WEBVTT

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So that's sort of a boastful
poem in which the poet has

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managed to find this moment.

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But this is-- in
this poem, the poet

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encounters a whole
level of removal

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from the flow of
time that is far,

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far beyond his own capacity.

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It's called In The Kingdom.

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Once in a great while, I
come upon them inhabitants

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of the kingdom of the
leisurely like the two

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I happened upon last week at
the museum standing in front

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of a painting by Van Gogh.

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A woman in her early
30s and a boy about 10

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dressed in local garments
and speaking softly

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with local inflections who
revealed no sign of the kingdom

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that they were from until I made
a circuit of the big room in 20

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minutes and met them again
just where I left them.

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There they stood in
front of the drinkers,

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a painting of three men standing
at a table set out in a field.

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Each tilting back
black a glass of wine

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while the child off to the
side, barely as tall as a table

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drank from a glass of milk
he held with both hands.

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Unnoticed, I stood
behind them and listened

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is the woman gently posed
questions as if half to herself

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and the boy, son or nephew or
young disciple, I couldn't say,

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answered eagerly
as best he could.

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Do the men looked the
same age or different?

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Would you say there are
three men or one man

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at different times of his life?

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And is the child, do you
think his son or the boy

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that the man once
was decades before?

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And I seem to know where
her questions were heading.

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Soon she would ask if
anyone in the painting

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looked as if his thirst
was being satisfied.

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And if not, can we
guess the cause.

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And then the
question would come,

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what do we really thirst
for and how should we

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look for it and where?

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All I needed to do
it seemed was wait

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and she, though half
my age, would lead me

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along the path that
ended in revelation.

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Assuming the concept of path
was appropriate for a kingdom

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of a leisurely.

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Maybe this conversation for
them wasn't a wayside marker

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but an instance
of what they saw.

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Maybe while they
were talking, they

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were strolling down to the
beach to gather seaweed

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or already returning to make a
broth I was welcome to share.

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Too bad I had an
appointment in half an hour

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in the kingdom of the
busy and couldn't stay.

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