WEBVTT

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After my very moving
and inspiring visit

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to North Vietnam, what happened
in December and January,

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the terror bombing of Hanoi
and the rest of North Vietnam

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was, as you can imagine,
particularly excruciating

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for me because I could
think of specific places

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and specific people
when I heard about it.

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And I wrote this
poem in January.

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It's called "Goodbye
to Tolerance."

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And it was printed in a magazine
in New York called West End.

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And apparently,
the author has been

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getting-- the editor
of the magazine

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has been getting a lot
of flack about this poem.

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Well, both ways, actually.

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I've had a number of letters
about it that were very--

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that expressed solidarity
with my feeling.

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The editor has
been getting a lot

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of letters that were
pretty annoyed by this,

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and took it very personally.

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About which I have no
regrets whatsoever.

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"Goodbye to Tolerance."

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January 1973.

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"Genial poet,
pink-faced earnest wits.

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You have given the world
some choice morsels, gobbets

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of language presented as
one presents t-bone steak

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and cherries jubilee.

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Goodbye.

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Goodbye.

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I don't care if I never
taste your fine food again,

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neutral fellows,
seers of every side.

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Tolerance, what crimes are
committed in your name.

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And you, good women, bakers
of nicest bread, blood donors,

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your crumbs choke me.

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I would not want a drop
of your blood in me.

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It is pumped by weak
hearts, perfect pulses that

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never falter.

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Irresponsive to
nightmare reality.

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It is my brothers, my
sisters, whose blood

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spurts out and stops forever
because you choose to believe

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it is not your business.

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Goodbye.

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Goodbye.

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Your poems shut
their little mouths.

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Your loaves grow moldy.

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A gulf has split the
ground between us.

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And you won't wave, you're
looking another way.

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We shan't meet again,
unless you leap it,

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leaving behind you the cherished
worms of your dispassion,

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your pallid ironies, your
jovial, murderous, wry-humored,

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balanced judgment.

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Leap over, unbalanced.

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Then how our fanatic tears
would flow and mingle for joy."

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[APPLAUSE]

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