WEBVTT

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I'd like to read this one.

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And I promise I will
change the mood.

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But I would like to read
this one, "Plenos Poderes."

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I've been-- there is a series
of poems in this book that

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are written after Pablo
Neruda, a Chilean writer who's

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been a wonderful poet,
and I have always loved.

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So there's a series
of poems-- he

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has these wonderful
exuberant love poems, as well

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as his political work.

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So there are these
series of poems

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that are written in the
style of Pablo Neruda.

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And this is one of
them, "Plenos Poderes"--

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which takes off from a
title of one of his poems--

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one of his books--

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Plenos Poderes, which has been
translated, fully empowered,

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but it's more like
plenty power--

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full powers-- "After "Neruda."

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And this is a poem that's
really about losing love.

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And the first time
this was published,

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it was published in
a collection of poems

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on grief, particularly for
people who had died of AIDS,

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and dealing with
the grief process.

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And I didn't intend it to be
published in that context.

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But I was very glad to see
it published in that context,

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because it fit this sort
of longing for love,

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and the strength of love.

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"Plenos Poderes, After Neruda."

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"Does it fill you with power--

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with water, with stone--

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to create a want so ceaseless?

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Hear the creaking of moon
as she reaches to sea,

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hair full of shimmering
jellies and diatoms

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lost in the craters.

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There's a skull and
crossbones in the fix

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of the rip, in the breakers
incessant breaking,

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of cradle and rock.

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All night, all tide,
solstice to solstice,

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she bends and bears
the bending of water.

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As you filled me
with child, so I

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felt I would give birth to it.

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What do I do with the key to
this city, this door to you

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that never opened fully?

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Do I change my life into yours?

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Do I do what the women dare?

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Do I abort it, now
that the Earth rust's

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with the weight of it?

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Do I love you less?

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Do I spit in the
moon's single eye?

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Do I survive?

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Do I?

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Plenos poderes and singing."

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