WEBVTT

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A lady this afternoon
in a little meeting

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we had asked me
to read this poem.

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So I'm going to read it.

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As a matter of fact,
it's one of the poems

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I think I might put what little
money I have to put on my poems

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on.

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Anyway here it is.

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The scene is on a little
island of the Mediterranean.

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But a big yacht harbor.

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But otherwise, all
forested cliffs, surf,

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no radios allowed.

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It's called Masts
At Dawn on Waking.

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Past second cock crow
yacht masts in the harbor

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go slowly white.

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No light in the east yet.

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But the stars show
a certain fatigue.

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They withdraw into
a new distance,

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have discovered
our unworthiness.

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It is long since the owl in
the dark eucalyptus, dire

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and melodious, last called,
and long since the moon sank

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and the English finished
fornicating in their ketches.

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In the evening, there
was a strong swell.

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Red died the sun.

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But a dark wind rose easterly.

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White sea nagged the
black harbor headland.

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When there is a
strong swell, you

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may, if you surrender to it,
experience a sense, in the act,

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of mystic unity with that
rhythm of the universe.

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Your peace becomes
the sea's will.

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But now, no motion.

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The bay face is
glossy in darkness

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like an old windowpane
flat on black ground

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by the wall near the ash heap.

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It neither receives
nor gives light.

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Now is the hour when the
sea sinks into meditation.

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It doubts its own mission.

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The drowned cat that
on the evening swell

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had kept nudging the
piles of the pier

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and had seemed to want to
climb out and lick itself dry

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now floats free.

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On that surface, a
slight convexity only.

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It is like an eyelid
in darkness closed.

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You must learn to
accept the kiss of fate,

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for the masts go slowly
white as light like dew

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from darkness condenses on
them, on oiled wood or metal.

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Dew whitens in darkness.

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I lie on my bed and think
how, in darkness, the masts

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go white.

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The sound of the
engines of the fire--

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first fishing dory dies seaward.

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Soon, in the inland glen,
wakes the first dawn dove.

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We must try to love
so well the world

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that we may believe,
in the end, in God.

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