WEBVTT

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There are times when I--

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I think poetry is the most
important thing in the world.

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And there times when I
sometimes feel like poetry

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is the most useless,
foolish thing in the world.

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And I guess if it
is important, it's

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important because
it's an attempt

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to make a commitment and
resolution about what

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your life is about.

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And in a way, it's
almost an act of magic,

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or an act of religious
faith, that you're

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willing to embrace
and talk about life.

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Maybe the thing that's really
the most valuable about poetry

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is that it's completely
useless in all practical terms.

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Because things that are
useful pass out of existence,

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and something new is
invented that is more useful.

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And poetry, if it
has no use, perhaps

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can stay around just
because we need it.

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This first poem is
called "The Magician."

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You are warm.

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The flowering stalk
of the radish,

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hot, not spicy, but sharp.

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I touch with my teeth the
root, that white ball.

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Vegetables remind me I love
you, your transformation.

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The magician works in silence.

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There is no music around him.

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The only rhythm a pulse in
the frightened rabbit's ear.

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When he folds his silk
and hangs up his suit,

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he slips his baton
into his elbow.

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That naked magician walks up to
my doorbell which doesn't ring.

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I hear him.

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The magic being now in my ears.

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He leaves his eyes
on my shoulders

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and powdering my knees.

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