WEBVTT

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I would like to dedicate this
reading to Michael Cuddihy

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and to his wife, Mary.

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They have been wonderfully
helpful in getting

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me started in my profession.

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And also I want to
thank them for devoting

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the whole issue
of ironwood to me

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and the Peruvian poet, Vallejo.

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But I also want to dedicate
this reading to them as friends.

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Michael wanted me to publish
a poem called The river again

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and again as the last poem
in my book, and I did do it.

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And then it won
the Pushcart Prize.

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And so I thought I might
make up for it a little bit

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by reading it as the
first poem for my reading.

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The river again and again.

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If I could show
you how repetition

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helps us to
understand the truth,

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if we stayed with
each other long enough

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to see the seasons return,
to see the young animals,

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and the opening of
peonies and summer heat,

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then we could make sense of
the hawks calm with the deer

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all lowering their heads
again and continuing to eat,

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and we would know each
other sometimes with a love

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that touches indifference.

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