WEBVTT

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This next poem is
called "Delphi",

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which was a site
in ancient Greece,

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near Corinth, where
for hundreds of years

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people went to find out from the
oracle Pythia what they should

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do about a big
decision that they

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were facing in their lives.

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And I was just
trying to figure out

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the pull that such an idea had
and such an institution has

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on me, though obviously,
it's been extinct

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for hundreds of years.

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"Though I don't
believe in oracles,

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I'm encouraged by those
who do by their certainty

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that the future, however
narrow, isn't so closed as past.

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Options appear to persist for
the passengers disembarking

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at the Port of Corinth, persist
as they rest before the jolting

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dunking ride up the
mountains and the long wait

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for their turn on the
porch of the temple.

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The farmer fresh from his
farm on the island of Melos

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can't predict what
the priestess will

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answer when asked the wisest
policy towards his son.

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Though he knows what
he wants or to say,

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that the boy has studied
enough in Athens,

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that another year means
losing him to philosophy

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when he ought to be home
to help with the harvest.

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The father listens
with a mind is

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open as he can make it when
Apollo's servant, her eyes shut

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tight, her lips foam flecked,
mutters and moans in a voice

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not hers, words that even
to her are a mystery.

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As for me, my only
oracle is my notebook,

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open on the kitchen
table to a page divided

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straight down the middle
with a heavy line.

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If the arguments on
the left hand side

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outnumber those on the right,
the left hand path at the fork

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ahead should be my preference,
unless the arguments

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on the right, however few
appear more beautiful.

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Their truth, more piercing.

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And wouldn't that difference
mean that the right hand path

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is one, I believe, an
oracle would confirm,

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if oracles existed, the
path that would lead me

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to the brighter good, me
and the rest of the world

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worth helping.

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My first choice, not
my distant second."

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