WEBVTT

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To any of you that
I've had a chance

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to talk with or add
in the last few days,

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you know that I'm very
interested in the long poem

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as a very exciting
medium and part

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of the whole process of the
shaping of American poetry

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right now.

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And I'm not entirely
sure that I believe

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that the long poems that we work
on can be a complete success

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or that they'll ever be as
good as our short poems.

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But I'm very deeply
tied up in trying

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to continue on that process
of creating the long poem.

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But because I get
so involved in this,

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I periodically set
for myself the task

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of writing some
short poems, also,

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because I feel that that's
the way one sharpens

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his tools because short
poems each point themselves

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at some different
aspect of the language.

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So I'd like to read you
five short poems now called

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"Five Love Poems"--

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preface to reading along.

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"For Tony in a Bar"--

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"I wish I were a smoker when
I see a girl whose hair is

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as dark as a locust
pod bend her head,

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put her white hand, not
the tree's white flower,

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but a peeled, blanched
twig, on your wrist

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to steady the light you are
holding for her cigarette.

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I do not smoke."

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"A Lover Disregards Names"--

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"Do people live
up to their names?

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Yours is Anthony.

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Fortunately, you don't know
anyone named Cleopatra."

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[LAUGHTER]

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"If you did, we would
find out if people live up

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to their names."

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[LAUGHTER]

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"I would love you
whatever your name

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was, even if it were "Spoon"
or "Stone" or "Pig Shit.""

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Fishing"-- "I found a fish
and threw it on the moon,

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hoping it would swim and trace
the sky with bright paths--

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salmon, trout, freshwater bass.

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I would look up at
night some night

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when you were busy and couldn't
come home and think of fishing.

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Then in my imaginary map, I
would trace the deep, wet spots

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where you would be
and not worry alone,

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knowing that fishing
even on the moon

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is a calm and solitary sport.

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Someday, I would work up my
courage and ask you to take me

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with you, as I cannot do when
you are just out in bars with

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friends.

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My fish is sweet and pink
and fresh as Northern salmon.

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I will sing and trace
him new waterways."

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"Comparisons"-- "When you are
with me, it is a completion,

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like ink or a fountain
pen, and a satisfaction,

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like pissing when you
really have to go."

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[LAUGHTER]

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And the last one is called
"Speaking to Someone I

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Love by Telephone."

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"Time separates us, as my face
cannot touch the real pillow,

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the thread, thickness of
case between my head and it."

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