WEBVTT

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There's three good poems
I've written in my life.

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This is for George Evans,
a Vietnam vet poet--

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the best-- married to Daisy
Zamora, my friend and mentor.

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She was a combatant
with the Sandinistas,

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the voice of Radio Sandino,
a great poet, and she was--

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worked under father
Ernesto Cardenal.

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They started the
literacy programs

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that the dictatorship had--

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the dictatorship
obviously did not

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want people to
learn how to read.

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And so they started literacy
programs using poetry.

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And so both my friend
George and Daisy

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have taught me about
redemption through poetry.

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How you come through war,
how you come through PTSD,

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how you come through it
all, and that you can bring

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with you words that save you.

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And this is for
George and Daisy.

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"Clock."

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"Wear a watch that does not
work, because minutes lie.

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Because hours are nails
in the heart of god.

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Let the hands of time
tame you, instead.

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Fingers of shadow,
fingers of light.

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The sun set sail, the sun docks.

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Time is scrawled
on the sidewalk.

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Open the curtain, look in on
your life against the laughter

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of eternity.

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Are you reading?

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Are you weeping?

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Are you setting out
a blue bowl of fruit?

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Holiness flowers in the
fissures of this day.

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Steep the seconds
like manzanilla.

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Wrap yourself in the
steam of centuries.

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Take time's pulse, hot
in your own hands."

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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