WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.800 --> 00:00:03.620 align:middle line:90% Let's see. 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.560 align:middle line:90% 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:07.700 align:middle line:90% I lost my phone. 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:08.420 align:middle line:90% Oh, there it is. 00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:08.920 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:08.920 --> 00:00:13.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:15.500 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read a poem to finish. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:19.540 align:middle line:84% And it's called "What is the Purpose of a Guinea Hen?" 00:00:19.540 --> 00:00:24.480 align:middle line:90% 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:28.120 align:middle line:84% And then I had to look up what a Guinea hen was 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:90% once I came up with the title. 00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:32.259 align:middle line:84% That's a statement about process. 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:40.090 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:43.840 align:middle line:84% What is the purpose of a Guinea hen? 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:46.480 align:middle line:90% I didn't have a bug on my back, 00:00:46.480 --> 00:00:51.000 align:middle line:84% But I did bring two dog ticks to New York from Vermont recently 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:55.040 align:middle line:84% You know how some words are dysfunctional? 00:00:55.040 --> 00:00:58.080 align:middle line:90% "Literally" is one of them 00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:01.790 align:middle line:84% You think you're being emphatic, saying that literally happened-- 00:01:01.790 --> 00:01:05.930 align:middle line:90% 00:01:05.930 --> 00:01:09.510 align:middle line:84% In this poem, I'm going to insult audiences multiple times. 00:01:09.510 --> 00:01:11.410 align:middle line:84% And just to be clear, it's not you. 00:01:11.410 --> 00:01:13.030 align:middle line:90% It's just-- it's OK. 00:01:13.030 --> 00:01:14.952 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:14.952 --> 00:01:16.850 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.850 --> 00:01:20.030 align:middle line:84% You think you're being emphatic, saying that literally happened 00:01:20.030 --> 00:01:22.250 align:middle line:84% But it would be of greater strength and acuity 00:01:22.250 --> 00:01:23.790 align:middle line:90% to say that happened 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:26.450 align:middle line:84% Even if you're not especially fond of reserve, 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:28.710 align:middle line:84% This could be said to be a matter of character, 00:01:28.710 --> 00:01:31.570 align:middle line:84% Such as you are in your own words in their days 00:01:31.570 --> 00:01:34.090 align:middle line:84% We would like to think all doctors having 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:37.230 align:middle line:84% taken the Hippocratic oath will be good at their jobs 00:01:37.230 --> 00:01:41.450 align:middle line:84% The tasks of which at hand are many, as with poets 00:01:41.450 --> 00:01:43.670 align:middle line:84% But I've had bad doctors and good doctors, 00:01:43.670 --> 00:01:46.290 align:middle line:84% And the difference is not hard to suss out 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.610 align:middle line:84% Pain will make you understand who's good at their job. 00:01:49.610 --> 00:01:52.770 align:middle line:84% You don't want your doctor being a 55-percenter 00:01:52.770 --> 00:01:56.770 align:middle line:84% When it comes to attention to your physical particulars 00:01:56.770 --> 00:01:59.770 align:middle line:84% I had one surgeon have to sew up my hernias two times 00:01:59.770 --> 00:02:01.990 align:middle line:90% And somehow the jobs didn't take 00:02:01.990 --> 00:02:03.810 align:middle line:84% I don't know if he was good or bad, 00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:06.770 align:middle line:84% Sometimes it's all genetics, which feels like a cop out, 00:02:06.770 --> 00:02:09.310 align:middle line:84% Whatever that is, see you later, officer, 00:02:09.310 --> 00:02:11.970 align:middle line:84% You will just have these holes opening up in your belly, 00:02:11.970 --> 00:02:12.930 align:middle line:90% and that's that 00:02:12.930 --> 00:02:15.950 align:middle line:84% Call us when the next one opens, and your intestines 00:02:15.950 --> 00:02:19.530 align:middle line:90% starts poking through again 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:21.550 align:middle line:84% The French medical system is more 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:23.910 align:middle line:90% humane than the American system 00:02:23.910 --> 00:02:25.910 align:middle line:90% That is, in fact, true 00:02:25.910 --> 00:02:29.110 align:middle line:84% Mainly because the French take money mostly out of the system's 00:02:29.110 --> 00:02:31.110 align:middle line:90% equation for you 00:02:31.110 --> 00:02:34.390 align:middle line:84% And Americans aren't taught how to understand the practicality 00:02:34.390 --> 00:02:36.630 align:middle line:90% of such separation 00:02:36.630 --> 00:02:39.710 align:middle line:84% That doesn't mean there aren't expenses 00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:41.210 align:middle line:90% When our mother died recently, 00:02:41.210 --> 00:02:45.190 align:middle line:84% We had to pony up 3,200 euros for cremation, a casket, 00:02:45.190 --> 00:02:46.670 align:middle line:90% and an urn 00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:48.630 align:middle line:90% Do you want flowers? 00:02:48.630 --> 00:02:49.910 align:middle line:90% Nah. 00:02:49.910 --> 00:02:52.070 align:middle line:90% Do you guys want music? 00:02:52.070 --> 00:02:53.750 align:middle line:90% Nah, dude. 00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:57.790 align:middle line:84% You get 30 minutes in a room to do a ceremony, OK. 00:02:57.790 --> 00:02:59.570 align:middle line:84% Do you want to project any images? 00:02:59.570 --> 00:03:00.292 align:middle line:90% No. 00:03:00.292 --> 00:03:01.750 align:middle line:84% Do you want to come to the hospital 00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:04.800 align:middle line:84% And ride in the car with the casket to Père Lachaise? 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:10.160 align:middle line:84% No, we'll take the metro, it'll be faster. 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:11.920 align:middle line:90% The Undertaker got it. 00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:13.540 align:middle line:90% We wanted to read some poems, 00:03:13.540 --> 00:03:16.080 align:middle line:84% Keep it plain and keep the costs down 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:18.880 align:middle line:84% But the hospital bill, after a month of mom being there 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:22.000 align:middle line:84% In a surgery to remove one of her kidneys and a biopsy 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.720 align:middle line:84% And endless scans and tests and shots and morphine 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:26.480 align:middle line:90% near the end we didn't see 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:29.280 align:middle line:84% When her neuropathy pain was overwhelming, but not enough 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:30.960 align:middle line:90% that we couldn't keep talking 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:34.300 align:middle line:84% About the pain, the music, the poems, our family, our friends, 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:36.680 align:middle line:84% The state of the world as we fought to understand, 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:39.220 align:middle line:84% our stupid country and all its qualities, 00:03:39.220 --> 00:03:42.900 align:middle line:84% Our humor, plus regular meals three times a day 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:46.020 align:middle line:84% She said, they weren't bad when she could keep the food down 00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:50.720 align:middle line:84% And kind and well-trained nurses on hand at all points, mostly-- 00:03:50.720 --> 00:03:52.600 align:middle line:90% No bill. 00:03:52.600 --> 00:03:56.200 align:middle line:84% Everything was handled as a matter of ordinary course. 00:03:56.200 --> 00:03:58.900 align:middle line:84% Alice never stopped talking with anyone near her. 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:03.420 align:middle line:90% 00:04:03.420 --> 00:04:06.380 align:middle line:90% This is in six sections. 00:04:06.380 --> 00:04:08.200 align:middle line:84% Midway through the path of this poem, 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:11.100 align:middle line:84% Maybe I had to combine a dump with a dive. 00:04:11.100 --> 00:04:15.100 align:middle line:84% That's realism, a few dumbasses out there 00:04:15.100 --> 00:04:17.959 align:middle line:84% I left home for college in 1989 and thought, 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:20.260 align:middle line:84% Maybe, I don't know, folks would be more civilized 00:04:20.260 --> 00:04:23.780 align:middle line:90% attending university in Buffalo. 00:04:23.780 --> 00:04:25.940 align:middle line:90% Nope. 00:04:25.940 --> 00:04:28.500 align:middle line:90% Ended up living with dudes, 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:30.780 align:middle line:84% Maybe have changed their ways or rehabilitated 00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:32.000 align:middle line:90% somehow since then, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.200 align:middle line:84% But man, they were so fucked up and wrong about so many things, 00:04:36.200 --> 00:04:39.580 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure I should even put them here. 00:04:39.580 --> 00:04:41.420 align:middle line:84% Like you know how there are slurs that don't 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:43.420 align:middle line:90% get used with any reclamation, 00:04:43.420 --> 00:04:45.460 align:middle line:84% Words so vile in their application 00:04:45.460 --> 00:04:47.480 align:middle line:84% towards the degradation of humanity 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:50.560 align:middle line:84% They can't even be in songs or used with complexity, 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:52.840 align:middle line:84% Which some folks might even call irony, 00:04:52.840 --> 00:04:54.200 align:middle line:90% But you don't know what that is 00:04:54.200 --> 00:04:58.260 align:middle line:84% And yes, I'm a bitch, but here we are, afraid of words again. 00:04:58.260 --> 00:05:02.100 align:middle line:84% And I know you're there, so suck it up, audience. 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:04.870 align:middle line:90% No one says the G-word, right? 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:09.070 align:middle line:84% Maybe some do away from these ears, as in not like. 00:05:09.070 --> 00:05:12.110 align:middle line:84% Anyway, these guys enjoyed casual hatred so much, 00:05:12.110 --> 00:05:15.830 align:middle line:84% I had to say, hey, you know, what the fuck? 00:05:15.830 --> 00:05:18.250 align:middle line:84% And they were like, oh, you called us on our shit. 00:05:18.250 --> 00:05:20.190 align:middle line:90% And I was like, well, it hurts, 00:05:20.190 --> 00:05:22.070 align:middle line:90% I was trying a gambit. 00:05:22.070 --> 00:05:24.030 align:middle line:90% And they said, huh! 00:05:24.030 --> 00:05:26.790 align:middle line:84% But oh, you think you're better than us. 00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:29.190 align:middle line:90% I was like, wait, no. 00:05:29.190 --> 00:05:30.790 align:middle line:90% Maybe. 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:33.930 align:middle line:84% And so they doubled up and tripled up. 00:05:33.930 --> 00:05:37.330 align:middle line:84% Imagine, and you can imagine as soon as someone says, 00:05:37.330 --> 00:05:40.190 align:middle line:84% I can't imagine, you know somewhere they're shutting down. 00:05:40.190 --> 00:05:42.010 align:middle line:84% Imagine living with three potheads, 00:05:42.010 --> 00:05:43.030 align:middle line:90% getting high every night 00:05:43.030 --> 00:05:47.030 align:middle line:84% Just to say horrible things to you and cackle riotously, 00:05:47.030 --> 00:05:50.710 align:middle line:84% and you have to listen to the Grateful Dead the whole time. 00:05:50.710 --> 00:05:54.070 align:middle line:84% Bootlegs of the Dead's live shows, so many non-variations 00:05:54.070 --> 00:05:55.630 align:middle line:84% Because the Deadhead was the worst 00:05:55.630 --> 00:05:58.550 align:middle line:90% human and had the big stereo. 00:05:58.550 --> 00:05:59.950 align:middle line:90% Did I move out? 00:05:59.950 --> 00:06:01.070 align:middle line:90% No. 00:06:01.070 --> 00:06:02.210 align:middle line:90% Was I brave? 00:06:02.210 --> 00:06:03.310 align:middle line:90% No. 00:06:03.310 --> 00:06:05.880 align:middle line:84% Did I go back to NYC at the end of the spring 00:06:05.880 --> 00:06:09.420 align:middle line:84% And in some fucked up, slow way re-embrace all the same problems 00:06:09.420 --> 00:06:09.920 align:middle line:90% and ills 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:11.680 align:middle line:84% And scary ass individuals that made 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:14.280 align:middle line:84% me want to leave the city in the first place? 00:06:14.280 --> 00:06:17.520 align:middle line:90% You better fucking believe it. 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:23.480 align:middle line:84% Three-- this is spoken by somebody else and me. 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:25.800 align:middle line:84% But it has quotation marks around the beginning 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:29.060 align:middle line:84% and the end, which indicates that somebody else is speaking. 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:32.224 align:middle line:90% 00:06:32.224 --> 00:06:36.800 align:middle line:84% "Being a poet is very much has a lot 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:40.520 align:middle line:84% to do with the way the little children make things 00:06:40.520 --> 00:06:43.320 align:middle line:84% Children can make a game out of anything 00:06:43.320 --> 00:06:46.040 align:middle line:84% And if you leave any special things lying around 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:47.160 align:middle line:90% on the floor, 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:50.160 align:middle line:84% The children will get them and they'll put them 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:52.920 align:middle line:84% The milk bottle into the shoe and paper bag 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:54.700 align:middle line:90% crammed into the milk bottle, 00:06:54.700 --> 00:06:58.000 align:middle line:84% And they'll bring it over and say, look what I made 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.420 align:middle line:84% And you say, that's really terrific, that's really great, 00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:02.420 align:middle line:90% what is it? 00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:04.820 align:middle line:90% And then they say, I don't know 00:07:04.820 --> 00:07:06.260 align:middle line:90% What is it? 00:07:06.260 --> 00:07:09.240 align:middle line:84% Unfortunately, most of you are not little children 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:13.060 align:middle line:84% And if you-- actually, if you put the milk bottle in the shoe, 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:15.920 align:middle line:84% And the paper bag in the milk bottle, you'd be geniuses 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.600 align:middle line:90% But that isn't what you'll do 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:19.260 align:middle line:84% What you'll do is say, write down 00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:22.180 align:middle line:84% about 30 boring lines about your relationship 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:23.965 align:middle line:90% with your mother or something, 00:07:23.965 --> 00:07:25.840 align:middle line:84% And then you'll bring it over and you'll say, 00:07:25.840 --> 00:07:27.300 align:middle line:90% look what I've made 00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:31.460 align:middle line:84% And generally, most people will say, yeah, yuck! 00:07:31.460 --> 00:07:33.160 align:middle line:90% I can't believe it, God damn! 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:34.740 align:middle line:90% Are you out of your mind? 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:37.620 align:middle line:84% Why don't you go out and read Dante or something? 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:39.820 align:middle line:84% Consequently, what you need to do, 00:07:39.820 --> 00:07:41.500 align:middle line:84% Because it is very important when 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.020 align:middle line:84% you make something to be able to show it to someone 00:07:44.020 --> 00:07:47.580 align:middle line:84% And have them say it is terrific, so that you will 00:07:47.580 --> 00:07:50.420 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's necessary to get affection, 00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:53.460 align:middle line:84% love, a certain kind of understanding 00:07:53.460 --> 00:07:55.800 align:middle line:84% It's also necessary to get encouragement, 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.620 align:middle line:84% And it's further-- it's necessary to be 00:07:58.620 --> 00:08:00.100 align:middle line:90% able to make a show, 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:02.900 align:middle line:84% Like, for example, a peacock does what? 00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:04.440 align:middle line:90% It goes like this 00:08:04.440 --> 00:08:08.350 align:middle line:84% I mean, they just go up and say, look what I made 00:08:08.350 --> 00:08:11.110 align:middle line:84% That's actually part of the important part, too 00:08:11.110 --> 00:08:12.410 align:middle line:90% The peacock doesn't care 00:08:12.410 --> 00:08:15.590 align:middle line:84% The peacock comes up and goes like this 00:08:15.590 --> 00:08:17.970 align:middle line:90% And you say, boring, man, 00:08:17.970 --> 00:08:21.670 align:middle line:90% Send me a Guinea hen." 00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:23.910 align:middle line:90% Four. 00:08:23.910 --> 00:08:26.765 align:middle line:90% I might drop Nootbaar for Durbin 00:08:26.765 --> 00:08:29.390 align:middle line:84% I kind of want to drop him and use the bench spot for a pitcher 00:08:29.390 --> 00:08:29.890 align:middle line:90% to hold 00:08:29.890 --> 00:08:31.150 align:middle line:90% Is that wrong? 00:08:31.150 --> 00:08:32.429 align:middle line:90% That's tough 00:08:32.429 --> 00:08:34.669 align:middle line:84% McNeil's projection is bad this week 00:08:34.669 --> 00:08:38.070 align:middle line:84% You can't trust anyone who puts their seat all the way back, 00:08:38.070 --> 00:08:40.030 align:middle line:90% Con Ed rushes the penny, 00:08:40.030 --> 00:08:43.190 align:middle line:90% I'm only one cow away 00:08:43.190 --> 00:08:45.870 align:middle line:90% One waits to say hello forever, 00:08:45.870 --> 00:08:49.350 align:middle line:84% Ribald hot spit on the tip of the hernia's hot spur, 00:08:49.350 --> 00:08:50.650 align:middle line:90% Always on the movers, 00:08:50.650 --> 00:08:52.070 align:middle line:90% Payment getting to move, 00:08:52.070 --> 00:08:53.550 align:middle line:90% But their health caring for 00:08:53.550 --> 00:08:57.470 align:middle line:84% You, The system sees its own lack of how things howl, 00:08:57.470 --> 00:08:59.470 align:middle line:90% Not sleeve wears on buying, 00:08:59.470 --> 00:09:02.290 align:middle line:84% Cremation shows up as a result of sudden death, 00:09:02.290 --> 00:09:03.950 align:middle line:84% And that can happen out of stride 00:09:03.950 --> 00:09:06.770 align:middle line:84% once the tubes get pulled from the throat 00:09:06.770 --> 00:09:09.370 align:middle line:84% Mediocre gymnastics on the L train 00:09:09.370 --> 00:09:12.090 align:middle line:90% set to weaselly semi beats, 00:09:12.090 --> 00:09:14.270 align:middle line:84% Steve would decry our use of adverbs, 00:09:14.270 --> 00:09:15.790 align:middle line:84% But if you heard the passing tunes, 00:09:15.790 --> 00:09:18.350 align:middle line:84% you'd conform to this monstrous usage, 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:21.690 align:middle line:84% Indicative of poor character, not only in the abstract, 00:09:21.690 --> 00:09:26.770 align:middle line:84% Upon which one is asked to reflect, getting out of bed, 00:09:26.770 --> 00:09:31.610 align:middle line:84% Eyeing the latest hickey, a form of replacement scar. 00:09:31.610 --> 00:09:34.610 align:middle line:84% If the drunk photographer needs company in bed, 00:09:34.610 --> 00:09:37.490 align:middle line:84% Who will not emerge to take the charge? 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:40.250 align:middle line:84% A crying blue octopi tentacle-free 00:09:40.250 --> 00:09:42.010 align:middle line:90% to keep taggers away, 00:09:42.010 --> 00:09:44.670 align:middle line:90% A no tear finally makes contact, 00:09:44.670 --> 00:09:47.290 align:middle line:84% Facts in assemblage, busy predicting the coming 00:09:47.290 --> 00:09:48.350 align:middle line:90% underground, 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:49.790 align:middle line:90% The years they were born, 00:09:49.790 --> 00:09:53.010 align:middle line:84% The portraits of quixotic herons, angrily divebombing 00:09:53.010 --> 00:09:54.770 align:middle line:90% the gulls and waiting, 00:09:54.770 --> 00:09:57.410 align:middle line:90% Inside the station is freezing, 00:09:57.410 --> 00:10:00.770 align:middle line:84% Even the Galway Hooker is no stage for warmth, 00:10:00.770 --> 00:10:03.290 align:middle line:84% So we watch these birds mimicking slums 00:10:03.290 --> 00:10:05.010 align:middle line:90% on the older tracks, 00:10:05.010 --> 00:10:07.260 align:middle line:84% I don't know where this comes from, 00:10:07.260 --> 00:10:10.380 align:middle line:84% I just set up cracks and name disciplines, 00:10:10.380 --> 00:10:13.620 align:middle line:84% I remember Qatar giving the president a picture plane. 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:16.515 align:middle line:90% 00:10:16.515 --> 00:10:18.500 align:middle line:90% Five. 00:10:18.500 --> 00:10:20.740 align:middle line:84% Turns out if you run in circles with folks, 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:22.840 align:middle line:84% Every day for months at a stretch, 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:24.980 align:middle line:90% You can make friends, 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:26.880 align:middle line:84% I wouldn't have put it that way at the time, 00:10:26.880 --> 00:10:30.040 align:middle line:84% But that's what I think happened to me when I was 15 and 16, 00:10:30.040 --> 00:10:32.600 align:middle line:84% In high school, at the prestigious public, 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:34.300 align:middle line:84% But you have to take a test to get in, 00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:37.780 align:middle line:84% Stuyvesant of the peg leg, horrible. 00:10:37.780 --> 00:10:40.400 align:middle line:84% Worse than whatever Brando's Kurtz went through, 00:10:40.400 --> 00:10:42.820 align:middle line:84% I mean, nobody was filming me from the head down 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:43.920 align:middle line:90% to hide my what, 00:10:43.920 --> 00:10:44.840 align:middle line:90% But just school, OK, 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:48.060 align:middle line:84% So I went from having two friends, Ulysses 00:10:48.060 --> 00:10:49.460 align:middle line:90% and Darryl-- hi, guys, 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:51.920 align:middle line:84% To a bunch more and some of their friends, 00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:53.940 align:middle line:84% And every day, we, most of us would meet up 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:55.840 align:middle line:90% after classes were done, 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:58.260 align:middle line:84% But before homework had to be done, 00:10:58.260 --> 00:11:00.620 align:middle line:90% And go run in circles together. 00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:04.300 align:middle line:84% The cross-country team ran in non-circles sometimes or longer 00:11:04.300 --> 00:11:05.120 align:middle line:90% non-ones, 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:07.900 align:middle line:84% The reservoir at Central Park is a type of circle, 00:11:07.900 --> 00:11:11.080 align:middle line:84% But whatever those paths are in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx 00:11:11.080 --> 00:11:11.920 align:middle line:90% are not, 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:14.880 align:middle line:84% And cross-country was a little more fun because we didn't ever 00:11:14.880 --> 00:11:15.960 align:middle line:90% need a coach, 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.920 align:middle line:84% The track indoor and outdoor, you run in circles, 00:11:18.920 --> 00:11:21.580 align:middle line:84% In incredible growing legions of pain, 00:11:21.580 --> 00:11:24.320 align:middle line:84% And you bond with the people you're running in circles with, 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:26.480 align:middle line:90% Because it sucks together, 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.140 align:middle line:90% And you're supposed to be smart, 00:11:28.140 --> 00:11:30.560 align:middle line:84% So why are you subjecting yourself to this shit? 00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:34.120 align:middle line:84% And the other athletes on other teams at Stuy and other schools 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:35.580 align:middle line:90% don't respect you, 00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:38.560 align:middle line:84% And the coach maybe respects you if he's coming around, 00:11:38.560 --> 00:11:41.700 align:middle line:84% And your former teammates who bailed don't respect you, 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:43.000 align:middle line:90% But might pretend to, 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.340 align:middle line:84% And no one watches or goes to the meets, 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:47.280 align:middle line:84% And you won't even go on a date until you're 00:11:47.280 --> 00:11:48.840 align:middle line:90% five years into college, 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:51.720 align:middle line:84% But these are the names that I conjure when I need to remember, 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:53.760 align:middle line:84% Without knowing the need is even there, 00:11:53.760 --> 00:11:55.920 align:middle line:84% When I remember who helped me start to become 00:11:55.920 --> 00:11:57.440 align:middle line:90% a person who could talk, 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:01.080 align:middle line:84% And get to know other kids and be something like happy again, 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:03.720 align:middle line:90% After some hard years. 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:07.610 align:middle line:90% Wally, G, Danny, Carlo, 00:12:07.610 --> 00:12:13.450 align:middle line:84% Jen, Jun, Tito, Sumatra, Surendranath, Saikat, Brian 00:12:13.450 --> 00:12:17.450 align:middle line:84% Cathy J, Cathy M, Sylvia, Mike, Michael, 00:12:17.450 --> 00:12:22.330 align:middle line:84% James, Mervyn, David Ree, Betty, Lyall, David Tsai, 00:12:22.330 --> 00:12:28.410 align:middle line:84% Anthony, Whalen, Noam, Wendy, Noel, Duncan, Coach Jacob 00:12:28.410 --> 00:12:30.090 align:middle line:90% Dennis, 00:12:30.090 --> 00:12:32.370 align:middle line:84% I have no idea where most of you are, 00:12:32.370 --> 00:12:38.170 align:middle line:84% Other than in my heart and this thing I'm calling a poem. 00:12:38.170 --> 00:12:41.370 align:middle line:90% Last section. 00:12:41.370 --> 00:12:46.090 align:middle line:84% That said, we should have maybe let Trump nuke that hurricane, 00:12:46.090 --> 00:12:49.410 align:middle line:84% His first time around as president 00:12:49.410 --> 00:12:51.490 align:middle line:90% It would have been catastrophic, 00:12:51.490 --> 00:12:53.850 align:middle line:84% But I don't think he'd have been re-elected, 00:12:53.850 --> 00:12:55.295 align:middle line:90% I could be wrong, 00:12:55.295 --> 00:12:57.170 align:middle line:84% But I don't think you re-elect the person who 00:12:57.170 --> 00:13:00.730 align:middle line:90% nukes the hurricane. 00:13:00.730 --> 00:13:03.290 align:middle line:84% We might is all I'm suggesting now, 00:13:03.290 --> 00:13:05.390 align:middle line:84% This is a forum here for imagination, 00:13:05.390 --> 00:13:08.020 align:middle line:84% Don't forget that before you freak out on me, 00:13:08.020 --> 00:13:10.100 align:middle line:84% However, elsewhere, you might be, 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:12.340 align:middle line:84% We might be better off with a nuked hurricane, 00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:15.300 align:middle line:90% And no second Trump presidency, 00:13:15.300 --> 00:13:18.420 align:middle line:84% Now I'm just sitting here talking out loud to myself, 00:13:18.420 --> 00:13:20.950 align:middle line:84% And saying really amazing things, 00:13:20.950 --> 00:13:22.700 align:middle line:84% But it's weirding out the folks around me, 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:25.040 align:middle line:84% Who are noticing that I'm just talking to myself, 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:27.660 align:middle line:84% It's late, and I'm talking out loud to myself in public, 00:13:27.660 --> 00:13:30.300 align:middle line:84% About how weird it would be to read everything someone ever 00:13:30.300 --> 00:13:31.700 align:middle line:90% wrote 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:33.700 align:middle line:90% I was thinking about Ron, 00:13:33.700 --> 00:13:35.880 align:middle line:84% I don't need to read what he just wrote yesterday, 00:13:35.880 --> 00:13:37.660 align:middle line:84% Or what he was writing when he was 15 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:40.260 align:middle line:84% and his dad was a bootlegger in Tulsa, 00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:44.920 align:middle line:84% Though I would, but not for research, just out of curiosity, 00:13:44.920 --> 00:13:46.880 align:middle line:84% Which might be the same thing sometimes, 00:13:46.880 --> 00:13:48.300 align:middle line:90% But not all the time, 00:13:48.300 --> 00:13:50.060 align:middle line:84% And Ron was reading French poetry 00:13:50.060 --> 00:13:52.360 align:middle line:90% by surrealists in translation, 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:55.200 align:middle line:84% And maybe we have to acknowledge the French are so strange, 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:56.900 align:middle line:84% To the point where someone really 00:13:56.900 --> 00:14:02.980 align:middle line:84% bonkers like Magritte is just another guy for them, 00:14:02.980 --> 00:14:06.920 align:middle line:84% That's not true, I'm just thinking about Magritte, 00:14:06.920 --> 00:14:09.720 align:middle line:84% Who is very much only who he had to be, 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:11.340 align:middle line:84% And his mom died when he was young, 00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:13.380 align:middle line:84% And it makes me upset, but I also get it, 00:14:13.380 --> 00:14:16.560 align:middle line:84% But I can't be put in no hood over anybody's head, 00:14:16.560 --> 00:14:19.880 align:middle line:84% But I understand, and was he more of a fantast 00:14:19.880 --> 00:14:21.320 align:middle line:90% than a surrealist? 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:25.200 align:middle line:84% As CC and PG posited, in that unpublished interview 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:26.340 align:middle line:90% I sent you, 00:14:26.340 --> 00:14:28.218 align:middle line:84% And maybe even made you read aloud from, 00:14:28.218 --> 00:14:29.760 align:middle line:84% So we could talk about the difference 00:14:29.760 --> 00:14:32.280 align:middle line:90% between fantasy and enigma. 00:14:32.280 --> 00:14:34.960 align:middle line:90% Hi, I miss you, too. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:38.080 align:middle line:90% Sort of. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:40.320 align:middle line:84% But really, surrealism is just a pathway 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:43.160 align:middle line:90% to talking about baseball, 00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:44.640 align:middle line:90% The players will say, 00:14:44.640 --> 00:14:47.500 align:middle line:84% It's really surreal when something happens-- 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:49.840 align:middle line:90% when something cool happens 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.940 align:middle line:84% And they have to talk about it live, 00:14:51.940 --> 00:14:55.280 align:middle line:84% Because professional sports is just about the last live TV 00:14:55.280 --> 00:14:56.745 align:middle line:90% thing that goes on, 00:14:56.745 --> 00:14:58.120 align:middle line:84% And I'm sitting somewhere and I'm 00:14:58.120 --> 00:14:59.620 align:middle line:90% thinking, that's not surreal, 00:14:59.620 --> 00:15:02.920 align:middle line:84% That's a dream script turned into fate, turned into you, 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:05.800 align:middle line:84% And there are no animal heads or pretend random breasts 00:15:05.800 --> 00:15:07.360 align:middle line:90% on your gear, 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:10.650 align:middle line:84% But then for a kid who's 22 and just learning English, 00:15:10.650 --> 00:15:13.330 align:middle line:84% In order to do a job, that is a game, that is really hard 00:15:13.330 --> 00:15:14.790 align:middle line:90% and demanding but can pay well, 00:15:14.790 --> 00:15:17.090 align:middle line:84% But you have to go to weird places to work, 00:15:17.090 --> 00:15:19.750 align:middle line:84% That you wouldn't likely choose to go hang out at, 00:15:19.750 --> 00:15:23.850 align:middle line:84% And then someone puts a mic in your face, 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:27.930 align:middle line:90% And asks how you feel, 00:15:27.930 --> 00:15:31.410 align:middle line:90% That could be called surreal. 00:15:31.410 --> 00:15:37.370 align:middle line:84% In the song "Daisy Dukes," the rapper rhymes on with on, 00:15:37.370 --> 00:15:40.350 align:middle line:84% Look at those girls with the Daisy Dukes on 00:15:40.350 --> 00:15:44.450 align:middle line:90% They really got it going on, 00:15:44.450 --> 00:15:46.410 align:middle line:90% I remember that, 00:15:46.410 --> 00:15:50.490 align:middle line:84% And I know I can do that because they did that 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:53.530 align:middle line:84% And got a certain amount of mileage out of jean shorts worn 00:15:53.530 --> 00:15:55.210 align:middle line:90% by Catherine Bach 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:58.610 align:middle line:84% In a show that came on before Dallas once a week 00:15:58.610 --> 00:16:02.090 align:middle line:84% That I used to watch with mom and Eddie, 00:16:02.090 --> 00:16:04.930 align:middle line:90% Bobby dreamed a whole season. 00:16:04.930 --> 00:16:07.130 align:middle line:84% The Dukes drove a car named the General 00:16:07.130 --> 00:16:10.570 align:middle line:84% Lee, the cops were corrupt bumblers, 00:16:10.570 --> 00:16:12.310 align:middle line:84% But deep down, there was supposed 00:16:12.310 --> 00:16:15.030 align:middle line:90% to be fragments of heart, 00:16:15.030 --> 00:16:18.590 align:middle line:84% Remember when Mike Tyson said everyone has a plan until they 00:16:18.590 --> 00:16:21.350 align:middle line:90% get punched in the face? 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:24.190 align:middle line:90% All the sportswriters do, 00:16:24.190 --> 00:16:27.350 align:middle line:84% Politicians borrow sports language all the time 00:16:27.350 --> 00:16:30.110 align:middle line:84% And don't know shit about sources, 00:16:30.110 --> 00:16:33.590 align:middle line:84% Sources don't always make it to the surface, 00:16:33.590 --> 00:16:35.830 align:middle line:90% Why should they have to? 00:16:35.830 --> 00:16:38.390 align:middle line:90% Do you remember last year, 00:16:38.390 --> 00:16:41.270 align:middle line:90% The jacket as furniture? 00:16:41.270 --> 00:16:43.070 align:middle line:90% I have to fix, 00:16:43.070 --> 00:16:46.190 align:middle line:90% I have to fix all the tools, 00:16:46.190 --> 00:16:48.750 align:middle line:90% Oh, daddy, who can stand it? 00:16:48.750 --> 00:16:51.110 align:middle line:90% What a strange life! 00:16:51.110 --> 00:16:54.270 align:middle line:90% We say things just to stay. 00:16:54.270 --> 00:16:55.190 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:16:55.190 --> 00:16:58.240 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:10.000 align:middle line:90%