WEBVTT

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Now.

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So I'm going to read for
you-- so I love this book.

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It's Wave Books.

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The two books are Wave Books.

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They print all their books
on a 100% recycled paper,

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which I love.

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And the rituals
are on black pages

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and then the resulting poems
are on the white pages.

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So I'm going to read
the "Ritual" and then

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the resulting poem.

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"Anoint Thyself.

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For John Coletti and Jess Mynes.

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Visit the home of
a deceased poet

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you admire and bring some
natural thing back with you.

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I went to Emily
Dickinson's house the day

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after a reading event with
my friend, Susie Timmons.

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I scraped dirt from the foot
of huge trees in the backyard

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into a little pot.

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We then drove into
the woods where

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we found miniature pears,
apples, and cherries to eat.

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I meditated in the
arms of an oak tree

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with a pot of
Emily's dirt, waking

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to the flutter of a
cardinal on a branch

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a foot or so from my
face, staring, showing me

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his little tongue.

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When I returned to Philadelphia,
I didn't shower for three days,

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then rubbed Emily's
dirt all over my body.

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Kneaded her rich Massachusetts
soil deeply into my flesh.

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Then put on my clothes and
went out into the world.

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Every once in a
while, I stuck my nose

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inside the neck of my shirt
to inhale her delicious, sweet

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earth covering me.

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I felt revirginized through
the ceremony of my senses.

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I could feel her power
tell me these are the ways

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to walk, and speak,
and shift each glance

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and a total concentration
for maximum usage

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of our little allotment
of time on a planet.

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Lose and --"

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Can you all hear me?

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The sound just dropped.

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"Lose and waste no
more time, poet.

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Lose and waste no more
time, she said to me

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as I took note after note on the
world around me for the poem."

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All right.

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So this is the resulting poem.

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And it's titled "Emily
Dickinson Came to Earth

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and Then She Left."

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"Your sweaty party dress
and my sweaty party dress

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lasted a few minutes
until the tomato was gone.

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Someday, they will disambiguate
you but not while I'm around.

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Our species won, Emily.

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We won.

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It feels so good to be winning.

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The flame of victory,
pass it around.

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It never goes out.

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Dinosaurs ruled Massachusetts.

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Dinosaurs fucking and laying
eggs in Amherst, Boston, Mount

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Holyoke, then you
appeared, high priestess,

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pulling it out of the goddamn
garden with both hands.

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You, Emily, remembered the
first time comprehending

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a struck match can
spread a flame.

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It feels good to win
this fair and square.

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Protest my assessment all you
want but not needing to dream

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is like not needing to see
the world awaken to itself.

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Indestructible epiphanies
consume the path.

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And just because
you're having fun,

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doesn't mean you're
not going to die.

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Recrimination is the fruit to
defy with unexpected appetite.

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I will be your outsider
if that's how you need me.

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Electric company's stupid
threatening letters cannot

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affect a poet who
has faced death."

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