POEM + REVISION
AUTHOR NARRATION
Read by the author in the original English.
RETURN TO THE SCENE
The poem says "Main St.", but I remember exactly where I witnessed this, and in preparing this I am sure that the actual street was State Street, somewhere between Chapel and Grove. I assume I used the other name just to make the poem more generally intelligible. Below, you can see the current state of the strip of road I reference, though it is nearly unrecognizable today over ten years later.
Explore State Street between Chapel and Grove.
DISCOVERED IN TRANSLATION
This is a genuine mistake I made out of my own ignorance of language when the book was first published—one I discovered while preparing the French translation.
ORIGINAL TEXT
the borne teeth of circumstance
CORRECTED TEXT
the bared teeth of circumstance
WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW
I meant to picture circumstance exposing its teeth like a threat. But “borne” is the past participle of “bear” in the sense of carrying or enduring; “borne teeth” therefore does not mean teeth exposed. The phrase I wanted was “bared teeth”—teeth uncovered and displayed in threat or warning.
YALE AND NEW HAVEN
The contrast is between people sharing the same streets under very different economic circumstances: the more affluent, Ivy League-affiliated patronage of Yale and the general urban poverty found in many major cities, including New Haven.
FAMILY BACKGROUND — HISTORICAL YALE COHORT
NEW HAVEN HOUSEHOLDS — 2015
READER DISCUSSION
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