WEBVTT

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Good evening, and welcome
to tonight's reading.

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Looking ahead to March, the Ruth
Stephan Poetry Center series

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will present Charles Simic
on Wednesday, March 4,

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here in this auditorium at 8:30.

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That's two weeks from tonight.

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And the poetry in
the schools program

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which you heard a little bit
about before the last reading

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will present William Meredith
on a return visit to Tucson.

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That has been tentatively set.

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His reading has been tentatively
set for Friday, March 20.

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Please watch for announcements
to confirm that date.

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Tonight's guest poet comes
to us from the foothills

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of the high Sierras
in California.

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At 35, he's already
a poet and teacher

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of long standing, highly
respected by other artists

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and always much beloved
by his students.

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Later this year, he'll
become in all likelihood one

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of the younger poets to see
his selected works issued

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by a major publishing house.

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The volume will be called
The Door Standing Open

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and it'll be published by
the Oxford University Press.

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And just to show that his
craft hasn't been allowed

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to stand still, he
is going to come out

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with a book of new poems from
Kayak press entitled Country

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Lightning and that
will be very shortly.

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Those two books will be his
sixth and seventh collections.

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He's also edited an anthology,
Poems From the Hebrew,

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which is going to
be issued very soon.

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And only last year
he was co-editor

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with Stephen Berg of
one of the most exciting

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of the contemporary
anthologies called

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Naked Poetry, Recent American
Poetry in Open Forums.

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His own poems have been
appearing since 1954

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in distinguished periodicals
on both sides of the Atlantic.

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And they are
represented in a number

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of important anthologies
including New Poets of England

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and America, Today's Poets, and
Penguin's Contemporary American

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Poetry.

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I'm especially honored to
introduce Robert Mezey.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you, Bob.

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When I first bought this bag.

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It originally held an army
lightweight service gas mask.

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And traveling around the
country the last couple

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of years I've begun to wish that
I'd bought the gas mask too.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And you ought to try to not to
miss Charlie Simic's reading.

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I've never heard him read
but he's a wonderful poet.

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