WEBVTT

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"Oedipus Exceeding."

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This poem speaks of Oedipus at
the very, very end of his life,

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after he had paid his debt.

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And I'm thinking here
of Oedipus at Colonus,

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that Sophocles wrote.

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"Oedipus Exceeding."

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Finally, Oedipus came back.

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Returned as the
old to the ancient.

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Found a stone and sat down.

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Blind and blinding.

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Slowly people gathered around
him, hesitant and horrified.

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He began.

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The Earth is winnowed, he said.

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Put through a sieve.

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It is what happens
at the borders.

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A grinding away.

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The ocean against
the curving shore.

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Sky against the mountain.

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Less rock.

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Fewer trees.

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A reduction of whatever bulges.

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Almost nothing of
it is useful to us.

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The ocean and sky laboring
to make their place.

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Salt wetness and the storm.

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If we go forward, we go beyond.

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If we return to the gentle green
center, we come back defeated.

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We are expected to rejoice
and grieve at the same moment.

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A telling goes on at the border.

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At the border an intermingling
of fish with swallow.

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Of eagle with hands.

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I have returned to mix
my blood with our Earth.

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Mix myself with what we are not.

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His voice in the crowd was like
wind blowing the chaff away.

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There is a hole in the
ground behind this stone,

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he said through the bushes.

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I will go there now
and lie down forever.

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The people walked
back toward town.

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Something had happened.

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Everything was sacred.

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Air, goat, plants, people.

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All full of worship.

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Bodies, torsos, legs,
minds full of worship.

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And strong enough to be
happy in the elements.

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