WEBVTT

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Well, that was a very kind
introduction, I'm grateful.

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And I'm grateful to all of you
for being here this evening.

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One of the things that writers
do is they spend a lot of time

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alone.

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And so a writer is always
grateful for an audience.

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I want to begin with some words
from one of my favorite poets,

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Mary Oliver.

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And if you don't
know her work, I

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would suggest that you run
to your nearest bookstore.

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"No poem is about one of us or
some of us, but is about all

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of us.

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It is part of a long
document about the species.

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Every poem is about
my life, but also, it

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is about your life and
100,000 lives to come.

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That one person wrote it is
not nearly so important or so

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interesting as that it
pertains to us all."

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Well, I'm hoping that, in
this brief time that we

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have together, in this
desert that I so love,

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we can think a little bit
about the use of poetry

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in the best sense of the
word "use" as something

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that binds us all.

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I left Cincinnati in four
inches of snow last Thursday,

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and by noon, I was sitting
by a fountain in Tempe

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looking at these palm
trees and bougainvillea.

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And I felt as if I had
been let out of prison.

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I have a friend in Michigan who
defines me as solar-powered.

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And I feel as if I have spent
this whole week soaking up

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all of this incredible energy.

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"Unrefined."

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"The desert is no lady.

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She screams at the
spring sky, dances

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with her skirts high, kicks
sand, flings tumbleweeds,

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digs her nails into all flesh.

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Her unveiled lust
fascinates the sun."

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