WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.810 align:middle line:90% 00:00:05.810 --> 00:00:07.490 align:middle line:84% This is sort of a change of pace. 00:00:07.490 --> 00:00:11.330 align:middle line:90% It's a kind of love poem. 00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:13.055 align:middle line:90% And it's called "A Time Past." 00:00:13.055 --> 00:00:18.010 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.010 --> 00:00:21.760 align:middle line:84% "The old wooden steps to the front door 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:25.240 align:middle line:84% where I was sitting that full morning, when you came 00:00:25.240 --> 00:00:28.090 align:middle line:90% downstairs just awake. 00:00:28.090 --> 00:00:33.570 align:middle line:84% And my joy at sight of you emerging into golden day. 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:38.620 align:middle line:84% The dew, almost frost, pulled me to my feet 00:00:38.620 --> 00:00:43.450 align:middle line:84% to tell you how much I loved you. 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:51.190 align:middle line:84% Those wooden steps are gone now, decayed, replaced with granite. 00:00:51.190 --> 00:00:56.050 align:middle line:90% Hard, gray, and handsome. 00:00:56.050 --> 00:01:00.730 align:middle line:90% The old steps exist only in me. 00:01:00.730 --> 00:01:04.900 align:middle line:84% My feet and thighs remember them. 00:01:04.900 --> 00:01:08.420 align:middle line:84% And my hands still feel their splinters. 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:11.170 align:middle line:90% 00:01:11.170 --> 00:01:14.740 align:middle line:84% Everything else about and around that house 00:01:14.740 --> 00:01:21.430 align:middle line:84% brings memories of others, of marriage, of my son. 00:01:21.430 --> 00:01:24.220 align:middle line:84% And the steps, too, I recall sitting there 00:01:24.220 --> 00:01:27.940 align:middle line:84% with my friend and her little son who died. 00:01:27.940 --> 00:01:33.250 align:middle line:84% Or was it the second one who lived and thrived? 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:40.150 align:middle line:84% And sitting there in my life, alone or with my husband. 00:01:40.150 --> 00:01:44.350 align:middle line:84% Yet that one instant, you're cheerful, unafraid, 00:01:44.350 --> 00:01:47.570 align:middle line:90% youthful, I love you too. 00:01:47.570 --> 00:01:52.030 align:middle line:84% The quiet broken by no bird, no cricket. 00:01:52.030 --> 00:01:57.550 align:middle line:84% Gold leaves spinning in silence down without any breeze 00:01:57.550 --> 00:02:03.940 align:middle line:84% to blow them is what twines itself in my head and body 00:02:03.940 --> 00:02:09.520 align:middle line:84% with these slabs of wood that were warm, ancient, 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:13.260 align:middle line:84% and now wait somewhere to be burnt." 00:02:13.260 --> 00:02:17.160 align:middle line:90% 00:02:17.160 --> 00:02:18.710 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:18.710 --> 00:02:24.000 align:middle line:90%