WEBVTT

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Well, being down here in
the right country for this,

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I want to read a poem with
allusions that are easily

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picked up in Arizona.

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It's a love poem.

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It's called "In
The Night Desert."

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"The Apache word for love
stings then numbs the tongue.

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Uttered once clear, said,
never that word again.

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Cousin, you call or a
sister, and one more word

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that spins in the dust.

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A flake, chip like obsidian.

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The girl who hears this flake
follows you into the dark,

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turns it to touch.

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The night desert forever
behind her back."

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Now I should have
used this when I

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was trying to make the
point about diction.

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Writing is not like
having a big desk all full

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of cubbyholes, with all
the possible words in them.

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And you sit there with tweezers,
and pull out a word and then

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another word.

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No, no, no, so that
what you could write

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depends on how big the desk
is or how much time you have

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to sit there with the tweezers.

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Instead, it's
something going on.

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Some kind of momentum,
or it's with contexts.

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So the reason I
link it to this poem

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is, I remember writing this.

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When I got as far as saying,
the Apache word for love, well,

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I could think of 100 different
things to say, and all of them

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seem good.

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And I didn't feel
that I really had

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to worry about the next thing.

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"Passing Remark."

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"In scenery, I
like flat country.

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In life, I don't
like much to happen.

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In personalities, I like
mild colorless people.

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And in colors, I
prefer gray and brown.

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My wife, a vivid girl
from the mountains

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says, then why
did you choose me?

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Mildly I lower my
brown eyes, there

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are so many things admirable
people do not understand."

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[APPLAUSE]

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