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And the last poem, I've
thought of the poet

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as the ancient poet.

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Going back to the
time of the druids,

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and way back into prehistory--
as poetry, as being,

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at that juncture,
anyway, the expression

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of primitive man
as poetry, perhaps

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always is a kind of a
desperate utterance of one man.

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And so I've called him call this
fictitious ancient poet, who

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was really just a kind of
symbol for the whole type

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of all poets, called
him "the me myself."

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Which the poet, considering
with his own consciousness,

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and then extending
outwards to the world,

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sorta becomes the me myself
with capital letters--

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The Ancient Poet.

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And this poem is to
explain this mythic poet.

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"No swan of a leader in
contest, no phoenix risen

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from his own ashes, the me
myself willed his own birth.

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Although he could have kicked
all the saints in the pants,

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he stayed, paying out
truth like ad space.

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He played life like a flute
player, mostly by ear.

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Not like a monk in the dark
cell, but like a harem chief,

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bounding from flesh to flesh.

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He wrestled the
word for the secret.

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Seasonally, he became the
werewolf, or blooming mountain

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laurel.

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He allowed prying maidens
to sniff and pluck petals

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from his open sores.

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It was a music deep in his
core that was protected,

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hidden like nectar.

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Those who banished him,
mockers who cupped their ears,

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knew he would not
trumpet their doings.

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He was no public
agent of the soul.

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The word was not equitable
with bull or bear.

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In stock with split,
nothing for nothing.

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The message was, he had to go.

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His execution came like the
escaped song of a thrush

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outside your window.

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His miracle among
us was that tablet

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of words, the
ministry of himself."

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[APPLAUSE]

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