WEBVTT

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I need to read just
one -- one more poem.

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As I said, much of this was
written in a trip I made.

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A trip to France.

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I actually did a poetry
reading the night

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before I left Berkeley
to fly off to Paris.

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And the poet I read with--

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and afterward-- we had drinks
afterwards, and I said, well,

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I'm flying to Paris
tomorrow, and he--

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took me by the shoulder
and said "don't --

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don't write any Paris poems."

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You know which I
understand the reasoning.

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It's important to defend
provincialism at all costs.

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But I was like, oh, OK.

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So I tried to follow his wishes.

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This poem is called "Peoria."

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Peoria!!!"

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It's got lots of
exclamation marks.

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"Peoria.

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With your unshaven boys
smooching on the street corners

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or talking on the phone
while skating headlong

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into tourists, who throng
the ghosty avenues of Peoria.

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With your grand
soirees and jubilations

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pushing out against the
weight of history, Peoria,

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capital of the 19th century.

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With your cloud of excess
signs and gold leaf settling

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on the eyelids of
black-haired women

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glowing from the
terrace cafes, which

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line the stone banks of Kickapoo
Creek, flowing like blue milk

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under the famous
bridges of Peoria.

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And your swank manners and
red suburbs, and no future,

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and movies, where strangers
swap philosophical gems

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and fall at once
into bed, never have

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so few of all possible
kisses involved me

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as in Peoria, Midwestern
city of lights.

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And so off to
glamorous Vernon city

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of canals, five-step
bridges with arcane graffiti

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with its three million
atavistic pigeons at the heart

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of the jewel-box labyrinth
and its ancient library

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drooping languorously
into the lagoon

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a few inches per annum, bearing
Tom Swift down to the dirges.

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Vernon with its dead ends and
narrow vistas and supermodels

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in their sunglasses
and autumn exile,

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like the four figures in
the mystical marriage of St.

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Catherine, attributed to
Parmigianino about whom see

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'Self-portrait in
a Convex Mirror'.

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All of them torn from a
glossy and glued to the abyss.

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Everywhere at once
I must be with you."

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Thanks very much.

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[APPLAUSE]

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