WEBVTT

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This is a longer poem that
came as the result of a house

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I discovered while fishing
about 40 miles from Missoula,

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Montana.

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And I think I was perhaps the
first person to go into it,

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although it had been
abandoned for quite some time.

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And while I was rummaging
around in the things

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that the people
had left, I found

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some books and some letters
and other things like that

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that I mention in the poem.

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And I discovered
that the people who

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had lived in this house for
two years had been Black.

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And I thought, boy, what
a tough life that must

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have been, to be Black and
living 40 miles from Missoula,

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Montana.

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So I wrote this poem about it.

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And the poem has,
like, three voices.

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One is my own, relating to
discoveries that I was making.

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The other is of a
letter that I discovered

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from the mother of the wife,
who was writing to her family

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from Chicago.

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And the third voice is the
voice of Garner Ted Armstrong,

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who predicts the
wonderful world tomorrow.

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If you've never listened to it,
you should hear it some time.

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So the poem has an epigraph.

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And the epigraph
is from Garner Ted.

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And it goes like this.

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Today chaos, tomorrow the
world erupts into peace.

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Today threat of
human extinction.

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Tomorrow utopia grips the Earth.

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That's advance news from
Garner Ted Armstrong.

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"Letters to Rock Creek"

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Behind the open
house, a rabbit hutch

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lies in the stream where
the bear left it, finding

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nothing inside but a smell.

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Pack rat came in
through the wall,

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stayed, though all
smells became his own.

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10, February, 1967.

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"Dearest ones, I'm
thinking of you so much.

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Didn't get to check Valentines.

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Just got a box of small ones.

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Anyway, to make this do,
Pop picked it for Skip,

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thus his is special."

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In the letter, a newspaper
photo of a large Black lady

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with her coat and hat.

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"I go out of my way
to shop at Jewel.

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And even though I don't have
a big family at home anymore,

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I still appreciate being able
to save money on my groceries.

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Mrs. Rose Jackson, West
115th Street, Chicago."

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In pen on the picture,
"Had to send this.

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I ain't seen such a
proud Mau Mau in ages.

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Oh, ho, ho, ho, me, me.

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Wonder if Jewel will ever
take Lu Jr.'s picture?"

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On the floor near
an empty alfalfa

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tablet bottle, mouse
turds and a chewed shoe.

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The library, money management,
your clothing dollar,

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Alexander Graham Bell, Reader's
Digest First Aid Guide,

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The Romantic Story
of Man and Sheep,

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and The Wonderful
World Tomorrow,

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by Herb and Garner Ted Armstrong
and the Ambassador College

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Press.

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"Tuesday, I got sick.

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Everyone was sure
I was practically

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on death's bed to miss bingo.

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Even Pop was upset.

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Yesterday, up most of the day.

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And by today I'm still hoarse
as hell but feel almost 100%.

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That Helen made me a loaf
of bread and coffee cake.

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Mitzi Richardson's mom died.

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She was so old and
ill, but still hard

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to take that she's really dead."

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And a postcard, 30 miles up
the dirt road from Clinton,

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to Harry B. Darrell, Rock Creek.

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"Dear sir and brother, the
meeting of Carpenter Local

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Number 28 will be
called next Thursday

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relating to the pension plan
for all representatives.

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Very respectfully, Richard
P. Johnson, Secretary."

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Very respectfully,
Sparky's name, in crayon,

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is over a dog-sized
hole in a box

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on the porch, painted golden
rays spreading out above.

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"The resurrected Noah
will head a vast project

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of the relocation of
the races and nations,

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within the boundaries
God has set

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for their own best
good, happiness,

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and richest blessings.

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This will be a
tremendous operation.

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It will require great
and vast organization,

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reinforced with power to
move whole nations and races.

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This time, peoples
and nations will

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move where God has
planned for them,

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and no defiance
will be tolerated."

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What plan brought a Black
man past the snow crest

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in Mission ranges, short
of the Bitterroots,

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to Rock Creek in the
Sapphire Mountains?

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The Big Sky country
is getting small.

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"How is Buck's back?

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Did he like this chiropractor?

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Ironic how he too is a
friend of the one Buck

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went to in Illinois.

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Such a small world really.

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Jackie, so glad
about that note deal.

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Really, it is your property and
simplifies matters for us both.

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Helps your credit rating 100%.

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This I like."

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Oh, a long way from 115th
Street to Lolo Peak.

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Down in the
Stockman's Barn Cafe,

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they don't talk
about civil rights.

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Down in Rock Creek, a
salmon fly disappears

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with a trout tail and a swirl.

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"You folks did get a lot of
snow last week, didn't you?

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I think of those roads so
often and say a special prayer.

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How are the scientific
experiments on the heater?

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One must figure a lot
on this, combination

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of woods, et cetera.

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And so rewarding when
one is successful."

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Imagine Montana in the
mountains, winter, trees, snow,

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and a frozen owl near a
board house with a heater.

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Imagine the owl coming to
life in the windy night.

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Does it work?

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If so, where does
the bird go then?

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Successful.

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"Well, dear hearts, do
believe this all the news.

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Will let Pop mail this tomorrow.

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Buck, your birthday
gift is late,

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but I want to put a few
goodies in the package.

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We will toast you and
be with you in spirit.

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Just wish it could
be in person."

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Outside, bitterroot flowers
make their small blue movements

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and a water ouzel
sings in the creek.

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Utopia is gripping the Earth.

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A Chicago paper is
tacked to the wall.

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Sophomore Lew Alcindor
dumps Illinois.

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"Love, hugs, and kisses to
you all, your Ma and Pa.

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Jackie, write when you can.

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And you all take
good care of you all.

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Us again."

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"Us again" this time is white.

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And whoever, inside
by the refrigerator,

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with its motor gone, like
a man without his tongue,

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it should say this.

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A Black family is missing.

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Find them.

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And that silence
is beyond speech.

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The end of a letter in the
quiet of an empty house.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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