WEBVTT

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Thank you very much.

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Can you all hear me?

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Yeah.

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Lois only read that
quote because we

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were snorkeling together today.

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[LAUGHTER]

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We snorkel and snorkel.

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I thought I'd begin
with the poem called

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"The Beginning of
September" since it's

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the middle of September.

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This was a-- This is a
poem in which I just--

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with the interest--
the fun of it to me

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was to let stuff
float in and sit there

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in whatever way it would.

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And just let it
accumulate its own shape.

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I mean, it's beginning I guess
was hating summer to end.

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And then, I overheard a
snatch of conversation,

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which is the second little
fragment in the poem.

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And that triggered it.

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And so I just let it
see what would happen.

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The Beginning of September.

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The child is looking
in the mirror.

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His head falls to one side.

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His shoulders slump.

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He is practicing sadness.

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He didn't think she ought to
and she thought she should.

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In the summer, peaches
the color of sunrise.

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In the fall, plums
the color of dusk.

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Each thing moves its
own way in the wind.

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Bamboo flickers.

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The plum tree waves.

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And the low court is shaken.

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The dangers are everywhere,
auxiliary verbs, fish bones

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of fine carelessness.

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No one really likes the
odor of geraniums, not

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the woman who
dreams of sunlight,

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and is always late for work,
nor the man who would be happy

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and altered circumstances.

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Words are abstract,
but the sentence.

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Words are abstract is a dance,
car crash, hearts, the light,

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it's the design dumb
hunger has upon the world.

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Nothing is severed
on hot mornings

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when the deer
nibble flower heads

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in a simmer of bay leaves.

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Somewhere in the summer
dusk is the sound

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of children setting a
table, that's mastery.

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Spoon, knife, folded napkin,
fork, glasses all around.

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The place for the plate
is wholly imagined.

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Mother sits here.

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And father sits there.

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And this is your place.

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And this is mine.

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A good story compels
you like sexual hunger,

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but the pace is more leisurely,
and there are always melons.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Little mother, little dragonfly
quickness of summer mornings.

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This is a prayer.

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This is the body dressed
in its own warmth

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at the change of seasons.

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They're not always melons.

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There are always stories.

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Chester found a dozen
copies of his first novel

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in a used bookstore and
took them to the counter.

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The owner said, that'll be $112.

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Chester said, what?

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The guy said, they're
first editions, Mac.

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20 bucks apiece.

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So Chester said, why are
you charging me $112?

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The guy said, three of
them are autographed.

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Chester said, look,
I wrote this book.

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The guy said, all right, 100.

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I won't charge you
for the autographs.

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[LAUGHTER]

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The insides of peaches
are the color of sunrise.

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The outsides of plums
are the color of dusk.

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Here are some things to
pray to in San Francisco.

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The Bay.

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The mountain.

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The goddess of the city.

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Remembering.

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Forgetting.

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Sudden pleasure.

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Loss.

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Sunrise and sunset.

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Salt. The tutelary gods of
Chinese, Japanese, Russian,

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Basque, French, Italian,
and Mexican cooking.

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The solute of coffee
houses and museums.

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The virgin mother and widow
moons, hilliness, vistas.

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John McLaren, first
gardener, St. Francis.

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The mother of sorrows.

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The rhythm of any life
still whole through three

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generations.

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Wine, especially
Zinfandel because

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from that Hungarian vine
slip came first a native wine

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not resonance and sugar heavy.

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The sourdough mother.

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True yeast and beginning.

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All fish and fishermen at
the turning of the tide.

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The turning of the tide.

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Eelgrass.

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Oldest inhabitant.

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Fog.

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Seagulls.

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Joseph Worcester, first
architect, plum blossoms.

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Warm days in January.

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She thought it was a good idea.

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He had his doubts.

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Ripe blackberries.

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She said, reside, reside.

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And he said, gourd heart.

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She said, sunlight, Cyprus.

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He said, idiot children nibbling
arsenic and flaking paint.

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She said, a small pool of
semen translucent on my belly.

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He said, maybe.

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He said, maybe.

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The sayings of my grandmother.

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They're the kind
of people who let

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blackberries rot on the vine.

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The child approaches
the mirror very fast,

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then stops, and watches
himself gravely.

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So summer gives over, quite
to the color of straw,

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dove gray to slate
blue, furnishings,

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a little rain, a little
light on the water.

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That's the beginning
of September.

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