WEBVTT

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In the closing poem,
Biological Light.

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I'm beginning to discover
the more I look at this book

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that I have no talent.

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I just have a family.

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The close of this
book Biological Light

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occurs out of another
family context.

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It rains an awful lot in Oregon.

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I mean, it rains.

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And in the Bible when they
talk about 30 or 40 days,

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it ain't true because they
can rain more than that

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without even having them
start doing the awful thing.

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But anyway, it had been raining.

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And I was really going berserk.

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And then the sun broke.

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And I grabbed everybody.

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And I said, let's go to the zoo.

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I just was relating
to the Ark I guess.

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And not only do I say
let's go to the zoo.

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I say let's go to the aquarium.

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And in the Tacoma zoo, in
Tacoma, Washington there's

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a plaque.

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And on the plaque, they
talk about a lot of things.

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Well, usually, when I
go to places like that,

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I really can't function.

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I mean, I can't
memorize all the names.

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I can't learn all of
that information at once.

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So when you went to school,
they gave you the impression

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that when you went on these
trips, what you essentially

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should do is just look
like you're intelligent.

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So it's a habit I've kept.

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I walk into these places.

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And what I can't deal
with all that information.

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So I just couldn't further.

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And so there's this big plaque.

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And I'm not going to read that.

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I got to look at all
these fish, the octopus.

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So I decided, well, let me go.

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And this all this look in
the middle of the plaque.

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And I see this statement
biological light.

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Well, as it turns out,
really, my wife's personality

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is just the opposite.

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She is a walking catalog
and computer of information.

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And so she's walking
through looking

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at everything and reading.

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And she's understanding
all of that junk.

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So while I'm just looking
at one thing on the plaque,

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she's reading the whole plaque.

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And so I forget about this.

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And I say at the end of it, I
say oh, Biological Light, boy.

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And she says fool, the machine.

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You just push the
button Biological Light.

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And she bloom.

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And she gives me
all the information.

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So I said, thanks a lot.

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And I wrote the poem.

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And Biological Light
is for the most part,

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I still can't even explain it.

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But what it deals with
is the idea of where

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the sunlight comes down goes
into the water you know fish,

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plants absorb it.

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Well, there are some
fish in the lower levels

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that never really have a
direct access with sunlight.

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Their access to sunlight
is through the presence

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of sunlight in other
fish and other plants.

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And so it's called
biological light.

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They come to light that way.

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And essentially, when
she tells me all of this,

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it really fascinates me.

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And what I just do is I say aha.

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They eat light.

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OK.

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Well, that becomes very
significant for me.

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I don't know about other people.

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Because in the
Western tradition,

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light represents truth.

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And it's essentially
pure, right?

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So suddenly, you have an
image of light involved

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in a cannibalistic thing.

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And that's essentially
just the theme of the poem.

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The quest for light
the devouring of life,

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and all of that stuff.

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So I'll just read the poem.

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And now be it, boy.

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Then maybe I'll go home and ask
her if she knows anything else.

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We live here to eat.

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Things stare at us.

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Those things eat.

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We call all of this
hunger in the world.

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Why?

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Because we live here.

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All over the world,
morning light

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is still happening like God.

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It is so hard to tell who
eats the plants first.

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Insect or crepuscular.

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The wind fields the
smallest birds it's got.

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If that is what we
are, it's not a lot.

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Here comes the fox.

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Noon circles logically
like the hawk.

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God moves the rim around
until the fox is in.

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Now the fox is the hawk.

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And all the small things
he ate, believe him.

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I have come here late.

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The deer look like
they have gone.

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With thorns remind
me more is going on.

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Gradually, memory
sets the table back.

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I have come from across the
water as far back as I can no.

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Friends there have eaten me.

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Now, I stand here.

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That torn by hate as I
myself have eaten them.

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Late.

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The owls say who for what
more will surely come.

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Finally, I am older,
but not enough.

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Surrounded by what
I know is falling

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back toward the grass
more like luck than hope.

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I am just lying here
thinking this in my sleep.

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How cold it is outside?

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If we were fish where it is very
dark, it would all be so easy.

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Light would come from the
dead things that we eat.

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Thank you.

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