WEBVTT

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And I think I'll read
one poem for my son.

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I have a number of poems about
him, for him, written to him.

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This is the most recent,
written last summer.

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He was married last summer.

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And we've been a very tight
threesome through the years.

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And it was sort of
wrenching when he went away,

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although we were
delighted with his wife,

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and she's like a daughter to us.

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But it was still hard,
I think for all three

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of us, in somewhat
different ways.

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And the phone bills
have been terrible.

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This is called
Letting Go, for Brad.

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You walk down the road,
my young and only son,

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as if everything were
there for your pleasure.

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And you are right.

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You pause to touch a tree
and say, alligator juniper.

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And again, you are right.

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Why should I be
surprised that you

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have learned what
I have forgotten,

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and more than I ever knew?

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My tall, bright son.

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Nothing I can do now will alter
the length of your shadow,

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as you leave the desert
which has been your home.

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When you look back, the moon
will set over your shoulder.

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And the sun will rise
each morning to meet you.

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Turn, then, turn, and walk on.

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Nothing I can give
you will forestall

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the moment of your death,
nor determine how long,

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how much you will suffer
between this point of light

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and that point of light.

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You have learned to accept
your life as if it were music,

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played with great skill
and would last forever.

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And you are right again,
my son, my only son.

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It will last long enough.

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[APPLAUSE]

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He's a musician.

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I think I should have
told you that before.

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