WEBVTT

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--read a few poems that
are from my previous book,

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The Problem of the Many.

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I'm also going to read poems
from my new book, Chariot.

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These are the hardcovers.

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The first of the
poems that I'm going

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to read from The
Problem of the Many

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reflects a little bit about--

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around the precariousness
of times like these.

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And I-- it was
written up in response

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to some thinking about
the condition of insomnia

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that was done by the
philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

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And he identifies insomnia,
or considers insomnia,

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as a form of vigilance
and wakefulness.

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I mean, obviously,
it's wakefulness,

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but it's also vigilance--
keeping your eye open,

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waiting for what
might happen next.

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"Insomnia."

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"As darkness dissolves
the forms of things,

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they appear to merge into
the one unbroken substance

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they have been all along.

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No single component of which can
be said to exist by necessity.

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But with such
continuous relation

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to all other components, it's
as if nothing can be lost

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without change to everything.

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Nothing can be lost
without losing everything."

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