WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.110 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.110 --> 00:00:04.110 align:middle line:84%
These are two poems
from that trip to Hanoi.

00:00:04.110 --> 00:00:07.380 align:middle line:90%


00:00:07.380 --> 00:00:11.310 align:middle line:84%
The first one was begun
in Hanoi and finished

00:00:11.310 --> 00:00:18.310 align:middle line:84%
in Boston and Maine
soon after I got back.

00:00:18.310 --> 00:00:20.100 align:middle line:90%
And the other one--

00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:22.410 align:middle line:84%
the second one I'll
read was begun in Hanoi

00:00:22.410 --> 00:00:27.750 align:middle line:84%
and finished in
Maine almost a year

00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:30.900 align:middle line:84%
later-- well, about
eight months later.

00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:37.010 align:middle line:90%


00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:39.730 align:middle line:84%
The first one is
called "Fragrance

00:00:39.730 --> 00:00:42.100 align:middle line:90%
of Life, Odor of Death."

00:00:42.100 --> 00:00:49.490 align:middle line:90%


00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:52.760 align:middle line:84%
"All the while among
the rubble even,

00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:57.860 align:middle line:84%
and in the hospitals,
among the wounded,

00:00:57.860 --> 00:01:03.170 align:middle line:84%
not only beneath lofty
clouds in temples

00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:08.270 align:middle line:84%
by the shores of
lotus-dreaming lakes,

00:01:08.270 --> 00:01:15.890 align:middle line:84%
a fragrance, flowers,
incense, the earth-mist rising

00:01:15.890 --> 00:01:19.700 align:middle line:90%
of mild daybreak in the delta.

00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:21.950 align:middle line:90%
Good smell of life.

00:01:21.950 --> 00:01:25.780 align:middle line:90%


00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:29.320 align:middle line:84%
It's in America
where no bombs ever

00:01:29.320 --> 00:01:32.320 align:middle line:84%
have screamed down,
smashing the buildings,

00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:34.930 align:middle line:84%
shredding the people's
bodies, tossing

00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:39.100 align:middle line:84%
the fields of Kansas or Vermont
or Maryland into the air.

00:01:39.100 --> 00:01:43.870 align:middle line:84%
To land wrong way up,
a gash of earth-guts.

00:01:43.870 --> 00:01:50.080 align:middle line:84%
It's in America,
everywhere, a faint seepage.

00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:52.500 align:middle line:90%
I smell death."

00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:53.000 align:middle line:90%