WEBVTT

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I was delighted when Karen
Falkenstrom asked me to read.

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She called me on the phone.

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And she said, keep
November 30 free.

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And I thought maybe she would
be taking me to a movie.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And I'm so happy that
she and I are here

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with you tonight and not
with Mickey and Mallory.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Karen has been a very devoted
reader of my work and promoter

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of my career.

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And as editor of Kore Press, she
has accepted a book-length poem

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of mine called Shoreline
Series, which will be coming out

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next year as a chapbook.

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And I have a couple of short
pieces here from that series--

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three and four.

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To give a lizard or a cow the
entire length of the beach

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is the best way to
achieve control.

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In the Digable Planets series,
we are all babies like that.

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She left me because I started
treating her differently.

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She left me because she started
treating herself differently.

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She left me because
myself at my altar.

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She left me because
herself at her volcano.

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She left me because I
fell out of my tree.

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She left me because she
fell out of her tree.

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Oh my knight, my
love on her horse,

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oh my overfilled cart and
my blood on her shirt.

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When we finally
become ourselves,

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we become a swinging
door, that gray book

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told me, that sandbank told me.

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When the boss is
sleeping, everyone

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is sleeping, that gray book told
me, that hurry bird told me.

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Thus, we have some
idea of time--

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a little past noon--

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and some idea of place--

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Playa la Misión-- a little
bit of heaven told me,

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an absolute
independence told me.

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When we become tired
of our lives we say,

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I shouldn't have
come to this place.

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It would have been better
to go someplace nicer

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for lunch, Tecate, Rosarito,
oceanfront, Mexican investments,

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understanding the law,
and enjoying high yields.

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Extended in high surf, we
create an idea of place.

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That violet cloud is
always that violet cloud,

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separate from actual
time, the yellow mountain

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always the yellow mountain.

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