WEBVTT

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I've had a theme of doubles
running through the book

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as the title
indicates, and I want

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to read a poem called
"The Likeness."

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The book came out
while I was in Ireland.

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So I still don't know where
everything is in it yet.

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It has an epigraph from poems.

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One might say that stone
which does not regenerate

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is in fact the only thing in
nature that constantly dies.

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I was interested in this poem
in showing a lot of levels.

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The poem is written so that you
have the vision of looking out

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through a window
and having a fixed

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scene outside that
window and then

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that is given dimension
by someone passing

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through in front of
the window and also

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through a reflection, the idea
of reflection on the window.

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"The Likeness."

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To have felt much
in doubt of caring

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is conviction enough
when a thing is done.

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And you tell me as in a story
how you sliced your breast

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with a razor not to let him go.

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Now every man who
sees you by moonlight

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must kiss that scar or scrape
against it in the night.

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And though you dismiss it
as proof against new love,

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they have seen your hand
go to it like a heart.

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I could not show where
my own flesh closed,

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though the ridge is
there when I speak of it,

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a finger traces the
breath along the window

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through the view, the
river which stays the same.

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Each time the breath seems
more a part of the scene,

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a man walks through
it and I am the same.

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You open your blouse
to reflect the scar

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and the man walks through it.

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I am the same.

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I am always the same.

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