WEBVTT

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This next poem--
when I started out

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being a poet, some
of my favorite poets

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wrote under pseudonyms,
nom de plumes.

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And so I started out writing
under a pseudonym, which

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I quickly gave up.

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But after that,
people would ask me,

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what happened to your pen name?

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Why aren't you using a pen name?

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And so I had to write this
poem to sort of explain

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what happened to the pen name.

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"Poem.

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I wrote under a pen name.

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One day I shook the pen."

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Well, some visual aid here.

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With a ballpoint pen.

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"I wrote under a pen name.

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One day, I shook the pen, trying
to make the name come out.

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I wanted to see that pen
name outside the pen.

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But no, it's like me, prefers
clinging to the inner calypso.

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The inner calypso.

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So I tossed the pen to my
pet, the wastebasket, to eat."

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That's my pet-- the wastebasket.

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"It'll vomit back the name.

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I'll get the name that way.

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Names aren't fit for
inhuman consumption.

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But no again, it's stayed down.

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I don't use a pen anymore."

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Excuse me.

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"I don't use a pen name anymore.

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I don't use a pen anymore.

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I don't write anymore.

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I just sit, looking
at the wastebasket,

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with this alert intelligent
look on my face."

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[LAUGHTER]

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And it works, believe me.

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And just look at
your wastebasket

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with that intelligent
alert, intelligent look,

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and you'll see.