WEBVTT

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What I'd like to read from
now is a forthcoming book.

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It will be out in September.

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And it's called Oblique Prayers.

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And it has four sections.

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The first one is called
Deciphering and the second one

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is called Prisoners.

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The third one is a
section of translations

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from a French poet who is thus
far unknown in this country.

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His name is Jean Joubert,
about 14 poems of his.

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And it'll include the French.

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And the last section is
called Of God and Of The Gods.

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And I'll read some
poems from each section.

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I think that there are some
people standing in back.

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And there are a few seats down
here and also at the sides

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there.

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The first poem in the section
called Decipherings is also

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called that.

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It's sort of the title
poem of the section.

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And I dedicated it to
this other French poet,

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to my translator some
years ago, Guillevic.

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Unfortunately, he
can't read English,

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but I felt a certain formal
affinity with his poetry

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in this poem.

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So I thought he would enjoy
having it dedicated to him

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even though he can't
read much of it.

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And it has four short sections.

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Decipherings, one.

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When I lose my center
of gravity, I can't fly.

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Levitation's a stone
cast straight as a lark

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to fall plumb and rebound.

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Two.

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Half a wheel's a rising sun
without spokes, an arch.

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Half a loaf reveals
the inner wheat,

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leavened transubstantiation.

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Three.

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A child grows in one's body,
pushes out and breaks off.

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Nerves denying their
non-existence twist and pinch

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long after.

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After that otherness floats far.

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Vessel down engine.

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Up and over horizon's ramparts.

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Four.

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Felt life grows in one's mind.

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Each semblance forms and reforms
cloudy links with the next.

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And the next chimes and
gamelan gongs resound.

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Pondering, picking the tesserae
blue or perhaps vermilion,

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what one aches for is the mosaic
music makes in one's ears,

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transformed.

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