WEBVTT

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Thank you very much, Diana.

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Can you all hear me?

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah?

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Thank you for that
introduction, Diana.

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That was amazing, easily
the best one I've ever had.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Thank you so much.

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I appreciate that.

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So tonight, I'm
going to be reading

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from the new book, Still Life.

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This gives some back
story about the book.

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On July 12, 2017, I was
diagnosed with terminal cancer

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and given two years to live.

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And I was in the doctor's office
getting that news and Kim was

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next to me.

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And one of the many thoughts
that ran through my head

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at that moment was--

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I really better get to
work, because I only

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have a certain
amount of time, and I

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got to get as much done
as I possibly could.

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So I just went
headlong into the book

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and began to compose
at that moment.

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So the first poem I'm
going to read tonight

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is called "Benediction."

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And it's the poem that I wrote
while this man was telling me

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that I was going to be
dead in a couple of years.

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"Benediction."

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The wind in swells through
the wild rye rolls.

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The bright sky dulls.

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Over the hills,
their green backs

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ringed with
bluebells sunset-run,

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flaps a wingy shadow westward.

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A jay.

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Poor bird that no net met
nor gin it didn't love.

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Good luck, you
luckless scrub, you.

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You dumb-- you doomed sucker.

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God bless.

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