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You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

for you are the only animal, who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm.

I'm Michael Silverblatt, and today my guest is Mark Strand.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection of poetry, a Blizzard of One.

He has been, for many years, one of my favorite American poets from the time his book

Reasons for Moving appeared to Darker. I've been a great admirer, and the book, Blizzard of

One, has recently appeared in paperback, accompanied by the appearance in hardcover

of a book of essays on poetic invention called The Weather of Words, published by Alfred A. Knapp.

Now, often as not, I find myself saying things before I hear what I've said, and I found myself

describing Mark Strand

as a poet of supulchral lunacy,

and then I found myself thinking,

well, he is, isn't he?

And just to prove it, I asked him to begin

by reading a poem called Some Last Words, Mark Strand.

Thank you, Michael.

Some last words.

One, it is easier for a needle to pass through a camel

than for a poor man to enter a woman of means.

...