WEBVTT

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I'd been to Japan once.

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And my husband has
been a number of times

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and brings back
stories and pictures.

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And this poem is
about the Moss Palace.

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It's really the
Moss Temple there.

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And I just call it
"The Moss Palace."

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"At Kokedera you saw
as many kinds of moss

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as there are names for
snow among the Eskimos,

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and the moss lay in
deep banks like snow.

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You tell me of soft jade between
the stones, of fur on the north

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side of trees, of
wild pincushions

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at the edge of a stream,
as smooth as the pads

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of an animal's paw when it rests
its tamed head upon your lap.

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Moss serves no purpose
the gardener says,

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neglect your lawn and
moss will overtake it.

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I want to be overtaken by
moss, to walk in my bare feet

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on twenty different kinds, to
move from the hardness of rock

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to sudden velvet
and sink the way I

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sink in the green of
your eyes when you speak

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of going with me to Japan, when
the place where my body stops

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and yours begins is moss."

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