WEBVTT

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So that's Mom.

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So now I'm going to
read some newer work.

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Throughout this period, I
have also been writing poems.

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I'm happy to say they're
not all death poems--

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in response to my
relationship with my husband,

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and I like to call him my lover.

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We've been together
for 25 years,

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and I can still call him that,
so to call his energy here

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tonight.

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They're all in pairs,
and the first pair poem

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is titled "Necessity," and
the second poem, "Invention,"

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because I feel those are
two things that marriage,

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that relationship, that love
relationship calls forth in me.

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And as you might guess, I have
a certain relationship to form.

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And for me, finding the
organic form of the piece

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is the way that the content
can actually start to move.

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So the form for these,
the "Necessity" poems

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are, it begins with a four
sentence first stanza,

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then a three sentence
stanza, two sentence stanza,

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one sentence stanza.

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And then the "Invention"
poem is the reverse

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because sometimes you have to
begin with virtually nothing,

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right.

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And usually the first
sentence of the invention poem

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is very short, two sentence,
three sentence, and then four.

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So I'll just read
one pair of these.

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I'm having eyeball trouble.

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I just sort of did
some revision of this,

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but I think it can
be read pencil marks.

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I kept my old comb
because its teeth

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are bent to the shape
of both our scalps.

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Fermented liquor
of your listening.

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Empty cup of my vowels.

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All sailors in our intricate
sentence, but no captain.

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I showcase for you,
but only in a shoebox.

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Satisfaction grows just
outside whatever our minds

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build to cultivate it.

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Winter months, the
cigarette unlit,

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ambivalent, but without the
least hedge of confusion.

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We start from any,
even the vilest word.

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This is a study of
what strands us.

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"Inventions" There's
sanctity in the jay's bark,

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but no sanctuary.

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They, the dangerous ideas,
are following me again,

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they're subtle and then
they're unsubtle, pointing.

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As they keep themselves
uninventoried,

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disinterested in my scrutiny.

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My ears are ringing
as I look down.

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The height I've tossed my
body this time is too high,

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and still you climb.

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Each hand or foothold
can only be found

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after the last one is released.

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Climbing includes leaning with,
and against, the guide wires.

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A little wind this morning
whittled down from wanton.

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There's a watch wren outside
our window, chirping loud,

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which describes the world.

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