WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.750 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:06.360 align:middle line:84%
There have been a number
of poems about whales,

00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:09.270 align:middle line:90%
and this is the most recent one.

00:00:09.270 --> 00:00:18.400 align:middle line:90%


00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:23.412 align:middle line:84%
Where we live, one thinks
about whales quite a lot.

00:00:23.412 --> 00:00:24.495 align:middle line:90%
This was called The Shore.

00:00:24.495 --> 00:00:28.360 align:middle line:90%


00:00:28.360 --> 00:00:31.480 align:middle line:84%
How can anyone know that
a whale 200 years ago

00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:35.380 align:middle line:84%
could hear another whale at
the opposite end of the Earth,

00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:37.360 align:middle line:84%
or tell how long
the eyes of a whale

00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:39.070 align:middle line:84%
have faced both
halves of the world

00:00:39.070 --> 00:00:43.870 align:middle line:84%
and have found light
far down in old company?

00:00:43.870 --> 00:00:46.480 align:middle line:84%
With the sounds of hollow
iron charging clanging

00:00:46.480 --> 00:00:49.210 align:middle line:84%
through the oceans and with
the circuitry and the harpoons

00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:52.210 align:middle line:84%
of humans and the
poisoning of the seas,

00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:54.520 align:middle line:84%
a whale can hear no
father through the present

00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:58.480 align:middle line:84%
than a jet can fly
in a few minutes.

00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:00.940 align:middle line:84%
In the days of their
hearing, the great blues

00:01:00.940 --> 00:01:02.950 align:middle line:90%
gathered like clouds.

00:01:02.950 --> 00:01:06.310 align:middle line:84%
The sunlight under the sea
surfaces sank into their backs,

00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:08.680 align:middle line:84%
into the water around
them, through which

00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:13.720 align:middle line:84%
they flew invisible from above
except as flashes of movement.

00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:18.700 align:middle line:84%
And they could hear each other's
voices wherever they went.

00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:21.970 align:middle line:84%
Once it is on its own a blue
can wander the whole world

00:01:21.970 --> 00:01:24.910 align:middle line:84%
without beholding both
sides of the water,

00:01:24.910 --> 00:01:28.300 align:middle line:84%
raising in each ocean the
songs of the blues that it

00:01:28.300 --> 00:01:32.320 align:middle line:84%
learned from distances
it can no longer hear.

00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:36.760 align:middle line:84%
It can fly all its life without
ever meeting another blue.

00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:37.900 align:middle line:90%
This is what we are doing.

00:01:37.900 --> 00:01:42.030 align:middle line:84%
This is the way we
sing, oh blue, blue.