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"I Realized I Was Happy and It Scared Me"

By Rich IvesUpdated Tuesday, June 6, 2006, at 6:44 AM ET

Click here to listen to Rich Ives read this poem.


Something had to have been here before me
for here to be here, so sometimes
I say I'd like a little silence,

to see if I can discover what it was,
but what I really want is quiet, in which
you hear just a few things

better, which is not silence,
in which you hear one thing
Again and again and again

and it's not even there.

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Rich Ives teaches creative writing at Everett Community College. He is a multi-instrumentalist currently concentrating on fiddle and dobro.
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