WEBVTT

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I hesitated to read this
particular poem tonight,

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the one I'm about to read,
because then everybody

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would know why I like
to wear sunglasses.

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So-- so I'm taking a chance.

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Besides, I'm leaving town after.

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This is called "Sometimes
I Am a Sponge."

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"Sometimes I am a sponge.

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Pores open wide to
receive this liquid called

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life in its essence
and almost unnoticeable

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gift for each of us.

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Oftentimes overlooked
by fear, apathy,

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or whatever seems
to precede living.

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I am a sponge who wears
prescription sunglasses,

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shading eyes that
just have to stare,

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being easily entertained,
educated, and quickly intrigued

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by what we think and how
we behave as human beings.

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My mother never realized she
raised that Tse va ho, someone

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who's not afraid to stare.

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From the pastel iridescent
in reds, purples, and oranges

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that wash daily over the
skies at Waeh Sa Poo,

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to the arch women easily
curve into as they

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bend to gather cooking wood,
or a crying baby finding irony

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in women who perch
precariously on high heels

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during icy winter months.

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Absorbing the tragic desecration
of our land as beer cans

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are thoughtlessly tossed
from passing cars.

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Witnessing children's
confusion, their questions

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hushed by preoccupied adults
as youthful wonder clouds

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into inhibition, yet I
see these same children

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moving grandparents to tears
of joy by simply laughing.

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All of this, all of
it gets soaked up

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storing in a chamber
called my heart.

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And when the sponge is
full, it gets wrung out.

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Rung out into these clay
forms you see I offer you.

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Rung out into these words,
you hear that I offer you."

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[APPLAUSE]

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