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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: HALPERN, DANIEL Matches Found: 223 Halpern, Daniel Poet's Biography 223 poems available by this author A BAD YEAR Poem Text First Line: We call it a bad year, / diseases of the blood Subject(s): Time ABIDING MEMENTO First Line: Always going back there %hilltown dinners Last Line: How even at that moment it was %this memory in time flowing back AFTER RUMI First Line: So many nights cast to darkness %without morning Last Line: By one version fire %no longer catches AFTER THE VIGIL First Line: They turn up, no longer nameless, %their bodies clear, so nearly pure Last Line: Into this world, keeping their own counsel AIR, '56 First Line: Across the way a phonograph scratches out 'ja-da' Last Line: Melody climbing the coolish, friendly air ALL CITY First Line: He was all city, but not in sports- %something a little different Last Line: Looking up at the lunar disk-aqueous, drifting AMARYLLIS First Line: Through the city the flocks are led Last Line: Clouded the air, the hum of evening traffic grew ANNUALS Poem Text First Line: The trees hold against Subject(s): Nature ANNUALS First Line: The trees hold against Last Line: This empire's time %running out, color %the correct landscape %to show what's left you Subject(s): Nature ANTECEDENT First Line: I meant to have time to think this over Last Line: A plausible thing, something out of nothing APPROACH First Line: Let what declines find a level of its own Last Line: Theories of season, its rising %and falling, the guards at last coming around Subject(s): Nature ARGUMENT First Line: But it ate a hole in my heart Last Line: The cost? One more entry through the heart ARRIVING First Line: On a day long and wet we fall upon Last Line: Of moth wings on the screen, starving for light AT DANTE'S TOMB First Line: Too austere even for dante Last Line: Amonmg the four worlds we inhabit BAD YEAR First Line: We call it a bad year, %diseases of the blood Last Line: Of our bones?-is just a stone's throw away Subject(s): Time BAR ESCARGOT: A STORY First Line: Moe served drinks in the bar escargot, a youthful liberian saved by peter Last Line: Were pulled through the shuttered openings into the waiting darkness BEAUTY & RESTRAINT Poem Text First Line: We decided to make nothing definite Subject(s): Beauty; Heaven; Paradise BEAUTY & RESTRAINT First Line: We decided to make nothing definite Last Line: Even the sun, hovering in this paradise, %eventually goes down Subject(s): Beauty; Heaven BEGIN First Line: We are in the room Last Line: I need only begin. Can you hear me BELL & CAPITOL First Line: There is the sound of trumpets brilliant off the brick BELOW KEATS'S ROOM, FIRST LIGHT First Line: I won't forget Last Line: In the piazza di spagna, at that hour, I heard keats say it BIRTHRIGHT First Line: I think they go back to visit Last Line: Will inherit your past BLUE SUSPENSION First Line: Brown wood and moss-covering Last Line: Bread, the red wine, the girl in her blue suspension BRAVURA LAMENT Poem Text First Line: He would tell you the grass this spring was a pale Subject(s): Change; Lament; Nature; Time BRAVURA LAMENT First Line: He would tell you the grass this spring was a pale Last Line: Drowning while showered by the fluid blow of keen insight Subject(s): Change; Lament; Nature; Time BREAKER OF GLASS First Line: In pleases him, how he multiplies Last Line: In the bathroom's dark wall BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB Poem Text First Line: Their old, pale green pontiac cleaned up Subject(s): Clubs (associations); Parties CALL First Line: The sharp, insomniac cry of a seabird Last Line: Of the unmolested feeding birds at sunrise, just rising CANDLES FOR BESSIE First Line: We walk as far as we can Last Line: Throw light against the darkening vestibules CARELESS PERFECTION Poem Text First Line: According to lin yutang Subject(s): Perfection CARNIVAL FOOD First Line: It was great to see you the other day Last Line: It comes back to me. Forget those brilliant enchiladas CARNIVAL MOOD First Line: But my god you were beautiful. A vegetarian, right? Last Line: Or as my daughter queried, which is higher--space or heaven? CHILD RUNNING First Line: The little girl runs too quickly in the summer afternoon Last Line: What's one estatic child running on the beach CINEMA VERITE First Line: In the cinema verite of the sixties the beautiful Last Line: Are numbered but the evening is long CLAMS First Line: The gift of clams is here, waiting Last Line: This gift of clams CLICHE DOMESTIQUE First Line: Sunday and a dark day, of domesticity CLUMSY GRATITUDE First Line: There is only one secret despite the many Last Line: In what ways the secret revealed %is nothing more than an ongoing form of grace COFFEE First Line: There was a little coffee house in the mid-sixties, Last Line: The cups of coffee cooling, just out of reach CORPSE OF THE INSENSITIVE First Line: The mountainside or pasture hills Last Line: As if that body rising in the grass were ours CREELEY'S HEAVEN First Line: If they've %left they're Last Line: Just now on %the branch DANCE Poem Text First Line: The line of girls anathema, Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers DANCE First Line: The line of girls anathema, %pale summer dresses, conspicuous makeup Last Line: Their legs moving already. Dance? DANCE First Line: No one's dancing here tonight Last Line: No one's dancing here tonight -- wouldn't you know it DAUGHTER & CHAIR First Line: It's a sunny day in the middle of the year Last Line: There's only the one sun and it shines in her eyes DAYBREAK Recitation by Author Subject(s): Dawn; Sunrise DAYBREAK First Line: The angular %stick-legged walk Last Line: The explosive light breaking %off bay glass DEAD BIRDS First Line: All the days you can remember Last Line: Spirit like memory rising, gravity free DEAD FISH First Line: The pale arc of line feeds Last Line: Pulled in on a fly DEATH OF LI PO First Line: Not even their master calligraphers Last Line: As he passed through that perfect circle of light Subject(s): Li Po (701-762) DEJA VU First Line: The great wings of the fan spread Last Line: It will be with my hands DESPERADOS Poem Text First Line: We were desperate. No, we were beyond desperation Subject(s): Driving & Drivers DESPERADOS First Line: We were desperate. No, we were beyond desperation Last Line: We hadn't made a move - just kept on driving Subject(s): Driving And Drivers DINNER FOR TWO First Line: It wasn't an easy address to find, buried in chinatown, above Last Line: Something very old and odd and intense. I'd like to do that DIRECTION Poem Text First Line: Along the way there are signs, nothing Subject(s): Nature; Signs & Signboards DIRECTION First Line: Along the way there are signs, nothing Last Line: The limitless ocean passing over the many bones Subject(s): Nature; Signs And Signboards DIRECTION FROM ZULU First Line: Be seated first thing upon awakening Last Line: In your zibeline robes remember this: %you are zechariah. You are zoroaster. You are zebedee DUSK First Line: She never happens upon a garden at dusk Last Line: Portrait in the high glass windows of the city %a brilliant light held against the darkening snow DUTCH APRIL First Line: Tulips charge the grazing dikes, and I walk Last Line: Its load of ripe edam upon the quay EARLY DEATH First Line: It is the first death that seems so open Last Line: Invisible trees, in the little light left them ELEGIES FOR CARELESS LOVE First Line: I've been trying to write you of that night Last Line: Do not expect applause ENDINGS First Line: A few years later Last Line: Three thousand times %round this floor EPITHALAMIUM First Line: In the streets the crowds go about their business Last Line: The time has come. I am waiting for you Subject(s): Rome, Italy ETERNAL LIGHT OF TALK First Line: That's one way to look at it, I thought Last Line: To be sure, his was a living will ETHNIC LIFE First Line: I've been after the exotic Last Line: Where the senses can be heard FEVER JOURNAL First Line: It is evening. Purple Last Line: Back over the water from the north FIRST FEVER First Line: Here's a fevered child %bedded down between us Last Line: Above the darkening, faced %toward the cooling dawn FISH Recitation Subject(s): Fish FISH First Line: She is washed by white-water, white if she looked up Last Line: The fish bending to touch her FIVE RIDDLES: 1. First Line: Your digs neither rouse nor rib Last Line: To walk this earth upon his own good luck FIVE RIDDLES: 2. First Line: With a body full of vertebrae Last Line: First and final trip alone %is its funeral FIVE RIDDLES: 3. First Line: It is my pulse Last Line: And I have the final word FIVE RIDDLES: 4. First Line: Your arms cover half Last Line: That we began in this world, which is half yours FIVE RIDDLES: 5. First Line: I lurk in shadows Last Line: Keeps their world alive FOLLOWING IT DOWN First Line: Think how you will follow it down Last Line: Out of the cobalt balance FOR THE UNIDENTIFIED First Line: From above the park is bruised surface Last Line: And sure we will like this for a long time. %isn't this evening turned to night lasting? FOR YOU First Line: You are not going to say any more now Last Line: This last long river is for you FOREIGN NEON Recitation FOREIGN NEON First Line: Consider a landscape of winter Last Line: Her cheek, a color akin to foreign neon FORESEEABLE FUTURES Poem Text First Line: We would have found powell in paris Subject(s): Future FORESEEABLE FUTURES First Line: We would have found powell in paris Last Line: We could have found our way to the music Subject(s): Future FROG NIGHTS First Line: The frogs outside my window hog the night Last Line: This room, where in disguise we move FUGUE Poem Text First Line: A child asks endlessly about dying Subject(s): Mortality FUGUE First Line: A child asks endlessly about dying Last Line: The days run out-no longer oneself GIRL WHO DOESN'T SMILE First Line: I am seated Last Line: My own undying love GLASSWORKS First Line: You run out of invention and the glass stem Last Line: And make it live below intelligence GOD HASN'T MADE ROOM -- MRIRIDA N'AIT ATTIK First Line: My sister, you are a stranger to this place Last Line: On a warm summer night GONE First Line: A girl I didn't know handed me a letter and went away Last Line: The blue vein a river through her golden temple at rest GRASSHOPPER First Line: Mokhtar sat in his favorite cafe on the rue de la plage Last Line: The grasshopper kept on eating and weeping until the onion was gone HALFWAY First Line: Chekhov said if you wish to have Last Line: The things he cooked and never ate HEAVENLY ORNAMENTS First Line: They are, so many of them, too far away now Last Line: The heavenly ornaments burn only for the living HER BODY [THE SIGNATURE] Poem Text Recitation First Line: They are small enough to find and care for a tiny stone Subject(s): Human Body; Women HER BODY: 1. THE FINGERS First Line: They are small enough to find and care for a tiny stone Last Line: Who sent her, letting them know contact's made HER BODY: 2. THE EYES First Line: We believe their color makes some kind of difference Last Line: Maybe just looking with loyalty into the eyes of another HER BODY: 3. THE TOES First Line: Who went to market Last Line: You go, %I stay. %two autumns HER BODY: 4. THE SIGNATURE First Line: Who knows how they get here Last Line: An angel's thumbprint, a signature, her soul HERE AT FIFTY First Line: The checklist at dawn %gets longer Last Line: The final midpoint, the last step %the infinite standstill HERMIT First Line: I live at a distance Last Line: You can't leave a wife of enclosure. %you can't leave a house of air HOBBYIST First Line: In late august she decided to make thanksgiving turkeys Last Line: The needles and thimbles, the hundred threads HOEG'S ISLAND First Line: She lived on an island connected to an island by a bridge Last Line: Angle into the rising sun-forms punctuating the language of %what lay ahead HOMAGE TO N First Line: She is the most beautiful woman in moscow Last Line: The sun shines, but in my soul darkness reigns HOT TEA Poem Text First Line: Midafternoon./her canyon. Her house Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations HOT TEA First Line: Mid-afternoon %her canyon. Her house Last Line: Heat from the valley washing over us %the tea we sip frosts our shades HOUSE OF FLAME First Line: Get the marinade right Last Line: As white sheets - your white voice %in the expectant air, calling me back HOW TO EAT ALONE Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: While it's still light out Subject(s): Food & Eating HOW TO EAT ALONE First Line: While it's still light out Last Line: The company is the best you'll ever have Subject(s): Food And Eating HUNGRY AS DOGS First Line: You write only of the night? She writes Last Line: We were famished, wasn't that why we went out? %hungry as dogs I AM A DANCER First Line: There is no reason to be bothered Last Line: I kick open the air and, my friend, I walk out IN SEASON First Line: The game birds you like to pursue await %disagreeable weather Last Line: Finite diversion the art of this world INFESTATION Poem Text First Line: Even insects have histories Last Line: Upon which they take their evening meal Subject(s): Insects; Exterminating & Exterminators; Bugs INFESTATION First Line: Even insects have histories Last Line: Upon which they take their evening meal Subject(s): Insects INFIDELITIES: 1 First Line: I read somewhere that every love Last Line: Life sentences %back to back INFIDELITIES: 2 First Line: There's a grey cat who's not allowed into the house Last Line: A gourmet cat when hungry: squab, fillet, hearts of chicken INFIDELITIES: 3 First Line: Adjoining suites in cities halfway round the world Last Line: Will accompany you the full distance home INFIDELITIES: 4 First Line: We talked in the oyster bars Last Line: Parting with nothing left to say INFIDELITIES: 5 First Line: There's a rich, humid park that carries on for acres Last Line: We want it this lingering way: constant renaming, constant return INSULT -- MRIRIDA N'AIT ATTIK First Line: You are wrong, mother of my former husband Last Line: That I no longer know is name JUST ANOTHER DARKENING First Line: Just a darkening, as if the century had come Last Line: These hours so like mirrors, the night so unwilling to relinquish KEEPERS Poem Text First Line: Judged by the inch Last Line: "home, something Subject(s): Property; Possessions KEEPERS First Line: Judged by the inch Last Line: Home, something %whole to keep Subject(s): Property LADY KNIFE-THROWER First Line: In the gay silver air of the tent Last Line: In their teakwood rack, we are all we desire LANDING First Line: On the prow Last Line: And yet take them in LAST DANCE First Line: You were dancing. %you were dancing Last Line: You were dancing a slow dance, %but you were dancing LAST DAYS OF THE YEAR First Line: Sometimes the days must Last Line: Of the cars outside, passing by LATE Poem Text First Line: It is late and the others have turned Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations LATE First Line: It is the harsh, rude sound of a man leaving Last Line: Repetition of walking shoes, moving with intent LATE (ON LINES BY ELIZABETH BOWEN) First Line: It is late and the others have turned Last Line: Again from that window and talk to me LEAVING THE CITY First Line: We were complaining about the streets Last Line: We wept openly for our exhaustion LESSON First Line: Where have they gone Last Line: Again and again at her breast LETTER TO THE MIDWEST First Line: You would notice the humor: storks Last Line: In a frenzy, circle, and float home LIFE AMONG OTHERS First Line: I tempt light off the bay till evening Last Line: From this setting of props, I return it all LIKE ANYONE First Line: She had theories: like every eel Last Line: Like her life at the slight angle %she lived it LIME KILN First Line: Late august, the dead days of lime Last Line: Nothing but the wet flesh of memory LOVE SONG First Line: Your eyes the coolish pallor of the greenback Last Line: O such eyes make of what they see a cage MARRIAGE POEM First Line: Underappreciated today for his epigrammatic wit Last Line: Can be believed forever over the years MEASURES SHE HAS TAKEN First Line: The cruelties of africa cloud the nails Last Line: A little open ocean, the sun afloat on orient METAPHYSICAL First Line: Yes, I thought this to be everlasting Last Line: Oh yes, how the world rises before us and goes by MIDNIGHT: TRIADIC GHAZAL First Line: Let the night be the one place of darkness Last Line: And then, too, what lies ahead MOON OVER SQUIBNOCKET Poem Text First Line: A hundred yards out the rockpile shelters the keeper bass Subject(s): Moon MOON OVER SQUIBNOCKET First Line: A hundred yards out the rockpile shelters the keeper bass Last Line: Oh yes, perfect summer night. A few of us just looking up Subject(s): Moon MY EYES YOUR EYES First Line: I give you one of my blue eyes %because you are four and ask for it Last Line: If you asked %if you asked for it NAMING THE UNBORN First Line: Marry late and the next question Last Line: And await what will come, %this vigil we keep for the nameless Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters NATURE LOVER'S LAMENT Poem Text First Line: They want only to look at it Last Line: But when the moment comes, they refuse to touch it Subject(s): Hearts; Love; Nature NATURE LOVER'S LAMENT First Line: They want only to look at it Last Line: But when the moment comes, they refuse to touch it Subject(s): Hearts; Love; Nature NEW BLAST-FURNACE IN THE KEMEROVO -- BELLA AKHMADULINA First Line: Up there where the new blast-furnace rises Last Line: Then scatters sparks, failing stars of fire NEW ROAD First Line: Stippled, if you were after distance Last Line: Where the new road like a wave meets the old NEW STRANGERS First Line: Here's to you!-to you Last Line: They've been there? And always so familiar NIGHT FOOD First Line: I talked with those who fished the santa monica pier Last Line: The wet sea air, night fishing NIGHT SCENE First Line: The train passes through the night Last Line: It was enough NIGHTWORK First Line: The humid night has thrown Last Line: The ongoing sea-sound in the shell of night NOTE First Line: To get your attention NUDE First Line: In one of watteau's pencil sketches Last Line: Which he left without a mark OF THE AIR First Line: Tonight, in the country, I stood awhile Last Line: Not in the night, but through the air OUR BOYS: THE EIGTH PILLAR First Line: We know what we're doing now. Believe me Last Line: Pitch tents where the sun's no emblem, whee the stars %don'tcarry cards and after the shot they don' PARTING WORDS First Line: It's a small town somewhere Last Line: And fashion will have lifted her skirt a little PASSING First Line: Sometimes you called on those Last Line: And you'd let them go PASTIMES First Line: Why, you're a genius, she said Last Line: As we glue and stitch through life PERSON SMOKING First Line: Cigarette smoke floats up Last Line: Into the white air of the sheets PERVERTS First Line: A lonely little lman Last Line: He can wait PHOTOGRAPH First Line: I've never felt this way before he said Last Line: His hand, still warm, felt nothing PINK SHARON Last Line: She says, yes PLACE TO EAT First Line: Do you remember driving such south looking for a place to eat? Last Line: Lights finally found the broken white rule running north? PORTONCINI DEI MORTI First Line: In the analects confucius says Last Line: Among the living POSTCARD First Line: She tells you she doesn't come with strangers Last Line: The taste of her body seasoned with sea salt, %the scent of her body the moment before waking POUND First Line: It was a night one might have expected Last Line: In perfect american %keeping it simple PREPARATIONS FOR THE END OF THE EVENING First Line: The light is spanish on the moroccan back streets Last Line: Over which the opaque water continues PROTECT YOURSELF First Line: Outside, a feckless day occurs Last Line: When you remember the number's one REAL ESTATE First Line: No stream ran through the twenty-seven acres Last Line: From the life that's my estate to a rotting house of spare remains Subject(s): Houses RESURRECTION First Line: Remember the sage and wild thyme nagging their sandals Last Line: Of sharing one thing with another RETURN Poem Text First Line: Come back again and again, the fields no Subject(s): Homecoming RETURN First Line: Come back again and again, the fields no Last Line: Living against dark fields, come back again, the family %holding dinner for you, come back, come bac RETURN, STARTING OUT First Line: There it is, the jagged sprawl of the familiar Last Line: Moves, merely floating, looking back RIVER PASSAGE First Line: The river town is too far now Last Line: Upriver to the capital of strangers ROMANCE First Line: They met and in their meeting they were happy Last Line: When she stood up for the final time, their eyes met RUBBER JUNCTION First Line: I am a man who has watched the sun break down Last Line: As the flood begins a slow descent down the stairs RUSTED TIN First Line: What washes up, what's left behind, what's Last Line: Bearing unbidden but beautiful gifts SCARS Poem Text First Line: \o7 they are the short stories of the flesh, Subject(s): Memory SCARS First Line: They are the short stories of the flesh Last Line: Before us what we may still need to see SENOR EXCELLENT First Line: I was taken there as a child Last Line: Witnessing the utterances of the human race SHELDON'S POEM First Line: The cafe sags out beneath a meager Last Line: Ing his life as the sun enters the hill SHELDON'S POEM I First Line: Sheldon put on his female garb Last Line: Beats and haight hadn't started up yet SILENCE -- BELLA AKHMADULINA First Line: Who was it that took away my voice Last Line: You raise me now in song SISTERHOOD First Line: If you let them, they'll take your eyes away Last Line: Lifts you upon its edge to the waking street SNAPSHOT OF HUE First Line: They are riding bicyles on the other side Last Line: The bicycles barely moving, the sun posted above SOLDIER First Line: A soldier is walking in the streets of a very old city Last Line: A bright bird out of the cobalt, like all the others SPEND First Line: Diminishing returns she said Last Line: Nothing that needs to come back comes back SPRING ZOO First Line: The childen are too kind this year Last Line: And let the big cats do my pacing STAZIONE First Line: She arrives but isn't met because her lover Last Line: And lets her go. The nearest track is hers STILL First Line: I hear callers in the trees Last Line: Recalled into movement and loved, wholly still STORM First Line: The italian police stopped us today Last Line: That we can go that distance, and continue on STREET First Line: Where do you go I'm thinking of you Last Line: Here's a little song you lie back the colors of your body talk STREET FIRE First Line: It is past midnight in a thick fog when sirens Last Line: Bound with rubber that smolders into morning SUMMER CONSTELLATIONS Poem Text First Line: They are sorry, they bring up umbrellas Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore SUMMER IN THE MIDDLE CLASS First Line: All over america Last Line: And then %the total darkness SUMMER NIGHTS First Line: You took me to see your friend, a youngish man Last Line: On the walls of my room, and passing on SUMMER RENTALS First Line: Today we went to see the summer rentals Last Line: I returned the handshake you taught me as a boy SUMMER STORM Poem Text First Line: All day the storm's Subject(s): Storms SUMMER STORM First Line: All day the storm's Last Line: The small-talk, our right to all this TAKE FOR EXAMPLE First Line: Take the insect for example Last Line: He set out from without a song TANGO First Line: When celina arrived the floor was on fire Last Line: By her hips and her mouth she was built for the tango TATTOO First Line: Did you see a cockatoo? I ask Last Line: To what's here now. A bird of restrained flight THAW First Line: We wondered where the headlands were Last Line: The river-run and wild thyme. The shore-chive. %ebb and flow THE AFTERNOON: MID-DECEMBER Poem Text First Line: There was a woman THE DEATH OF LI PO First Line: Not even their master calligraphers Subject(s): Li Po (701-762); Li Bai (71-762) THE END OF VIGIL Poem Text First Line: All night I am held in the sound Subject(s): Storms THE STORM Poem Text First Line: The italian police stopped us today Subject(s): Italy; Storms; Automobiles; Italians; Cars THEY CAN TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY First Line: They can take your breath away Last Line: They can take your breath away TIDAL First Line: I walk out at sunset, over the prehistoric beach slate Last Line: My solitude fits like fabric, tailored to last forever TITLE First Line: Late afternoon light and the devotees TO A DAUGHTER First Line: When we are no longer the only ones you Last Line: Come on home, daughter, our girl, our first light TO A FRIEND SHOT ON A MEXICAN BUS First Line: He's one of the hard talkers Last Line: We won't die insulting the dust TRAVELING ON CREDIT First Line: They would think up trips on sundays Last Line: And postcards back on the weekend TREES IN VARIOUS CLIMATES First Line: There is something to say Last Line: Through the skeletal trees VISITORS First Line: At low tide, midsummer, I walked out to the mussel beds Last Line: With a pail of mussels, waiting for her WALKING IN THE 15TH CENTURY First Line: There are angels on the road from san sepulcro Last Line: To pay the caretaker the few hundred lire for a look WHITE CONTACT First Line: There is a boy running along the beach Last Line: Running along the beach WHITE FIELD First Line: It is like standing beyond Last Line: Alone and warm, again intact, starting out WHITE TENT First Line: I pitched a tent in an open field Last Line: As they lifted, and disappeared WHITE TRAIN First Line: The night knows nothing of the chants of night Last Line: This is no dream. I know nothing WOMEN First Line: She dreams Last Line: Beautiful things from the city WORDS OF ADVICE First Line: Language held you above the water Last Line: The lyrics long ago lost on you YOU GO OUT First Line: You don't always feel well Last Line: To give up order and move on ZENO'S LEMUR Poem Text First Line: Isn't he the man with crimson socks Subject(s): Animals; Mankind; Human Race ZENO'S LEMUR First Line: Isn't he the man with crimson socks Last Line: A word of arrival, recognition hovering before him Subject(s): Animals; Mankind |
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