WEBVTT

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I'll read a couple
more, and then I

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will read a bit, just a
little bit from the memoir.

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And then we'll be done.

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I want to read
this poem because I

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was asked to do
the podcast here,

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where you get to pick
things from the archives,

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like point them out.

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It's a great podcast.

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I recommend like--
so they asked poets,

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and you choose readings,
and do a little audio thing.

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And I found an audio
of Gerald Stern, who

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passed away not so long ago--

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the great poet Gerald Stern,
reading his poem "Lucky Life"

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here, which is a
great reading of it.

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And I was thinking after that
that how I he passed away.

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And then I was
thinking about how

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a long time ago,
a friend of mine

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and I had tried to go
to a party at his house.

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My friend had gone to
grad school with him.

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And we went and we drove
from Boston to New York.

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And we got there, and
it was the wrong night.

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And we were like all
excited to go to a real--

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the first real party with poets,
and it was the wrong night.

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We were there.

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So we drove back.

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And so the poem is
called "Dead Flowers,"

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which of course, is the name
of a great song by The Rolling

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Stones.

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"Dead Flowers" for Gerald Stern.

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Now that you are gone,

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I'll never get hit by a
piano dropped from a cloud.

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I'll probably die holding a book
I told everyone that I read.

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Without you, everything
will be the same.

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My son turns his
light on so early,

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I've already thought
unspeakable thoughts.

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And you will never drive
again along some river

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with too many
consonants in its name.

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It will keep flowing
north like the Nile,

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Crying tears of comprehending
joy without irony or shame.

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It is said, you were always
talking about how good

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you were at dancing.

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It is said you wore a hat
made of straw that you stole

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From the perfectly preserved
room of a dead poet.

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It is said, you said, he
didn't need it anymore.

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I told my friend I was going
to write you in the hospital.

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But as is my way,
I keep learning

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if you don't write it down,
the thought just flies away.

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Where does it go?

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Maybe into the trees,
or someone else's head.

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And isn't that the point anyway?

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Now that you are gone,

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I can say to every pigeon I pass

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That it was beautiful to be a
nun having unspeakable thoughts.

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And you will not hear
me or maybe who knows.

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I remember going to your
door on the wrong evening

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With a friend I see no longer.

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The party was next weekend.

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We listened to Dead Flowers all
the way back to Boston in shame.

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Now, that you are gone, I
can finally write this poem.

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I can say the only true thing
I remember going to your door.

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