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S40E5: Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World | Clip

Steve Buscemi reads Mary Oliver’s “The First Time Percy Came Back”

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Listen to Steve Buscemi read Mary Oliver’s poem “The First Time Percy Came Back” in this outtake from “Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World.”

TRANSCRIPT

- "The First Time Percy Came Back."

The first time Percy came back, he was not sailing on a cloud.

He was loping along the sand as though he had come a great way.

"Percy," I cried out, and reached to him, those white curls, but he was unreachable.

As music is present, yet you can't touch it.

"Yes, it's all different," he said.

"You're going to be very surprised."

But I wasn't thinking of that.

I only wanted to hold him.

"Listen," he said.

"I miss that too.

And now you'll be telling stories of my coming back and they won't be false and they won't be true, but they'll be real."

And then as he used to, he said, "Let's go."

And we walked down the beach together.

(bright music) (bright music continues)