WEBVTT

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This next poem is actually,
I think, the only poem

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I've ever written which
has some, I would say,

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some undertones or overtones
of why I do write poetry.

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Because many people keep
asking writers and poets,

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why do you write poems?

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And so in this poem,
actually, I do it just

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to keep myself going in reality.

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So I just want to not to
run away from reality.

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To live with it.

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And, so, I name
it, and I keep it.

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Don't forget that in
the biblical paradise

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Eden, the first act of poetry,
which was done by Adam and Eve,

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was to call names to all the
animals and plants, which

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is actually the first
act of real poetry--

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so to call things as they are.

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And why do I say this
with so much reluctance

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that I have written a poem about
my creed or about my belief?

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Why I do write poetry?

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Because, personally, I
do not like a poems, even

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by poets who I love
very much, when

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they start writing about their
craft and their art of poetry

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because I think a
poem should be--

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and he can tell about his
craft and why he does it

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and how he does it, but let him
write it or tell journalists

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or something.

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But I think a poet should not
say that because it's like--

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I'm always disappointed
because it's

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like, if you go to a restaurant
and you order some dish

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and then the chef comes
out of the kitchen

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and instead of
bringing you the dish,

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he tells you the ingredients.

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And, so, I think artists and
writers really make things.

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They can be critical
and can, afterwards,

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have certain thoughts on their
own craft but not in a poem.

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But this one is
something nearing that.

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"When my head got banged on
the door, I screamed-- my head!

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My head!

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And I screamed, Door!

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Door!

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And I did not scream
mother and not God,

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nor did I speak of the vision
of the end of days of a world

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where there will be no
heads and doors anymore.

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When you stroked my head, I
whispered, my head, my head.

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And I whispered your
hand, your hand.

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And I did not whisper,
mother, and not God.

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And I did not see wonderful
visions of hands stroking heads

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in the wide opening heavens.

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Whatever I scream and speak and
whisper is to comfort myself--

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my head, my head, door,
door, your hand, your hand.

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