In celebration of National Poetry Month, Bill Murraycontributed a list of his favorite poems to a piece for the April issue of Oprah Winfreys O Magazine. The actor/bon vivant marked that occasion Thursday on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a dramatic reading of Lucille Cliftons What the Mirror Said.
Listen, you a wonder, Murray reads in the clip, delivering the lines with zest. You a city of a woman. You got a geography of your own. Listen, somebody need a map to understand you. Somebody need directions to move around you. Listen, woman: You not a no place, anonymous girl. Mister with his hands on you, he got his hands on some-damn-body.
Murray landed his poetry gig about after Os Books Editor Leigh Haber reached out through a mutual friend and left a voicemail. She didnt hear back for two months, but Murray returned her call one day before deadline and coordinated an in-person poetry reading. The resulting piecefeatures annotations from the actor; for What the Mirror Said, he wrote, Everybody needs an Attagirl! now and then.
Clifton, a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, died in 2010. Murray previously read her poem at a December benefit for New York Citys Poets House.