WEBVTT

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I'd like to read my wife's--

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My wife's in the audience.

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I'd like to read my--

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her favorite poem of mine.

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It's called "Salami."

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It's in-- It's in
They Feed They Lion.

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It's a poem in three
sort of short movements.

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There are no transitions
between them.

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And so it might seem
difficult just hearing it.

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If you had it on
the page, I don't

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think it would be difficult.

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The first section just
describes a Spanish woman

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making a salami.

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And there are a lot of place
names, towns in Spain that

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are famous for the
kinds of salamis

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they produce, as our towns
are famous for their athletes.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Theirs are known by wines,
and cheeses, and salamis, more

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sustaining significant
things than a bunch

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of jerks running on a big lawn.

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[LAUGHTER]

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The second part
describes a stone cutter

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and his idiot daughter.

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His daughter is a
full-grown woman

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but she has the
mentality of a child.

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And the third
section is about me.

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I'm awakening from a nightmare.

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There's a reference to
the Tremontana, which

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is the name of a wind that comes
out of the Pyrenees in Spain

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or the Alps in northern
Italy, and brings

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violent changes, great cold,
and is much feared by Spaniards,

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and the subject of
a lot of folk tales.

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It comes out of
the Holy Mountains,

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as the mountains are called,
just behind Barcelona.

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"Salami."

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Stomach of goat,
crushed sheep balls,

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soft full pearls of pig eyes,
snout gristle, fresh earth,

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worn iron of trotter, slate
of Zaragoza, dried cat heart,

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cock claws.

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She grinds them with one
hand and with the other fists

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mountain thyme, basil,
paprika, and knobs of garlic.

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And if a tooth of stink
thistle pulls blood

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from the round blue marbled hand
all the better for this ruby

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of Pamplona, this
bright jewel of Vich,

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this stained crown of
Solsona, this salami.

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[LAUGHTER]

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The daughter of mismatched eyes,
36 year old infant smelling

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of milk.

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Mama, she cries, mama,
but mama is gone,

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and the old stone cutter must
wipe the drool from her jumper.

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His puffed fingers unbutton
and point her to toilet.

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10, 12 hours a day, as
long as the winter sun

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holds up he rebuilds the
unvisited church of San Martin.

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Cheep cheep of the hammer
high above the town, sparrow

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cries lost in the wind
or lost in the mind.

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At dusk he leans to the
coal dull wooden Virgin

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and asks for blessings
on the slow one

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and peace on his
own grizzled head,

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asks finally and each
night for the forbidden,

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for the knowledge of
every mysterious stone,

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and the words go out on the
overwhelming incense of salami.

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A single crow passed
high over the house,

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I wakened out of nightmare.

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The winds had changed,
the Tremontana

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was bearing out of
the Holy Mountains

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to meet the sea
winds in my yard,

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burning and scaring
the young pines.

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The single poplar
wailed in terror.

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With salt, with guilt,
with the need to die,

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the vestments of
my life flared, I

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was on fire, a stranger
staggering through my house

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butting walls and falling over
furniture, looking for a way

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out.

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In the last room where
moonlight slanted

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through a broken shutter I found
my smallest son asleep or dead,

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floating on a bed
of colorless light.

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When I leaned closer I could
smell the small breaths going

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and coming, and
each bore its prayer

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for me, the true and
earthy prayer of salami.

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