WEBVTT

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This poem is called "The Joy
and Agony of Improvisation."

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There, the moon, just
appearing over dark pine, heavy

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and round, the color
of old parchment.

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And indeed, it seems archaic.

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What does it mean in our
histories-- yours and mine--

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except a myth no longer
altogether necessary,

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a theorem proven in
another millennia?

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This is a peculiar night--

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uncomfortable.

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While it is like most moments of
the present, it doesn't fit us.

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The low night wind
shifting directionless

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moves the pine boughs
as if, so you say,

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we were in the midst of voices
in some obscure contention.

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Of course we are.

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But not obscure, only fruitless,
stupid, and very dangerous.

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Come, let's go in
the tent and sleep.

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Later, we waken, knowing
the night has changed.

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It's a high wind now.

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Strange how the voices
have turned to song.

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Hear it rising, rising, then
breaking, then rising again,

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and breaking again.

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Oh, something is unutterable.

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The song cannot reach it.

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Yet, we know it.

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Know what we cannot hear.

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Out on the night's
great circle, the circle

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of consciousness with its
far rim always hidden.

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There where suffering
and joy meet and combine

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the inexpressible.

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How the song is striving
and how beautifully failing.

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The measure of beauty beyond
plentitude, never but always

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enough.

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Come outside again,
under tossing

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pines in the racing clouds.

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This is more than we could
ever have meant in our kiss.

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It is the gathering of
our love into all love,

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into that suffering and joy.

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And see, up there in the sky,
uncovered now as the clouds

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stream away, the moon.

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So new, so clean, and high,
and bright, and true."

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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