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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Dear All,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>One of the modest giants of letters passed from the world yesterday. Here is one of her poems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Andrew<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>NO TITLE REQUIRED<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>It has come to this: I'm sitting under a tree<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>beside a river<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>on a sunny morning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>It's an insignificant event<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>and won't go down in history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>It's not battles and pacts,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>where motives are scrutinized,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>or noteworthy tyrannicides.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>And yet I'm sitting by this river, that's a fact.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>And since I'm here<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>I must have come from somewhere,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>and before that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>I must have turned up in many other places,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>exactly like the conquerors of nations<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>before setting sail.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Even a passing moment has its fertile past,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>its Friday before Saturday,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>its May before June.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Its horizons are no less real<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>than those that a marshal's field glasses might scan.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>This tree is a poplar that's been rooted here for years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The river is the Raba; it didn't spring up yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The path leading through the bushes<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>wasn't beaten last week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The wind had to blow the clouds here<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>before it could blow them away.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>And though nothing much is going on nearby,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>the world is no poorer in details for that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>It's just as grounded, just as definite<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>as when migrating races held it captive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Conspiracies aren't the only things shrouded in silence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Retinues of reasons don't trail coronations alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Anniversaries of revolutions may roll around,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>but so do oval pebbles encircling the bay.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The tapestry of circumstance is intricate and dense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Ants stitching in the grass.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The grass sewn into the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>The pattern of a wave being needled by a twig.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>So it happens that I am and look.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>Above me a white butterfly is fluttering through the air<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>on wings that are its alone,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>and a shadow skims through my hands<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>that is none other than itself, no one else's but its own.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>When I see such things, I'm no longer sure<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>that what's important<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>is more important than what's not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>~ Wislawa Szymborska ~<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Garamond","serif"'>trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>