from MEMBERS OF THE TRIBE
            Mary Oliver
                p. 1983*
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In the back fields,
beyond the locked windows,
a young man who couldn't live long and knew it
was listening to a plain brown bird
that kept singing in the deep leaves,
that kept urging from him
some wild and careful words.
                            You know that
important and eloquent defence
of sanity.  (3.18-27)


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* from _Dream Work_, 1986

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