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Information through:

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Poems:

1: Poetry
tPoetry has a more beautiful way
to explain things. It is like an angel playing
on a harp and a devil smoking his horns.
If you have a poem ready in your mind . . .
Write it quick or it dashes away
like a little baby chick after some food.

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2: Humans
tWhen you are little you wonder what you will feel
when you are older.
You grow to be six, but still wonder.
Eight, you are getting suspicious.
Ten? No, not yet.
Fifteen? Closer.
Twenty-five? Yes.

Do you, now, know what it is to be older? Good!
Now you can be married.
Now you wonder what it’s like to be dead.

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3: Troy
tHere the place is buried,
but some things identify the city.
Heinrich Schliemann is apt to dig it out.

Troy was a wonderful city
but has broken down, and nature grew over it
leaving few reminders.

BUT! Heinrich Schliemann dug it out,
brought it back to our memory,
the winner of them all.

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4: Donkey
tI have a little donkey who used to run and bray,
but donkey lost his funny voice, and now he’s feeling grey.
I always try to cheer him up, but he just moans a sigh,
be even though he lost his voice, he still likes his blue tie.

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5: Rain
t“It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring!”
laugh the children as they run through the rain.
They go to a house and knock on the window pane.
“Please let us in or we’ll get wet!”
But nobody answers, nobody yet!
Another one said “We’re going to die!”
All was quiet, as quiet as pie.
“Let’s take a log and bust that pane,”
Said one of the children in the rain.
They broke all the window once for all,
but all they found was walls and walls.
They all had tears and lots of cries,
but they just lay down and closed their eyes.

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6: Born
tWhen I was almost born,
you had made a request
that I be a girl:
hair as black as night,
lips as red as an apple,
and skin as white as snow,
and I would be your heavenly angel,
and you were excited
when the nurses brought me to you,
you examined me.
Was my hair as black as night?
Lips as red as an apple?
Skin as white as snow?
And was I a heavenly angel?
All you said was part of me,
and you were happy.

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7: Failure
tI am playing my piano, I think of a tune.
I stop, but mother tells me not to,
but go on. I should have written it down
on my music paper, or sounded it out
in my mind, or told my mother it while
I heard it.
It faded away like the notes I played
or how the chalk fades on the
blackboard.

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8: The Never Ending Mouse
The never ending, nerve-wracking, positively stupid, unmannered, terrible, insulting, very ugly, trucky, noisy, sloppy, lazy, slow, messy, dirty, dusty, gossiping, shrimpy, puny, very weird, no brains, dumb-looking mouse

There once was a never ending, nerve-wracking, positively stupid,
unmannered, terrible, insulting, very ugly,
trucky, noisy, sloppy, lazy, slow, messy, dirty, dusty,
gossiping, shrimpy, puny, very weird, no brains, dumb-
looking mouse.
He was so terrible and unbearable that I ate him.
He was very delicious.
So never be a never ending, nerve-wracking, positively
stupid, unmannered, terrible, insulting, very ugly, tricky,
noisy, sloppy, lazy, slow, messy, dirty, dusty, gossiping,
shrimpy, puny, very weird, no brains, dumb-looking anything.
Or you too will be eaten up.

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9: Poetry

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Wendy Chen

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Premiere: 1983 The Juilliard School

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