WEBVTT

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And then, one last
poem from this book,

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called "In the Midnight
Hour," which is a title

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I copped from a Wilson
Pickett song years

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ago, which I used to
hear almost every night.

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I was living in Venice
when I wrote this.

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And I would walk across
this particular piazza.

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And every night,
someone would be

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playing (SINGING) I had to
wait till the midnight hour.

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You know, it's a terrific song.

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I wish this poem was
as good as the song.

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But it's a Venice
poem, so it has

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to do with water, naturally.

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"The Midnight Hour."

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This, too, is an old
story, yet it is not death.

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Still, the waters of
darkness are in us.

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In fact, they are rising,
are rising toward our eyes,

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and will wash
against those windows

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until they have stilled,
until, utterly calm,

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they have cleansed.

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And then our lives will take
substance and rise themselves.

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And not like water and not
like darkness, but like smoke,

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like prayer.

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Did the elevator just
come down or something?

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That was an amazing little ding.

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