WEBVTT

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I want to read from
The Carrier of Ladders.

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First, the poem that's
in the Oracle book

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for which the publication party
was last weekend, it's a poem

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called Edward.

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And the immediate
war that it refers to

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is, of course, the
First World War.

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But it stands with a whole
series of such things

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behind it.

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And it's addressed to someone
who is, in some sense,

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a survivor.

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Edward, shall we leave
tomorrow for Verdun again?

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Shall we set out for the great
days and never be the same?

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Never.

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Time is what is left.

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Shall we start this
time in the spring,

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and they lead your cows out
next week to sell at the fair,

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and the brambles learn to
scribble over the first field?

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Edward, shall we have gone
when the leaves come out

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but before the heat
slows the grand marches?

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Days like those, the heights
and the dying at thy right hand

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sound the long horn.

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And here, the bright
handles will fog over.

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Things will break and stay
broken in the keeping of women.

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The sheep get lost.

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The bonds burn unconsoled
in the darkness.

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Edward, what would you
have given not to go?

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Sitting last night
in by the fire again.

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But shall we be the same?

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Tomorrow night,
shall we not have

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gone leaving the faces
and nightingales?

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As you know, we will live.

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And what never comes
back will be you and me.

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[APPLAUSE]

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