WEBVTT

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But I want to say mvto.

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That's Muskogee for thank you.

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For the staff, an
event like this--

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I mean, we heard some
of the acknowledgment.

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But it takes all these people.

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And a lot of people
moved chairs in here.

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And we got to thank the
electricity coming up

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through here, and
incredible staff here.

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And Lois Shelton--

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I love that the poetry place
I'm staying is named for Lois.

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I used to have a lot of
fun hanging out with Lois,

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and I miss her.

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And for Pam, who's
been taking me around,

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for her great introduction.

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For Larry Evers, who was always
and remains important to me

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and has helped so many people
moving through this university.

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I think of Leslie.

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I could hear her words.

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We talk about poetry ancestors.

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And I wouldn't have been able to
write that poem without Leslie.

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And so many, and this
beautiful place that

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always makes me
happy to come here.

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And to all of you,
mvto for this evening.

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So I want to close
with "Equinox."

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And it's really a poem, I
suppose, about forgiveness.

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And I wrote it, I was
thinking about sundown.

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I was waiting to be
picked up for a gig

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somewhere in Michigan,
someplace far away.

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And, like a lot of the animals,
everybody watches the sun.

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It's a time of letting go.

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The sun is leaving us.

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So it's a good time
to let things go.

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So if you're going over and over
about something somebody did

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to you, or something
you did that you're

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having a hard time
forgiving yourself,

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it's a good time to
let those things go.

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If we all stood,
like the animals,

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and watched the sun
go down and just said,

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OK, let those things go,
we would have less illness

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among ourselves.

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Just like sunrise,
it's good to go out.

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Even the scientists
can tell you,

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yeah, there's a lot of power at
that place when light comes up

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over an edge.

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So you gather that and say thank
you, and acknowledge the gift

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and send that out
to help others.

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(SINGING) I must keep from
breaking into the story

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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

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sons and daughters 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
clatter 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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Mvto.

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Thank you.

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