WEBVTT

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This is another sonnet.

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This is prompted by a still
life by Chardin, Glass of Water

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and Coffeepot, which has, as you
might expect, a glass of water

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and a coffeepot.

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But it also has some
heads of garlic.

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And this poem is partly
about the painting,

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but it's also partly
about the home we have,

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Karen and I, in London.

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"Glass of Water and Coffeepot."

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These rooms of wood,
of tongue and groove,

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open out on a garden
of whitewashed walls

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and a maple tree.

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A new spring, bright among
the weathered stone and brick.

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We find things that are old
and used, well-made, well-worn,

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and beautiful because of this.

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The balance, intimate
between that glass

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of water's clarity and light
and the pot's grave darkness.

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An order so luminous
and fine, you

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needn't measure it with a rule.

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Just look.

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The papery whiteness
of the garlic heads

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is the same light held in the
water glass, the same light

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lifting a gleam from
the blackened coffeepot

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that's somehow managed to make
it through to find harmony here

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on this stone shelf--

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happiness of the hand and
heart to keep its heat

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and still pour clean and true.

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