WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 align:middle line:90%


00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:04.220 align:middle line:84%
Having started
that way, I'll read

00:00:04.220 --> 00:00:10.730 align:middle line:84%
one or two other recent poems
that involve this same place

00:00:10.730 --> 00:00:14.015 align:middle line:90%
that I seem to wander in often.

00:00:14.015 --> 00:00:20.050 align:middle line:90%


00:00:20.050 --> 00:00:22.900 align:middle line:90%
This one is called "Soot."

00:00:22.900 --> 00:00:26.350 align:middle line:84%
The proposition in this
poem is that to grow up

00:00:26.350 --> 00:00:31.330 align:middle line:84%
near the railroad is better
than not to grow up--

00:00:31.330 --> 00:00:33.802 align:middle line:84%
is to grow up in the same
place with no railroad.

00:00:33.802 --> 00:00:35.260 align:middle line:84%
That's a little
bit like growing up

00:00:35.260 --> 00:00:41.090 align:middle line:84%
near an ocean, which I did
both, or mountains, something

00:00:41.090 --> 00:00:43.460 align:middle line:84%
that people might
mythologize into a god.

00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:45.020 align:middle line:84%
That is if you're
near the railroad,

00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:48.560 align:middle line:84%
you're near something very big,
and powerful, and impressive,

00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:52.640 align:middle line:84%
and worthy of being
god in mythology.

00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.410 align:middle line:84%
I guess the hidden
thesis of the poem

00:00:54.410 --> 00:00:59.090 align:middle line:84%
is that for the people who
live near the railroad,

00:00:59.090 --> 00:01:01.340 align:middle line:84%
their sex lives are better
than those of people who

00:01:01.340 --> 00:01:02.548 align:middle line:90%
don't live near the railroad.

00:01:02.548 --> 00:01:05.910 align:middle line:90%


00:01:05.910 --> 00:01:08.310 align:middle line:90%
Soot.

00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:10.760 align:middle line:90%
Soot.

00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:16.460 align:middle line:84%
Archaic, the trains mated
with our human blood.

00:01:16.460 --> 00:01:20.840 align:middle line:90%
Stone trestle, abutment wall.

00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:27.110 align:middle line:84%
Above the tracks, a rakish
exiled Santa lashed to a pole.

00:01:27.110 --> 00:01:34.280 align:middle line:84%
Black cinders, burdock,
sumac, Pepsi, cellophane.

00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.760 align:middle line:84%
Each syllable of filament
in the chord of a word

00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:40.670 align:middle line:84%
knit, knotted in the
passionate shadows

00:01:40.670 --> 00:01:44.780 align:middle line:84%
of skeletal vine and
beanpole in one backyard

00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.850 align:middle line:90%
along the embankment.

00:01:47.850 --> 00:01:52.440 align:middle line:84%
Here with dirty thunder,
deliberate, heavy creatures

00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:56.520 align:middle line:84%
before the light of morning
made the bedroom windows tremble

00:01:56.520 --> 00:01:59.940 align:middle line:84%
with lordly music
and their exhalations

00:01:59.940 --> 00:02:03.090 align:middle line:90%
tingled our nostrils.

00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:08.180 align:middle line:84%
Rail bed tavern and
church of former slaves,

00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:13.500 align:middle line:84%
synagogue of the low,
Sicilian grocery,

00:02:13.500 --> 00:02:17.460 align:middle line:84%
Polish creche, the
seed of particles

00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:20.220 align:middle line:84%
that, Zeus-like,
penetrated the bread

00:02:20.220 --> 00:02:23.040 align:middle line:84%
and carboned the
garden tomatoes.

00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:26.790 align:middle line:84%
Even our sheets that bucked
and catered in the wind,

00:02:26.790 --> 00:02:30.840 align:middle line:84%
flashed whiter than others,
tempered by iron black,

00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:35.450 align:middle line:84%
bleaching to armor
in silver winter sun.

00:02:35.450 --> 00:02:40.000 align:middle line:90%