WEBVTT

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I have a neighbor who
runs an apple orchard.

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And he's not a suspicious
type of person,

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but he had been told that
if you talk to the trees

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while you're pruning them,
that they'll bear better fruit.

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And in a skeptical frame of
mind, he nevertheless tried it.

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And he took one
row of 100 trees,

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and as he pruned the trees,
he whispered little gentle

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nothings to the trees.

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And by God, he said it worked,
that they bore clearly better

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fruit than the other trees.

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This poem is a
poem, is set where

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I'm pruning the
trees on my own land,

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and I'm teaching, instructing
my son in the proper way

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to prune the trees.

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So part of the
poem is the father

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giving the son instructions
on how to prune trees.

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But part of the poem is
the father's own meditation

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to himself, which is
not spoken out loud.

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And in his own meditation, his
mind moves between two seasons.

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He's in March at one
time in his mind,

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and June in another
time in his mind.

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So the poem shifts
back and forth

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in his mind between
these two seasons.

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And I hope you can follow
the difference between when

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the father is thinking
thoughts to himself

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and when he's
speaking to his son.

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"Pruning fruit trees.

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Begin by cutting all branches
away that are now dead.

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It is March, when
surely feels in the air

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a softness that has
not yet arrived.

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The cut must be made
close to the parent limb,

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following the angle
of its growth.

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Used snow, inches deep, shows
yesterday's boot prints,

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my son's and mine, circling
each other, circling each tree.

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With two equal branches now
divide, choose one and cut.

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It is not good that they
contend for vital sap,

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the cut must be made
close to the parent limb,

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soon it will smoothly heal.

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The chickadee scold us by their
feeder, they have their rights.

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Don't be afraid to cut.

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That's it, cut more.

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It's good for the
tree, lengthening life,

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making its fruitful.

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A farmer told me to
talk to the trees,

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tell them, "This is good for
you", speak softly, thank them.

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It is June.

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Our footprints faintly circle
the trees in the moist grass.

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Like little berries, the fruit
is hard, they will make it,

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they will hold on.

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See, they will hold on, they
will ripen, they will do well.

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It is June.

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I have learned to
ask for nothing more.

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I have never been
happier than this.

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Tell them they will do well.

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As wind flutters their
leaves, praise them.

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It is March.

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The cut must be made
close to the parent limb."

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