WEBVTT

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So for the rest of the
reading tonight, I'm

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going to read you some
newer work, some of which

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was published by Terrain.org.

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And this first one
is titled "Acedia,"

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and that's a word
that is very old.

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It comes out of the monastery
tradition of the medieval times

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and even older.

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But it's a word that sort of
resurfaced during the pandemic

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and that refers to
spiritual apathy or sloth

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or just kind of this
sense of not knowing

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where to direct your feelings.

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So this is "Acedia."

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And if you remember too, there
was that moment in 2021--

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if you're here in Tucson--
where the saguaros blossomed,

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and it was this incredible--

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way more than anyone
expected or as usual.

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This is "Acedia."

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"At the end of
despair, ivory blossoms

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broke out not just at the
very tops as we expected

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but frothing down
every saguaro's arms.

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The only gold worth
dying for filled

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those lifted cups for
the long tongues of bats

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to savor in the darkness.

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Through those days we tore
at ourselves and each other

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but still thought
for us, like us

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when we saw the
long drought over

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and the saguaros'
joy running over.

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Through those nights,
the white crowns

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shone, light sheeting
off every bud.

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Insects skimming the air
turned buoyant with photons.

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Every moment, waves
pound us, heat,

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and light and the earliest
memories of the universe.

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We know the rivers sweep
through the city but not beyond.

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The shape of Sagittarius but
not the mystery behind it.

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The black hole at the
center of all we know.

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The saguaros spread a feast
before death, flowers swelling

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into sugar-seeded flesh.

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Ripe and readied, they fly.

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They fall to ground packed hard.

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The rains come.

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While we sleep, they
hold the Earth together.

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Water shifting hour
by hour to match

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the stars' cadenced wheeling."

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