WEBVTT

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Well, I have a few
thank yous to do.

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To Jane, spirituality.

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[WHISTLES]

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And to my wonderful
co-readers, Brian and Stephen,

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very inspiring, you're
going to be very

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hard acts to follow for me.

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And to Tyler and Cybele,
for arranging all this;

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I don't know where you
are in the sea of people.

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And to all of, to
the sea of people,

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for heaven's sake
for being here.

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So I was going to say maybe
I'll be the comic relief,

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because this afternoon
I went through my book

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and I made all these
marks and then I thought

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what are all these marks?

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I didn't number them, I didn't.

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So here they are, these
random marks in my text

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which is completely illogical.

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Anyway, for some reason
I've been traveling,

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I'm a bit addled.

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And as further proof
of my addlement,

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I'm going to begin with a
poem that is not in the book,

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but that I meant to put
in the book and forgot.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I mean this is true,
this is really true.

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So I'm going to start with this
poem that should be in the book

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but I forgot to
put it in the book.

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OK, Almost Human.

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I was a kid like any other.

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Felt myself strange, wrong
eyed, felt doors and windows

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to be illogical.

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Picnics abounded,
little straw mats,

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a round ball with stripes,
a bucket taught me futility.

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The wind was in my
palm, breathed easier

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when the train came.

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The train was in my poem.

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Its noises rocked my sleep,
the neighbor's daughter

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or Cocker Spaniel, the Buick
Electra, the mown lawn,

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in my brain things
separated and congealed.

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The train came with a fulfilling
sound, my heart in sync

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with it.

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I taught myself algebra,
I taught myself lying.

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My heart unraveling, long
division organdy curtain,

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things accumulated,
segmented by the fans blades.

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The trees were enigmas,
what was I doing precisely?

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Enigmas fed me, I wanted to
eat them, then vomit them.

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I slept like a princess,
slatted, blue and gold.

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Laundry blown into wedges, each
vestment precisely shuttered.

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Maples were serious and tall,
drenched were the tulip heads.

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Regarding the arm
attached to the hand,

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I felt a certain fulfillment.

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Now the reason that poem I think
should have been in this book,

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is that it echoes a
lot of things that

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come up in the book for me.

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This book is, unlike
other books of poems

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that I've written,
very autobiographical

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and as Jane says
sort of minimalist

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in some of the poems.

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And it covers a territory in
my life from early childhood

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to young motherhood which
was all very long ago.

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So it's not particularly
contemporary.

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But I guess I've arrived
at the age when we remember

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things, when we recall.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So sad as that may be,
thank you for not laughing.

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[LAUGHTER]

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