WEBVTT

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And I'd just like to
finish with two poems

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from the last section of the
book, which is discovered

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by a statement turned
to the center given

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and do the best you can,
which this completes

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a cycle a descent
from the first poem,

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and I really don't like being
20th century ish and kind

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of wallowing in despair.

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I think it's
totally unnecessary.

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But it's good to take a good
hard firm look regardless

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of what it cost you.

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In fact, even if it
costs you everything.

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Of course, if you
can't tell the truth,

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you just kind of mess up
things for your children.

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And I'm tired of
hearing people say

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that they're not responsible
it was their parents.

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So I'm in favor of
stopping and continue.

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I want to read you
the last two poems.

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One is called Field and one
is called Biological Light.

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Feel is a poem that I like very
much because my oldest daughter

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is responsible for the poem.

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And briefly, how
did that happen?

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Well, I was babysitting one
day, and I was also writing.

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At this time in her life my
daughter was just a crawler.

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And she didn't talk.

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If she talked, I mean,
it wasn't English.

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And I wasn't relating to it.

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So I didn't feel upset.

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And I thought I had
everything under control.

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I wash the dishes, did
all my little stuff.

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And grabbed my little pad.

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And I was ready.

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And I put her on
one end of the sofa.

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And I got to the
other end of the sofa.

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But I was stupid
because I thought

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she was going to stay there.

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And what she would do is she'd
start crawling up the sofa.

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And she was slow.

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And when she'd get to
me, she'd start reaching

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for the pad and the pencil.

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And I'd jump up and I'd run
to the other end of the sofa.

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And it would disoriented.

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She think it's magic.

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When you're really young,
how did that happen?

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And I was going to take a few
minutes to get coordinated.

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And I could sit down.

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So what happens was it allowed
me to continue writing,

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but it also suggested
fragmentation.

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Because what happens
is to a certain extent

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I could concentrate,
I could even

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begin to estimate
how much time it

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was going to take it to get
to the other end of the sofa.

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But she was in my consciousness.

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OK.

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All right.

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Now, so what happens
is the poem feel

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involves the kind of
split consciousness.

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Number one, this guy is going
fishing, and number two,

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he keeps talking
about Charlemagne.

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OK.

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I guess a lot of people
picked it up, right?

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Charlemagne really
on another level

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that it's just not in the poem.

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Charlemagne is
really my relating

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to my daughter coming
on conquering, marching.

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And I'm trying to write and
I'm calling that fishing.

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But anyway, the
poem is called Feel.

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The day needs curtains.

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So the wind uses butterflies.

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But there is no one at home
like the buttercups, who

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come by their yellow decisions
again and again to see you.

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Evenly around, the temporary
edges of apples like children.

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My face becomes accustomed
to sudden endings of rain.

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And I slosh again descending
gracefully looking for worms.

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At social gatherings, worms
eat apples and read my books.

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If they had feet, I could
call them Charlemagne.

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Sunlight conquers the
grass by flashing blades.

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Once in a while, I crack
a twig to prove the shade

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is suffering.

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Charlemagne, who needs you.

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A river is a mouth.

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When it screams, fish disappear.

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I touch my real uncomfortably
and call the attention brother.

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Huddle is in the deep meet
the same broken dreams on land

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we call unreasonable.

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I go back to read and repeat.

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Charlemagne, who needs you.

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Lock the gate like you are
the owner behind the pasture.

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Take your time reaching the car.

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Use your life on the stand,
the fish you've caught.

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The worms they ate who
read and poor Charlemagne.

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