WEBVTT

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There's a fair number of
poems in this book which

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have to do with getting through
hard times one way or another.

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I think I will read you one
of the three I've brought.

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That's probably enough of
getting through hard times.

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And like many of the
poems in this book,

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it has heart in the title.

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This one is called "Mule Heart."

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On the days when the
rest have failed you,

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let this much be yours: flies,
dust, an unnameable odor,

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the two waiting baskets,
one for the lemons

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and passion, the other
for all you have lost.

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Both empty.

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It will come to your shoulder.

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Breathe slowly
against your bare arm.

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If you offer it
hay, it will eat.

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Offer it nothing, it will
stand as long as you ask.

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Little bells of the bridle
will hang beside you

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quietly in the heat and
the trees' thin shade.

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Do not let its sparse mane
deceive you or the way

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the left ear swivels into dream.

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This too is a gift of the
gods, calm and complete.

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