WEBVTT

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Well, we'll leave a
little time for questions,

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but I'll read a
couple more poems.

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This is a poem from an earlier
book called "Forgetfulness."

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It's really more like a--

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some of these poems are almost
like little essays that stick

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more or less to the topic.

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And this poem seems
to have another reason

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to read it is it seems to
have a growing audience.

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People seem to identify with it.

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"Forgetfulness."

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"The name of the author
is the first to go

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followed obediently by
the title, the plot,

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the heartbreaking
conclusion, the entire novel

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which suddenly becomes one you
have never read, never even

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heard of, it is as if, one
by one, the memories you used

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to harbor decided to retire
to the southern hemisphere

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of the brain, to a
little fishing village

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where there are no phones.

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Long ago you kissed the names
of the nine Muses goodbye

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and you watched the quadratic
equation pack its bag,

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and even now as you memorize
the order of the planets,

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something else is slipping
away, a state flower

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perhaps, the address of an
uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

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Whatever it is
you are struggling

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to remember it is not poised
on the tip of your tongue,

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not even lurking in some
obscure corner of your spleen.

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It has floated away down a dark
mythological river whose name

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begins with an L as
far as you can recall,

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well on your way to oblivion
where you will join those

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who have forgotten even how to
swim and how to ride a bicycle.

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No wonder you rise in
the middle of the night

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to look up the date of a
famous battle in a book on war.

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No wonder the moon in
the window seems to have

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drifted out of a love poem that
you used to know by heart."

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.