WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.770 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.770 --> 00:00:02.885 align:middle line:90%
From Herring Cove.

00:00:02.885 --> 00:00:06.030 align:middle line:90%


00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:11.310 align:middle line:84%
I gave myself to
art, which I regret.

00:00:11.310 --> 00:00:16.710 align:middle line:84%
I should have given myself to
trees or to whales or to soil.

00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:20.880 align:middle line:84%
Perhaps I should have pledged
my troth to an ennobled horse

00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:27.250 align:middle line:84%
toiling with its hay, lifting
its dung reverently on a fork.

00:00:27.250 --> 00:00:30.536 align:middle line:90%
The problem with art is artists.

00:00:30.536 --> 00:00:31.480 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:35.066 align:middle line:90%
And by artists, I mean poets.

00:00:35.066 --> 00:00:36.250 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:40.490 align:middle line:84%
My second night in
New York, aged 21,

00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:43.900 align:middle line:90%
I met Allen Ginsberg at a party.

00:00:43.900 --> 00:00:48.330 align:middle line:84%
He shook my hand,
pulled me in close,

00:00:48.330 --> 00:00:51.360 align:middle line:84%
brought his other
arm around my back,

00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:57.140 align:middle line:84%
and wedged a paw down
my pants in the rear.

00:00:57.140 --> 00:01:00.240 align:middle line:84%
I kept staring at
his tangled beard,

00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.900 align:middle line:84%
squirmed and laughed like
a fool with a little fear.

00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:11.700 align:middle line:84%
A finger pressed
rough into my bung,

00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:18.300 align:middle line:84%
there at the reception
in front of everyone.

00:01:18.300 --> 00:01:21.660 align:middle line:84%
Did you know Ezra Pound
sent his only daughter

00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:24.840 align:middle line:84%
to go live with German
peasants in the Alps?

00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:27.660 align:middle line:84%
There she used her
one wooden spoon

00:01:27.660 --> 00:01:31.470 align:middle line:84%
to slurp liver dumpling
soup from a communal bowl

00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:35.280 align:middle line:84%
while her father swanned
around Venice in a cape.

00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:37.510 align:middle line:90%
Make it new, he threatened.

00:01:37.510 --> 00:01:39.510 align:middle line:90%
And so we do.

00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:42.870 align:middle line:84%
Pound's grandson lives
alone in a castle.

00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:47.500 align:middle line:84%
He gave his life to castle
upkeep and to a herd of goats,

00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.550 align:middle line:84%
sweet lizard-eyed creatures
browsing on the slopes.

00:01:51.550 --> 00:01:54.150 align:middle line:90%
The rest of us are dopes.

00:01:54.150 --> 00:01:57.200 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]