John Green Reads Poetry

H: Do you have a short poem for us Katherine?

K: I do have one prepared, it is the shortest one I could find.

H: Good for you! Thank you for doing that, I appreciate that very much.

K: *laughs* And we don’t have to talk about it afterwards, it’s by D H Lawrence, who was a writer.

H: Is he no longer?

K: And apparently a poet. Oh, he is no longer, correct.

H: Okay.

K: Yes, he is a former. It’s called Tourists.

H: Okay.

(Reads poem)

H: *laughs* Great! Great Dear Hank and John poem Katherine!

K: Thanks.

H: I – you look really proud of yourself right now.

K: We were – I am, I feel proud. *laughs* As a person who knows nothing about poetry and has minimal interest in it.

H: *laughs* That’s not true, you like poetry.

K: Eh.

H: More than I do.

K: I suppose. I mean, I can appreciate it but I don’t seek it out, that’s for sure.

H: Yeah, I’m – I mostly have a, I feel like I, uh, my brain has very structured ways of understanding the world –

K: It’s challenging to absorb, yes.

H: It’s taken a long time for me to develop these structures and they work, they function well and then like – poetry is kinda designed to disrupt those structures.

K: Yes.

H: And then I’m just like ‘I can’t work’ [laughing] Everything breaks! I don’t have those other ways of understanding the world, they’re just not there.

K: It is very challenging for you to understand.