WEBVTT

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My name is Diane.

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I've always had a kind
of mythological feeling

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that I either am the
moon or I own the moon.

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I have some relationship too
because of my female nature.

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So I felt very strange
when those astronauts

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were going to land on the moon.

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Because I wasn't
sure if they were

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landing on me or my territory.

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I felt vaguely invaded by it.

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I decided since all poets
write poems about the moon,

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that I would write
a poem to celebrate

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the landing on the moon.

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And what I did to
write the poem was I

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remembered a story that
Robert Duncan once told.

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Robert Duncan is one
of my favorite poets.

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He's a very beautiful
writer, I think.

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And Duncan is an unusual poet.

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And then he's a man who talks
poetry as well as writing.

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So while I don't really
know him very well,

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I've heard him talk a few times.

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And I remember once that
he told a story, which

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must have had to do with his
life long, long time ago.

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Because I know Duncan has
had a somewhat hard life

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until the last few years.

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He's always had to earn his
living doing things like title

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management, so forth.

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So he sort of came into his own.

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And now, I think that
man could be him.

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But he told the story
about once when he really

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felt unloved by the world.

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And it's one thing to
feel unloved by the world,

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but he was also broke.

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And being broke and
unloved by the world

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is a treacherous combination.

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So he decided that he
would take a cab ride

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and go as far as the
money he had in his pocket

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would take him, and then he'd
get out and kill himself.

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He had $10 in his pocket.

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So he got into a cab.

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And he made a mistake
taking ride through--

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fortunately for us, I think.

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He made the mistake riding
in Golden Gate Park,

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very, very beautiful
park in San Francisco.

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And at the end of his
$10, he felt so good

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that he had to get
out and walk home.

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I wrote this poem for Robert
called "The Ten Dollar Cab

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Ride," which I sort of thought
about the astronauts getting

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to the moon, and
maybe they ought

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to have to walk home like that.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"The Ten Dollar Cab
Ride," for Robert Duncan.

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"Robert, like the spray from
a waterfall, I am white.

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Like snow blindness, like
the belly of a shark,

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like sweet white peaches or the
inside of a Pinot Chardonnay

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grape, bone China, zinc-white
pigment or the contrast

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of the mechanics white back
with his grease-soaked arm,

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I am the moon.

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My name, Diane,
gives you a glance

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at a white ankle, a pale
wrist, shadowed by bracelet.

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I am something no one has
ever touched, a place no one

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has ever landed,
reputedly covered

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with powdery volcanic dust,
which might explode when

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exposed to oxygen,
something dreamt of, a place

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to put a flag,
something to conquer,

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white dust to step
carefully, artistically

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on where you hope no one
has ever stepped before.

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You told, Robert, Robber Baron,
of moonlit nights, of your taxi

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ride one pale moment
into Golden Gate Park.

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$10 you had in your pocket.

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You could have had a
pocket of wolfsbane,

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a gold cod-piece, or a pair
of peacock-blue stockings worn

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by HD, or old lines
from the poet Pindar.

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You could have had mesmerized
butterflies in your pocket,

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or crystallized bumblebee,
the fork of an adder's tongue,

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the wishbone of a partridge, or
a cap that made you invisible.

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Instead, poet, you
had $10 and your life

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was like mine is right now.

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You had no one to possess
you, no one who wanted you,

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to give you one of the chambers
of his heart to sleep in.

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No one owns the
moon yet, you know.

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And so you decided
you would ride as far

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as your $10 would take you,
then you'd get out of the car

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and blow out your brains.

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I've been riding
this particular taxi

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for 30 years, old
moon, young moon,

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I don't even know
what I am anymore.

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Like you, I'm unprepared to
give up, step out of the cab

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and die.

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The meter by now registers
up in the millions.

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I can't afford to
get out and pay.

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Must keep riding.

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Lucky man, you got out when the
clock said $10 and walked home.

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But I am the moon.

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Where can I go?

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Everyone wants to
conquer me, to use me,

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to put a missile base
on me, to extract my ore

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to bounce radio waves off me.

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Now, there's something
faintly humorous

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about all this moon-June
campy sentiment.

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I wish I were Yeats and
could abandon poetry.

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Then I'd invoke myself, Diane,
the moon, make love to myself.

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Forget about the sun's rays
that light me up every day,

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forget about who
the moon has been,

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take heart, another
other poet's word.

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But soon, I'll be
American territory,

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throw away my old face and name.

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Someday get in a taxi
and say to the driver,

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take me to the moon.

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And laughing, we
would drive away.

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The charge, of course, at the
end of the ride would be $10.

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And I would get a discount
for having written

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this poem, taken this trip."

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