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The rest of the poems I'm going
to read to you guys tonight

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are new poems that are part
of the new collection I'm

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working on.

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I had two very wonderful
years at Stanford University

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as a Stegner fellow there
that gave me both the time

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and means to continue
working on my work.

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Although at the time, I
was separated from my wife

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as she was pursuing her MA at
the University of Chicago--

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a professional separation
not a marital one,

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so I didn't enjoy that
first year very much.

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Here's some dreary poems.

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This one is called
"Castigo," which translates

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to a sentence or punishment.

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"Castigo."

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"The gray cell of coastal winter
begins to relent at the edges.

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The daffodils droop their yellow
heads to rain, to periodic sun.

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I've muttered my way through
another foreign season,

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whittled ancient driftwood
turning its length again

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and again in my hands till it
begins to take on resemblance--

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a door, a dagger,
an intern heart,

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finally the hinge on which these
sullen hands anticipate return.

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Magnolias, five days
white, failing themselves

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against uncivil shore
breezes, the ballast

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bridal dance, hinge
pared down to a key--

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useless, useless.

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I will serve this sentence and
slip into next season's parole.

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Gather in my arms a bundle of
camellias mistaken for roses."

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