WEBVTT

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OK, now I don't have anything
that is as daring as that poem,

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in terms of the use of
language, as experimental,

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but I have one that
is a fairly daring

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in terms of its use of context,
and its use of history.

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It's called "The Golden Jubilee"

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As you probably know,
the Jubilee Year

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was the year in the
Jewish calendar when

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all the prisons were
emptied, and all the debts

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were forgiven.

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And then it came to be the
golden Jubilee, the year

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of Queen Victoria's
50th year of reign,

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and then that morphed
into a song, which I think

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was a Negro spiritual
originally, the golden Jubilee,

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and I use the three lines
from that song as an epigraph.

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This poem moves enormously
fast, perhaps too fast.

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It's in four parts.

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It's a compression of
history into one day.

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And many of the things in
it are absolutely factual,

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but many of them are made up,
and many of them are skewed,

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but some of those figures
are 30,000 at one point were

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murdered, were killed.

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I think that was in El Salvador,
and those are factual figures.

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The Golden Jubilee.

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"In that far off sweet forever,
just beyond the shining river,

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when they ring those golden
bells, for you and me.

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One.

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On the morning
that lasts forever.

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The neighbors are playing
a tape of Tibetan monks

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again, somewhere between
groaning and flatulence,

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calling it music.

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We could take the dog for
a walk, if we had a dog.

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A famous contortionist
has a fit of hiccups

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while practicing the
Bavarian pretzel,

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and buggers himself
severely before anyone

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can come to his rescue.

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He swears it has
never happened before,

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but he shows little
remorse, saying,

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such accidents are simply
hazards of the profession,

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and virginity is an asset
only to the very young.

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The skinheads are greasing
their heads and straps,

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applying for jobs
as prison guards.

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The prison guards are eating
turnips, chewing thoughtfully,

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dreaming of escape.

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It is sunny.

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The young president and his
wife get into a convertible.

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The seeds of death are
in the flowers of death.

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Who will catch the bouquet?

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Soon, love will arrive,
wearing a necklace of garlic,

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and riding a crow.

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Two.

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During the afternoon
that last forever,

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a young earthquake ponders
the laws of physics,

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and the dictionary grows
a new head of hair.

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A thief steals a purse, and
finds in it a living magpie.

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He feeds the bird and cares for
it, they become inseparable.

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Years after the magpie's
death, he finds in its nest

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the keys to the
kingdom of heaven.

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God sleeps and
dreams about rain.

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It begins to rain.

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A revolt breaks
out in El Salvador,

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and the government
kills 30,000 peasants.

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A hummingbird flies out
of a dead man's eye.

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An ex nun marries an ex
priest, and they both

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become prison guards.

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A prisoner looks through
the tiny window of his cell,

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and sees the second,
third, and fourth comings.

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Jesus saves, he shouts,
everybody but me.

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Someone is still sobbing
behind a curtain,

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and will not be comforted.

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Those with souls turn
to those who have none,

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and say, you don't
look a day older.

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Love sleeps triumphant on a
bed of rice and mushrooms.

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Three.

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During the evening
that lasts forever,

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an old pederast sits
in his basement room.

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The light from his
little, high window

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becomes murky, as if the
room is going underwater.

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He waits for the phone
to ring, for someone

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to try to sell him something,
for any voice in the world

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to talk to him.

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The president and his wife
enter a box in the theater,

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the audience applauds.

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A mad carpenter and
his fishermen friends

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get into a leaky boat
to cross the lake.

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It won't work, the
boat is overloaded,

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somebody is going
to have to walk.

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Later, the Pope walks
into a tough bar,

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in the barrio
dressed as a cowboy.

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He orders a tequila,
rolls a smoke one-handed,

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and lights a match on
the seat of his Levi's.

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Everybody knows he is a
fake, but nobody says a word.

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The skeleton crew
of the Inquisition

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waits in his pickup,
parked in the alley,

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down which love
staggers, stoned again,

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and squats to take a pee.

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Four.

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In the night that lasts
forever, the neighbors

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are playing Mexican chicken
scratch polkas, dogs howl,

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the ex nun and ex priest
are killed in a prison riot.

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They go to heaven, where the
thief admits them immediately.

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The Pope objects and spray
paints traitors on the walls,

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his truck is riding low.

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The contortionist continues to
practice the Bavarian pretzel,

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but never performs it in public.

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The boat makes it to shore, with
the carpenter treading water

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beside it.

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The fishermen will later
exaggerate the story,

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as fishermen always do.

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The vultures in El Salvador
get fat during the night that

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will last forever,
and an earthquake

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destroys much of Bolivia.

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The prisoner becomes a
Pentecostal preacher.

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Someone is still sobbing
behind a curtain.

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The curtain rises, it
is a man with a gun.

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He shoots into the
president's box.

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Blood sprays out
onto the audience,

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who accept it as sacrament.

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Towards dawn of the
night that lasts

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forever, love returns repentant,
bells are ringing, golden bells

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are ringing.

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[APPLAUSE]

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