26:31.980 align:middle line:90% 00:26:31.980 --> 00:26:35.550 align:middle line:84% That's why I thought of saying some questioner says, "Who 00:26:35.550 --> 00:26:36.600 align:middle line:90% is this kid, Bohr?" 00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:43.700 align:middle line:90% 00:26:43.700 --> 00:26:48.230 align:middle line:84% There was a request and I want to read a poem as requested. 00:26:48.230 --> 00:26:50.390 align:middle line:90% I'm glad to put it in. 00:26:50.390 --> 00:26:56.840 align:middle line:84% Called "My Father, October 1940." 00:26:56.840 --> 00:27:03.110 align:middle line:84% "He picks up what he thinks is a road map and it is his death. 00:27:03.110 --> 00:27:10.010 align:middle line:84% He holds it easily and nothing can take it from his firm hand. 00:27:10.010 --> 00:27:12.350 align:middle line:84% The pulse and his thumb on the map 00:27:12.350 --> 00:27:19.130 align:middle line:84% says, "1:19 PM next Tuesday at this intersection." 00:27:19.130 --> 00:27:25.280 align:middle line:84% And an ambulance begins to throb while his face looks tired. 00:27:25.280 --> 00:27:29.240 align:middle line:84% Any time anyone may pick up something 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:33.350 align:middle line:84% so right that he can't put it down. 00:27:33.350 --> 00:27:36.110 align:middle line:84% That is the problem for all who travel. 00:27:36.110 --> 00:27:39.740 align:middle line:84% They fatally own whatever is really theirs. 00:27:39.740 --> 00:27:43.700 align:middle line:84% And that is the inner thread, the luck, what can hold? 00:27:43.700 --> 00:27:46.880 align:middle line:84% If it is to be, nothing breaks it. 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:50.210 align:middle line:84% Millions of observers guess all the time 00:27:50.210 --> 00:27:55.880 align:middle line:84% but each person once can say, "Sure." 00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:57.950 align:middle line:90% Then he's an observer. 00:27:57.950 --> 00:28:01.775 align:middle line:84% He isn't right or wrong, he just wins or loses." 00:28:01.775 --> 00:28:09.360 align:middle line:90% 00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:13.290 align:middle line:84% I shuffled some of these things out of the sequence I had them. 00:28:13.290 --> 00:28:14.910 align:middle line:84% Thinking I may leave them out entirely 00:28:14.910 --> 00:28:16.140 align:middle line:90% but I want to go back to one. 00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:19.170 align:middle line:90% 00:28:19.170 --> 00:28:20.880 align:middle line:84% It's a matter of how-- for me it's 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:25.860 align:middle line:84% a matter of feeling too much and one thing happening. 00:28:25.860 --> 00:28:28.375 align:middle line:84% But I hope this is all right with a little dilution 00:28:28.375 --> 00:28:29.250 align:middle line:90% of things in between. 00:28:29.250 --> 00:28:30.750 align:middle line:84% It's called "A Walk in the Country." 00:28:30.750 --> 00:28:34.260 align:middle line:90% 00:28:34.260 --> 00:28:41.070 align:middle line:84% "To walk anywhere in the world, to live now, to speak, 00:28:41.070 --> 00:28:44.190 align:middle line:90% to breathe a harmless breath. 00:28:44.190 --> 00:28:49.900 align:middle line:84% What snowflake even may try today so calm alive, so mild 00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:51.870 align:middle line:90% to death? 00:28:51.870 --> 00:28:55.530 align:middle line:84% Out in the country once, walking the hollow night, 00:28:55.530 --> 00:28:58.170 align:middle line:90% I felt a burden of silver come. 00:28:58.170 --> 00:29:03.120 align:middle line:84% My back had come light pouring through the trees like money. 00:29:03.120 --> 00:29:04.740 align:middle line:90% That walk was late though. 00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:09.510 align:middle line:84% Late I gently came into town and a terrible thing had happened. 00:29:09.510 --> 00:29:14.670 align:middle line:84% The world, wide, unbearably bright, had leaped on me. 00:29:14.670 --> 00:29:16.710 align:middle line:90% I carried mountains. 00:29:16.710 --> 00:29:21.300 align:middle line:84% Though there was much I knew, though kind people turned away, 00:29:21.300 --> 00:29:24.780 align:middle line:84% I walked there shamed into that still picture 00:29:24.780 --> 00:29:28.530 align:middle line:90% to bring my fear and pain. 00:29:28.530 --> 00:29:32.670 align:middle line:84% By dawn I felt all right, my hair was covered with dew, 00:29:32.670 --> 00:29:36.360 align:middle line:84% the light was bearable, the air came still and cool, 00:29:36.360 --> 00:29:38.910 align:middle line:84% and God had come back there to carry the world again. 00:29:38.910 --> 00:29:41.580 align:middle line:90% 00:29:41.580 --> 00:29:46.350 align:middle line:84% Since then, while over the world the wind appeals events, 00:29:46.350 --> 00:29:51.550 align:middle line:84% and people contend like fools, like a stubborn tumbleweed, 00:29:51.550 --> 00:29:52.980 align:middle line:90% I hold. 00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:58.200 align:middle line:84% Hold where I live and look into every face. 00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:02.130 align:middle line:84% Old friends, where can one find a partner 00:30:02.130 --> 00:30:04.015 align:middle line:84% for the long dance over the fields?" 00:30:04.015 --> 00:30:10.200 align:middle line:90% 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:13.230 align:middle line:84% I want to hasten on to something called 00:30:13.230 --> 00:30:16.680 align:middle line:90% "With Neighbors One Afternoon." 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:19.305 align:middle line:84% I can just feel myself relaxing when I say this. 00:30:19.305 --> 00:30:21.600 align:middle line:90% "With Neighbors One Afternoon." 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:28.192 align:middle line:84% Someone's, oh-- now I have to stop for a minute. 00:30:28.192 --> 00:30:30.150 align:middle line:84% As I started to read this line I realized there 00:30:30.150 --> 00:30:32.130 align:middle line:90% was stumbling into something. 00:30:32.130 --> 00:30:34.770 align:middle line:90% This is a fairly recent poem. 00:30:34.770 --> 00:30:39.510 align:middle line:84% One before that snags my attention 00:30:39.510 --> 00:30:51.030 align:middle line:84% was farther back when we had to say someone he or everyone he. 00:30:51.030 --> 00:30:52.740 align:middle line:90% We couldn't say someone they. 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:55.800 align:middle line:90% 00:30:55.800 --> 00:30:58.410 align:middle line:90% OK, the revolution has happened. 00:30:58.410 --> 00:31:02.562 align:middle line:84% So are there are any teachers of composition here? 00:31:02.562 --> 00:31:03.270 align:middle line:90% That's all right. 00:31:03.270 --> 00:31:04.650 align:middle line:90% I mean, your generation too. 00:31:04.650 --> 00:31:07.170 align:middle line:84% I'm going to go in the next generation for a minute. 00:31:07.170 --> 00:31:09.780 align:middle line:90% "With Neighbors One Afternoon." 00:31:09.780 --> 00:31:13.800 align:middle line:84% "Someone said, stirring their tea, 00:31:13.800 --> 00:31:16.560 align:middle line:84% "I would come home any time just for this. 00:31:16.560 --> 00:31:21.750 align:middle line:84% To look out the clear backyard air and then into the cup." 00:31:21.750 --> 00:31:25.110 align:middle line:84% You could see the tiniest pattern of bark on the trees 00:31:25.110 --> 00:31:29.160 align:middle line:84% and every slight angle of color change in the sunshine. 00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:35.430 align:middle line:84% Millions of miles of gold light lavished on people like us. 00:31:35.430 --> 00:31:37.560 align:middle line:84% You could put out your hand and feel 00:31:37.560 --> 00:31:40.320 align:middle line:84% the rush of the years rounding your life 00:31:40.320 --> 00:31:42.630 align:middle line:90% into these days of hours. 00:31:42.630 --> 00:31:45.840 align:middle line:84% From somewhere a leaf came gliding slowly down 00:31:45.840 --> 00:31:48.390 align:middle line:90% and rested on the lawn. 00:31:48.390 --> 00:31:50.490 align:middle line:90% Remember that scene? 00:31:50.490 --> 00:31:55.410 align:middle line:84% Inside it you folded the last of your jealousy and hate 00:31:55.410 --> 00:31:58.860 align:middle line:84% and all those deeds so hard to forget. 00:31:58.860 --> 00:32:00.450 align:middle line:90% Absolution. 00:32:00.450 --> 00:32:01.950 align:middle line:90% Swish. 00:32:01.950 --> 00:32:04.080 align:middle line:84% You took the past into your mouth 00:32:04.080 --> 00:32:07.410 align:middle line:84% and swallowed it, warm, thin, bitter." 00:32:07.410 --> 00:32:11.030 align:middle line:90% 00:32:11.030 --> 00:32:13.320 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:32:13.320 --> 00:32:14.590 align:middle line:90% 00:32:14.590 --> 00:32:15.090 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:32:15.090 --> 00:32:19.320 align:middle line:84% I was at a class in the afternoon 00:32:19.320 --> 00:32:24.400 align:middle line:84% at a college in Oregon about three weeks ago. 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:27.530 align:middle line:84% And one of the students had a question. 00:32:27.530 --> 00:32:30.560 align:middle line:84% We read each other's work and talk back and forth. 00:32:30.560 --> 00:32:32.760 align:middle line:84% And one of the students said, "A teacher 00:32:32.760 --> 00:32:37.485 align:middle line:84% told me never to have three adjectives in a row. 00:32:37.485 --> 00:32:38.610 align:middle line:90% What do you think of that?" 00:32:38.610 --> 00:32:41.820 align:middle line:84% Well, if you travel around you meet these emergencies 00:32:41.820 --> 00:32:42.478 align:middle line:90% all the time. 00:32:42.478 --> 00:32:43.020 align:middle line:90% You want to-- 00:32:43.020 --> 00:32:44.670 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:32:44.670 --> 00:32:46.590 align:middle line:84% You want to stay in good with everybody. 00:32:46.590 --> 00:32:48.840 align:middle line:84% And then maybe the faculty is taking you out to dinner 00:32:48.840 --> 00:32:52.260 align:middle line:84% and here is this student loosing this quail all of a sudden. 00:32:52.260 --> 00:32:54.550 align:middle line:90% What shall I do? 00:32:54.550 --> 00:32:57.510 align:middle line:90% So I did all sorts of things. 00:32:57.510 --> 00:33:01.860 align:middle line:84% Anyway, I began to brood about it. 00:33:01.860 --> 00:33:05.370 align:middle line:84% And in the reading that night I found myself reading this poem 00:33:05.370 --> 00:33:07.530 align:middle line:84% and I felt myself coming toward the end 00:33:07.530 --> 00:33:10.290 align:middle line:84% and I knew something awful was going to happen. 00:33:10.290 --> 00:33:14.740 align:middle line:90% "Warm, thin, bitter, and good." 00:33:14.740 --> 00:33:18.630 align:middle line:84% So the next week, by the way, after the class this teacher 00:33:18.630 --> 00:33:21.480 align:middle line:84% said the person who told me was-- 00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:22.860 align:middle line:90% she told me the name. 00:33:22.860 --> 00:33:24.990 align:middle line:90% I know-- I know that teacher. 00:33:24.990 --> 00:33:29.280 align:middle line:84% And he stopped by with a manuscript of his poems. 00:33:29.280 --> 00:33:33.060 align:middle line:90% And I said, "I heard"-- 00:33:33.060 --> 00:33:35.070 align:middle line:84% Well, I'll tell you it was Primus St. John. 00:33:35.070 --> 00:33:38.610 align:middle line:84% I said, "Primus, I heard you told a student you can't 00:33:38.610 --> 00:33:40.260 align:middle line:90% use three adjectives in a row? 00:33:40.260 --> 00:33:41.790 align:middle line:90% That sounds pretty good. 00:33:41.790 --> 00:33:44.700 align:middle line:84% I've always believed in not too many adjectives and so on." 00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:47.340 align:middle line:84% And he sort of looked at me and said, "Well," 00:33:47.340 --> 00:33:50.580 align:middle line:84% said, "I guess I told her not to use 3 as it is." 00:33:50.580 --> 00:33:55.560 align:middle line:90% 00:33:55.560 --> 00:33:57.030 align:middle line:90% This is called "Judgments." 00:33:57.030 --> 00:34:00.070 align:middle line:90% 00:34:00.070 --> 00:34:03.880 align:middle line:90% "I accuse Ellen. 00:34:03.880 --> 00:34:09.280 align:middle line:84% You have become 40 years old and successful. 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:17.199 align:middle line:84% Tall, well-groomed, very thoughtful, a secretary, 00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:20.620 align:middle line:90% Ellen, I accuse. 00:34:20.620 --> 00:34:24.219 align:middle line:84% George, you know how to help others. 00:34:24.219 --> 00:34:26.110 align:middle line:90% You manage a school. 00:34:26.110 --> 00:34:29.739 align:middle line:84% You never let fear or pride or faltering plans 00:34:29.739 --> 00:34:31.750 align:middle line:90% break your control. 00:34:31.750 --> 00:34:35.530 align:middle line:90% George, I accuse. 00:34:35.530 --> 00:34:37.480 align:middle line:90% I accuse Tom. 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:39.580 align:middle line:90% You have found a role. 00:34:39.580 --> 00:34:41.800 align:middle line:84% Now you meet all kinds of people and let 00:34:41.800 --> 00:34:45.070 align:middle line:84% them find the truth of your eminence. 00:34:45.070 --> 00:34:47.199 align:middle line:90% You need not push. 00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:50.260 align:middle line:90% Oh, Tom, I do accuse. 00:34:50.260 --> 00:34:54.940 align:middle line:84% Remember the gawky, hardly to survive students we were? 00:34:54.940 --> 00:34:57.340 align:middle line:90% Not one of us going to succeed. 00:34:57.340 --> 00:35:00.550 align:middle line:84% All of us abjectly aware of how cold, 00:35:00.550 --> 00:35:03.970 align:middle line:90% unmanageable the real world was. 00:35:03.970 --> 00:35:05.500 align:middle line:90% I remember. 00:35:05.500 --> 00:35:09.770 align:middle line:84% And that fear was true and is true. 00:35:09.770 --> 00:35:13.750 align:middle line:90% Last, I accuse myself. 00:35:13.750 --> 00:35:16.720 align:middle line:90% My terrible poise, knowing this. 00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:19.390 align:middle line:84% Knowing that then we sprawled in the world 00:35:19.390 --> 00:35:21.520 align:middle line:90% and were ourselves part of it. 00:35:21.520 --> 00:35:25.060 align:middle line:84% Now we hold it firmly away with gracious gestures 00:35:25.060 --> 00:35:26.710 align:middle line:90% like this of mine. 00:35:26.710 --> 00:35:29.110 align:middle line:90% We've achieved. 00:35:29.110 --> 00:35:31.450 align:middle line:90% I see it all too well. 00:35:31.450 --> 00:35:34.120 align:middle line:90% And I am accused, and I accuse." 00:35:34.120 --> 00:35:37.791 align:middle line:90% 00:35:37.791 --> 00:35:39.620 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:35:39.620 --> 00:35:40.120 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:35:40.120 --> 00:35:47.050 align:middle line:90% 00:35:47.050 --> 00:35:54.160 align:middle line:84% I shift my feet because I wanted to make a transition. 00:35:54.160 --> 00:35:59.050 align:middle line:84% And I realized I just pounded along 00:35:59.050 --> 00:36:00.820 align:middle line:90% these poems for quite a while. 00:36:00.820 --> 00:36:06.040 align:middle line:84% I once went to a poetry reading given by Mark Van Doren. 00:36:06.040 --> 00:36:09.220 align:middle line:90% Again, I'm bringing history. 00:36:09.220 --> 00:36:16.000 align:middle line:84% And he was-- he was a charming, really a winsome person. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:18.700 align:middle line:84% And I was interested in his poetry. 00:36:18.700 --> 00:36:22.418 align:middle line:84% And I think he talked for about an hour and a half. 00:36:22.418 --> 00:36:23.710 align:middle line:90% I'm not going to do that about. 00:36:23.710 --> 00:36:25.910 align:middle line:90% An hour-- 50 minutes to an hour. 00:36:25.910 --> 00:36:28.390 align:middle line:84% We talk about an hour and a half and it was all wonderful. 00:36:28.390 --> 00:36:31.950 align:middle line:84% But he read only three short poems. 00:36:31.950 --> 00:36:35.950 align:middle line:84% And I thought that's really getting mileage out of poems. 00:36:35.950 --> 00:36:37.570 align:middle line:90% That's the way to do it. 00:36:37.570 --> 00:36:40.065 align:middle line:90% 00:36:40.065 --> 00:36:41.440 align:middle line:84% I just have to go pounding along. 00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:46.690 align:middle line:90% 00:36:46.690 --> 00:36:51.550 align:middle line:84% One of the-- oh, well, I'll get a little mileage out of this. 00:36:51.550 --> 00:36:56.050 align:middle line:84% There was a teacher at Portland State in Oregon 00:36:56.050 --> 00:36:59.370 align:middle line:90% who fell asleep while lecturing. 00:36:59.370 --> 00:37:01.720 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:37:01.720 --> 00:37:04.240 align:middle line:84% So I told Mark Van Doren about that 00:37:04.240 --> 00:37:06.940 align:middle line:90% and he so easily topped me. 00:37:06.940 --> 00:37:10.810 align:middle line:84% He said-- he said at the University of Chicago, 00:37:10.810 --> 00:37:13.840 align:middle line:84% John Dewey fell asleep while lecturing on attention. 00:37:13.840 --> 00:37:16.215 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:37:16.215 --> 00:37:19.540 align:middle line:90% 00:37:19.540 --> 00:37:22.540 align:middle line:90% Well, back to pounding away. 00:37:22.540 --> 00:37:26.980 align:middle line:84% It's called "At the Klamath Berry Festival." 00:37:26.980 --> 00:37:30.970 align:middle line:84% "The war chief danced the old way, the eagle wing 00:37:30.970 --> 00:37:33.680 align:middle line:90% he held before his mouth. 00:37:33.680 --> 00:37:37.240 align:middle line:84% And when he turned the boom, boom stopped. 00:37:37.240 --> 00:37:41.980 align:middle line:84% He took two steps, a sociologist was there. 00:37:41.980 --> 00:37:44.470 align:middle line:90% The scout troop danced. 00:37:44.470 --> 00:37:48.640 align:middle line:84% I envied him the places he had not been. 00:37:48.640 --> 00:37:50.890 align:middle line:90% The boom began again. 00:37:50.890 --> 00:37:54.760 align:middle line:84% Outside he heard the stick game and the Blackfoot gamblers 00:37:54.760 --> 00:37:58.360 align:middle line:90% arguing at poker under lanterns. 00:37:58.360 --> 00:38:02.290 align:middle line:84% Still moccasins and bashful, holding an eagle wing 00:38:02.290 --> 00:38:06.040 align:middle line:84% before his mouth, listening and listening, 00:38:06.040 --> 00:38:09.310 align:middle line:90% he danced after others stopped. 00:38:09.310 --> 00:38:12.700 align:middle line:84% He took two steps, the boom caught up, 00:38:12.700 --> 00:38:15.610 align:middle line:84% the mountains rose, the still, deep river 00:38:15.610 --> 00:38:18.970 align:middle line:90% slid, but never broke the quiet. 00:38:18.970 --> 00:38:21.370 align:middle line:90% I looked back when I left. 00:38:21.370 --> 00:38:25.690 align:middle line:84% He took two steps, he took two steps, sociologists." 00:38:25.690 --> 00:38:28.210 align:middle line:90% 00:38:28.210 --> 00:38:33.490 align:middle line:84% When I looked at this old one and down 00:38:33.490 --> 00:38:37.930 align:middle line:84% at the bottom where it was published in a magazine, 00:38:37.930 --> 00:38:42.160 align:middle line:84% I want to use my age here to say it was published 00:38:42.160 --> 00:38:48.580 align:middle line:84% in a magazine at Chico in California by someone 00:38:48.580 --> 00:38:56.800 align:middle line:84% and no one had heard of named John Gardner at Chico State. 00:38:56.800 --> 00:39:00.850 align:middle line:84% About two years ago, I heard from the other side 00:39:00.850 --> 00:39:02.110 align:middle line:90% of the country-- 00:39:02.110 --> 00:39:06.430 align:middle line:84% Binghamton, New York-- where John Gardner is now. 00:39:06.430 --> 00:39:08.260 align:middle line:84% Out of Chico State his magazine was 00:39:08.260 --> 00:39:11.560 align:middle line:90% called Mount Shasta Selections. 00:39:11.560 --> 00:39:14.080 align:middle line:84% Someone asked for-- was looking for poems 00:39:14.080 --> 00:39:16.420 align:middle line:90% for a magazine called MSS. 00:39:16.420 --> 00:39:19.810 align:middle line:84% I don't know whether you say manuscripts or MSS. 00:39:19.810 --> 00:39:22.960 align:middle line:84% And so I wrote because I knew where Gardner was. 00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:25.990 align:middle line:84% And I said, "Is this the same old magazine 00:39:25.990 --> 00:39:29.410 align:middle line:84% that was Mount Shasta Selection, MSS?" 00:39:29.410 --> 00:39:33.950 align:middle line:84% So it's like two lives, a long gap in between. 00:39:33.950 --> 00:39:39.460 align:middle line:84% So creeping into Mount Shasta Selection, creeping into MSS, 00:39:39.460 --> 00:39:42.325 align:middle line:84% I still don't, well, I had call it "Mount Shasta Selections," 00:39:42.325 --> 00:39:43.450 align:middle line:90% but I suppose it's changed. 00:39:43.450 --> 00:39:48.440 align:middle line:90% 00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:50.660 align:middle line:84% Since I read an old one called "At the Klamath Berry 00:39:50.660 --> 00:39:53.810 align:middle line:84% Festival," I'll read another called 00:39:53.810 --> 00:39:55.250 align:middle line:90% "The Farm on the Great Plain." 00:39:55.250 --> 00:39:58.750 align:middle line:90% 00:39:58.750 --> 00:40:02.050 align:middle line:90% "A telephone line goes cold. 00:40:02.050 --> 00:40:04.870 align:middle line:90% Birds tread it wherever it goes. 00:40:04.870 --> 00:40:10.150 align:middle line:84% A farm back of a great plain tugs an end of the line. 00:40:10.150 --> 00:40:12.130 align:middle line:90% I call that farm every year. 00:40:12.130 --> 00:40:17.740 align:middle line:90% Ringing it, listening still. 00:40:17.740 --> 00:40:23.080 align:middle line:84% No one is home at the farm, the line gives only a hum. 00:40:23.080 --> 00:40:26.110 align:middle line:84% Some year I will ring the line on a night, 00:40:26.110 --> 00:40:27.970 align:middle line:90% at last the right one. 00:40:27.970 --> 00:40:31.720 align:middle line:84% And with an eye tapered from the phone on the wall, 00:40:31.720 --> 00:40:36.820 align:middle line:84% I will see the tenant who waits, the last one left at the place. 00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:43.480 align:middle line:84% Through the dark my braille eye will lovingly touch his face. 00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:46.930 align:middle line:90% "Hello, is mother at home?" 00:40:46.930 --> 00:40:49.360 align:middle line:90% "No one is home today." 00:40:49.360 --> 00:40:53.200 align:middle line:90% "But father, he should be here." 00:40:53.200 --> 00:40:57.040 align:middle line:90% "No one-- no one is here." 00:40:57.040 --> 00:41:00.310 align:middle line:90% "But you, are you the one?" 00:41:00.310 --> 00:41:04.180 align:middle line:84% Then the line will be gone because both ends will be home. 00:41:04.180 --> 00:41:09.190 align:middle line:90% No space, no birds, no farm. 00:41:09.190 --> 00:41:11.440 align:middle line:90% Myself will be the plain. 00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:15.940 align:middle line:84% Wise as winter is gray, pure as cold posts 00:41:15.940 --> 00:41:18.640 align:middle line:90% go facing toward what I know." 00:41:18.640 --> 00:41:22.680 align:middle line:90% 00:41:22.680 --> 00:41:28.650 align:middle line:84% When I was reading this I thought again. 00:41:28.650 --> 00:41:34.080 align:middle line:84% And since student generations are so brief even as here once 00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:35.790 align:middle line:90% I want to say it again. 00:41:35.790 --> 00:41:42.300 align:middle line:84% My contribution to the academic altitude of this occasion 00:41:42.300 --> 00:41:46.890 align:middle line:84% is to give a truth about language. 00:41:46.890 --> 00:41:50.520 align:middle line:84% Some syllables are more equal than others, 00:41:50.520 --> 00:41:51.435 align:middle line:90% is this great truth? 00:41:51.435 --> 00:41:54.210 align:middle line:90% 00:41:54.210 --> 00:41:56.370 align:middle line:90% What if it really is a truth? 00:41:56.370 --> 00:42:01.620 align:middle line:84% And that without you knowing it and without the dictionary even 00:42:01.620 --> 00:42:03.600 align:middle line:84% thinking of telling you about it, 00:42:03.600 --> 00:42:06.390 align:middle line:84% when you look up definitions these syllables 00:42:06.390 --> 00:42:08.770 align:middle line:90% make a difference. 00:42:08.770 --> 00:42:12.840 align:middle line:84% So that if-- well, I thought of it in connection with this 00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:15.540 align:middle line:84% because the world champion syllable 00:42:15.540 --> 00:42:16.952 align:middle line:90% is all round through this poem. 00:42:16.952 --> 00:42:18.660 align:middle line:84% Not because I thought of putting it there 00:42:18.660 --> 00:42:21.420 align:middle line:84% but just because if you get on a certain wavelength 00:42:21.420 --> 00:42:24.090 align:middle line:84% with yourself, God and everybody else 00:42:24.090 --> 00:42:25.800 align:middle line:84% begins to help you put things together. 00:42:25.800 --> 00:42:26.910 align:middle line:90% Sort of the feeling. 00:42:26.910 --> 00:42:29.970 align:middle line:84% And in this poem that world champion syllable 00:42:29.970 --> 00:42:37.320 align:middle line:84% is in farm, in home, in hum, and in other of the words. 00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:42.480 align:middle line:84% And of course, it is that syllable om-- 00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:44.970 align:middle line:90% om-- om. 00:42:44.970 --> 00:42:49.140 align:middle line:84% And it has so much power that people all over the world 00:42:49.140 --> 00:42:50.100 align:middle line:90% meditate with. 00:42:50.100 --> 00:42:52.500 align:middle line:84% It comes right in the center of you. 00:42:52.500 --> 00:42:58.680 align:middle line:84% What if every time you say a word with that syllable in it 00:42:58.680 --> 00:43:02.100 align:middle line:90% it's either helping or hurting? 00:43:02.100 --> 00:43:04.470 align:middle line:84% And what if you begin to use the language so 00:43:04.470 --> 00:43:10.560 align:middle line:84% that those subliminal helpings and hurting line up 00:43:10.560 --> 00:43:13.170 align:middle line:90% like iron filings for you? 00:43:13.170 --> 00:43:17.010 align:middle line:84% Then you may be doing something in language 00:43:17.010 --> 00:43:19.500 align:middle line:84% and even you won't know what it is. 00:43:19.500 --> 00:43:23.190 align:middle line:84% And the critics may say, "What's the idea?" 00:43:23.190 --> 00:43:25.020 align:middle line:90% And you say, "I don't know." 00:43:25.020 --> 00:43:28.020 align:middle line:90% I just like it. 00:43:28.020 --> 00:43:30.840 align:middle line:84% And then later someone finds out what it was. 00:43:30.840 --> 00:43:37.620 align:middle line:90% Well, now I want to read-- 00:43:37.620 --> 00:43:41.310 align:middle line:84% this is for friends in writing workshop and so on. 00:43:41.310 --> 00:43:47.730 align:middle line:84% I want to read of the ideal form for a poem I just recently 00:43:47.730 --> 00:43:48.540 align:middle line:90% discovered. 00:43:48.540 --> 00:43:51.240 align:middle line:84% I mean, for me it's the ideal form. 00:43:51.240 --> 00:43:55.860 align:middle line:84% It's one in which you can just keep accumulating things 00:43:55.860 --> 00:43:57.360 align:middle line:90% and have more or less. 00:43:57.360 --> 00:43:59.220 align:middle line:84% And you put them in any order you like. 00:43:59.220 --> 00:44:00.270 align:middle line:90% You leave out some. 00:44:00.270 --> 00:44:02.220 align:middle line:90% You're like, read some more. 00:44:02.220 --> 00:44:04.350 align:middle line:90% And you'll see how it is. 00:44:04.350 --> 00:44:06.405 align:middle line:84% Just called "Things I Learned Last Week." 00:44:06.405 --> 00:44:09.630 align:middle line:90% 00:44:09.630 --> 00:44:13.320 align:middle line:84% "Ants when they meet each other usually pass on the right. 00:44:13.320 --> 00:44:18.390 align:middle line:90% 00:44:18.390 --> 00:44:20.970 align:middle line:84% A man in New York has dedicated himself 00:44:20.970 --> 00:44:22.710 align:middle line:90% to telling about injustice. 00:44:22.710 --> 00:44:25.920 align:middle line:84% For $3,000 he will come to your town and tell you about it. 00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:29.160 align:middle line:90% 00:44:29.160 --> 00:44:34.020 align:middle line:84% Sometimes you can open the sticky door with your elbow. 00:44:34.020 --> 00:44:36.150 align:middle line:84% Schopenhauer was a pessimist but he flute. 00:44:36.150 --> 00:44:39.570 align:middle line:90% 00:44:39.570 --> 00:44:43.590 align:middle line:84% Yeats, Pound, and Eliot saw art as growing from other art. 00:44:43.590 --> 00:44:44.625 align:middle line:90% They studied that. 00:44:44.625 --> 00:44:48.360 align:middle line:90% 00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:52.380 align:middle line:84% If I ever die, I'd like it to be in the evening. 00:44:52.380 --> 00:44:56.100 align:middle line:84% That way I'll have all the dark to go with me and no one 00:44:56.100 --> 00:44:59.940 align:middle line:84% will see how I begin to hobble away. 00:44:59.940 --> 00:45:02.820 align:middle line:84% In the Pentagon, one person's job 00:45:02.820 --> 00:45:06.150 align:middle line:84% is to take pins out of towns, hills, and fields 00:45:06.150 --> 00:45:07.635 align:middle line:84% and then save the pins for later." 00:45:07.635 --> 00:45:10.103 align:middle line:90% 00:45:10.103 --> 00:45:12.270 align:middle line:84% Oh, you can see how it would go on-- it could go on. 00:45:12.270 --> 00:45:13.590 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:45:13.590 --> 00:45:16.215 align:middle line:90% Turn your head certainly. 00:45:16.215 --> 00:45:17.700 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:45:17.700 --> 00:45:19.185 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:45:19.185 --> 00:45:20.175 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:45:20.175 --> 00:45:25.640 align:middle line:90% 00:45:25.640 --> 00:45:31.560 align:middle line:84% I was in the Washington DC area a year ago this last fall. 00:45:31.560 --> 00:45:34.130 align:middle line:84% And staying with someone who lived out the outskirts 00:45:34.130 --> 00:45:37.220 align:middle line:84% and had a nice backyard and it was in the early fall, 00:45:37.220 --> 00:45:38.448 align:middle line:90% good weather. 00:45:38.448 --> 00:45:40.490 align:middle line:84% Didn't have to go to work until later in the day. 00:45:40.490 --> 00:45:42.407 align:middle line:84% We were going to various schools around there. 00:45:42.407 --> 00:45:46.730 align:middle line:84% And we'd sit out and we'd read The Washington Post 00:45:46.730 --> 00:45:48.920 align:middle line:90% and have a breakfast. 00:45:48.920 --> 00:45:50.420 align:middle line:84% And one time I was sitting out there 00:45:50.420 --> 00:45:52.850 align:middle line:84% in the sunshine in this beautiful day reading 00:45:52.850 --> 00:45:57.110 align:middle line:84% The Washington Post when I came to a headline 00:45:57.110 --> 00:45:59.750 align:middle line:90% that I'll never forget. 00:45:59.750 --> 00:46:00.410 align:middle line:90% And this is it. 00:46:00.410 --> 00:46:02.690 align:middle line:90% It was on one of the back pages. 00:46:02.690 --> 00:46:06.110 align:middle line:84% Said, "12 minute warning of attack 00:46:06.110 --> 00:46:08.150 align:middle line:90% needed to evacuate officials." 00:46:08.150 --> 00:46:10.820 align:middle line:90% 00:46:10.820 --> 00:46:12.080 align:middle line:90% So while I was-- 00:46:12.080 --> 00:46:15.200 align:middle line:84% for some reason staring at that headline, 00:46:15.200 --> 00:46:18.500 align:middle line:84% I'm thinking about sitting at the edge of Washington DC, 00:46:18.500 --> 00:46:21.230 align:middle line:84% I heard a helicopter coming like mad out 00:46:21.230 --> 00:46:23.690 align:middle line:90% of the center of Washington DC. 00:46:23.690 --> 00:46:26.960 align:middle line:84% And I read the headline again, "12 minute warning of attack 00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:29.510 align:middle line:84% needed to evacuate officials," and I 00:46:29.510 --> 00:46:31.970 align:middle line:90% thought kind of a little haiku. 00:46:31.970 --> 00:46:34.250 align:middle line:84% It's like this, "These people are nice 00:46:34.250 --> 00:46:36.350 align:middle line:84% but their priorities are different from ours." 00:46:36.350 --> 00:46:38.580 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:46:38.580 --> 00:46:43.160 align:middle line:90% 00:46:43.160 --> 00:46:47.930 align:middle line:84% So then I wrote a little bit longer that got me going. 00:46:47.930 --> 00:46:49.230 align:middle line:90% Something called "Maybe." 00:46:49.230 --> 00:46:52.460 align:middle line:90% 00:46:52.460 --> 00:46:53.960 align:middle line:84% I don't know if it's been published. 00:46:53.960 --> 00:46:56.972 align:middle line:90% It's called "Maybe." 00:46:56.972 --> 00:47:01.580 align:middle line:90% "Maybe it's a fear. 00:47:01.580 --> 00:47:02.795 align:middle line:90% Maybe someone decides. 00:47:02.795 --> 00:47:05.390 align:middle line:90% 00:47:05.390 --> 00:47:06.650 align:middle line:90% Maybe it takes only one. 00:47:06.650 --> 00:47:09.440 align:middle line:90% 00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:10.625 align:middle line:90% Maybe the end begins. 00:47:10.625 --> 00:47:13.400 align:middle line:90% 00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:16.580 align:middle line:90% Maybe it has begun. 00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:19.730 align:middle line:84% It runs through the drills fast and they all respond well 00:47:19.730 --> 00:47:20.510 align:middle line:90% and it's over. 00:47:20.510 --> 00:47:23.120 align:middle line:90% 00:47:23.120 --> 00:47:24.395 align:middle line:90% Then an explorer comes. 00:47:24.395 --> 00:47:27.050 align:middle line:90% 00:47:27.050 --> 00:47:30.350 align:middle line:90% What could they have done? 00:47:30.350 --> 00:47:37.550 align:middle line:84% They could have tried harder, they could have become meaner, 00:47:37.550 --> 00:47:39.080 align:middle line:90% but maybe nothing. 00:47:39.080 --> 00:47:41.330 align:middle line:90% It happened. 00:47:41.330 --> 00:47:44.960 align:middle line:90% The explorer turns over a stone. 00:47:44.960 --> 00:47:47.300 align:middle line:84% Maybe those who sang were the lucky ones." 00:47:47.300 --> 00:47:50.390 align:middle line:90% 00:47:50.390 --> 00:47:55.980 align:middle line:84% Well, I hurry on to something else. 00:47:55.980 --> 00:47:59.920 align:middle line:90% 00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:03.040 align:middle line:90% "Another Old Guitar." 00:48:03.040 --> 00:48:07.210 align:middle line:84% "For years I was tuned a few notes too high. 00:48:07.210 --> 00:48:09.850 align:middle line:84% I don't see how I could stand it. 00:48:09.850 --> 00:48:12.010 align:middle line:90% You can imagine the strain. 00:48:12.010 --> 00:48:15.370 align:middle line:84% Hours of teen parties then beach trips 00:48:15.370 --> 00:48:17.770 align:middle line:90% with Michael Rowed the Boat. 00:48:17.770 --> 00:48:19.898 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:48:19.898 --> 00:48:21.260 align:middle line:90% 00:48:21.260 --> 00:48:23.590 align:middle line:84% And later the marches in all weather singing, 00:48:23.590 --> 00:48:26.170 align:middle line:90% "We shall overcome." 00:48:26.170 --> 00:48:28.330 align:middle line:90% Then I moved on. 00:48:28.330 --> 00:48:32.800 align:middle line:84% Now I play in an Eskimo band in Alaska. 00:48:32.800 --> 00:48:35.770 align:middle line:84% I'll never get back outside through storms. 00:48:35.770 --> 00:48:37.900 align:middle line:84% I dream of returning under a river, 00:48:37.900 --> 00:48:41.170 align:middle line:84% breathing through a straw, carried where the current hides 00:48:41.170 --> 00:48:43.630 align:middle line:90% itself by being just the river. 00:48:43.630 --> 00:48:44.650 align:middle line:90% No. 00:48:44.650 --> 00:48:47.320 align:middle line:84% We play in the tin buildings for the Air Force 00:48:47.320 --> 00:48:49.060 align:middle line:84% and end with a relaxed little number 00:48:49.060 --> 00:48:52.420 align:middle line:84% that the band call their national anthem. 00:48:52.420 --> 00:48:55.690 align:middle line:90% Someday maybe." 00:48:55.690 --> 00:48:57.940 align:middle line:84% Well, in class sometimes you talk 00:48:57.940 --> 00:49:01.940 align:middle line:84% about taking other points of view, adopting a persona. 00:49:01.940 --> 00:49:06.490 align:middle line:84% And so you can be another old guitar, you can be anything 00:49:06.490 --> 00:49:09.730 align:middle line:84% and the world turns into a various kind of place 00:49:09.730 --> 00:49:14.920 align:middle line:84% just by a slight displacing of yourself. 00:49:14.920 --> 00:49:16.690 align:middle line:84% And on some of those earlier ones 00:49:16.690 --> 00:49:19.000 align:middle line:84% I was reading like "The Farm on the Great Plain" 00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:21.340 align:middle line:84% where it says, "With an eye tapered for braille," 00:49:21.340 --> 00:49:25.570 align:middle line:84% and so on I stop and I try to visualize this and I realize 00:49:25.570 --> 00:49:26.900 align:middle line:90% I'm in trouble. 00:49:26.900 --> 00:49:29.710 align:middle line:84% But what I want to say is that sometimes it 00:49:29.710 --> 00:49:32.050 align:middle line:90% seems to me that writing is-- 00:49:32.050 --> 00:49:36.580 align:middle line:84% or maybe any arts like pure math. 00:49:36.580 --> 00:49:42.490 align:middle line:84% You cut loose from the real world 00:49:42.490 --> 00:49:44.890 align:middle line:84% and you make this great big loop. 00:49:44.890 --> 00:49:47.710 align:middle line:84% And sometimes you come out back into the real world 00:49:47.710 --> 00:49:51.860 align:middle line:84% with tremendous velocity you wouldn't have had. 00:49:51.860 --> 00:49:55.660 align:middle line:84% So I would like to just feel free about those things. 00:49:55.660 --> 00:49:58.540 align:middle line:84% Whether I ever get up the velocity or not. 00:49:58.540 --> 00:50:02.200 align:middle line:84% I want to read about four more poems 00:50:02.200 --> 00:50:04.240 align:middle line:84% and I'll be on that 50 minute hour 00:50:04.240 --> 00:50:07.120 align:middle line:84% that we talked about and then sociability 00:50:07.120 --> 00:50:10.240 align:middle line:90% for those who like it. 00:50:10.240 --> 00:50:12.850 align:middle line:84% And I wouldn't like always to be on the same kind of poem 00:50:12.850 --> 00:50:16.000 align:middle line:84% so excuse me if I shuffle a little bit here because I 00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:17.575 align:middle line:90% got thousands of poems. 00:50:17.575 --> 00:50:22.190 align:middle line:90% 00:50:22.190 --> 00:50:24.800 align:middle line:90% This one I want to read slowly. 00:50:24.800 --> 00:50:27.650 align:middle line:90% 00:50:27.650 --> 00:50:36.980 align:middle line:84% "Sometime when the river is ice ask me mistakes I've made. 00:50:36.980 --> 00:50:39.680 align:middle line:84% Ask me whether what I've done is my life. 00:50:39.680 --> 00:50:42.650 align:middle line:90% 00:50:42.650 --> 00:50:46.355 align:middle line:84% Others have come in their slow way into my thought. 00:50:46.355 --> 00:50:51.860 align:middle line:84% And some have tried to help or to hurt. 00:50:51.860 --> 00:50:57.260 align:middle line:84% Ask me what's their strongest love or hate has made. 00:50:57.260 --> 00:51:00.200 align:middle line:90% 00:51:00.200 --> 00:51:02.900 align:middle line:90% I will listen to what you say. 00:51:02.900 --> 00:51:08.600 align:middle line:84% You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait. 00:51:08.600 --> 00:51:11.330 align:middle line:84% We know the current is there hidden. 00:51:11.330 --> 00:51:14.270 align:middle line:84% And there are comings and goings from miles away 00:51:14.270 --> 00:51:17.270 align:middle line:84% that hold the stillness exactly before us. 00:51:17.270 --> 00:51:19.790 align:middle line:90% 00:51:19.790 --> 00:51:22.730 align:middle line:84% What the river says, that is what I say." 00:51:22.730 --> 00:51:25.520 align:middle line:90% 00:51:25.520 --> 00:51:30.350 align:middle line:84% I want to hurry to one I remembered that I had here. 00:51:30.350 --> 00:51:35.110 align:middle line:90% 00:51:35.110 --> 00:51:41.760 align:middle line:84% In fact, I think I've got the sequence. 00:51:41.760 --> 00:51:44.310 align:middle line:84% I was at the University of Michigan 00:51:44.310 --> 00:51:46.650 align:middle line:84% and the fellow there named Stephen Dunning 00:51:46.650 --> 00:51:51.150 align:middle line:84% has a lot of ideas to get people to write. 00:51:51.150 --> 00:51:53.550 align:middle line:84% He'd invited a poet named Grace Butcher-- 00:51:53.550 --> 00:51:56.550 align:middle line:90% 00:51:56.550 --> 00:51:58.950 align:middle line:90% motorcycle driver and poet. 00:51:58.950 --> 00:52:02.070 align:middle line:84% So she had a lot going for her with her students. 00:52:02.070 --> 00:52:04.350 align:middle line:84% And she gave-- but she gave us an assignment. 00:52:04.350 --> 00:52:05.850 align:middle line:84% She said, "Think of something that 00:52:05.850 --> 00:52:11.220 align:middle line:84% happened, but don't tell what happened, tell what you wish 00:52:11.220 --> 00:52:12.630 align:middle line:90% had happened. 00:52:12.630 --> 00:52:14.850 align:middle line:84% Or think of something you said, but don't 00:52:14.850 --> 00:52:17.700 align:middle line:84% tell what you said, tell what you wish you'd said." 00:52:17.700 --> 00:52:19.470 align:middle line:90% And she gave us a half an hour. 00:52:19.470 --> 00:52:20.970 align:middle line:90% And we all began to write. 00:52:20.970 --> 00:52:22.980 align:middle line:84% It was a workshop in which you wrote. 00:52:22.980 --> 00:52:25.980 align:middle line:90% So we went out-- 00:52:25.980 --> 00:52:28.445 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:52:28.445 --> 00:52:30.420 align:middle line:90% 00:52:30.420 --> 00:52:31.815 align:middle line:90% It's in another state. 00:52:31.815 --> 00:52:33.900 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:52:33.900 --> 00:52:38.040 align:middle line:90% 00:52:38.040 --> 00:52:43.060 align:middle line:84% Anyway, she added one thing that I want to put in here. 00:52:43.060 --> 00:52:47.070 align:middle line:84% She said, "Try to use more of the senses 00:52:47.070 --> 00:52:50.460 align:middle line:84% than you usually would think of using." 00:52:50.460 --> 00:52:55.290 align:middle line:84% So I wrote, "One time when evening 00:52:55.290 --> 00:52:59.310 align:middle line:84% had flowed between houses and paused on the school ground, 00:52:59.310 --> 00:53:03.030 align:middle line:84% I met Hillary's blind little sister following 00:53:03.030 --> 00:53:06.540 align:middle line:84% the gray, smooth railing still warm from the sun 00:53:06.540 --> 00:53:08.280 align:middle line:90% with her hand. 00:53:08.280 --> 00:53:12.090 align:middle line:84% And she stood by the edge holding her face upward waiting 00:53:12.090 --> 00:53:15.690 align:middle line:84% while the last light found her cheek and her hair 00:53:15.690 --> 00:53:18.900 align:middle line:90% and then on over the trees. 00:53:18.900 --> 00:53:21.840 align:middle line:84% You could hear the great sprinkler arm of water 00:53:21.840 --> 00:53:24.990 align:middle line:84% find and then leave the pavement, 00:53:24.990 --> 00:53:28.380 align:middle line:84% and pigeons telling each other their dreams or the dreams 00:53:28.380 --> 00:53:30.540 align:middle line:90% they would have. 00:53:30.540 --> 00:53:33.630 align:middle line:84% We were deep in the well of shadow by then. 00:53:33.630 --> 00:53:37.290 align:middle line:84% And I held out my hand saying, "Tina, it's me. 00:53:37.290 --> 00:53:41.460 align:middle line:84% Hillary says I should tell you it's dark and, oh, Tina, it is. 00:53:41.460 --> 00:53:43.080 align:middle line:90% Together now." 00:53:43.080 --> 00:53:46.020 align:middle line:84% And I reached, our hands touched, 00:53:46.020 --> 00:53:48.870 align:middle line:90% and we found our way home." 00:53:48.870 --> 00:53:52.478 align:middle line:84% Well, you can see how if someone asks you use more senses, 00:53:52.478 --> 00:53:53.895 align:middle line:84% it's a strange thing that happens. 00:53:53.895 --> 00:53:55.470 align:middle line:90% It's almost like that pure math. 00:53:55.470 --> 00:53:58.470 align:middle line:84% Again, as you hold back you give up some senses 00:53:58.470 --> 00:54:00.480 align:middle line:84% in order to have others and all sorts of things 00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:01.230 align:middle line:90% begin to happen. 00:54:01.230 --> 00:54:04.230 align:middle line:84% I guess I'm looking around appealing for all you 00:54:04.230 --> 00:54:05.820 align:middle line:90% writers, all you writers. 00:54:05.820 --> 00:54:07.170 align:middle line:90% Isn't it strange? 00:54:07.170 --> 00:54:08.440 align:middle line:90% It's strange. 00:54:08.440 --> 00:54:08.940 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:54:08.940 --> 00:54:21.640 align:middle line:84% Now since I had a number of fairly dismal poems, 00:54:21.640 --> 00:54:22.315 align:middle line:90% I want to read-- 00:54:22.315 --> 00:54:26.320 align:middle line:90% 00:54:26.320 --> 00:54:29.980 align:middle line:84% I want to put in this next to last. 00:54:29.980 --> 00:54:32.620 align:middle line:84% An old one called "Religion Back Home." 00:54:32.620 --> 00:54:35.320 align:middle line:90% 00:54:35.320 --> 00:54:39.850 align:middle line:84% "When God's parachute failed, along about the spring 00:54:39.850 --> 00:54:44.500 align:middle line:84% of 1945, the sky and Texas jerked 00:54:44.500 --> 00:54:48.580 align:middle line:84% open and we all sailed easily into this new strange harness 00:54:48.580 --> 00:54:49.210 align:middle line:90% on the stars." 00:54:49.210 --> 00:54:52.030 align:middle line:90% 00:54:52.030 --> 00:54:53.150 align:middle line:90% This has four parts. 00:54:53.150 --> 00:54:55.420 align:middle line:90% Part 2 of "Religion Back Home." 00:54:55.420 --> 00:54:59.440 align:middle line:84% "The minister smoked, and he drank. 00:54:59.440 --> 00:55:03.520 align:middle line:84% And there was a woman in the choir, 00:55:03.520 --> 00:55:05.890 align:middle line:84% but what really finished him, he wore spats." 00:55:05.890 --> 00:55:08.050 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:55:08.050 --> 00:55:08.920 align:middle line:90% 00:55:08.920 --> 00:55:13.210 align:middle line:84% Part 3 of "Religion Back Home" is a short review of Sam-- 00:55:13.210 --> 00:55:15.430 align:middle line:84% this is a short review of Samson Agonistes he's 00:55:15.430 --> 00:55:19.210 align:middle line:84% written for Ms. Arrington's class in Liberal High School. 00:55:19.210 --> 00:55:21.130 align:middle line:90% "Our father who art in heaven-- 00:55:21.130 --> 00:55:22.900 align:middle line:84% can lick their father who art in heaven." 00:55:22.900 --> 00:55:24.640 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:55:24.640 --> 00:55:31.660 align:middle line:90% Well, this is the last-- 00:55:31.660 --> 00:55:34.120 align:middle line:84% this is the last of "Religion Back Home." 00:55:34.120 --> 00:55:38.140 align:middle line:84% "When my little brother chanted, "In 1492 Jesus 00:55:38.140 --> 00:55:40.870 align:middle line:84% crossed the ocean blue," mother said, 00:55:40.870 --> 00:55:43.240 align:middle line:84% "Bob you mean Columbus crossed the ocean blue." 00:55:43.240 --> 00:55:45.760 align:middle line:84% And he said, "I always did get them two guys mixed up." 00:55:45.760 --> 00:55:47.840 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:55:47.840 --> 00:55:48.340 align:middle line:90% 00:55:48.340 --> 00:55:53.320 align:middle line:84% Well, I want to read one last poem or whatever they are. 00:55:53.320 --> 00:55:56.650 align:middle line:90% 00:55:56.650 --> 00:55:59.320 align:middle line:84% And thank you for this welcome, as I 00:55:59.320 --> 00:56:03.280 align:middle line:84% bundle these things together and get ready for the sociability. 00:56:03.280 --> 00:56:05.620 align:middle line:84% But I'll read one that just happens to be here 00:56:05.620 --> 00:56:07.570 align:middle line:90% and I'll be around. 00:56:07.570 --> 00:56:12.160 align:middle line:84% It's called "A Gesture Toward an Unfound Renaissance." 00:56:12.160 --> 00:56:15.480 align:middle line:90% 00:56:15.480 --> 00:56:19.230 align:middle line:84% "There was the slow girl in art class, 00:56:19.230 --> 00:56:23.340 align:middle line:84% less able to say where our lessons led. 00:56:23.340 --> 00:56:27.450 align:middle line:84% We learned so fast she could not follow us. 00:56:27.450 --> 00:56:29.970 align:middle line:84% But at the door each day I looked back 00:56:29.970 --> 00:56:33.840 align:middle line:84% at her rich distress knowing almost enough to find 00:56:33.840 --> 00:56:37.500 align:middle line:90% a better art inside the lesson. 00:56:37.500 --> 00:56:42.780 align:middle line:84% And then late at night when the whole town was alone, 00:56:42.780 --> 00:56:46.290 align:middle line:84% the current below the rumbly bridge at Main Street 00:56:46.290 --> 00:56:51.840 align:middle line:84% would go an extra swirl and gurgle once by the pilings. 00:56:51.840 --> 00:56:55.470 align:middle line:84% And at my desk at home or when our house opened above my bed 00:56:55.470 --> 00:57:01.560 align:middle line:84% toward the stars, I would hear that one intended lonely sound. 00:57:01.560 --> 00:57:05.310 align:middle line:84% The signature of the day, the ratchet of time 00:57:05.310 --> 00:57:08.730 align:middle line:90% taking me toward here now. 00:57:08.730 --> 00:57:14.640 align:middle line:84% And this look back through that door that always closes." 00:57:14.640 --> 00:57:17.390 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:57:17.390 --> 00:57:23.000 align:middle line:90%