WEBVTT

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I don't know if that's
the way it'll work.

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There was a very good
one about cows in here.

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Cows.

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This is a horrible--
there's a book of poetry.

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Do you know this book of
poetry that was written by AI?

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Have you heard about this book
that Little, Brown published

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that got-- these poets got an
advance more than any of us

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will ever get.

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You could put 75 of us
together, and we still

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wouldn't get that advance.

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It's so insane.

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So these poets came
to me, and they said--

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they're asking me
and Sharon Olds--

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Sharon Olds asked a few poets if
we would read their manuscript

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and tell them what we think.

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And I was like, fuck them.

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But that particular
day, all these things

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had happened like rats
ate the wires in my Prius,

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and my car wouldn't go.

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And then-- one bad thing.

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And then my dog was having
surgery, and I got a ticket.

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And so I just wrote
them, and I said,

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if you would pay my parking
ticket, I'll meet with you.

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And I'll--

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[LAUGHTER]

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So he was all, OK, but can I
use that in the introduction?

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I said fine.

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So that's really the end of
the story, except it is a poem.

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It's called "Feeder."

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"The embodiment of
the poet is the point,

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and that's why it's OK for
you to pay my parking ticket--

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especially to pay it in cash.

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And not because of
the cute anecdote

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about the car, and the rats,
and the rental, and the dog

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surgery, and parking in
front of the hydrant,

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and getting towed, and
getting a ticket for that,

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and you paid it.

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I will pay the ticket
on my computer,

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but I will buy food
with your cash.

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It's why nobody likes
to support poetry.

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They'll just use it to pay
their rent, which is right.

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Survival is my art--
a violent act it is."

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Yeah.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Woo!

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