WEBVTT

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Now I'll read a couple of
a little more surrealistic,

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a little crazier perhaps,
from the book The Dolphin

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with a Revolver in its Teeth.

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Here's a poem which
was first published

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on Robert Bly and a
number of other poets,

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including myself, Louis Simpson.

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I gave readings in the Northwest
against the Vietnam War

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about four years ago, in
front of the American Writers

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Committee against the Vietnam
War, which is subsequently

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at least given a
lot of readings,

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and the poets have
participated in a number

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of mass demonstrations
against the war.

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At that time, we brought out a
little volume called A Poetry

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Reading against the Vietnam
War, in which this poem was

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included.

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I still like it.

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It's called
"Scattering Flowers."

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It's also in that
Where is Vietnam?

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anthology that Doubleday--
that somebody brought up.

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And it's proceeded with a little
epigraph, a little quotation.

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"It is our best and
prayerful judgment

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that they, the air
attacks on North Vietnam,

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are a necessary part of
the surest road to peace."

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The author being
Lyndon B. Johnson.

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"There is a dark tolling in
the air, an unbearable needle

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in the vein.

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The horizon flaked
with feathers of rust.

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From the caves of
drugged flowers,

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fireflies rise
through the night.

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They bear the sweet
gospel of napalm.

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Democracies of flame are
declared in the villages.

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The rice-fields seethe
with blistered reeds.

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Children stand somnolent
in their crutches.

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Freedom, a dancing girl, lifts
her petticoats of gasoline.

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And on the hot sands
of a deserted beach,

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a wild horse struggles, choking
in the noose of diplomacy.

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Now in their cane
chairs, the old men

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who listen for the
bitter wind of bullets,

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spread on their thighs maps,
portfolios, legends of hair,

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and the photographs
of dark Asian youths

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who are already dissolving
into broken water."

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