WEBVTT

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This one is another journey
poem called "The White Hotel."

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And I suppose in a sense
grew out of a trip,

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the Westerns and the Shelton's
took to Weymouth last year.

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There is no particular
building which

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represents this White Hotel.

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It's a an amalgamation
of several places.

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But it is I think the
influence of Mexico

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more than anything,
which caused this.

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And because of that
particular trip,

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this poem is dedicated
to John Weston.

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"The White hotel."

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When winter comes,
adjust your voice to it.

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When the clock dies, hide
it from the children.

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Do not resist the
urge to travel,

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it will be only a journey
and there is no arrival.

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Drive-through the
desert quickly,

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it is inhabited by those
in search of death.

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You have as many minutes
as the rain has eyes.

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Beside a gabardine sea, you
will find the White Hotel

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where bougainvillea drips
from the roof like blood.

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Dim lights will be on in the
hallway along moss carpet,

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flowing past a
wilderness of doors.

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Stairs crowded with
unpredictable lovers

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and assassins.

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In the bar, new arrivals
celebrate reunions

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by throwing their glasses
into the fireplace,

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others just drop
them on the floor.

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When anything falls down in this
hotel, it lies there forever.

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All night, people
sing old songs.

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When the shoe tree
blooms in the desert

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and the ice plant melts
by the sea, all night,

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the water will rest
quietly in its blue tomb.

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At dawn, when palm
trees wave their arms

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as they do at the
slightest change in plans,

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you will watch waves send up
fine contingents of water,

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each retreating without
losing its courage

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thousands of white truces
negotiated on the sand.

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And with your pulse beating
for distance, your hair turning

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to salt, you will say,
because of its great depth,

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the sea can forgive anything.

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But do not linger
at the White Hotel

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or soon you will learn that
memory is the only kind of loss

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we ever know.

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