WEBVTT

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We had-- if you
write that much--

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I mentioned to the class that
I talked to this morning,

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if you write that much it
becomes a free substitute

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for psychoanalysis.

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I mean, you can't
write that much

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without every detail of what
you're thinking and feeling

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coming out.

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And it was fascinating
to discover where--

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which images and which hang
ups John had and I had.

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When I read back through
the book I think about that.

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| this is called the
Sherpas of Canada.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Another poet came to my school.

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I won't name him.

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And he had a kind of
ecstatically alcoholic moment

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in front of my students.

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And he was--

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I don't know that
he remembers this,

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but he was orating, let us say.

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He was orating.

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And suddenly, out of nowhere,
he said the Sherpas of Canada.

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And I thought, yes.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And I thought he won't
remember he said that.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So when it was my turn to write
a poem back to John I just,

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I had to use that as a title.

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I had nothing but the
title when I started this.

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I thought, well,
they might be there.

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I think of the
Sherpas as in Nepal.

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But what would they
be doing in Canada?

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What do you think?

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[LAUGHTER]

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The Sherpas of Canada are
leading you and your automobile

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north to a lake.

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The automobile is old.

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Maybe you're old, too.

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Or, maybe you're
just getting older.

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On an island in the
center of the lake

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stands what's left of a house.

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Inside it live
three little girls.

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The house has collapsed,
but the little girls

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don't seem to mind.

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The little girls
are actually dolls,

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but it's possible
they don't know this.

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"Will you be our doll?"

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one of the little girls asks.

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She has a smudge on
her porcelain cheek,

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and one of her
eyebrows is missing.

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What you want to say is, "I'm
sorry about the love thing.

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How nobody ever
quite got that right.

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And for the way I treated
those kittens and for all

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those really bad movies."

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What you want to
say is, "I'm sorry.

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I just can't be
a doll to dolls."

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Instead, you find you
can't say anything.

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It's as if someone had
painted a fake mouth

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over your real mouth.

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It's cold.

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And the wind's picking up.

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You try your keys in
the automobile ignition.

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Nothing happens.

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Behind you the
Sherpas start singing.

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Or, maybe that's just the wind.

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