WEBVTT

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I have a long poem
called "Maxims in Limbo."

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It's too long to
read to you, but I'd

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like to read some sections just
to start off with this evening.

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They'll introduce a
number of the themes

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that I'll pick up in
other poems as I go along.

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The poem is introduced
by a quotation

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from Dante, the fourth
canto of The Inferno.

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It's where Dante puts
all his favorite poets.

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And Dante's lines go, "Thus we
went on as far as the light,

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talking of things that were
fitting for that place,

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and of which it is
well now to be silent."

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Now, the poem is made up of
many very short sections.

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They're maxims and
haiku-like poems.

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And I've tried to create a
fabwork, a network of themes

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and images, but I'm
afraid some of that

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will be lost since I
have to skip through it.

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"Maxims in Limbo."

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"The happy father comes
to resemble his children.

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The man who attempts
to change his wife

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dooms himself to
remain the same.

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I write these crazy poems in
order to live a saner life.

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In a time of despair,
eat bountifully.

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In a time of joy,
also eat bountifully.

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It is a noble thing to give
one's life for one's country,

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and nobler still to spare
one's country such grief.

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The happy man continuously
seeks out new ways

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to keep things the same.

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The first tenet of the rational
man is that man cannot live

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by reason alone.

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Ripped stalks and stubble
make colder the cold field.

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You observe me, and
lo, I am enhanced.

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In the land where
the poet rules,

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flowers grow only when watched.

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The most painful
sins to repent for

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are those one wishes
one had committed.

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When discipline fails,
wait for inspiration.

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When inspiration fails,
take that as your theme.

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Obey your wife when she
asks the impossible--

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you will improve yourself.

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When a father's glance lingers
on his daughter in the sun,

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even the sea shutters.

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In the best of possible worlds,
only the brave marry and die.

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The happy poet
proclaims the circle,

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wishing only for what he has.

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When your wife
becomes secretive,

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invent something to confess.

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In his element, the fish
is almost weightless.

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It has no need to dream.

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The tender husband holds to a
central truth, silences help.

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When the father feeds
his son, both laugh.

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When the son feeds his
father, even the sea shudders.

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Words are a kind of surface,
like the ruffled lake.

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Beneath, the silent fish
feel always at home.

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The spider redesigns his web in
the land where the poet rules.

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The change is not
perceived by the court fly.

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Ask the impossible of your
wife, she deserves no less

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for having chosen you.

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When the sea shutters,
mother and daughter

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release their pet gull
with a broken wing.

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Freely, the sun leaves home.

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Someone has planned all this,
neither mother nor father.

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The stone says, 'I am the cause
of the foam of the stream.'

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'Without me', says the stream,
'the stone would never be

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smooth.'

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'I am the cause of the silence
that follow,' the thunder says.

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The silence says what the
poet says that it says.

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At his slide, the
otter's skeleton

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lies perfectly
exposed by the sun.

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My children swing on the lawn.

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Not even a small wind
stirs in the willow tree.

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It is noon.

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The fish are not
eating, but a boy

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stands on a stone
casting his line.

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If I could return
now, I would find him.

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Is that again the
wind in my dream

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or the tanks in
the wet moss woods

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the instant before
they can be heard?

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Picture a circle with wind in
which hands separate and touch.

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Even without faces,
these hands are ours.

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Blue mist purples
the distant hills.

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Having slept well, I can
discern the grazing shape

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of the unicorn.

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When the father dies, the
son becomes mortal.' "

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