WEBVTT

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This is called "Away."

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It's a poem about
staying up all night.

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Something I've never done.

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No, I've done it, but
I've never written a poem.

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After you stayed
up all night, it's

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not the thing you want to do.

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What you want to
do is go to bed.

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"Away."

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"One summer night, I could
not sleep and went outside.

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I stood awhile in the
calm, the somber air.

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The musk of trees swept over me.

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The tall closets of
my spirit opened.

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Things fell away.

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Down into nothing went the dark
windows, the stone flowers,

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the wasted breath.

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Whatever I carried
with me over the years,

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it seemed like hours, I
stood watching my life fall

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into the dark.

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And then I lay down, and
the grass bent over me.

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And the immense wind of
summer began billowing near.

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For hours I lay,
perfectly still.

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I could not remember
the sound of winter,

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I could not remember the sound
that wished to be winter.

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I thought of the earthworm
turning among roots.

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The owl's eyes glowing
beneath his lids.

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The mouse's bones glittering
secretly under his skin.

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I looked up into the trees, the
green enormous rooms of leaves

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swayed in the stylist
wake of the wind,

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and shown as if each kept
an emerald moon within.

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I seemed so far from
everything, so far from sleep.

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The lawn shivered
around me like water.

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All night I wondered
what lay beyond.

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I could not imagine a
dreamless deep or a light

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that would not break.

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I turned and turned in
the smoke of my skin.

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I floated among the
bones of heaven.

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All night I wondered
where would it end.

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Some hidden birds had
begun their singing.

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The morning yellows
filled the sky.

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A few leaves spun over the lawn.

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Nothing had changed.

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I walked back into the house.

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And while the sun hooded the
roof with light, I lay in bed.

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I closed my eyes and did
not move all day, all day,

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whatever I carried
with me over the years

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would burn and fall away.

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Burned and fall away."

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