WEBVTT

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I'll just read two
more from this one.

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This is a poem that I wrote
for Greenpeace when they

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asked for an original piece.

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And my valley had just burned,
and things were starting

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to come back that winter.

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Salvage.

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On the top of Mount Pisgah,
on the western slope

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of the Mayacamas,
there is a madrone tree

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that's half burned from
the fires, half alive

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from nature's need to propagate.

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One side of her is
black ash, and her root

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is what looks like a cavity
hollowed out by flame.

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On the other side,
silvery green,

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broad leaf shoots ascend
toward the winter light.

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And her bark is a cross
between a bay horse

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and a chestnut horse, red and
velvety like the animal's neck

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she resembles.

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Staring at that tree
for a long time now,

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I am reminded of the
righteousness I had.

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I miss who I was.

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I miss who we all were.

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Before we were this half-alive
to the brightening sky,

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half-dead already.

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I place my hand on the unscarred
bark that is cool and unsullied.

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And because I cannot apologize
to the tree, to my own self,

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I say, I am sorry.

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I am sorry I have been so
reckless with your life.

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[APPLAUSE]

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