WEBVTT

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This is a prose piece
of what might be

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called a series of prose poems.

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I don't like that
term particularly

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but I happen to believe that
prose and poetry are much more

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closely related than most of
us believe or most of us know.

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And I have become in recent
years very much interested

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in that relationship and
in the way that prose

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can reflect poetic
considerations,

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poetic qualities,
and vise versa.

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This is called "The
Colors of Night."

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One, "White."

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"An old man's son was killed
far away in the Staked Plains.

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When the old man heard
of it he went there

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and gathered up the bones.

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Thereafter, wherever
the old man ventured,

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he led a dark hunting horse
which bore the bones of his son

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on its back.

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And the old man said
to whomever he saw,

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'you see how it is that now
my son consists in his bones,

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that his bones are polished and
gleam like glass in the light

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of the sun and moon, that
he is very beautiful.'"

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Two is "Yellow."

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"There was a boy who drowned
in the river near the grove

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of 32 bois d'arc trees.

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The light of the moon lay
like a path on the water,

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and a glitter of low
brilliance shown in it.

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The boy looked at it
and was enchanted.

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He began to sing a song that
he had never heard before--

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only then, once did he
hear it in his heart,

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and it was born like a cloud
of down upon his voice.

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His voice entered into the
bright track of the moon

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and he followed after it.

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For a time he made his way along
the path of the moon singing.

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He paddled with
his arms and legs

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and felt his body rocking
down into the swirling water.

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His vision ran along the path
of light and reached across

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the wide night and took
hold of the moon. .

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And across the
river, where the path

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led into the
shadows of the bank,

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a black dog emerged
from the river,

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shivering and shaking
water from its hair.

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All night it stood
in the waves of grass

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and howled the full moon down."

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Three is "Brown."

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"On the night before
a flood, the terrapins

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move to high ground.

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How is it that they know?

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Once there was a boy who took
up a terrapin in his hands

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and looked at it for a long
time, as hard as he could look.

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He succeeded in memorizing
the terrapin's face,

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but he failed to see how it was
that the terrapin knew anything

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at all.

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Four is "Red."

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"There was a man who
had got possession

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of a powerful medicine.

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And by means of this
medicine he made a woman out

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of sumac leaves and lived
with her for a time.

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Her eyes flashed and her
skin shone like pipe stone.

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But the man abused her,
and so his medicine failed.

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The woman was caught up in
a whirlwind and blown apart.

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Then nothing was left of her but
1,000 withered leaves scattered

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in the plain."

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Five is "Green."

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"A young girl awoke one
night and looked out

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into the moonlit meadow.

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There appeared to be a tree,
but it was only an appearance;

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there was a shape made of smoke,
but it was only an appearance;

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there was a tree.

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Six is "Blue."

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"One night there appeared
a child in the camp.

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No one had ever seen it before.

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It was not bad
looking, and it spoke

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a language that was
pleasant to hear,

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though none could understand it.

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The wonderful thing was that the
child was perfectly unafraid,

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as if it were at home
among its own people.

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The child got on well enough,
but the next morning it

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was gone as suddenly
as it had appeared.

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Everyone was troubled.

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But then it came to be
understood that the child never

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was, and everyone felt better.

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'After all,' said an old
man, 'how can we believe

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in the child?

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It gave us not one word
of sense to hold on to.

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What we saw, if indeed
we saw anything at all,

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must have been a dog
from a neighboring camp,

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or a bear that wandered down
from the high country.'"

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Seven is "Purple."

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"There was a man who killed
a buffalo bull to no purpose,

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only he wanted its
blood on his hands.

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It was a great,
old, noble beast,

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and it was a long time
blowing its life away.

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On the edge of the night the
people gathered themselves up

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in their grief and shame.

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Away in the west they could
see the hump and spine

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of the huge beast
which lay dying along

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the edge of the world.

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They could see its
bright blood run

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into the sky, where
it dried, darkening,

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and was at last flecked
with flakes of light."

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And eight is "Black."

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"There was a woman
whose hair was

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long and heavy and
black and beautiful.

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She drew it about
her like a shawl

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and so divided
herself from the world

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that not even age
could find her.

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Now and then she steals
into the men's societies

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and fits her voice into
their holiest songs.

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And always, just there, is
a shadow which the firelight

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cannot cleave.

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