WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.570 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:07.350 align:middle line:84% Here to read for us, Peter Wild has been an instructor here 00:00:07.350 --> 00:00:09.610 align:middle line:90% since 1971. 00:00:09.610 --> 00:00:13.740 align:middle line:84% And one of his early books, I'm not sure it was his first, 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:17.070 align:middle line:84% indicated not only that he was gifted as a writer, 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:20.190 align:middle line:90% but that he was also prophetic. 00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:24.570 align:middle line:84% It was titled Wild's Magical Book of Cranial Effusions. 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:28.230 align:middle line:84% And looking at the body of his work 00:00:28.230 --> 00:00:30.810 align:middle line:84% leads one to understand how incredibly 00:00:30.810 --> 00:00:33.330 align:middle line:84% effusive and profusive he has been. 00:00:33.330 --> 00:00:37.320 align:middle line:84% He's really a challengingly productive writer. 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:42.010 align:middle line:84% Not only has he published over 50 books and chapbooks, 00:00:42.010 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84% including poetry, criticism, biography, and nonfiction, 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:50.580 align:middle line:84% he's also recently added an important historical reader 00:00:50.580 --> 00:00:54.660 align:middle line:84% of literature from the Southwest called The Desert Reader. 00:00:54.660 --> 00:00:57.930 align:middle line:84% That's out from the University of Utah press. 00:00:57.930 --> 00:01:00.780 align:middle line:84% And he also put together two important collections, 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:04.170 align:middle line:84% The Pioneer Conservationists of Western America 00:01:04.170 --> 00:01:06.660 align:middle line:90% and those of Eastern America. 00:01:06.660 --> 00:01:08.730 align:middle line:90% Please welcome, Peter Wild. 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:11.999 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:01:11.999 --> 00:01:15.235 align:middle line:90% 00:01:15.235 --> 00:01:15.985 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Alison. 00:01:15.985 --> 00:01:20.730 align:middle line:90% 00:01:20.730 --> 00:01:22.110 align:middle line:90% Glad you all could come tonight. 00:01:22.110 --> 00:01:33.170 align:middle line:90% 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:38.800 align:middle line:84% Strangely you mentioned my production in the first poem is 00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:41.920 align:middle line:90% called "Unwanted Pregnancies." 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:48.020 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.020 --> 00:01:52.490 align:middle line:84% "Out on the ranch, we provided our own entertainments, 00:01:52.490 --> 00:01:56.720 align:middle line:84% like, graduate students in history, loving their subjects, 00:01:56.720 --> 00:02:00.350 align:middle line:90% but worried about their careers. 00:02:00.350 --> 00:02:05.210 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, each morning Clarissa bore the steaming loaves 00:02:05.210 --> 00:02:08.330 align:middle line:84% of bread high above her head from the kitchen, 00:02:08.330 --> 00:02:11.810 align:middle line:84% an overweight drum majorette giving the signal for her band 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:14.000 align:middle line:90% to play. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.610 align:middle line:84% I'd put on my spurs and chaps then 00:02:16.610 --> 00:02:19.400 align:middle line:84% stand four hours out on the back porch 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:25.310 align:middle line:84% worried that those bere peaks were about to ride and prance. 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:27.650 align:middle line:84% That we'd become so friendly with the animals 00:02:27.650 --> 00:02:29.900 align:middle line:84% that next time, turning biblical, 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:35.710 align:middle line:84% they'd begin to speak, telling us about what we hadn't seen. 00:02:35.710 --> 00:02:39.550 align:middle line:84% Once in an emergency, my one opportunity 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:43.900 align:middle line:84% to be heroic and shine, just before I rode off 00:02:43.900 --> 00:02:47.570 align:middle line:84% the opera played for three seconds, 00:02:47.570 --> 00:02:51.640 align:middle line:84% a Luftwaffe of trainer bras snapping through the whole sky 00:02:51.640 --> 00:02:52.910 align:middle line:90% before me. 00:02:52.910 --> 00:02:58.140 align:middle line:84% An event to remember through my whole lifetime." 00:02:58.140 --> 00:03:02.550 align:middle line:84% Well, now that we had fun, we can get to work. 00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:04.860 align:middle line:90% My last poetry reading-- 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:06.660 align:middle line:90% this was somewhere else, was-- 00:03:06.660 --> 00:03:09.090 align:middle line:84% went very well, but it ended up in a disaster 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:12.585 align:middle line:84% and I guess I've been depressed ever since. 00:03:12.585 --> 00:03:15.930 align:middle line:84% A young lady came up to me and was very polite 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:18.870 align:middle line:84% and said how much she enjoyed the reading and I said, 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:21.210 align:middle line:84% I'm glad she could come and then she said, 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:23.730 align:middle line:84% I really enjoyed the stories you told. 00:03:23.730 --> 00:03:28.740 align:middle line:84% In fact, she said, I enjoy them more than I enjoyed your poems. 00:03:28.740 --> 00:03:32.450 align:middle line:84% And I'm sure she didn't mean to be cruel, 00:03:32.450 --> 00:03:35.315 align:middle line:84% but it wasn't the right thing to say in any case. 00:03:35.315 --> 00:03:36.400 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:39.815 align:middle line:84% I'll try to go easy on my stories tonight. 00:03:39.815 --> 00:03:45.750 align:middle line:90% 00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:47.520 align:middle line:90% This one's called "Lazarus." 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:51.370 align:middle line:90% 00:03:51.370 --> 00:03:52.990 align:middle line:84% And in thinking about this as you all 00:03:52.990 --> 00:03:55.000 align:middle line:90% know Lazarus was a man raised-- 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.410 align:middle line:90% Christ raised from the dead. 00:03:58.410 --> 00:04:02.930 align:middle line:84% It seemed to me there was not too much to say about them. 00:04:02.930 --> 00:04:05.620 align:middle line:84% So I tried to link Lazarus to something 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:09.800 align:middle line:84% possibly familiar to you in your own reading experience. 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.130 align:middle line:84% And I hope maybe you can guess who 00:04:12.130 --> 00:04:15.385 align:middle line:84% the sort of American parallel of Lazarus might be. 00:04:15.385 --> 00:04:20.519 align:middle line:90% 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.560 align:middle line:90% Called "Lazarus." 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:28.750 align:middle line:84% "It didn't matter that his dog was dead that his old wife still 00:04:28.750 --> 00:04:31.040 align:middle line:90% scowled in her grave. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.520 align:middle line:84% That his loved house had sunk into its pit, driven 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:38.640 align:middle line:84% through that short span of noon while he slept, 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:41.820 align:middle line:84% the day had shifted and now how could 00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:44.250 align:middle line:84% he tell them about all that up there 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:47.730 align:middle line:84% on the mountain with the jolly theonomous bowlers. 00:04:47.730 --> 00:04:52.500 align:middle line:84% The roaring of the balls, the ambrosial drink. 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:55.800 align:middle line:84% After where he'd been, he went from door to door 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:59.490 align:middle line:84% but through the cracks they all shook their heads. 00:04:59.490 --> 00:05:01.830 align:middle line:84% And that night looking forward to where 00:05:01.830 --> 00:05:04.050 align:middle line:84% he'd been a stranger to bedrooms, 00:05:04.050 --> 00:05:07.140 align:middle line:84% he slept out in the fields with the foxes. 00:05:07.140 --> 00:05:10.950 align:middle line:84% Beneath that one light, the [? globos ?] eye of his dead 00:05:10.950 --> 00:05:16.140 align:middle line:84% brother kept aloft by a little dog barking off in his corner, 00:05:16.140 --> 00:05:21.070 align:middle line:84% excited that it was God once again floating over this doomed 00:05:21.070 --> 00:05:24.290 align:middle line:90% but magic world." 00:05:24.290 --> 00:05:28.490 align:middle line:84% Well, I guess time to lighten up, so real fun subject. 00:05:28.490 --> 00:05:30.260 align:middle line:90% Next is "Columbus." 00:05:30.260 --> 00:05:40.050 align:middle line:90% 00:05:40.050 --> 00:05:41.400 align:middle line:90% "Columbus." 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:45.090 align:middle line:84% "Flaying hides are about to stab their victims 00:05:45.090 --> 00:05:49.460 align:middle line:84% in the chest, one day they all stopped at the grand 00:05:49.460 --> 00:05:51.590 align:middle line:90% a classy small. 00:05:51.590 --> 00:05:54.860 align:middle line:84% The minty light in their heads and in that blink 00:05:54.860 --> 00:05:59.720 align:middle line:84% of cleared sinuses, they all saw Columbus putting on his shoes 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:01.780 align:middle line:90% in Madrid. 00:06:01.780 --> 00:06:05.170 align:middle line:84% Thereafter, there were centuries of darkness, 00:06:05.170 --> 00:06:08.650 align:middle line:84% but now and then a shaman said he'd caught him shaving. 00:06:08.650 --> 00:06:12.040 align:middle line:84% Or a fat woman screamed that he was having intercourse with both 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:14.440 align:middle line:90% of Shelley's mistress. 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:18.490 align:middle line:84% So rumors flew, excitement ran back and forth 00:06:18.490 --> 00:06:22.630 align:middle line:84% across the continent as of a grand lottery worth millions 00:06:22.630 --> 00:06:24.640 align:middle line:90% that they'd all win. 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:26.800 align:middle line:84% Until there were dozens of reports 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:30.160 align:middle line:84% that he was even now walking across the Atlantic 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:33.280 align:middle line:84% happily shooting his arrows into the air. 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:36.490 align:middle line:84% And mad with luck nearly tipping the Earth, 00:06:36.490 --> 00:06:38.770 align:middle line:84% they all ran to the same shore where they 00:06:38.770 --> 00:06:42.740 align:middle line:90% stood, a holy mob facing east. 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:47.360 align:middle line:84% And there he was, Christ like in his cameo of rippling rainbows 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:51.110 align:middle line:84% coming toward them, one finger raised to his lips, 00:06:51.110 --> 00:06:54.580 align:middle line:84% promising to tell them his secret. 00:06:54.580 --> 00:06:57.220 align:middle line:84% And all at once he was in their midst, 00:06:57.220 --> 00:07:00.580 align:middle line:84% they were kissing him, stroking the glinting feathers 00:07:00.580 --> 00:07:05.260 align:middle line:84% of his trailing headdress and he still not speaking but smiling 00:07:05.260 --> 00:07:06.430 align:middle line:90% like a God. 00:07:06.430 --> 00:07:09.860 align:middle line:84% Reached out with one wooden hand to touch their long, 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:13.330 align:middle line:84% sleek hair as they shivered, while with the other handing 00:07:13.330 --> 00:07:17.290 align:middle line:84% them his gift, gold, frankincense and myrrh." 00:07:17.290 --> 00:07:20.310 align:middle line:90% 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:23.700 align:middle line:84% Well, while we're on religion, this one's called "Why Popes 00:07:23.700 --> 00:07:25.410 align:middle line:90% Don't Write Books." 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:27.210 align:middle line:90% I guess I'm envious of popes. 00:07:27.210 --> 00:07:30.940 align:middle line:90% 00:07:30.940 --> 00:07:34.120 align:middle line:84% Everybody applauds you know tens of thousands wherever they go, 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:39.220 align:middle line:84% but it struck me curious that as far as I know, although I'm not 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:44.110 align:middle line:84% a student of the subject, they don't write books very often. 00:07:44.110 --> 00:07:45.175 align:middle line:90% I have no idea why. 00:07:45.175 --> 00:07:49.530 align:middle line:90% 00:07:49.530 --> 00:07:54.300 align:middle line:84% And so this poem is just a sort of happy meditation on that. 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:56.090 align:middle line:90% It's also connected to in this-- 00:07:56.090 --> 00:07:59.130 align:middle line:84% I was talking to someone's class yesterday, nobody believes me, 00:07:59.130 --> 00:08:02.030 align:middle line:84% but I have a lot of flying imagery in my poetry. 00:08:02.030 --> 00:08:03.530 align:middle line:84% There's nothing Freudian about it. 00:08:03.530 --> 00:08:06.440 align:middle line:84% When I was younger, I used to fly airplanes. 00:08:06.440 --> 00:08:09.690 align:middle line:84% And not for very long, it was a grandly abortive career 00:08:09.690 --> 00:08:12.450 align:middle line:84% I assure you, but there's some imagery here. 00:08:12.450 --> 00:08:12.950 align:middle line:90% Let's see. 00:08:12.950 --> 00:08:13.700 align:middle line:90% What is it? 00:08:13.700 --> 00:08:17.453 align:middle line:84% Chandelles and Immelmann turns are simply a various maneuvers 00:08:17.453 --> 00:08:18.620 align:middle line:90% you'd make with an airplane. 00:08:18.620 --> 00:08:24.310 align:middle line:90% 00:08:24.310 --> 00:08:26.305 align:middle line:90% "Why Popes Don't Write Books." 00:08:26.305 --> 00:08:29.840 align:middle line:90% 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.409 align:middle line:84% "They are their own girlfriends, and thus they 00:08:33.409 --> 00:08:37.450 align:middle line:84% see so clearly, they don't need money. 00:08:37.450 --> 00:08:40.990 align:middle line:84% For them history like all children 00:08:40.990 --> 00:08:43.710 align:middle line:90% is what needs to happen. 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:47.580 align:middle line:84% Sometimes when they lie in bed after a busy day, 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:50.070 align:middle line:84% their only conflict, they don't know 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:54.030 align:middle line:84% whether it's savoring their coming dreams is a sin, 00:08:54.030 --> 00:08:59.360 align:middle line:84% or if they simply should enjoy what they're presently thinking. 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:03.840 align:middle line:84% Sometimes when no one is looking all by themselves 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.450 align:middle line:90% they sneak away. 00:09:05.450 --> 00:09:09.620 align:middle line:84% And revving up their engines fly around in their little planes, 00:09:09.620 --> 00:09:14.870 align:middle line:84% arms folded across their chests, make them slide and dip doing 00:09:14.870 --> 00:09:19.160 align:middle line:84% chandelles, Immelmann turns so that the people on the ground 00:09:19.160 --> 00:09:23.085 align:middle line:84% look up and point and say, I wonder what that crazy guy is 00:09:23.085 --> 00:09:23.585 align:middle line:90% doing." 00:09:23.585 --> 00:09:28.100 align:middle line:90% 00:09:28.100 --> 00:09:35.350 align:middle line:84% That's why they don't write books 00:09:35.350 --> 00:09:38.128 align:middle line:84% I heard on the radio that there's a series-- 00:09:38.128 --> 00:09:39.670 align:middle line:84% I don't know on what station, I guess 00:09:39.670 --> 00:09:44.650 align:middle line:84% it's public TV station- coming up on the depression. 00:09:44.650 --> 00:09:45.640 align:middle line:90% Am I right? 00:09:45.640 --> 00:09:46.840 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:48.070 align:middle line:90% Is that going to be soon? 00:09:48.070 --> 00:09:49.060 align:middle line:90% Does anyone know? 00:09:49.060 --> 00:09:52.000 align:middle line:90% 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.393 align:middle line:84% Oh, it's already-- the first one's already played. 00:09:54.393 --> 00:09:56.560 align:middle line:84% Well, I didn't-- I'm not old enough to have grown up 00:09:56.560 --> 00:09:58.810 align:middle line:84% in the Depression, but my parents-- 00:09:58.810 --> 00:10:01.510 align:middle line:84% you can't remember it perhaps, your parents or grandparents 00:10:01.510 --> 00:10:03.040 align:middle line:90% can. 00:10:03.040 --> 00:10:06.430 align:middle line:84% And this is a little elaboration on the story 00:10:06.430 --> 00:10:13.020 align:middle line:84% that I vaguely remember being told in my childhood. 00:10:13.020 --> 00:10:14.550 align:middle line:90% It's called "The Polish Baker." 00:10:14.550 --> 00:10:19.230 align:middle line:90% 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:22.350 align:middle line:84% "My father said that during the Depression, 00:10:22.350 --> 00:10:25.050 align:middle line:84% the Polish baker always made sure everyone had 00:10:25.050 --> 00:10:27.790 align:middle line:90% bread on the table. 00:10:27.790 --> 00:10:31.740 align:middle line:84% And so after work, after he stood with his dour wife 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.500 align:middle line:84% for 12 hours taking the money in-- 00:10:34.500 --> 00:10:36.030 align:middle line:84% though, he didn't speak English he'd 00:10:36.030 --> 00:10:40.470 align:middle line:84% stand in his yarmulke out on his rickety back porch calling out 00:10:40.470 --> 00:10:43.200 align:middle line:84% in loud voice until the hungry neighbors 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:47.610 align:middle line:84% waiting all day for this, but this time hungry for his music. 00:10:47.610 --> 00:10:51.780 align:middle line:84% Came running across the fields unashamed to take from his hands 00:10:51.780 --> 00:10:54.570 align:middle line:84% the crusty loaves from a barrel of them 00:10:54.570 --> 00:10:59.610 align:middle line:84% so full it was never wasted, but kept filling itself. 00:10:59.610 --> 00:11:02.340 align:middle line:84% Elijah lying down with the beautiful daughter 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:06.870 align:middle line:84% of the sorrowing widow, bringing her almost nubile child babbling 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:10.750 align:middle line:84% with the pleasures of what she'd seen back to life again. 00:11:10.750 --> 00:11:15.420 align:middle line:84% And we, their children after the wars, the dances, 00:11:15.420 --> 00:11:20.400 align:middle line:84% become so rich--" excuse me, "become so rich we begin giving 00:11:20.400 --> 00:11:24.270 align:middle line:84% ourselves away out of hand to the cozening poor, 00:11:24.270 --> 00:11:27.660 align:middle line:84% as if on vacation, ladling out soup, 00:11:27.660 --> 00:11:30.660 align:middle line:84% handing out sneakers to Lewis and Clark. 00:11:30.660 --> 00:11:34.140 align:middle line:84% Unlike him, so frightened of ourselves, 00:11:34.140 --> 00:11:35.535 align:middle line:90% we're generous to others." 00:11:35.535 --> 00:11:44.410 align:middle line:90% 00:11:44.410 --> 00:11:48.030 align:middle line:84% Oh, and now four or five short, but-- 00:11:48.030 --> 00:11:50.400 align:middle line:84% poems in a project which is problematic. 00:11:50.400 --> 00:11:54.750 align:middle line:84% They're all about fairly well-known people, 00:11:54.750 --> 00:11:57.700 align:middle line:90% figures from history. 00:11:57.700 --> 00:12:01.210 align:middle line:84% And the problem is, of course, Americans 00:12:01.210 --> 00:12:03.100 align:middle line:84% tend not to care too much about history. 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:06.800 align:middle line:84% So what do you do footnote these poems, for example, 00:12:06.800 --> 00:12:10.530 align:middle line:84% the first one is about Thomas Jefferson. 00:12:10.530 --> 00:12:12.080 align:middle line:84% Most of you vaguely know that he was 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:13.830 align:middle line:84% one of the presidents of the United States 00:12:13.830 --> 00:12:15.480 align:middle line:90% and perhaps not too much more. 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:19.840 align:middle line:90% 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:21.910 align:middle line:84% So I don't want to leave other people behind. 00:12:21.910 --> 00:12:24.480 align:middle line:84% But on the other hand, I was thinking about this. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:27.450 align:middle line:90% It's sort of in my mind. 00:12:27.450 --> 00:12:30.790 align:middle line:84% I hope-- maybe I'm just making excuses-- 00:12:30.790 --> 00:12:33.610 align:middle line:84% that it's something like listening to songs in a language 00:12:33.610 --> 00:12:35.170 align:middle line:90% you don't understand. 00:12:35.170 --> 00:12:38.440 align:middle line:84% And even though you don't know the particulars of what's 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:40.600 align:middle line:84% going on, nonetheless those songs 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:42.790 align:middle line:84% can be beautiful in themselves to you. 00:12:42.790 --> 00:12:46.010 align:middle line:90% 00:12:46.010 --> 00:12:49.900 align:middle line:84% I'll say a couple of things about the Thomas Jefferson poem. 00:12:49.900 --> 00:12:52.450 align:middle line:84% Of course, as with all my poems, they're 00:12:52.450 --> 00:12:55.330 align:middle line:90% meant to be uproariously funny. 00:12:55.330 --> 00:12:58.510 align:middle line:84% It's important to understand that Jefferson 00:12:58.510 --> 00:13:01.540 align:middle line:84% was a farmer, a gentleman farmer and looked 00:13:01.540 --> 00:13:03.670 align:middle line:84% on the country, the future of the country, 00:13:03.670 --> 00:13:07.060 align:middle line:84% as consisting of small time farmers, small farmers, 00:13:07.060 --> 00:13:10.940 align:middle line:84% you know, good citizen farmers upright people, et cetera. 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:13.510 align:middle line:84% So he really promoted agriculture. 00:13:13.510 --> 00:13:18.040 align:middle line:84% And the first part of the poem depends on a real event. 00:13:18.040 --> 00:13:22.750 align:middle line:84% He went to Italy where they had a particularly fine kind of rice 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:26.230 align:middle line:84% and they wouldn't allow it to be grown anywhere else. 00:13:26.230 --> 00:13:30.700 align:middle line:84% But Thomas Jefferson smuggled it out of the country 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:34.750 align:middle line:84% and distributed it to other people. 00:13:34.750 --> 00:13:39.670 align:middle line:84% Also there's a reference to his buying of the Louisiana Purchase 00:13:39.670 --> 00:13:42.130 align:middle line:84% a good chunk of the Western United States 00:13:42.130 --> 00:13:50.060 align:middle line:84% and his introduction of Chinese fast food to the country. 00:13:50.060 --> 00:13:52.760 align:middle line:84% Feel now that you're armed, here's "Thomas Jefferson." 00:13:52.760 --> 00:13:56.690 align:middle line:90% 00:13:56.690 --> 00:13:59.720 align:middle line:84% "It wasn't marijuana you wore in your hair, 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:04.220 align:middle line:84% but Italian rice as you breezed past the liveried guards 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:05.870 align:middle line:90% to give to your friends. 00:14:05.870 --> 00:14:08.570 align:middle line:84% Those gentleman farmers with right hearts 00:14:08.570 --> 00:14:14.000 align:middle line:84% who would make the whole country a plain raving so acrylic green, 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:16.490 align:middle line:84% what a girl sees after her first sex 00:14:16.490 --> 00:14:21.810 align:middle line:84% that she bounces from toe to toe unable to stand a new prospect. 00:14:21.810 --> 00:14:26.000 align:middle line:84% But the truth is, like Apollo, you thought yourself already 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.290 align:middle line:84% rich, free to do whatever the Constitution didn't expressly 00:14:30.290 --> 00:14:33.950 align:middle line:90% forbid, or even then hedged. 00:14:33.950 --> 00:14:37.850 align:middle line:84% You introduced Chinese fast food to a gleeful nation. 00:14:37.850 --> 00:14:42.710 align:middle line:84% You did the Louisiana Purchase, denying to yourself always 00:14:42.710 --> 00:14:47.930 align:middle line:84% effervescent, that a secret sin on Earth might be an open 00:14:47.930 --> 00:14:51.440 align:middle line:90% scandal in heaven." 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.060 align:middle line:84% Even more difficult one is Aldo Leopold, 00:14:54.060 --> 00:14:56.900 align:middle line:84% we have any deep ecologists here maybe? 00:14:56.900 --> 00:15:02.510 align:middle line:84% He-- a marvelous man died in '48, '49 00:15:02.510 --> 00:15:05.630 align:middle line:84% but he defined a great many of the issues 00:15:05.630 --> 00:15:08.060 align:middle line:90% in conservation today. 00:15:08.060 --> 00:15:10.790 align:middle line:84% And one of them is currently popular. 00:15:10.790 --> 00:15:13.910 align:middle line:84% And I think unfortunately misunderstood 00:15:13.910 --> 00:15:16.370 align:middle line:84% because it's not understood in the context in which it 00:15:16.370 --> 00:15:17.540 align:middle line:90% was stated. 00:15:17.540 --> 00:15:21.050 align:middle line:84% And that is simply in the Sand County Almanac Leopold 00:15:21.050 --> 00:15:25.490 align:middle line:84% suggests that a thing that human beings do 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:29.300 align:middle line:84% is right if it doesn't disturb nature, 00:15:29.300 --> 00:15:31.580 align:middle line:84% but as it tends to disturb nature, 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.130 align:middle line:90% then we shouldn't be doing it. 00:15:34.130 --> 00:15:37.580 align:middle line:84% Nature comes first in other words. 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:40.250 align:middle line:90% Well, that sounds very good. 00:15:40.250 --> 00:15:43.730 align:middle line:84% But it seems to me there's a real problem here 00:15:43.730 --> 00:15:49.040 align:middle line:84% because everything you do if you mow the lawn or drive to work, 00:15:49.040 --> 00:15:50.615 align:middle line:84% you're somehow disturbing nature. 00:15:50.615 --> 00:15:54.970 align:middle line:90% 00:15:54.970 --> 00:15:56.470 align:middle line:84% So how do you handle that in a poem? 00:15:56.470 --> 00:15:59.010 align:middle line:90% 00:15:59.010 --> 00:16:02.330 align:middle line:84% Well, factually from his life is this. 00:16:02.330 --> 00:16:06.500 align:middle line:84% His father did own a furniture factory in Burlington, Iowa. 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:09.440 align:middle line:84% And Leopold himself became a forester. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:12.830 align:middle line:84% In fact, he worked here in Northern Arizona for a while 00:16:12.830 --> 00:16:15.440 align:middle line:84% so there's some play with the furniture industry 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.230 align:middle line:90% and the marvels of wood. 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:20.960 align:middle line:84% The unfactual part of it is the crazy relative 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.830 align:middle line:84% in the attic, which I think you'll 00:16:24.830 --> 00:16:31.530 align:middle line:84% see what she stands for relevant to his ideas about nature. 00:16:31.530 --> 00:16:34.560 align:middle line:84% Well, after that overly long and confusing introduction, 00:16:34.560 --> 00:16:36.600 align:middle line:90% here's "Aldo Leopold." 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:39.870 align:middle line:84% A wonderful, wonderful man, by the way. 00:16:39.870 --> 00:16:43.890 align:middle line:84% And after that, just so you can see what's coming, 00:16:43.890 --> 00:16:46.560 align:middle line:84% the next one is my favorite woman 00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:50.360 align:middle line:90% in history, Fanny Appleton. 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:53.680 align:middle line:90% First Aldo. 00:16:53.680 --> 00:16:56.590 align:middle line:84% "At my father's furniture factory, 00:16:56.590 --> 00:17:00.660 align:middle line:84% I learned about how things fit together, 00:17:00.660 --> 00:17:04.290 align:middle line:84% about roll top desks where the businessman raved 00:17:04.290 --> 00:17:06.030 align:middle line:84% with the joy of making money that 00:17:06.030 --> 00:17:09.740 align:middle line:84% had the beauty of a Wurlitzer in the grain. 00:17:09.740 --> 00:17:14.300 align:middle line:84% About home economy, tables where the families gathered tracing 00:17:14.300 --> 00:17:16.520 align:middle line:90% night after night the saints. 00:17:16.520 --> 00:17:19.940 align:middle line:84% The sad musicians wandering in their wilderness, 00:17:19.940 --> 00:17:24.260 align:middle line:84% pausing now and then to look out, almost to speak to them 00:17:24.260 --> 00:17:28.569 align:middle line:84% their revelations from their prisons. 00:17:28.569 --> 00:17:31.720 align:middle line:84% Was there someone, the shame of a relative 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:36.250 align:middle line:84% locked in the attic for years howling and thumping her chains 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:39.260 align:middle line:90% up there when company came? 00:17:39.260 --> 00:17:42.110 align:middle line:90% Once to be fair, we let her out. 00:17:42.110 --> 00:17:46.280 align:middle line:84% And as she rampaged through the living room, breaking things, 00:17:46.280 --> 00:17:49.640 align:middle line:84% tearing down curtains, we sat bemused, 00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:52.700 align:middle line:84% listening to what we thought was wisdom, 00:17:52.700 --> 00:17:54.350 align:middle line:90% then locked her up again." 00:17:54.350 --> 00:18:01.460 align:middle line:90% 00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:06.080 align:middle line:84% I understand that in the past, unfortunately, that when 00:18:06.080 --> 00:18:08.630 align:middle line:84% families had offspring with mental problems 00:18:08.630 --> 00:18:11.330 align:middle line:84% that they actually were left locked in attics and cellars 00:18:11.330 --> 00:18:13.220 align:middle line:90% and things like that. 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:15.020 align:middle line:90% Pretty horrible existence. 00:18:15.020 --> 00:18:27.070 align:middle line:90% 00:18:27.070 --> 00:18:27.835 align:middle line:90% "Fanny Appleton." 00:18:27.835 --> 00:18:31.020 align:middle line:90% 00:18:31.020 --> 00:18:33.870 align:middle line:84% "We were the best of our ancestors, 00:18:33.870 --> 00:18:37.410 align:middle line:84% finally high minded without harshness. 00:18:37.410 --> 00:18:41.520 align:middle line:84% And both so refined, to live with that treasure each day 00:18:41.520 --> 00:18:44.470 align:middle line:90% was more than I could bear. 00:18:44.470 --> 00:18:50.050 align:middle line:84% He could after all have had 100 hands and kept them all going. 00:18:50.050 --> 00:18:53.860 align:middle line:90% A blithe sorcerer's apprentice. 00:18:53.860 --> 00:18:56.060 align:middle line:90% I did what I could for us. 00:18:56.060 --> 00:18:58.540 align:middle line:90% I had the glory of our children. 00:18:58.540 --> 00:19:03.370 align:middle line:84% I sat as he worked sealing up small packets of our two younger 00:19:03.370 --> 00:19:05.470 align:middle line:90% daughters' hair. 00:19:05.470 --> 00:19:09.730 align:middle line:84% And finally, overcome with pleasure taking flame from all 00:19:09.730 --> 00:19:13.030 align:middle line:84% that, fell into his beating arms, 00:19:13.030 --> 00:19:17.620 align:middle line:84% feeling in that moment the slight pain of passing him, 00:19:17.620 --> 00:19:18.430 align:middle line:90% becoming air." 00:19:18.430 --> 00:19:21.810 align:middle line:90% 00:19:21.810 --> 00:19:24.840 align:middle line:84% One of the great love affairs in American literature. 00:19:24.840 --> 00:19:28.760 align:middle line:84% Fanny Appleton was the wife of Longfellow. 00:19:28.760 --> 00:19:30.510 align:middle line:84% OK, a little different pace and then we'll 00:19:30.510 --> 00:19:36.850 align:middle line:84% get away from these famous men and women and have fun again. 00:19:36.850 --> 00:19:41.680 align:middle line:84% This is Peter Paul Rubens, the artist and the most recent 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:44.230 align:middle line:84% Smithsonian Magazine has an article about him. 00:19:44.230 --> 00:19:47.500 align:middle line:84% Otherwise, I knew almost nothing about him, 00:19:47.500 --> 00:19:49.660 align:middle line:84% so I don't pretend to any great knowledge. 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:52.580 align:middle line:90% 00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:54.980 align:middle line:84% But the interesting thing was when he was 53, 00:19:54.980 --> 00:19:56.690 align:middle line:84% he married a young lady who was 16. 00:19:56.690 --> 00:20:00.290 align:middle line:90% 00:20:00.290 --> 00:20:03.290 align:middle line:84% And apparently had a wonderful marriage 00:20:03.290 --> 00:20:08.280 align:middle line:84% and he put her, as many great painters do a compliment 00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:10.190 align:middle line:84% their wives and mistresses or whatever, 00:20:10.190 --> 00:20:12.320 align:middle line:84% and he put her in many of his paintings 00:20:12.320 --> 00:20:16.460 align:middle line:84% and she has a wonderfully glowing flesh to her. 00:20:16.460 --> 00:20:20.120 align:middle line:84% And also truthfully, in his older years, 00:20:20.120 --> 00:20:22.460 align:middle line:84% 53 was, of course, quite old in those days 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:23.600 align:middle line:90% several centuries back. 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:27.170 align:middle line:84% He developed some physical problems with his hands 00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:29.750 align:middle line:84% and every time he put his brush to the canvas, 00:20:29.750 --> 00:20:31.100 align:middle line:90% it pained him terribly. 00:20:31.100 --> 00:20:35.445 align:middle line:90% 00:20:35.445 --> 00:20:35.945 align:middle line:90% "Rubens." 00:20:35.945 --> 00:20:38.680 align:middle line:90% 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:41.170 align:middle line:84% "Rubens became the first painter in history 00:20:41.170 --> 00:20:43.630 align:middle line:90% to collect his own work. 00:20:43.630 --> 00:20:49.220 align:middle line:84% Hanging it beside that of other geniuses Raphael and Titian. 00:20:49.220 --> 00:20:54.710 align:middle line:84% Not because he was 53 and his bride 16, but because it 00:20:54.710 --> 00:20:57.110 align:middle line:84% was frankly exactly the kind of world 00:20:57.110 --> 00:21:01.770 align:middle line:84% he wanted that to his surprise had come out of him. 00:21:01.770 --> 00:21:06.030 align:middle line:84% And even then toward the last when all he had before him was 00:21:06.030 --> 00:21:10.200 align:middle line:84% a hand that was so crippled, so twisted that every touch 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:13.560 align:middle line:84% of the brush to the canvas brought him pain, 00:21:13.560 --> 00:21:18.900 align:middle line:84% he used the paint so lightly that in shock we see that her 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:21.480 align:middle line:90% flesh still is luminous." 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:24.955 align:middle line:90% 00:21:24.955 --> 00:21:25.455 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:21:25.455 --> 00:21:36.060 align:middle line:90% 00:21:36.060 --> 00:21:37.440 align:middle line:90% "Hoover Dam." 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:38.850 align:middle line:90% A poem about dentists. 00:21:38.850 --> 00:21:42.960 align:middle line:84% And there's another poem a little later on about teeth, 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:45.990 align:middle line:90% too, I guess. 00:21:45.990 --> 00:21:47.153 align:middle line:90% I'm like everybody else. 00:21:47.153 --> 00:21:48.570 align:middle line:84% I don't like going to the dentist. 00:21:48.570 --> 00:21:51.670 align:middle line:90% 00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:53.743 align:middle line:84% But how do you get from dentists to Hoover Dam, 00:21:53.743 --> 00:21:54.535 align:middle line:90% that's the problem. 00:21:54.535 --> 00:22:01.070 align:middle line:90% 00:22:01.070 --> 00:22:03.480 align:middle line:90% "Hoover Dam." 00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:07.140 align:middle line:84% "My dentist pats me on the shoulder 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:12.370 align:middle line:84% and tells me even his teeth ache today. 00:22:12.370 --> 00:22:17.470 align:middle line:84% His wife's a docent at a world famous wildlife museum, 00:22:17.470 --> 00:22:20.350 align:middle line:84% and now he tells me, she's announced, 00:22:20.350 --> 00:22:25.240 align:middle line:84% after all their plans, she wants to have a baby. 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.540 align:middle line:84% Still, I tell him once again shaking hands, 00:22:28.540 --> 00:22:31.540 align:middle line:84% that by living a cautious life, it's 00:22:31.540 --> 00:22:34.890 align:middle line:84% possible to come through unscathed. 00:22:34.890 --> 00:22:40.260 align:middle line:84% Still once again, he's made my teeth beautiful enough for you. 00:22:40.260 --> 00:22:43.260 align:middle line:84% But what are all those things all around me in the sky 00:22:43.260 --> 00:22:47.820 align:middle line:84% when that night, abandoning my bicycle, lost again, 00:22:47.820 --> 00:22:51.480 align:middle line:84% I try to make my way through rich neighborhoods to your house 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:55.020 align:middle line:84% where on the other side you wait in your peasant dress 00:22:55.020 --> 00:23:00.050 align:middle line:84% beside the shrine you've made to your favorite weatherman. 00:23:00.050 --> 00:23:03.620 align:middle line:84% All around, the dark houses squat supercilious 00:23:03.620 --> 00:23:06.020 align:middle line:84% behind their hedges, while above me 00:23:06.020 --> 00:23:10.580 align:middle line:84% for one instant from horizon to horizon, but taking their time, 00:23:10.580 --> 00:23:14.990 align:middle line:84% float rusted water tanks, strawberry ice cream cones, 00:23:14.990 --> 00:23:20.380 align:middle line:84% and irate cowboys, wise members of their own tribe. 00:23:20.380 --> 00:23:24.040 align:middle line:84% Once more after your good meal of fish and greens, 00:23:24.040 --> 00:23:26.740 align:middle line:84% I come back instructed about what I've always 00:23:26.740 --> 00:23:30.940 align:middle line:84% been up to, finding my way through that same neighborhood 00:23:30.940 --> 00:23:34.270 align:middle line:84% by opening my mouth, wherever I pointed 00:23:34.270 --> 00:23:37.800 align:middle line:90% using my teeth as a flashlight. 00:23:37.800 --> 00:23:42.720 align:middle line:84% That newly converted tourist first seeing Hoover Dam at night 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:45.960 align:middle line:84% lighted by the power of the river that runs through it." 00:23:45.960 --> 00:23:51.910 align:middle line:90% 00:23:51.910 --> 00:23:56.885 align:middle line:84% OK, after that, we need to get religious again. 00:23:56.885 --> 00:24:02.700 align:middle line:90% 00:24:02.700 --> 00:24:05.510 align:middle line:90% "The Book of Proverbs." 00:24:05.510 --> 00:24:08.720 align:middle line:84% Some of you know that's a book in the Old Testament. 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:10.850 align:middle line:84% I guess they say written by King Solomon, 00:24:10.850 --> 00:24:14.870 align:middle line:90% and it's a series of what-- 00:24:14.870 --> 00:24:17.300 align:middle line:84% wise statements about life, you know? 00:24:17.300 --> 00:24:21.270 align:middle line:90% 00:24:21.270 --> 00:24:24.480 align:middle line:84% Well, in this poem "The Book of Proverbs" is that, 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:26.730 align:middle line:84% but maybe it's something else, too. 00:24:26.730 --> 00:24:31.410 align:middle line:90% 00:24:31.410 --> 00:24:34.950 align:middle line:90% "The Book of Proverbs." 00:24:34.950 --> 00:24:37.620 align:middle line:84% "I know what beauty is and can almost 00:24:37.620 --> 00:24:41.370 align:middle line:84% imagine what it is to walk in a beautiful body. 00:24:41.370 --> 00:24:44.640 align:middle line:84% To sleep high in a farmhouse in Delaware 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:49.800 align:middle line:84% like a snow bank in a painting, like the Book of Proverbs, 00:24:49.800 --> 00:24:53.070 align:middle line:84% while men who saw you today on the streets of Philadelphia 00:24:53.070 --> 00:24:55.410 align:middle line:90% are dreaming of you. 00:24:55.410 --> 00:24:59.760 align:middle line:84% Will a snow bank come alive, and amazing the artist, run crazy 00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:03.690 align:middle line:84% around his painting, like a figure in a cartoon so fast 00:25:03.690 --> 00:25:07.190 align:middle line:90% he leaves his eyebrows behind. 00:25:07.190 --> 00:25:09.920 align:middle line:84% The Book of Proverbs just lies there, 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:15.500 align:middle line:84% sufficient in its wisdom, daring someone to pick it up. 00:25:15.500 --> 00:25:18.380 align:middle line:84% Once your boyfriend, the bass player coming 00:25:18.380 --> 00:25:22.580 align:middle line:84% home late and drunk from New York crawled up the slate roof 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:26.450 align:middle line:84% and to entertain you, hung upside down in your window, 00:25:26.450 --> 00:25:30.890 align:middle line:84% tongue out, eyes wide, an insane moon. 00:25:30.890 --> 00:25:34.370 align:middle line:90% You almost shot him. 00:25:34.370 --> 00:25:38.120 align:middle line:84% One does not toy with beauty, any more than one fools 00:25:38.120 --> 00:25:39.830 align:middle line:90% with wisdom. 00:25:39.830 --> 00:25:43.100 align:middle line:84% So in your bathrobe, you peer down 00:25:43.100 --> 00:25:46.370 align:middle line:84% at me coming up into the yellow light at the top. 00:25:46.370 --> 00:25:49.640 align:middle line:84% After a year, still your perfect lover, 00:25:49.640 --> 00:25:53.670 align:middle line:84% that timid scholar who often gets lost in the books that 00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:54.170 align:middle line:90% amaze him." 00:25:54.170 --> 00:26:06.220 align:middle line:90% 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:10.960 align:middle line:84% Another poem that deals with, what, at least one artist, 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:12.526 align:middle line:90% Matisse. 00:26:12.526 --> 00:26:15.340 align:middle line:84% I don't remember his dates and span the century, 00:26:15.340 --> 00:26:17.970 align:middle line:84% I guess, the turn of the century. 00:26:17.970 --> 00:26:21.060 align:middle line:84% And also a musician in this one is Ravel. 00:26:21.060 --> 00:26:26.550 align:middle line:90% 00:26:26.550 --> 00:26:30.090 align:middle line:84% And this poem, of course, it passes 00:26:30.090 --> 00:26:33.870 align:middle line:84% on to information about these guys. 00:26:33.870 --> 00:26:38.430 align:middle line:84% "Matisse used to play the violin between paintings, trying 00:26:38.430 --> 00:26:40.830 align:middle line:84% to forget the women, blobs of ink 00:26:40.830 --> 00:26:44.100 align:middle line:84% come to visit settled into his chairs. 00:26:44.100 --> 00:26:49.550 align:middle line:84% His bouquets, children about to run away after carnivals. 00:26:49.550 --> 00:26:51.290 align:middle line:84% It did as much good as the farmer 00:26:51.290 --> 00:26:53.840 align:middle line:84% does all day thinking about how much milk 00:26:53.840 --> 00:26:57.200 align:middle line:84% his cows can give before milking them again. 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:00.980 align:middle line:84% The divine liqueur processed through the Earth's labyrinths 00:27:00.980 --> 00:27:04.310 align:middle line:84% before it drips through his fingers from heaven. 00:27:04.310 --> 00:27:06.980 align:middle line:84% Or over there a box of sky, drop down 00:27:06.980 --> 00:27:10.370 align:middle line:84% into an armchair where the open case lies, 00:27:10.370 --> 00:27:14.000 align:middle line:84% sunlight on the satin that held the violin. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:17.420 align:middle line:84% Sunday light falling on the city of intellects, 00:27:17.420 --> 00:27:21.140 align:middle line:84% on a city of Quakers who all day walked through the streets 00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:23.840 align:middle line:90% giving it praise. 00:27:23.840 --> 00:27:27.680 align:middle line:84% Is this all too easy, pleasing the middle class, 00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:32.150 align:middle line:84% wanting to rise above itself, but afraid to make mistakes? 00:27:32.150 --> 00:27:36.710 align:middle line:84% Art as the ambitious universe, that's 00:27:36.710 --> 00:27:38.540 align:middle line:84% what his friend Ravel thought might 00:27:38.540 --> 00:27:43.070 align:middle line:84% be when disappointed he came over to muse on such things. 00:27:43.070 --> 00:27:47.510 align:middle line:84% Who at 18 wrote the most famous piece he'd ever write, 00:27:47.510 --> 00:27:51.650 align:middle line:84% and thereafter doing penance carried it on his face, 00:27:51.650 --> 00:27:55.715 align:middle line:84% one whole cheek turned into a slab of light." 00:27:55.715 --> 00:27:58.740 align:middle line:90% 00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:00.930 align:middle line:84% What was that famous piece Ravel wrote? 00:28:00.930 --> 00:28:03.540 align:middle line:90% I can almost sing it for you. 00:28:03.540 --> 00:28:04.200 align:middle line:90% "The Bolero." 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:06.490 align:middle line:84% He did write it at 18 and downhill after that. 00:28:06.490 --> 00:28:09.465 align:middle line:84% So there're a lot of poets out there-- save it for later. 00:28:09.465 --> 00:28:15.600 align:middle line:90% 00:28:15.600 --> 00:28:17.070 align:middle line:90% Oh, another tooth poem. 00:28:17.070 --> 00:28:19.480 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:22.570 align:middle line:84% I hope I'm not too fixated on teeth and things like that. 00:28:22.570 --> 00:28:26.005 align:middle line:84% But don't you feel your teeth have a life of their own? 00:28:26.005 --> 00:28:28.850 align:middle line:84% You feel them moving around in there sometimes, 00:28:28.850 --> 00:28:31.120 align:middle line:84% and sometimes they're happy and sometimes they're not 00:28:31.120 --> 00:28:35.930 align:middle line:84% and you have no control over whatsoever? 00:28:35.930 --> 00:28:37.700 align:middle line:90% No, you don't? 00:28:37.700 --> 00:28:38.330 align:middle line:90% Oh, you do. 00:28:38.330 --> 00:28:39.560 align:middle line:90% OK, I feel better. 00:28:39.560 --> 00:28:45.580 align:middle line:90% 00:28:45.580 --> 00:28:49.570 align:middle line:84% So I thought I'd help out other people who have this sort 00:28:49.570 --> 00:28:56.080 align:middle line:84% of strange awareness as I do, and I wrote a poem to help them 00:28:56.080 --> 00:28:58.825 align:middle line:84% called "Your Teeth: An Owner's Guide." 00:28:58.825 --> 00:29:02.990 align:middle line:90% 00:29:02.990 --> 00:29:04.670 align:middle line:84% And after you hear this, you won't 00:29:04.670 --> 00:29:06.740 align:middle line:84% have to worry about this problem anymore. 00:29:06.740 --> 00:29:16.260 align:middle line:90% 00:29:16.260 --> 00:29:17.820 align:middle line:90% "Your Teeth and Owner's Guide." 00:29:17.820 --> 00:29:20.330 align:middle line:90% 00:29:20.330 --> 00:29:24.650 align:middle line:84% "They sit around in your most comfortable furniture, relatives 00:29:24.650 --> 00:29:26.780 align:middle line:84% from North Dakota, you've never seen 00:29:26.780 --> 00:29:29.900 align:middle line:84% before, who years ago yelled, surprise, 00:29:29.900 --> 00:29:32.120 align:middle line:90% when you opened the door. 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:34.550 align:middle line:84% And immediately ransacked the kitchen, 00:29:34.550 --> 00:29:37.010 align:middle line:84% went right for the beer and the crackers, 00:29:37.010 --> 00:29:39.530 align:middle line:84% then made themselves perfectly at home 00:29:39.530 --> 00:29:42.365 align:middle line:84% as if they knew about how you lived all along. 00:29:42.365 --> 00:29:45.100 align:middle line:90% 00:29:45.100 --> 00:29:47.890 align:middle line:84% Sometimes when you're away at the office 00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:51.130 align:middle line:84% or out front for relief raking the yard, 00:29:51.130 --> 00:29:54.760 align:middle line:84% you can hear them in there, sophomores always partying, 00:29:54.760 --> 00:29:57.940 align:middle line:84% turning up the television, throwing their old cheese 00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:02.620 align:middle line:84% sandwiches around, dismantling everything you've worked for. 00:30:02.620 --> 00:30:07.390 align:middle line:84% And at night, in your aguish sleep, loving themselves only, 00:30:07.390 --> 00:30:09.100 align:middle line:90% they're still at it. 00:30:09.100 --> 00:30:14.440 align:middle line:84% Once again, lustily singing what they think is a new song. 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:17.290 align:middle line:84% Our greatest goal in life is not to be happy, 00:30:17.290 --> 00:30:18.760 align:middle line:90% but to glorify God." 00:30:18.760 --> 00:30:29.240 align:middle line:90% 00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:31.730 align:middle line:84% Well, a more serious and instructive note. 00:30:31.730 --> 00:30:34.760 align:middle line:84% We're very fortunate just down the street here, 00:30:34.760 --> 00:30:39.440 align:middle line:84% it was at Second Street, to have the historical society. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:41.000 align:middle line:84% If you haven't been there, I hope 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:43.040 align:middle line:84% you find time to drop by and still 00:30:43.040 --> 00:30:44.990 align:middle line:90% wander through their displays. 00:30:44.990 --> 00:30:49.130 align:middle line:84% And of course, they have important research projects 00:30:49.130 --> 00:30:52.640 align:middle line:84% and I've really found a very fine bunch of people. 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:54.950 align:middle line:84% And as I've traveled around, I try 00:30:54.950 --> 00:30:58.347 align:middle line:84% to make contact with local historical societies 00:30:58.347 --> 00:30:59.930 align:middle line:84% wherever they are and it's incredible. 00:30:59.930 --> 00:31:04.160 align:middle line:84% Some of the smallest little bergs like Darby, Montana. 00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:09.470 align:middle line:84% They have one room in the drugstore devoted to history. 00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:11.990 align:middle line:84% And that's all very fine and they've 00:31:11.990 --> 00:31:13.760 align:middle line:84% such people been very kind and helped me 00:31:13.760 --> 00:31:15.470 align:middle line:90% with my own researches. 00:31:15.470 --> 00:31:19.080 align:middle line:84% But I started thinking why are people doing this? 00:31:19.080 --> 00:31:24.530 align:middle line:84% Maybe to pass the time of day and maybe out of curiosity. 00:31:24.530 --> 00:31:27.470 align:middle line:84% I'm sure there's a variety of motives. 00:31:27.470 --> 00:31:30.290 align:middle line:84% But maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age. 00:31:30.290 --> 00:31:33.500 align:middle line:84% I think that most of us do things for some reason 00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:36.720 align:middle line:84% that we're doing it for ourselves in one way or another, 00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:37.280 align:middle line:90% which is OK. 00:31:37.280 --> 00:31:41.180 align:middle line:90% 00:31:41.180 --> 00:31:44.210 align:middle line:84% This Studebaker is over there on Second Street in case 00:31:44.210 --> 00:31:45.990 align:middle line:90% you want to see it-- 00:31:45.990 --> 00:31:48.170 align:middle line:90% beautiful old car. 00:31:48.170 --> 00:31:52.700 align:middle line:90% "Local Historical Societies." 00:31:52.700 --> 00:31:56.360 align:middle line:84% "Wherever you are, history was taking place. 00:31:56.360 --> 00:32:01.010 align:middle line:84% A forest felled by a strong wind while an Indian gawked 00:32:01.010 --> 00:32:05.270 align:middle line:84% seeing God's hand in it, or a wedding where people cheered 00:32:05.270 --> 00:32:07.910 align:middle line:84% for that moment the bride and groom 00:32:07.910 --> 00:32:10.990 align:middle line:84% thought themselves extraordinary. 00:32:10.990 --> 00:32:13.180 align:middle line:90% That's why we put on displays. 00:32:13.180 --> 00:32:17.530 align:middle line:84% The Sheriff's 1933 Studebaker riddled with machine gun 00:32:17.530 --> 00:32:18.610 align:middle line:90% bullets. 00:32:18.610 --> 00:32:22.720 align:middle line:84% The humble scrap of shoe leather lighted in its case. 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:26.110 align:middle line:84% The gasp of the dying messenger bringing good news 00:32:26.110 --> 00:32:28.600 align:middle line:90% to the besieged. 00:32:28.600 --> 00:32:32.950 align:middle line:84% That's why we volunteer and put up with each other, hold fairs, 00:32:32.950 --> 00:32:37.405 align:middle line:84% dinners, rescuing ourselves by rescuing others." 00:32:37.405 --> 00:32:53.420 align:middle line:90% 00:32:53.420 --> 00:32:56.330 align:middle line:84% Oh, OK, I'm not going to say anything about this one. 00:32:56.330 --> 00:32:56.990 align:middle line:90% You'll get it. 00:32:56.990 --> 00:33:02.730 align:middle line:90% 00:33:02.730 --> 00:33:04.070 align:middle line:90% We'll have a quiz afterwards. 00:33:04.070 --> 00:33:06.240 align:middle line:90% It's called "Daniel." 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:08.300 align:middle line:90% Remember Daniel? 00:33:08.300 --> 00:33:10.450 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:33:10.450 --> 00:33:16.900 align:middle line:84% "You bet I was hungry, but sat in my den, a monument to myself, 00:33:16.900 --> 00:33:22.510 align:middle line:84% all night drugged, fixating on my mental epistaxis. 00:33:22.510 --> 00:33:26.290 align:middle line:84% The tiny angels all named Wendy pirouetting 00:33:26.290 --> 00:33:29.350 align:middle line:90% on the tip of my nose. 00:33:29.350 --> 00:33:34.300 align:middle line:84% Seeing him come floating down, such a quiet believer. 00:33:34.300 --> 00:33:37.060 align:middle line:84% A pair of pajamas just out of the washer 00:33:37.060 --> 00:33:40.300 align:middle line:84% without a man in them, watching him 00:33:40.300 --> 00:33:44.950 align:middle line:84% as the globigerina ooze of the night surrounded us standing 00:33:44.950 --> 00:33:47.740 align:middle line:90% there glowing all night long. 00:33:47.740 --> 00:33:51.880 align:middle line:84% And when morning came and the crazed king called out, 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:57.790 align:middle line:84% go floating back up right past my nose, smelling glorious, 00:33:57.790 --> 00:34:02.110 align:middle line:90% like bread fresh from the oven." 00:34:02.110 --> 00:34:02.755 align:middle line:90% Poor lion. 00:34:02.755 --> 00:34:09.110 align:middle line:90% 00:34:09.110 --> 00:34:13.969 align:middle line:84% Since it's almost the winter day, many of you from 00:34:13.969 --> 00:34:17.420 align:middle line:84% back east or at least have been back there, 00:34:17.420 --> 00:34:18.770 align:middle line:90% you know what it's like. 00:34:18.770 --> 00:34:21.199 align:middle line:84% And you know that in the springtime 00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:25.159 align:middle line:90% the crocuses come out, right? 00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:28.400 align:middle line:84% And when the snow banks melt back 00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:31.580 align:middle line:84% oftentimes the crocuses are right there in the moist soil 00:34:31.580 --> 00:34:33.850 align:middle line:84% and they grow and they're very pretty yellow. 00:34:33.850 --> 00:34:37.010 align:middle line:84% I think it purple sometime, right? 00:34:37.010 --> 00:34:39.949 align:middle line:90% We have similar flowers here. 00:34:39.949 --> 00:34:42.590 align:middle line:84% I think in the Rockies they're called snow flowers, 00:34:42.590 --> 00:34:47.480 align:middle line:84% and they follow the snow banks as the snow banks melt. 00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:48.335 align:middle line:90% "Sign of Spring." 00:34:48.335 --> 00:34:51.570 align:middle line:90% 00:34:51.570 --> 00:34:55.710 align:middle line:84% And there's no reason to mention this, but and in any case, 00:34:55.710 --> 00:34:58.005 align:middle line:84% this is the same woman as in "The Book of Proverbs." 00:34:58.005 --> 00:35:03.330 align:middle line:90% 00:35:03.330 --> 00:35:05.970 align:middle line:84% I have no idea what the ending means. 00:35:05.970 --> 00:35:07.110 align:middle line:90% It just seems right. 00:35:07.110 --> 00:35:08.520 align:middle line:90% That's a poor excuse. 00:35:08.520 --> 00:35:14.690 align:middle line:90% 00:35:14.690 --> 00:35:18.500 align:middle line:84% "The last time I visited, you came running down the stairs 00:35:18.500 --> 00:35:21.530 align:middle line:84% and pointed to a dirty pile of snow 00:35:21.530 --> 00:35:26.090 align:middle line:84% under the pines at the end of your drive with, of course, 00:35:26.090 --> 00:35:29.810 align:middle line:84% its choirboys of crocuses coming up. 00:35:29.810 --> 00:35:32.570 align:middle line:84% We saved them just for you, you said, 00:35:32.570 --> 00:35:35.760 align:middle line:90% shivering in your house dress. 00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:38.460 align:middle line:84% Days we romped in the woods jumping 00:35:38.460 --> 00:35:43.320 align:middle line:84% brooks past farms clear into the next county. 00:35:43.320 --> 00:35:48.530 align:middle line:84% That time of year, they didn't know which way they were going. 00:35:48.530 --> 00:35:51.830 align:middle line:84% I've been thinking of you too much, 00:35:51.830 --> 00:35:54.980 align:middle line:84% of how the Portuguese nearly ruined China 00:35:54.980 --> 00:35:58.290 align:middle line:90% by introducing corn. 00:35:58.290 --> 00:36:01.890 align:middle line:84% Sleep is the stage for our dreams. 00:36:01.890 --> 00:36:06.060 align:middle line:84% Nights we drop by for short visits to see what's been going 00:36:06.060 --> 00:36:10.470 align:middle line:84% on with those happy players who go on for hours, 00:36:10.470 --> 00:36:14.990 align:middle line:84% whose whole life is the theater." 00:36:14.990 --> 00:36:17.070 align:middle line:84% But we don't want to end on a somber note. 00:36:17.070 --> 00:36:23.910 align:middle line:90% 00:36:23.910 --> 00:36:29.550 align:middle line:84% I'm wearing the subject of this last poem. 00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:31.440 align:middle line:90% I can't-- see how they fit. 00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:32.790 align:middle line:90% Real good? 00:36:32.790 --> 00:36:35.670 align:middle line:90% Smokejumpers' pants. 00:36:35.670 --> 00:36:39.480 align:middle line:84% Smokejumpers are these crazy people in Montana, Idaho 00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:42.930 align:middle line:84% and they jump out of planes, parachute, of course, 00:36:42.930 --> 00:36:44.880 align:middle line:90% and then fight fires. 00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:47.280 align:middle line:84% And well, I will tell a little story about this one. 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:50.670 align:middle line:84% For many years, I had a friend up in Montana 00:36:50.670 --> 00:36:53.230 align:middle line:84% who owned a ranch in the middle of a wilderness. 00:36:53.230 --> 00:36:55.020 align:middle line:84% There were no roads for many, many miles. 00:36:55.020 --> 00:36:55.930 align:middle line:90% No electricity. 00:36:55.930 --> 00:36:57.690 align:middle line:90% It was just wonderful, by-- 00:36:57.690 --> 00:37:02.100 align:middle line:84% right on the shore of the side of a wonderful trout river. 00:37:02.100 --> 00:37:05.760 align:middle line:84% And I go up there every year and hike in or ride a horse in 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:09.060 align:middle line:84% or sometimes even fly and land in his pasture. 00:37:09.060 --> 00:37:12.330 align:middle line:84% In any case, there were two young ladies there 00:37:12.330 --> 00:37:16.430 align:middle line:84% who I know, perhaps better than I should have. 00:37:16.430 --> 00:37:20.620 align:middle line:84% And one year I arrived, hiked in 20 miles or whatever, 00:37:20.620 --> 00:37:24.052 align:middle line:84% and they greeted me at the door and they said, oh, nice 00:37:24.052 --> 00:37:24.760 align:middle line:90% seeing you again. 00:37:24.760 --> 00:37:28.370 align:middle line:84% I said, we have a present for you. 00:37:28.370 --> 00:37:30.110 align:middle line:84% And they went back in the kitchen, 00:37:30.110 --> 00:37:36.860 align:middle line:84% they came out with this pair of pants, which I'm now wearing. 00:37:36.860 --> 00:37:39.560 align:middle line:84% And they said, I hope they fit and I put them on, 00:37:39.560 --> 00:37:42.140 align:middle line:84% they did and where did you get these pants? 00:37:42.140 --> 00:37:44.690 align:middle line:84% Well, the other day we were out walking 00:37:44.690 --> 00:37:46.070 align:middle line:90% around looking for bears. 00:37:46.070 --> 00:37:46.910 align:middle line:90% That's a pastime. 00:37:46.910 --> 00:37:48.620 align:middle line:84% What else can you do in the wilderness? 00:37:48.620 --> 00:37:51.230 align:middle line:90% Look for bears. 00:37:51.230 --> 00:37:55.864 align:middle line:84% And they came upon this pair of pants. 00:37:55.864 --> 00:37:59.640 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:37:59.640 --> 00:38:01.770 align:middle line:90% True story. 00:38:01.770 --> 00:38:03.390 align:middle line:84% And they assume that it must have 00:38:03.390 --> 00:38:07.650 align:middle line:84% belonged to some smokejumper who left his pants behind, I guess. 00:38:07.650 --> 00:38:12.380 align:middle line:90% 00:38:12.380 --> 00:38:14.480 align:middle line:84% Well, I just couldn't leave that one alone. 00:38:14.480 --> 00:38:19.380 align:middle line:90% 00:38:19.380 --> 00:38:23.680 align:middle line:84% So this is the story of how the smokejumpers' pants got there. 00:38:23.680 --> 00:38:32.980 align:middle line:90% 00:38:32.980 --> 00:38:36.740 align:middle line:90% "All of us are looking for love. 00:38:36.740 --> 00:38:39.890 align:middle line:84% And so a week before the guests arrive, 00:38:39.890 --> 00:38:44.780 align:middle line:84% the cook and her helper having everything right in the kitchen 00:38:44.780 --> 00:38:47.240 align:middle line:90% walk out across the river. 00:38:47.240 --> 00:38:51.500 align:middle line:84% Their brains held together with bandanas supposedly 00:38:51.500 --> 00:38:54.890 align:middle line:84% to look for bears, but really to decide 00:38:54.890 --> 00:38:57.640 align:middle line:90% what the summer will bring. 00:38:57.640 --> 00:39:00.910 align:middle line:84% There may be lions in the trees, thistles 00:39:00.910 --> 00:39:04.270 align:middle line:84% that when the sun hits them just right make 00:39:04.270 --> 00:39:09.910 align:middle line:84% the amateur photographer famous, even verbena diminutive ice 00:39:09.910 --> 00:39:13.330 align:middle line:84% cream that they shout at underfoot, leaping back 00:39:13.330 --> 00:39:16.390 align:middle line:84% from the mound of the old homesteader's cabin 00:39:16.390 --> 00:39:19.370 align:middle line:90% just as they expected. 00:39:19.370 --> 00:39:23.740 align:middle line:84% So two women can fall in love with their futures went out 00:39:23.740 --> 00:39:27.580 align:middle line:84% together and the day is perfect, throwing their arms 00:39:27.580 --> 00:39:30.700 align:middle line:84% around each other and hyper fibrillating when 00:39:30.700 --> 00:39:35.020 align:middle line:84% they see the meteorological event of the year. 00:39:35.020 --> 00:39:39.580 align:middle line:84% A pair of starched pants falling from the sky 00:39:39.580 --> 00:39:41.830 align:middle line:90% with no man in them. 00:39:41.830 --> 00:39:47.410 align:middle line:84% Because looking down into the blossoming fire beneath him 00:39:47.410 --> 00:39:51.070 align:middle line:84% at the last minute, he decided this was not 00:39:51.070 --> 00:39:55.120 align:middle line:84% the sort of business he wanted to jump into today. 00:39:55.120 --> 00:40:00.430 align:middle line:84% And solely on the strength of his best wish soared back up 00:40:00.430 --> 00:40:06.220 align:middle line:84% into his plane while they amazed rushed up to see where they are 00:40:06.220 --> 00:40:10.720 align:middle line:84% now falling through the trees, one leg crumpling, 00:40:10.720 --> 00:40:16.600 align:middle line:84% and then the next settling with a sigh by the time they arrive 00:40:16.600 --> 00:40:22.210 align:middle line:84% to read the label that says that the one who cares least runs 00:40:22.210 --> 00:40:24.550 align:middle line:90% the relationship." 00:40:24.550 --> 00:40:26.290 align:middle line:90% Thank you for coming tonight. 00:40:26.290 --> 00:40:29.640 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:40:29.640 --> 00:40:34.000 align:middle line:90%