WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.020 align:middle line:90%


00:00:09.020 --> 00:00:12.710 align:middle line:90%
Well, I'll read this poem.

00:00:12.710 --> 00:00:15.560 align:middle line:84%
I don't go in for group
activities very much,

00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:22.670 align:middle line:84%
but I play volleyball in
Maine, where I live, on a team.

00:00:22.670 --> 00:00:27.740 align:middle line:84%
And it's interesting to see
how the players continue

00:00:27.740 --> 00:00:30.530 align:middle line:84%
to drop out and be replaced,
but that the game goes on.

00:00:30.530 --> 00:00:33.410 align:middle line:84%
This is something Kipling would
have written a poem about,

00:00:33.410 --> 00:00:36.740 align:middle line:84%
in those terms, too, I
think, the game goes on.

00:00:36.740 --> 00:00:39.560 align:middle line:90%


00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:41.420 align:middle line:84%
But that's what
this is about, too.

00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:47.178 align:middle line:90%


00:00:47.178 --> 00:00:49.720 align:middle line:84%
It's been a pleasure to talk to
some of the graduate students

00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:50.220 align:middle line:90%
here.

00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:54.580 align:middle line:84%
It seems like the community
is very vital and alive,

00:00:54.580 --> 00:00:57.910 align:middle line:84%
and I'm envious of them
for being here, in fact.

00:00:57.910 --> 00:01:02.140 align:middle line:84%
But I actually stole the name
of a character in this poem

00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:06.190 align:middle line:84%
from the poem of a student who's
in the MFA program here, Chris,

00:01:06.190 --> 00:01:08.873 align:middle line:84%
and I can't remember
Chris's last name.

00:01:08.873 --> 00:01:10.540 align:middle line:84%
I just want to give
him credit for that.

00:01:10.540 --> 00:01:13.600 align:middle line:84%
I read his poem,
I stole the name.

00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:14.690 align:middle line:90%
Who?

00:01:14.690 --> 00:01:15.190 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:01:15.190 --> 00:01:16.420 align:middle line:90%
OK, God bless him.

00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:19.420 align:middle line:90%


00:01:19.420 --> 00:01:22.480 align:middle line:90%
May you go far, Chris.

00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.150 align:middle line:90%
So this poem is called Game.

00:01:25.150 --> 00:01:28.810 align:middle line:84%
On Thursday nights in
spring, the volleyball game

00:01:28.810 --> 00:01:33.340 align:middle line:84%
starts up again, though all of
the original players on the team

00:01:33.340 --> 00:01:38.580 align:middle line:84%
have been replaced, the way that
all the cells have been replaced

00:01:38.580 --> 00:01:42.750 align:middle line:84%
in my sensitive fingertips,
which once explored

00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:47.190 align:middle line:84%
the sweet, unbelievably
silk periphery of Jennifer

00:01:47.190 --> 00:01:53.920 align:middle line:84%
Martin, who then surprised me,
by one day simply vanishing.

00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:56.680 align:middle line:84%
Each time the ball
is served to me,

00:01:56.680 --> 00:02:01.750 align:middle line:84%
I get a great constriction in my
chest, afraid that I might miss.

00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:07.100 align:middle line:84%
But the ball flies up
and down, and I survive.

00:02:07.100 --> 00:02:11.300 align:middle line:84%
The energy which gushes through
all things, looking for a place

00:02:11.300 --> 00:02:14.390 align:middle line:90%
to stop, keeps going.

00:02:14.390 --> 00:02:18.350 align:middle line:84%
And Jennifer might be
the name for all of this,

00:02:18.350 --> 00:02:22.400 align:middle line:84%
while photons, plunging
into skin, the wind

00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.470 align:middle line:84%
stirred clover in the unknown
field, the bees that sexually

00:02:27.470 --> 00:02:31.440 align:middle line:84%
harassed the flowers, the
tendril of the honeysuckle

00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:35.130 align:middle line:84%
reaching for the next rung in
its extension of the chain link

00:02:35.130 --> 00:02:39.780 align:middle line:84%
fence, blue of
Jennifer-inflected sky,

00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:43.000 align:middle line:90%
and Jennifer alfalfa.

00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:46.810 align:middle line:84%
By the end of summer, we all
will be a slightly darker shade

00:02:46.810 --> 00:02:50.380 align:middle line:84%
of brown, as if the
skin remembered,

00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:54.880 align:middle line:84%
a few more tiny stretch
marks pleated at our eyes,

00:02:54.880 --> 00:02:58.750 align:middle line:84%
as if we each were making
a serious collection

00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:03.760 align:middle line:84%
of the kind of things that
change is gradually made of.

00:03:03.760 --> 00:03:08.620 align:middle line:84%
When my turn comes to serve, I
hold the white ball in my hands

00:03:08.620 --> 00:03:12.580 align:middle line:84%
as long as possible,
letting it grow rounder,

00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:15.850 align:middle line:84%
making everybody wait
until they get impatient,

00:03:15.850 --> 00:03:21.460 align:middle line:84%
pissed off, loud, noticing
the Jennifer-shaped cloud that

00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:27.170 align:middle line:84%
slides across the sun, above
the field of sparkling Jennifer.

00:03:27.170 --> 00:03:30.680 align:middle line:84%
I hold it in my hand
as long as possible.

00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:34.970 align:middle line:84%
The birds are speeding
overhead, and the unmowed field

00:03:34.970 --> 00:03:37.010 align:middle line:84%
is foaming at the
mouth with flowers.

00:03:37.010 --> 00:03:41.580 align:middle line:90%


00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:43.430 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:03:43.430 --> 00:03:45.000 align:middle line:90%