WEBVTT

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This poem is called "Equinox."

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And I wrote it, or at least
started the notes of it.

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I was outside in Michigan,
where Hannah is going,

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and it's going to be
really cold up there.

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While I was waiting to be
picked up for a reading.

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And I want to say,
Mvto, which is thank you

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in Muskogee language.

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And thank you for--

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muchas gracias for all of
those who in all the readings

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all over the country,
who pick us up.

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Come and pick us up, take
us places, talk to us,

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bring us snacks, tell us good
stories, are patient with us,

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and are what we need.

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So that's really an
important part, it all is.

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So I was standing there
waiting to be picked up

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and I was watching the sun go
down during an equinox period

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and I was thinking, we really
are all in the ceremony

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together.

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At sunset, it's a good time to
let things go and say, Oh, man,

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I shouldn't have
said that today.

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Or I'm carrying
this burden with me.

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And it's that kind of energy,
the sun is moving away,

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and it's kind of
giving away, so it's

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a good time to let
things go, which

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is kind of what this poem is.

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And at the same
time, at sunrise,

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that's why when I was
younger and I still

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liked to be around
people who know things,

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but so many of them are gone.

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But almost all of the
ones that I was around

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would get up at sunrise.

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You get up because
you catch the light.

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And it's even scientific.

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It hits at a certain
angle and opens.

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And with that light,
it's a blessing light.

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With your words, you can
bless your friends, family,

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the Earth, you can give it back.

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And we all need help through
the day maneuvering through.

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Then we're all in it together.

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There's sunrise,
here we all are.

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We all move through it together.

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I must keep from breaking
into the story by force.

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If I do, I will find
a war club in my hand.

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And the smoke of grief
staggering toward the sun.

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Your nation dead beside you.

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I keep walking away, though
it has been an eternity.

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And from each drop of blood
springs up sons and daughters

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and trees, a mountain
of sorrows of songs.

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I tell you this from the dusk
of a small city in the North,

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not far from the birthplace
of cars and industry.

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Geese are returning to mate
and crocuses have broken

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through the frozen earth.

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Soon they will come for me,
and I will make my stand

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before the jury of destiny.

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Yes, I will answer in the
clutter of the new world.

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I have broken my addiction
to war and desire.

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Yes, I will reply.

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I have buried the dead and made
songs of the blood, the marrow.

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