WEBVTT

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That could be the most applause
a four line poem's ever

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received.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I wrote the title poem of
this other book that's,

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The Trouble with Poetry.

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It's really the whole title
is The Trouble with Poetry

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and Other Poems, which I
thought was highly amusing.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I had to explain that
humor to my editors so--

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[LAUGHTER]

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Oh.

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Yeah, right.

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That's funny.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Now it is.

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"The Trouble with Poetry."

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The trouble with
poetry, I realized

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as I walked along
the beach one night,

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cold Florida sand
under my bare feet,

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a show of stars in the sky.

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The trouble with poetry
is that it encourages

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the writing of more poetry--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--more guppies crowding
the fish tank, more baby

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rabbits hopping out of their
mothers into the dewy grass.

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And how will it ever end?

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Unless the day finally
arrives when we have

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compared everything in the
world to everything else

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in the world.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And there is nothing left
to do now, but quietly

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close our notebooks and sit with
our hands folded on our desk.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Poetry fills me
with joy and I rise

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like a feather in the wind.

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Poetry fills me
with sorrow and I

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sink like a chain
flung from a bridge.

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But, mostly, poetry fills me
with the urge to write poetry,

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to sit in the dark and
wait for a little flame

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to appear at the
tip of my pencil.

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And along with that,
the longing to steal,

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to break into the
poems of others

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with a flashlight
and a ski mask.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And what an unmerry band of
thieves we are, cut-purses,

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common shoplifters, I thought
to myself as a cold wave swirled

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around my feet and the
lighthouse moved its megaphone

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over the sea, which is an image
I stole directly from Lawrence

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Ferlinghetti--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--to be perfectly
honest for a moment.

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The bicycling poet
of San Francisco

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whose little amusement
park of a book

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I used to carry in a side
pocket of my uniform up and down

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the treacherous
halls of high school.

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[LAUGHTER]

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.