WEBVTT

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It gets going eventually.

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Well, I'll read two more poems.

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This next one is a prose
poem called Stella Maris.

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There was nothing
to do on the island.

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The dogs chased glass lizards
into the dense myrtle bush.

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I don't know how
the children slept.

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Men and women did what
they could to extinguish

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the brightness of the stars.

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One night my own
supply of rum ran out,

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and I paced the veranda of
my little hut on stilts.

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A ship was passing.

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The air was warm and moist
like an animal's tongue.

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The island had once been home
to pirates and runaway slaves,

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and giant sea turtles
that crawled out

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by moonlight to lay their eggs.

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I no longer remembered what
brought me there, and always

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the sound of the sea like an
overtone of eerie applause,

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the clapping of the
palms of the palmettos.

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I was dreaming,
slightly intoxicated.

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And I found myself standing
outside the little Catholic

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Church, Stella Maris,
star of the sea.

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The priest stood before me.

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A beaten disheveled man,
with ashes on his robes.

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And the unmistakable
aroma of alcohol,

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like an unholy ghost
drawing us closer.

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These people, he
said, waving his arms

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around his imaginary flock.

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They think love's easy,
something nice and tidy

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that can be bought.

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That makes them feel
good about themselves.

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Believe me, it's a
horrible thing to love.

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Love is a terrible
thing, terrible.

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And I, a non-believer,
believed him.

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The next day the owner
of the liquor store

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told me that the priest had
been a Jew and a lawyer from New

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York before converting
and becoming a priest.

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Assigned to this, the
dregs of the pope's empire.

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Sharks and wild boar had
thinned out the unbelievers.

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And Father Moser drank
through the night,

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testing his faith with
Fyodor Dostoevsky.

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I never knew whether
or not I had dreamed up

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that black-hearted priest,
but I left the island shortly.

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And only now look back at my
darkest hour with nostalgia.

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