Today's poet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

Introduction to Poetry


I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Billy Collins

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Sweet!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stevefoster

Agree Alf..............Hopefully they all have a birthday;)

Sorry, couldn't resist, in a playfull mood tonight.

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steve your avatar is quite striking!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

steve your avatar is quite striking!

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It's me when i was handsome:wink:

Long time ago!

Just One
Unknown


One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.


One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal


One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.


One step must start each journey.
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.


One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what's true,


One life can make a difference,
You see, it's up to you!

The Challenge
by Jim Rohn


Let others lead small lives,
But not you.
Let others argue over small things,
But not you.
Let others cry over small hurts,
But not you.
Let others leave their future
In someone else's hands,
But not you.

I really enjoyed the challenge poem steve...quite inspiring, might form a good mantra in the head of a (would be) marathon runner....

been reading the poet laureate's work "Rapture" , essential reading for an old romantic like me!


Rapture
Carol Ann Duffy

Thought of you all day, I think of you.
The birds sing in the shelter of a tree.
Above the prayer of rain, unacred blue,
Not paradise, goes nowhere endlessly.
How does it happen that our lives can drift
Far from our selves, while we stay trapped in time,
Queuing for death? It seems nothing will shift
The pattern of our days, alter the rhyme
We make with loss to assonance with bliss.
Then love comes, like a sudden flight of birds
From earth to heaven after rain. Your kiss,
Recalled, unstrings, like pearls, this chain of words.

Ok so i've been to a poetry night at my book club and i'm a little drunk; so you can have one of my truly favourite poems.....

Marke but this flea, and marke in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled bee;
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sinne, nor shame, nor losse of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoyes before it wooe,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where wee almost, yea more than maryed are,
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloysterd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill mee
Let not to that, selfe murder added bee,
And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.

Cruell and sodaine, hast thou since
Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty bee,
Except in that drop which it suckt from thee?
Yet thou triump'st, and saist that thou
Find'st not thy selfe, nor mee the weaker now;
'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;
Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.


The Flea
John Donne

I mistakenly read an email that I thought said that Pam Ayres was coming to run a training session at the club next week. Turns out to be one Sam Ayres instead. But it got me thinking..... (With apologies to both Pam and Sam.)

I Wish I'd Looked After Me Knees

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees,
My left one it quite disagrees,
With the miles I’ve plodded,
I should have said “sod it!”
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

I wish I’d been rather more keen,
To cut back on my training regime,
But even when ill,
I’d be racing uphill,
My niggles, I could have foreseen.

When I think that my normal race plan,
Was to act like a bloody stunt man,
Up Fairfield, Scafell,
Even Wasdale as well,
Now I need a retirement plan!

My Mother, she told me no end,
”Take up bowls, that’s what I recommend,
But you sprint to the summit,
Then downwards you plummet,
Your madness I can’t comprehend."

If I'd known I was paving the way,
For my cartilage to fritter away,
It’s a no-brainer,
Most certainly saner,
To keep fit a more low-impact way.

So I sit in the old doctor’s chair,
And he sighs at me with great despair,
”What do you expect?
Of course they are wrecked,
Fell running is daft, I declare.”

So I’m here with my frozen green peas,
Clasped to my great swelling knees,
I’m finished, I’m reckonin’,
But the hills they are beckonin’,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...c-post-004.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

I mistakenly read an email that I thought said that Pam Ayres was coming to run a training session at the club next week. Turns out to be one Sam Ayres instead. But it got me thinking..... (With apologies to both Pam and Sam.)

I Wish I'd Looked After Me Knees

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees,
My left one it quite disagrees,
With the miles I’ve plodded,
I should have said “sod it!”
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

I wish I’d been rather more keen,
To cut back on my training regime,
But even when ill,
I’d be racing uphill,
My niggles, I could have foreseen.

When I think that my normal race plan,
Was to act like a bloody stunt man,
Up Fairfield, Scafell,
Even Wasdale as well,
Now I need a retirement plan!

My Mother, she told me no end,
”Take up bowls, that’s what I recommend,
But you sprint to the summit,
Then downwards you plummet,
Your madness I can’t comprehend."

If I'd known I was paving the way,
For my cartilage to fritter away,
It’s a no-brainer,
Most certainly saner,
To keep fit a more low-impact way.

So I sit in the old doctor’s chair,
And he sighs at me with great despair,
”What do you expect?
Of course they are wrecked,
Fell running is daft, I declare.”

So I’m here with my frozen green peas,
Clasped to my great swelling knees,
I’m finished, I’m reckonin’,
But the hills they are beckonin’,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

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Excellent that Harry :thumbup: though a bit close to home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

Excellent that Harry :thumbup: though a bit close to home.

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Cheers Alf. I suspect there are plenty more dodgy knees around here.

Brilliant HHH, can just imagine Pam Eyres reciting that:thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stevefoster

Just One
Unknown


One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.


One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal


One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.


One step must start each journey.
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.


One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what's true,


One life can make a difference,
You see, it's up to you!

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Post interview, this one has struck a chord with me.
Argh scream scream scream, the suspense would kill a flea!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

I mistakenly read an email that I thought said that Pam Ayres was coming to run a training session at the club next week. Turns out to be one Sam Ayres instead. But it got me thinking..... (With apologies to both Pam and Sam.)

I Wish I'd Looked After Me Knees

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees,
My left one it quite disagrees,
With the miles I’ve plodded,
I should have said “sod it!”
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

I wish I’d been rather more keen,
To cut back on my training regime,
But even when ill,
I’d be racing uphill,
My niggles, I could have foreseen.

When I think that my normal race plan,
Was to act like a bloody stunt man,
Up Fairfield, Scafell,
Even Wasdale as well,
Now I need a retirement plan!

My Mother, she told me no end,
”Take up bowls, that’s what I recommend,
But you sprint to the summit,
Then downwards you plummet,
Your madness I can’t comprehend."

If I'd known I was paving the way,
For my cartilage to fritter away,
It’s a no-brainer,
Most certainly saner,
To keep fit a more low-impact way.

So I sit in the old doctor’s chair,
And he sighs at me with great despair,
”What do you expect?
Of course they are wrecked,
Fell running is daft, I declare.”

So I’m here with my frozen green peas,
Clasped to my great swelling knees,
I’m finished, I’m reckonin’,
But the hills they are beckonin’,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me knees.

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Brilliant Harry and so lovely to have you back! missed your writing!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

Brilliant Harry and so lovely to have you back! missed your writing!

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Ayup Lass. I've been having a lovely break from running for a bit since the end of the season and I must say that I'm quite enjoying it! I've never done so much relaxing in years! So I've been finding a bit more time for scribbling amongst other things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Ayup Lass. I've been having a lovely break from running for a bit since the end of the season and I must say that I'm quite enjoying it! I've never done so much relaxing in years! So I've been finding a bit more time for scribbling amongst other things.

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Aw thats good Harry...keep it up!

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

Looks like it is just me on here tonight :closed:....and its sunday! pah and double :closed:....ah well, never mind here is hoping that the loveliness of my weekend extends into the working week...!!!!!?!

for now, here is one of my favourites...

Love After Love
Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Hi Freckle, you aren't alone on here! Just finished some work after a brilliant extended weekend. There's been some great posts lately and 'Love after Love' was brilliant. Nice to see HHH back and with some of his own work too, nice one Harry although I hope your knees aren't giving you too much jip. :o

Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
your imagined, untouchable hand. Not there,
your fingers braid with mine as I walk.
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
everything suddenly gold. I half believe
your hand is holding mine, the way
it would if you were here. What do you say

in my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
as the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

Carol Ann Duffy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

Hi Freckle, you aren't alone on here! Just finished some work after a brilliant extended weekend. There's been some great posts lately and 'Love after Love' was brilliant. Nice to see HHH back and with some of his own work too, nice one Harry although I hope your knees aren't giving you too much jip. :o

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Hi Hes, knees are fine thanks, just pretending for comedy purposes! :-)

That's very good to hear HHH:thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Hi Hes, knees are fine thanks, just pretending for comedy purposes! :-)

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Simon Armitage in today's guardian. Still no sign of a pennine way book mind you!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/vide...ideo-interview

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
your imagined, untouchable hand. Not there,
your fingers braid with mine as I walk.
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
everything suddenly gold. I half believe
your hand is holding mine, the way
it would if you were here. What do you say

in my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
as the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

Carol Ann Duffy

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Nice choice Hes.

Having returned to the south, I'm thinking this one fit's just nicely right now, and it's not just the trees that are fretful! Ho hum I'm off to research for a nice moist christmas cake recipe, and then maybe finish the evening off perusing my Essential Neruda.

Stef,
If you want something a little bit different I have a recipe for Figgy Pudding Christmas Cake. Its in this months Sainsburys mag but I can send it to you if you like x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stef F

Nice choice Hes.

Having returned to the south, I'm thinking this one fit's just nicely right now, and it's not just the trees that are fretful! Ho hum I'm off to research for a nice moist christmas cake recipe, and then maybe finish the evening off perusing my Essential Neruda.

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That is just lovely Hes x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
your imagined, untouchable hand. Not there,
your fingers braid with mine as I walk.
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
everything suddenly gold. I half believe
your hand is holding mine, the way
it would if you were here. What do you say

in my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
as the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

Carol Ann Duffy

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Goatess

Stef,
If you want something a little bit different I have a recipe for Figgy Pudding Christmas Cake. Its in this months Sainsburys mag but I can send it to you if you like x

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Yes please that'd be great; or stick it on my Today's New Recipe thread (I use that like a recipe book!!!) :)

Done! I'm going to try this one this year for a change :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stef F

Yes please that'd be great; or stick it on my Today's New Recipe thread (I use that like a recipe book!!!) :)

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Thought I was on the wrong thread for a minute there :confused::D

The Wind's Song


Dull-thoughted, walking among the nunneries
Of many a myriad anemones
In the close copses, I grew weary of Spring
Till I emerged and in my wandering
I climbed the down up to a lone pine clump
Of six, the tallest dead, one a mere stump.
On one long stem, branchless and flayed and prone,
I sat in the sun listening to the wind alone,
Thinking there could be no old song so sad
As the wind's song; but later none so glad
Could I remember as that same wind's song
All the time blowing the pine boughs among.
My heart that had been still as the dead tree
Awakened by the West wind was made free.

Edward Thomas

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Simon Armitage in today's guardian. Still no sign of a pennine way book mind you!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/vide...ideo-interview

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He is too busy carving words into the Pennine stone I think Harry :thunbdown:

In Memoriam (1915)


The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Edward Thomas

Two Edward Thomas choices, what a treat, thanks Alf (although the second makes me want to cry!).

That sounds like a really nice evening Stef. Hope you get some good news on the job front soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stef F

Nice choice Hes.

Having returned to the south, I'm thinking this one fit's just nicely right now, and it's not just the trees that are fretful! Ho hum I'm off to research for a nice moist christmas cake recipe, and then maybe finish the evening off perusing my Essential Neruda.

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Sleeping Together

Sleeping together... how tired you were...
How warm our room... how the firelight spread
On walls and ceiling and great white bed!
We spoke in whispers as children do,
And now it was I--and then it was you
Slept a moment, to wake--"My dear,
I'm not at all sleepy," one of us said....

Was it a thousand years ago?
I woke in your arms--you were sound asleep--
And heard the pattering sound of sheep.
Softly I slipped to the floor and crept
To the curtained window, then, while you slept,
I watched the sheep pass by in the snow.

O flock of thoughts with their shepherd Fear
Shivering, desolate, out in the cold,
That entered into my heart to fold!

A thousand years... was it yesterday
When we two children of far away,
Clinging close in the darkness, lay
Sleeping together?... How tired you were....


Katherine Mansfield

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

Hand

Away from you, I hold hands with the air,
your imagined, untouchable hand. Not there,
your fingers braid with mine as I walk.
Far away in my heart, you start to talk.

I squeeze the air, kicking the auburn leaves,
everything suddenly gold. I half believe
your hand is holding mine, the way
it would if you were here. What do you say

in my heart? I bend my head to listen, then feel
your hand reach out and stroke my hair, as real
as the wind caressing the fretful trees above.
Now I can hear you clearly, speaking of love.

Carol Ann Duffy

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Permission for bottom lip to wobble?...the first in a line of very lovely "love" poems, the perfect antidote to my stressy MONday! thank you Hes! :-) x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

Thought I was on the wrong thread for a minute there :confused::D

The Wind's Song


Dull-thoughted, walking among the nunneries
Of many a myriad anemones
In the close copses, I grew weary of Spring
Till I emerged and in my wandering
I climbed the down up to a lone pine clump
Of six, the tallest dead, one a mere stump.
On one long stem, branchless and flayed and prone,
I sat in the sun listening to the wind alone,
Thinking there could be no old song so sad
As the wind's song; but later none so glad
Could I remember as that same wind's song
All the time blowing the pine boughs among.
My heart that had been still as the dead tree
Awakened by the West wind was made free.

Edward Thomas

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well ..i have a confession...

i too have made a christmas cake...and furthermore

it is nowhere near as sumptious as this lovely poem alfster!

where is my protestant work ethic when i need it? oh yer..its right there working til this god forsaken hour...

cue amy...

Fatigue
Amy Lowell

Stupefy my heart to every day's monotony,
Seal up my eyes, I would not look so far,
Chasten my steps to peaceful regularity,
Bow down my head lest I behold a star.

Fill my days with work, a thousand calm necessities
Leaving no moment to consecrate to hope,
Girdle my thoughts within the dull circumferences
Of facts which form the actual in one short hour's scope.

Give me dreamless sleep, and loose night's power over me,
Shut my ears to sounds only tumultuous then,
Bid Fancy slumber, and steal away its potency,
Or Nature wakes and strives to live again.

Let each day pass, well ordered in its usefulness,
Unlit by sunshine, unscarred by storm;
Dower me with strength and curb all foolish eagerness --
The law exacts obedience. Instruct, I will conform.


p.s. i won't really conform!

p.p.s isn't the word stupefy just great? i am going to try and use it at least 3 times tomorrow!

last post tonight (honest)...


went to see the new woody allen film on sat "midnight in paris" ...brilliant, v funny and has, as my better half put it "fuelled my trip to paris" dreams....:p

a clip from hannah and her sisters with ee cummings poem included...5 mins so probably only for the die hard woody/cummings fans!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieoFkuu_aNM

I went to see that too Freckle...loved it (although a few of the witty literary references were lost on me...must brush up on my classics) and it also made me want to go to Paris again. Think I might have to go for the weekend next year some time:D xx

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

last post tonight (honest)...


went to see the new woody allen film on sat "midnight in paris" ...brilliant, v funny and has, as my better half put it "fuelled my trip to paris" dreams....:p

a clip from hannah and her sisters with ee cummings poem included...5 mins so probably only for the die hard woody/cummings fans!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieoFkuu_aNM

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