WEBVTT

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I write both in free verse
and metrical-- and in meter.

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And I try to keep up writing
in them both because I can do--

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I would say I can
do things in the one

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that I can't do in the other.

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Next poem I'm going to read
is considerably different.

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This is the one that was
printed on that little program

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that probably some of you
have that Lois gives out free

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at the poetry--

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in the Poetry
Center, poetry room.

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And this is called,
"Skateboard."

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This was written of a
skateboarder on the street

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very close to where I live.

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Haight Street, in the, I
guess, still quite famous--

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Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.

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And he was a very
flashy skateboarder.

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He was the height
of fashion in a way.

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And this is about 1981.

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Well, there had been plenty
of skateboards before him,

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but he was aware that
he was doing it a very

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flashy and successful way.

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And I call him towhead because
he had hair dyed yellow.

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God knows what
color it really was.

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Well, you could see it
was darker at the roots,

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as I say in the poem.

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"Skateboard."

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"Towhead on his skateboard
threads through a crowd of feet

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and faces, delayed
to a slow stupidity.

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Darts, doubles, twists, you
notice how nimbly the body

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itself has learned to
assess the relation

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between the board, pedestrians,
and immediate sidewalk.

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Emblem, emblem of fashion.

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Wearing dirty white in
dishevelment, as delicate

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as the falling draperies on
a dandyish Renaissance saint.

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Chain around his waist.

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One hand gloved.

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Hair dyed to show it is dyed.

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Pale flame spiking from fuel.

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Towhead, on skateboard,
perfecting himself,

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emblem extraordinary
of the ordinary.

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In the sexless face,
eyes innocent of feeling,

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therefore, suggest the spirit."

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I've been over in this country
more than half my life,

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but I'm still very susceptible
to the exotic Americana.

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And I thought-- when
I saw him I thought,

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how wonderfully American?

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How wonderfully Californian?

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And I showed this poem
to a friend of mine who

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owns a store on Haight Street.

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And one day this friend of mine
said, oh, you know that kid

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you wrote that poem about?

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The skateboarder?

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And I said, yes.

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He said, well, he came
in here the other day

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to ask me for a job.

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He's English you know?

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[LAUGHTER]

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This is so much
for my romanticism.

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When you're a romantic,
you can feed it anywhere.

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