WEBVTT

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That poem really is about
Robert Pinsky leaving Berkeley,

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I think.

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I mean, we find devices.

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I was thinking about
it the other day,

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and thinking how things
act as subterfuge.

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And that poem was written the
week that he left Berkeley.

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And I know it's
about that, instead.

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That's interesting.

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I wanted to read a poem for my
mother because of that memory,

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and being grateful that
she lets me off the hook.

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If I can find it.

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"Small Spaces."

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"And the Earth was still
baffled by the small spaces,

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especially in spring
when people admired

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its growth from great heights.

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The Earth was baffled
by the tiny gaps,

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such as those between minutes.

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In those places of yearning,
as in the emptiness

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between a child's
back teeth, it was

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trying to decide if there
should be any later.

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If so, how much later?

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Not even wild
cypresses by the bay

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move firmly enough to
satisfy the small spaces.

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The moon swells
and does its part.

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Purple vetch and smart lupine
combine to think it through.

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Too many get ready, and a few
die daily to fill the spaces,

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stem after short stem,
though the Earth tried

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to hold each one of them
upright, saying, 'Don't imagine.

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Don't imagine there has
been another like you.'"

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