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I had the idea that
I would go from there

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to another little
short lyric and then

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a longer poem about
the natural world.

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"Who were you to be
exalted by the Earth?

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Horned larks singing
in the lupin bush,

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the ospreys cambered wing?

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In childhood, my sister
and I had tea parties.

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We set out cups and flowers--

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that we set out
cups and saucers,

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picked flowers sometimes
mauled by our hardened fists

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and scattered them
across the table.

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Then we made
gestures of pouring,

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urged on our imaginary
guests gestures of drinking.

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Then I went through a period,
it lasted about 50 years,

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which required actual
cookies and actual tea.

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But you can do without
tea and cookies,

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nor is ritual so
compelling as it once

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was, which implies
mastery of an ideal form.

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There is probably a right
spirit in which to read Buddhist

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texts, but I don't have it.

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One that the hungry self
could imagine a renunciation

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superior to the self.

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This afternoon at the
beach, a blue-backed swallow

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fanned its wings and
reared up a second,

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like a hawk, then glided off.

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It glided off.

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Who are you to be happy
or unhappy on the Earth?"

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