WEBVTT

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I daresay that some of
you, perhaps many of you

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heard James Wright read.

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This poem is a
memorial poem for him.

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And it was written some
months after his death

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while I was crossing the
country by train on Amtrak.

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And it's called "Presence."

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"Sunlight in Ohio touching
frostbitten stubblefields

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and the cabbagy yards, strewn
with rusting downhill racers

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and abandoned rabbit hutches,
of small frame houses

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near the railroad.

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The spirit of Jim Wright
is strong here, so strong

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it comes through into the
train through the thick pane.

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The sun's light hands
touch the land blindly,

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careful to memorize plains
and expressive inclinations.

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It fingers the scrapyard, the
siloed farm, the school bus,

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the windowless plant, and the
men going in for the day shift.

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Jim can't speak
anymore, he's dead,

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but I swear he's
here making me look,

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he's here angry and
loving and full of signs.

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He's in this landscape where
industry strangles uncertainly

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out into farmland and farmland
shrinks and looks gray.

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He's the kid skillfully
spinning a beat up bike wheel

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along and along
down the road that

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leads straight,
straight, straight

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to the edge of the world."

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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