ࡱ> GIFa 2jbjb,, u0NN2.......$Z&Z&Z&Z& f&<+&&&&&&^ '$0'h+j+j+j+j+j+j+,,R5/|+.D'&&D'D'+T+..&&+T+T+T+D'v.&.&h+T+R4,....D'h+T+T+..T+& l6Z&'T+T++0+T+/T+/T+T+. John Ciardi Talking Myself to Sleep at One More Hilton I have a country but no town. Home ran away from me. My trees ripped up their white roots and lay down. Bulldozers cut my lawn. All these are data toward some sentiment like money: God knows where it went. There was a house as sure as time. Sure as my fathers name and grave. Sure as behave and misbehave. Sure as lamb stew. Sure as sin. As warts. As games. As a scraped shin. There was a house, a chicken run, a garden, a guilt, a rocking chair. I had six dogs and every one was killed in traffic. I knew where their bones were once. Now Im not sure. Roses used them for manure. There was a house early and late. One day there cames an overpass. It snatched the stew right off my plate. It snatched the plate. A whiff of gas blew up the house like a freak wind. I wonder if I really mind. My father died. My fathers house fell out of any real estate. My dogs lie buried where time was when time still flowed, where now a slate stiff river loops, called Exit Nine. Why should I mind? It isnt mine. I have the way I think I live. The doors of my expense account open like arms when I arrive. There is no cloud I cannot mount and sip good bourbon as I ride. My fathers house is Hilton-wide. What are old dog bones? Were my trees still standing would I really care? Whats the right name for this disease of wishing they might still be there if I went back, though I will not and never meant to? Smash the pot, knock out the windows, blow the doors. I am not and mean not to be what I was once. I have two shores five hours apart, soon to be three. And home is anywhere between. Sure as the airport limousine, sure as credit, sure as a drink, as the best steak you ever had, as thinking when theres time to think its good enough. At least not bad. Better than dog bones and lamb stew. It does. Or it will have to do. Name Hour Date John Ciardi's "Talking Myself to Sleep at One More Hilton" On Flunking a Nice Boy out of School I wish I could teach you how ugly decency and humility can be when they are not the election of a contained mind but only the defenses of an incompetent. Were you taught meekness as a weapon? Or did you discover, by chance maybe, that it worked on mother and was generally a good thing at least when all else failed to get you over the worst of what was coming. Is that why you bring these sheepfaces to Tuesday? They wont do. Its three months work I want, and Id sooner have it from the brassiest lumpkin in pimpledom, but have it, than all these martyred repentances from you. The Gift In 1943, when the keepers cried kaput, Josef Stein, poet, came out of Dachau like half a resurrection, his other eighty pounds still in their invisible grave. Slowly then the mouth opened and first a broth, and then a medication, and then a diet, and all in time and the knitting mercies, the showing bones were buried back in flesh, and the miracle was finished. Josef Stein, man and poet, rose, walked, and could even beget, and did, and died later of other causes only partly traceable to his first death. He noted with some surprise at first  that strangers could not tell he had died once. He returned to his post in the library, drank his beer, published three poems in a French magazine, and was very kind to the son who at lasy was his. In the spent of one night he wrote three propositions: That Hell is the denial of the ordinary. That nothing lasts. That clean white paper waiting under a pen is the gift beyond history and hurt and heaven. English A No paraphrase does between understanding and understanding. You are either that noun beyond qualification into whose round fact I pass unparsed and into whose eyes I speak idioms beyond construction; or else get up, fasten your suffixes and your hyphenations, buckle your articles, spray modifiers and moods behind your ears and take the whole developed discourse of your thighs to any damned grammarian you whatsoever wish. Period.  8 (Qny2hq >*OJQJhq OJQJh?=hq 5hq   89Ww+Om<e L]Lgdq 2 9 T U w  ( ) H h  9 `   3 W u  % J j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z z { | } ~  &'()*+,QRt%$ ) hp@ P !hd^h`a$" ) hp@ P !hd^h`t'Qr>tMNu)TT?kl=>noyz  !!0EUVk$26/ =!"#$% P0; 0:pq / =!"#$%0$<@< NormalCJaJmH sH tH DA@D Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No List2080#zzz 2h0 89Ww+Om<e9TUw()Hh9`3Wu%Jjklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~&'()*+,QRt' Q r  > t  M N u ) T  ? k l =>noyz  !0EUVk$40ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ00 @0@@0@@0@@0@@0@0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ000ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ000ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ0ʀ 89Ww+Om<e9TUw()Hh9`3Wu%Jjklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~&'()*+,QRt48 888888888888 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 8888888 888 82 z tT!22 OLE_LINK11 OLE_LINK12 OLE_LINK13 OLE_LINK14 ((4kk))4  Q X \ e ov4w}%)<Aw{hlX_`b37$t{ ' ) Q T r t > B t x  % u v  ) , T Y ? H l o >@ox 06EGV\kn$(4:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::(4@oo^% oo`2p @UnknownGTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial;Helvetica qh&&gWZ >4e /6 John CiardiSandra EffingerSandra Effinger Oh+'0   , 8 DPX`hp' John CiardiSandra EffingerNormalSandra Effinger5Microsoft Word 11.2@*c@OVb@TtWZ GPICTb HHb bHH7?bb          wwo{wwg9ZRVco{VkZR  DkZwwwwo{kZw wo{wwwo{wU#kZRkZRg9RVg9ZZRg9ZNsR^VRg9ZJR^VNsc^ZZkZg9ZR   7wwwo{wwwwo{o{wykZRVkZ^VcZ^Vg9ZR^g9VZg9ZVRckZRJRVkZ^ZkZZcF1V^ZkZckZ^kZ^NsZZ^^ZAwwswwwwwwwwo{ucRNskZ^kZV Rg9kZkZZNskZNsRVg9kZ^^ZZ^kZRNsVZo{VcVwJRkZZkZkZ^VkZZcVkZRQwwwwwwo{wwwwwswwkZRZ^Z^ZJR^o{kZVNsZ^kZZZNsVZNsg9ZZVRckZRJRNsR^^cRg9VVNsRkZZkZg9RRZo{Z^VZ^Go{wwwwswwwwww{VZkZRZ^^kZZcRNsZkZVVRZg9kZJR^Z^ZkZVkZZRNscg9R^g9Ns^cRg9Z^kZR^g9R^kZ^ ;wwswwwwwwws VkZ^ZVNsg9ZVRkZZ NsRZJRg9o{NsRVg9o{kZNsZVg9RVcRg9RZ^cRkZVwo{kZVZg9Awwo{wwwwwo{kZwwkZNs^NskZZV^g9co{ZZVVZVVVNs^kZ^ZVZJRVVZV^kZ^kZNsRVVg9g9RsRNskZVF1JR^Zg9w  CkZwwwwwwwwwwkZR^kZ^VRZVRZ^Z^VZZ^kZJRZg9o{NsRVVZcVZ^g9JR^VkZVZZVVwRRVwJR^ZZRZ5kZswwwwwwqR^kZ^VZNsZkZJRR^kZZVVNsRVVZckZNs^kZVNskZVZg9VVZNsRVVVNsg9ZR^ CkZwwwwwwwwwwuR^kZ^VZR^RVkZ^VVZNs^ZR^RNs^VNsVg9kZVRZZVc^kZRVkZ^g9VVZRZkZ^Z9kZwwkZswwwsR^kZ^VZkZBkZRZg9^VNs^kZ^VZRVkZ^^RZ^kZZVZVZwZZF1NsR^g9RkZ^^=wwwwwwwwwwyZVVRZwZcVNsRZZVVZckZVZ^ZRNsZRZRZNsRo{ZVVg9VNs^kZ^R^NsZ^VkZww9 R^kZ^VZJR^V^ZkZo{NsR^RV^w#kZwwwwAkZR^kZ^VRZVRZ^Z^RcRo{cVJRkZ^Vw 3wwwwwwwqVcVkZZJRwVc^o{ZRkZZcVNsccRNskZZ^kZ^VZckZ^JRwZ^kZ^VZVZkZNsVw=wwwwwwwwwwmkZRVZZo{kZZZcZVVZ^kZ^kZg9ZV^VZJR^R^NsZg9^VVg9Z^^kZ^kZRVZwPwwsswwwwwwwwwVRZVo{kZRZo{Vg9NskZkZZNsV^VRwR^kZ^VZJRo{VVNscsVwRJRg9R^kZ^Zg9o{NsRg9Zg9RNsVsGwwwwwwwwwwwwJR^o{kZRZV^ZVZkZ^ZVc^^kZZVwkZNskZVZg9Z^kZ^ZZcZ^VZ^cRZckZ^VNsVZg9RVZ Ao{wwso{wwwwwwtZ^Z^Z^NsR^NskZkZZkZNsNsV^kZ^VZg9RkZg9F1VZZcRZV^ZVVZkZVNsJRNs^Vw%wwo{www4kZNsZ^Zc^o{g9VkZkZRVkZ^g9Z%kZwwwww?kZR^kZ^VRZVRZ^Z^^VkZNsVZkZJR^o{wwCcNs^ZJRJR^kZ^cVNsRZVVZkZ^kZZVZZ/wwwwwswGkZNsVVg9JR^Zg9R^Ns^Vg9o{cRNskZNskZg9ZkZJR^ 9wwwwwwwsssEkZNsVVg9JR^Zg9R^RVRZwVNso{kZkZZkZcVZ5wwwwwwswwARRVw^ZJR^RZ^Z^kZNs^VkZkZ^VwNsZ+wwswwww/kZVZ^kZo{kZ^NskZg9Ns^VZ־  ;wwswwwwwswwwCVg9g9kZVJR^kZZVZVg9g9kZVJR^kZZRZ^Z^ swwsw3kZRkZZ^g9ZkZVVg9kZ^F1ZNsR+wwwwwwwCVg9g9ZZcZkZVF1kZo{^ZVNs^kZ^g9o{NsRVRZ+wwo{wwwwMVNs^V^NsRZg9o{kZkZRVZZRwR^kZ^VZVwVZNsg9^*sswwo{ww=Z^kZkZ^kZRRZ ^VkZRZVkZZ^kZNs^3 o{wwwwwwo{ww?ckZRg9ZRZ^RkZNs^VZkZkZg9RVF1^JR   (wwwwww7kZRVkZ^g9R^VRg9kZJRo{VVkZkZ^^kZwws?kZR^ZkZZZkZNskZg9^kZZ^VZ^VcNs^Vg9wwww9ZZ^VkZNs^VkZNsRVNs^VkZVkZ^kZ^ kZwwwwAkZR^kZ^RVZcR^ZkZcVVZg9NskZZ^Vg9'wwwwww9VVZZRcZ RZ^kZRZVVZkZkZR^- wwswwwww?Vg9g9kZVJR^kZZRZ^Z^o{Zc^ZZVsVR^                    ՜.+,0  hp  'Oklahoma Writing Projecte  John Ciardi Title  !"#$%&'()*+,-./023456789:;<=?@ABCDEHRoot Entry F;tJ1Table/WordDocumentu0SummaryInformation(1<DocumentSummaryInformation8>CompObjX FMicrosoft Word DocumentNB6WWord.Document.8