WEBVTT

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Do you think I
should read it, or--

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- Yeah.

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- Really?

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- Makes sense.

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- OK, well Sherwin's asked
me to read a poem, so I will.

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And then we'll give
the last reader

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and we'll have a good Q&A.
Our last reader has arrived.

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This is "America,
I Sing You Back."

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It's actually a tribute to
Phil Young, a Cherokee artist.

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And to my dad, as well
as Whitman and Hughes,

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who I'm conversing with here.

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This is "America,
I Sing You Back."

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America, I sing you back.

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Sing you back what sung you in.

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Sing back the moment
you cherished breath.

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Sing you home into yourself
and back to reason.

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Oh, before America began to
sing, I sung her to sleep,

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I held her cradleboard,
and wept her into day.

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And my song gave her creation,
prepared her delivery.

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I held her severed cord
beautifully beaded.

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My song helped her
stand, helped her hand

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the first steps, nourished
her very being, fed her,

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placed her three sisters strong.

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My song comforted her
as she battled my reason

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and broke my long-held footing
sure, as any child might do.

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Lo, she pushed herself away,
forced me to remove myself,

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and as I cried this
country, my song grew roses

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into each tear's fall.

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My blood-veined rivers and
painted pipestone quarries

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circled the canyons, while
she made herself maiden fine.

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Oh, but here I am,
here I am here.

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I remain high on each
and every peak, carefully

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rumbling her great underbelly,
prepared to pour forth singing.

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And sing again I will,
as I have always done.

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Never silenced unless in the
company of strangers, singing

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the stoic face,
the polite repose,

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polite while
dancing deep inside,

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polite the mother of the world.

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And sister of myself.

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When my song sings aloud again.

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When I call her back to cradle.

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Call her to peer into
waters, to behold herself

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in dark and in light,
in day and night,

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I call her to sing along, call
her to mature, to envision.

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Then, she will quake
herself all over.

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My song will make it so.

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When she grows far past her
self-considered purpose,

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I will sing her
back, sing her back.

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I will sing.

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Oh I will--

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I do.

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America, I sing you back.

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Sing back what sung you in.

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