WEBVTT

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My new and selected
poems just came out

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a couple of months ago.

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And this is the--

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almost the first time
that I've read from them.

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I thought that I'd be more or
less chronological tonight,

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read one or two poems from
each of the early books,

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and then end with a larger
selection of the new poems,

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and then really end with
three or four poems still

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in manuscript.

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This is really an older poem.

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The book is dedicated
to my daughter

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Rachel for her graduation
from high school.

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And this was a poem about
naming her when she was born.

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It's called "Rachel."

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And the literal meaning of the
word is a ewe, a female sheep.

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"Rachel."

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Oh, OK.

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We named you for the
sake of the syllables

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and for the small boat that
followed the Pequod gathering

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lost children of the sea.

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We named you for the dark-eyed
girl who waited at the well

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while her lover worked
seven years and again seven.

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We named you for the small
daughters of the Holocaust

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who followed their
six-pointed stars to death

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and for all of them
known as Rachel."

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