WEBVTT

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Some of these poems
are from a manuscript

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to be published one day,
called Practical Gods,

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in which I try certain religious
perspectives on for size.

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I'm not a believer,
but the questions

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that some religions raise
are of great interest to me.

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And I try and engage
them in kind of dialogue

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in these poems.

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This first poem is
called "Gelati," which

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is "ice cream," in Italian.

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Limonata, which comes up,
is lemonade in Italian.

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"These songs from
the corner church,

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wafting through the window
this August morning,

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lift the job of sanding my
scarred oak bookcase from a 3,

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on a 10-point scale of
joy, to at least a 4.

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Not a bad grade for an
enterprise mainly practical.

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Repairing a site fittingly
handsome for a noble shelf load

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of Roman Stoics, whose
sensible pages, stacked now

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on my speakers, don't
register on the joy chart.

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A cold wind blows
from their doctrine,

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that a virtuous life is in
harmony with the cosmos,

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the cold companionless
cosmos that never comes

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through when you need a friend.

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No wonder the early
Christians wanted followers.

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No wonder their living
descendants, sound joyful

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still, as they proclaim
that even here,

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near the corner of
Hodge and Elmwood,

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the soul may be quickened.

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These singers have had a brush
with vision denied me so far.

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Though once, on the Appian
Way, three miles outside

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of Rome, after I'd walked
for hours inspecting

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the roadside tombs alone,
in the heat of August,

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wishing I'd brought a water
jug, ready to turn back,

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a man pushing a cart suddenly
staged an Advent, as he intoned

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limonata, gelati,
as if to a crowd,

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though the road was empty.

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An old man with a
bright escutcheon

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of ice cream staining his
apron, proclaiming that to ask

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is to have for the lucky few
who know what to ask for.

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For a minute, it seemed
the Bureau of Joy

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was calling about a
windfall blowing my way,

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to guarantee an 8 or
9 on the joy chart,

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even if many wishes down on
my list wouldn't be granted.

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Today, I seem to be
focusing on my wish to sand

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and stain and
varnish my bookcase,

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the job that a monk who
specializes in repetition

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might embrace is a ritual.

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Let the moment expand,
he says to himself,

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till time is revealed
to be delusion.

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For me, here in
the passing hour,

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the windborne singing
brightens the moment,

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however faintly
it enters, however

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it might be improved by the
brighter acoustics of the New

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Jerusalem.

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And now it's time for a string
quartet and a new recording.

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And now it's time for the
baseball game on the radio.

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Whether the players regard the
sport as joy or simply as work,

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the crowd seems
alive with the wish

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to compress a lifetime
down to a single sitting.

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Now for the task of
brushing the varnish

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on with a steady hand,
while the crowd goes wild

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in the bottom of the ninth.

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There's a man on first,
steps off the bag.

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A rookie will seem a
savior if he gets home."

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