WEBVTT

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I'm going to read two
more poems from that book

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and then end with some new ones.

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This is a poem called Hearing.

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And again, it's a poem about
Mexico sort of, you know,

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part of the landscape.

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Back when it took
all day to come up

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from the curving broad
ponds on the plains

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where the green wing
jaçanas ran on the lily pads

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easing past tracks at the
mouths of gorges crossing

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villages silted and
hollows in the foothills,

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each with its lime washed
church by the baked square

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of red Earth and its talkers
eating fruit under trees.

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Turning a corner and catching
sight at last of inky forests

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far above steep as faces
with the clouds stroking them

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and the glimmering airy
valleys opening out of them.

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Waterfalls still roared from
the folds of the mountain,

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white and thundering.

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And spray drifted around us,
swirling into the broad leaves

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and the waiting boughs.

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Once I took a tin cup and
climbed the sluice box

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and mossy branches
beside one of the high

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falls, looking up step by
step into the green sky

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from which rain was falling.

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When I looked back from a ledge,
there were only dripping leaves

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below me and flowers.

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Beside me, the hissing cataract
plunged into the trees.

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Holding on, I moved
closer, left foot

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on a rock in the water, right
foot on a rock in deeper water.

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At the edge of the fall
then from under the weight

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of my right foot came a voice
like a small bell ringing

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over and over, one
clear treble syllable.

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I could feel it move.

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I could feel it ring
in my foot, in my skin,

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everywhere, in my
ears and my hair.

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I could feel it in my tongue
and in the hand holding the cup.

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As long as I stood there,
it went on without changing.

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When I moved the cup,
still it went on.

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When I filled the cup
in the falling column,

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still it went on.

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When I drank, it rang in my eyes
through the thunder curtain.

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When I filled the cup again,
when I raised my foot,

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still it went on.

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And all the way
down from wet rock

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to wet rock, green branch to
green branch, it came with me.

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Until I stood looking up and
we drank the light water.

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And when we went
on, we could still

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hear the sound as far as the
next turn on the way over.

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