WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.590 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.590 --> 00:00:03.320 align:middle line:84%
I'm going to follow this
with one more about that's

00:00:03.320 --> 00:00:08.470 align:middle line:84%
on the subject of
birth control, which,

00:00:08.470 --> 00:00:13.390 align:middle line:84%
for me, used to be two words,
which is the title of the poem.

00:00:13.390 --> 00:00:13.915 align:middle line:90%
Don't worry.

00:00:13.915 --> 00:00:16.930 align:middle line:90%


00:00:16.930 --> 00:00:22.360 align:middle line:84%
And I always think about this
deal because I talk a lot-- now,

00:00:22.360 --> 00:00:24.820 align:middle line:84%
I have a lot of friends
who are counselors

00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:30.080 align:middle line:84%
and they talk about, well,
why can't young people just do

00:00:30.080 --> 00:00:31.070 align:middle line:90%
it right?

00:00:31.070 --> 00:00:34.540 align:middle line:90%
And I think, why?

00:00:34.540 --> 00:00:39.130 align:middle line:84%
You should hope that you
wouldn't have that choice.

00:00:39.130 --> 00:00:47.348 align:middle line:84%
But at any rate, people really
don't like to talk about it.

00:00:47.348 --> 00:00:49.580 align:middle line:84%
And I don't think they like
to think about it much.

00:00:49.580 --> 00:00:53.870 align:middle line:84%
I mean, I'm just going through
certain kinds of thoughts

00:00:53.870 --> 00:00:55.910 align:middle line:90%
about birth control.

00:00:55.910 --> 00:00:59.080 align:middle line:90%
Don't worry.

00:00:59.080 --> 00:01:03.230 align:middle line:84%
"Most of us are compositions
that begin in error

00:01:03.230 --> 00:01:06.800 align:middle line:84%
and curl like telephones
in the umbilical swamp.

00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:10.010 align:middle line:84%
And break into the light,
rending the living portal.

00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:13.500 align:middle line:84%
And after a long waddling,
staggered to our feet.

00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:18.910 align:middle line:84%
And after a long goo-gaaing,
stuttered into our voices.

00:01:18.910 --> 00:01:23.210 align:middle line:84%
Some would rather hear of
Methuselah or Noah's Ark.

00:01:23.210 --> 00:01:24.890 align:middle line:84%
A great many would
prefer to meditate

00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:27.650 align:middle line:84%
on springs that slipped right
up from darkness, unaware,

00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:31.790 align:middle line:84%
and arrive after much idyllic
meandering at the sea.

00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:33.800 align:middle line:84%
Then imagine their
fathers and mothers

00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:37.400 align:middle line:84%
lost to that act that often
yields such indecorous

00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:39.410 align:middle line:90%
mixtures of pain and pleasure.

00:01:39.410 --> 00:01:43.790 align:middle line:90%
We profane to call it love.

00:01:43.790 --> 00:01:48.320 align:middle line:84%
"The priest [INAUDIBLE]
the talk that

00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:55.780 align:middle line:84%
is only talk goes
on talking its talk.

00:01:55.780 --> 00:02:00.620 align:middle line:84%
The priest talks to the pretty
maid pregnant by a soldier.

00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:04.390 align:middle line:84%
She worries because there is
war or because soon the war

00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.960 align:middle line:84%
will be over and there will not
be enough work in the fields.

00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:11.500 align:middle line:84%
The priest comforts her,
saying this too will pass,

00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:14.410 align:middle line:84%
saying what priests say, in the
name of the Father, and son,

00:02:14.410 --> 00:02:18.730 align:middle line:84%
and Holy Spirit, as if each baby
was born with a loaf of bread

00:02:18.730 --> 00:02:21.080 align:middle line:90%
under its arm.

00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:24.500 align:middle line:84%
The professional grandmother
counsels her granddaughter.

00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:25.460 align:middle line:90%
Get on with it.

00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:26.090 align:middle line:90%
Get it over.

00:02:26.090 --> 00:02:29.720 align:middle line:90%
Just don't marry a fool.

00:02:29.720 --> 00:02:31.640 align:middle line:84%
When my cousin went
on the pill, my aunt

00:02:31.640 --> 00:02:36.940 align:middle line:84%
inscribed letters to Billy
Graham and Norman Vincent Peale.

00:02:36.940 --> 00:02:40.810 align:middle line:84%
Young and risking car
sex without a condom

00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:45.010 align:middle line:84%
because the least trespass
of sheepskin or latex

00:02:45.010 --> 00:02:49.480 align:middle line:84%
against the gland seemed
sacrilege against Eros.

00:02:49.480 --> 00:02:53.950 align:middle line:84%
When I arrived at that stage
where the seminal vesicles begin

00:02:53.950 --> 00:02:57.880 align:middle line:84%
to secrete their first
milky pearls and the girl

00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:00.100 align:middle line:84%
there with me had
at last vanished

00:03:00.100 --> 00:03:05.380 align:middle line:84%
into the riptide of her
own unstoppable motions,

00:03:05.380 --> 00:03:09.640 align:middle line:84%
I would think of mangled
bodies at accident scenes

00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:14.530 align:middle line:84%
or old men in Bermuda shorts
with tar on their legs

00:03:14.530 --> 00:03:19.280 align:middle line:84%
in order to hold back the spasm
of nearly intolerable pleasure

00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:23.500 align:middle line:84%
that was just my own
spring, music itself

00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:27.550 align:middle line:84%
from beyond volition like a
violin and a cavalry charge.

00:03:27.550 --> 00:03:31.150 align:middle line:90%


00:03:31.150 --> 00:03:32.920 align:middle line:84%
Passing the clinic
with a friend,

00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:35.410 align:middle line:84%
I see a woman bow out
of a taxi and move

00:03:35.410 --> 00:03:37.510 align:middle line:84%
through the chanting
gauntlet of fanatics

00:03:37.510 --> 00:03:40.980 align:middle line:84%
raising their pickled fetuses,
photographs, and bloody flags.

00:03:40.980 --> 00:03:43.500 align:middle line:90%


00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:46.440 align:middle line:84%
When one with a greasy beard
and a ring in his ear darts

00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:51.790 align:middle line:84%
from the crowd and spits the
word murderer right in her face,

00:03:51.790 --> 00:03:55.230 align:middle line:84%
my friend shouts back at
them from across the street--

00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:57.770 align:middle line:84%
something stupid
and forgettable--

00:03:57.770 --> 00:04:00.750 align:middle line:84%
to defend her, who
already has gone in

00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:03.570 align:middle line:84%
to wade among the glossy
plants and magazines

00:04:03.570 --> 00:04:07.260 align:middle line:84%
as though her own guilt
had assumed palpable form

00:04:07.260 --> 00:04:09.840 align:middle line:90%
and attached itself deep.

00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:11.760 align:middle line:90%
She sits there.

00:04:11.760 --> 00:04:16.170 align:middle line:84%
It must feel almost
as bad as being born.

00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:18.839 align:middle line:90%
What does a man know of love?

00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:22.800 align:middle line:84%
His secret deliverance,
his blind spring

00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.320 align:middle line:90%
joining the human river.

00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:31.210 align:middle line:84%
It flows darkly at last
as long as it lets him.

00:04:31.210 --> 00:04:34.510 align:middle line:84%
Because a man's immersion in
pleasure stops as it starts,

00:04:34.510 --> 00:04:37.960 align:middle line:84%
he may spout bits
of spasmodic wisdom

00:04:37.960 --> 00:04:42.230 align:middle line:84%
that seem leaked from the
very plumbing of oblivion.

00:04:42.230 --> 00:04:44.930 align:middle line:84%
When my wife lay thrashing
in the birthing room wracked

00:04:44.930 --> 00:04:48.710 align:middle line:84%
by the 17th hour of contractions
and I passed a damp towel across

00:04:48.710 --> 00:04:52.250 align:middle line:84%
her forehead, I made the mistake
of voicing the first words that

00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:53.930 align:middle line:90%
graced my mind.

00:04:53.930 --> 00:04:56.686 align:middle line:90%
I know just how you feel.

00:04:56.686 --> 00:04:58.030 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:04:58.030 --> 00:04:59.830 align:middle line:90%


00:04:59.830 --> 00:05:03.160 align:middle line:84%
She looked at me and said,
you don't know anything."

00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:07.930 align:middle line:90%


00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:11.680 align:middle line:84%
I used to have another
ending and it's

00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:16.840 align:middle line:84%
kind of like I made
another point and my friend

00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:20.420 align:middle line:84%
Lucia Perillo said, that's
where the poem ends.

00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:23.170 align:middle line:84%
And I still feel kind of
stumped off there, you know?

00:05:23.170 --> 00:05:27.400 align:middle line:84%
I feel like I wanted to have
a fountain there at the end.

00:05:27.400 --> 00:05:30.500 align:middle line:84%
Get a fountain with some
lights in it, purple lights.

00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:31.000 align:middle line:90%