"Days With the Family Realist"

A poem by Phi Beta Kappa poet Albert Goldbarth

Albert Goldbarth

 

 

Albert Goldbarth's introductory remarks

[video:http://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/media/2009-goldbarth-intro-remarks.mp3 width:250 height:20]

Poem: "Voyage" [video:http://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/media/2009-goldbarth-voyage-b.mp3 width:250 height:20]

Poem: "Days With the Family Realist" [video:http://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/media/2009-goldbarth-days.mp3 width:250 height:20]

 

For complete coverage of the 2009 Phi Beta Kappa ceremony, see Harvard Magazine's Commencement kick-off and "'Habits are Values in Disguise': The Phi Beta Kappa Exercises"

 

 

 

 

A doorknob on a chicken
my grandmother said once, meaning

useless, stupid. Most of us,
most of the time, are that

exactly. Not that
we don’t have our ambitions,

even our nickel-and-dime
nobilities. Still, some nights

when I can’t sleep, I look
in the mirror, I study this man

who’s planning his own small
parthenons and relativity theories,

bank heists, moon shots, deathless poems.
Go milk a fish she also said. 

 

 

Text copyright Albert Goldbarth

You might also like

Sam Altman’s Vision for the Future

OpenAI CEO on progress, safety, and policy

The Picture of Freedom

A Boston Athenaeum exhibit explores an abolitionist with Harvard ties.

Jeff Lichtman Appointed Dean of Science

Neuroscientist to lead Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences division

Most popular

Sam Altman’s Vision for the Future

OpenAI CEO on progress, safety, and policy

The Watchers

Assaults on privacy and security in America threaten democracy itself.

Diversifying Diet

A little-known diet improves cardiovascular health through several distinct mechanisms. 

More to explore

How is Artificial Intelligence Being Taught at Harvard?

A new Harvard course on artificial intelligence teaches students how to use the tool responsibly.

The Evolution of Human Fathers

Exploring the evolutionary biology of human fathers as caretakers

Civil War American Writer and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier

Homes of the poet and abolitionist, whose verses were said to have inspired Abraham Lincoln.