WEBVTT

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And now to close
this reading, I will

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read a poem translated by Renata
Gorczynska with CK Williams.

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It's dedicated to one
of my best friends

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who's a very old Polish painter.

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He's 93 and still very
active and wonderful.

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His name is Jozef Czapski,
or Joseph Czapski in English.

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The title is "Cruel."

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"Cruel" for Joseph Czapski.

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In the park the sound
clue, birds sang.

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Alone in the vast narcissistic
forest overlooking Paris,

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I pondered your words.

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Cruel, the world.

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Rapacious, carnivorous, cruel.

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I circled the park the
same clue, East to West,

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West to East.

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I strolled through the
leafless chestnuts,

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bowed to the dark bowing cedars.

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Haired pine cones cracked
by wrens and sparrows.

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No beasts of prey in the
park, other than time, just

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them changing from
winter to spring,

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stripped, an actor flinging
his costume away backstage

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in the chilled wings.

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Cruel, I thought.

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Here is the killer, abided
by police and by priests.

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Even you indulge it, the
protagonist of your paintings.

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But is there a choice?

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A milder, softer world?

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Trees more exquisite, cedars
with even darker needles?

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More sumptuous feasts?

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Moments of meditation
that thrust

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to the core of knowledge?

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Is there a kinder time, eager
to give back those we have lost

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and to restore us to
ourselves, pure and young?

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A rose sky, tight,
narrow ribbons of cloud.

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The brown walls of
prisons, hospital courts,

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wailing corridors without end,
the moments of meditation,

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rhythm imperiled by
fear and anxiety lies.

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I circled the part
the same clue, faster.

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Faster, winter finished,
spring not yet.

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In the park, barren,
bereft of its king.

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I kept saying it.

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Cruel.

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Lizards and birds
my only witnesses.

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Then, through a dense mist,
the white sand boiled.

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I was impaled by
sharp burps of bliss.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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