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A place that his first
poem in the book--

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that obvious idea of wanting
to gain as much about life

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and experience as you can,
without going over the brink

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into death or going out
of your mind or whatever

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brink or threshold,
you could think of.

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OK I'll finish up with
three or four poems.

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This one is the only
kind of political poem--

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I suppose "Trifles Drop" was.

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This was taken from
a newspaper statement

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by Ev Dirksen which I thought
was rather interesting.

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I won't imitate Ev
even though I could.

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He mentioned, "I don't want
anyone to blow my head off,

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because the flowers need me.

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I told the Sheriff, I
hope he, the killer,

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waits till the frost comes and
the barn swallows are gone."

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This was in reference to his
being threatened half a dozen

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times in the last few months.

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Remember when he had
security guards over him?

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So in a kind of
Shakespearean tragic mask,

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he mentions that he must wait.

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He doesn't want to go until
the frost comes, until the barn

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swallows are gone.

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And I thought this is
interesting that, obviously, we

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can't transform ourselves
into that bird or that flower.

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But to have this
kind of involvement

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in some kind of experience,
or are being that dedicated.

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Even if he meant it or not,
doesn't matter to my purposes,

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that he, or someone,
wants to stay around

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to be the caretaker of
nature is of interest.

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And so I wrote it
along those lines.

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Also the implication is
that it's pretty damn stupid

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when someone has to assassinate
a man because he can't confront

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him face to face.

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Instead of going right up
to him and grabbing him,

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and say "I demand that you
tell me what you're doing.

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What your motives are."

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To absent yourself, and
be the detached killer

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leaves the whole
argument unsaid.

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So that is the
other major reason

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for writing this
anti-assassination poem.

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"This is the sudden
winter face off.

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Not with words or a dark angered
face thrusting at the window,

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but unsigned bullets in flight
to explode the breath away

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and leave the argument unsaid.

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Neither the swallows
nor the marigolds

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have willed his coming.

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In a time of bloom,
when a man must play God

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and through all this disorder.

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For the bulge above
someone's heart is no shy

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Cupid in disguise.

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A cold breeze stirs
from the North.

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The barn creaks
in his empty hull,

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and flowers sleep
in their roots.

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Sparrows turn down
ahead of danger,

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and the County
Sheriff's badge catches

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the last rays of daylight.

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The killer's target
shifts in light,

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and coaxes his own
body into lust.

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To be the bird,
to be the flower,

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and not drop a
feather or a pedal

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until the last unseen
shadow's path can spring

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gushes in the live blood."

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