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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: ST. JOHN, DAVID Matches Found: 203 St. John, David Poet's Biography 203 poems available by this author A NAKED TRUTH Poem Text First Line: It is the mirror Subject(s): Truth A TRAVELER Poem Text First Line: I have traveled so far to remember Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips ACADIAN LANE Poem Text First Line: Idigo against ocher, atlantic Last Line: La mer, la terre, le monde est seulement ces choses! Subject(s): Acadia ACCOMPLISHMENT First Line: Touch me here just below Last Line: Touch me here again where what bleeds begins ADAM First Line: It's ridiculous to confess Last Line: Or did you know all along I was in love Subject(s): Love ALONE First Line: I go out on the porch AN INVITATION Poem Text First Line: Let me invite you to kiss Subject(s): Sin APPLE ORCHARD Poem Text First Line: In the apple orchard she sat on a small wood bench Subject(s): Apple Trees; Lust AVENUE OF LIMES First Line: She was whispering to the leaves Last Line: Like the paring of a lime peel she'd %torn slowly across herteeth. Bitter. Wild as spite AVENUES First Line: Some nights when you're off Last Line: Smoke as the trucks leave their alleys and loading %chutes -looking for breakfast, or a little peace Subject(s): Cities BLACK POPPY (AT THE TEMPLE) First Line: Perhaps it's a question of what Last Line: That moist bud of opium %pinned to no memory of a living man BLACKBERRY Poem Text First Line: It is time I believe we all confessed Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Blackberries BLACKBERRY First Line: It is time I believe we all confessed Last Line: Which poets prefer truly to the fruit BLUE WAVES First Line: I think sometimes Last Line: To these mornings, island - %the balance of the promise with what lasts BOATHOUSE First Line: All the last lessons of fatigue Last Line: Roof sloughing off its tiles - as %even the sea sings one octave in the past BOWL First Line: The world as a goldfish bowl remains Last Line: From the stilled glob of its own %clarified eye Subject(s): Bowls; Life BROKEN GAUGES First Line: Some moments %hold their grace in ways Last Line: Line of birds against %the black september sky BRUSHSTROKES First Line: I made a boat. A little boat of bread CALIFORNIA Poem Text First Line: My last night in california Last Line: Of that fortress where lips of ice have sinned Subject(s): California; Music, Rock; Rock & Roll CALIFORNIA First Line: My last night in california Last Line: The world holds many dreams at least %one of them holds you Subject(s): California; Music, Rock CELESTE IN THE RAIN First Line: We were lonely in those days. Celeste Last Line: There, out with celeste in the evening rain CHAPTER FOREVER First Line: I remember I was 9 or 10 - so the year I guess Last Line: She was laughing so hard pretty soon she was almost %bent over almost crying - I think - crying COLOR OF SALVATION First Line: You go along in your life COMING HOME First Line: Walking through the drugged afternoon CROSSROADS First Line: It was the privilege of the wind DANCING Poem Text First Line: Home from school I found Last Line: He asked if some evening he could take me / dancing Subject(s): Grandparents; Dancing; Youth; Old Age DAWN AURORA Poem Text First Line: The nothing you know is as immaculate a knowing Subject(s): Morning DAY OF THE SENTRY First Line: Misery etcetera %likely as the quilt of leaves Last Line: Hold only the gold of the day's light %as if you never had any body I knew at all DESIRE Poem Text First Line: There is a small wrought-iron balcony Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses DESIRE First Line: There is a small wrought-iron balcony Last Line: Already remembering this past he would desire Subject(s): Hotels DIVINE First Line: The gods have little enough to say DOLLS Poem Text First Line: They are so like Subject(s): Dolls DOLLS First Line: They are so like Last Line: When you are asleep, dreaming of another country, %this is the country DON'T TALK TO ME, TOUCH ME First Line: The humingbirds stitched DOORS First Line: The doors were oak, massive Last Line: Yet weary, like a baby's, cradled that way %in her delicate white arms DRAGON IN THE LAKE First Line: When li po was a child DYING First Line: In a field by ELEGY Poem Text ELEGY First Line: Who keeps the owl's breath? Whose eyes desire? Last Line: The trunks of the olives twist once towards the world. %once. I will walk out into the day ELEGY First Line: They've carried the fat man who yelled EMPTY DANCE HALL First Line: Resin swirls across the floor ENDLESS LETTER TO SOUTH BAY First Line: The squirrels ESSAY ON LIBERATION First Line: He stood naked at one of the two windows Last Line: Began with the word for free though it ended %with nothing FACE, SELS First Line: Focus fogs, & fails. I had come, it seemed, to the end of %my life Last Line: Renaissance poise, & in her coffee leather jacket, such a %golden grace shone FACE, SELS First Line: Where were you all that light ago, busy as a scarab in %the dust Last Line: The sexual blood of our saints FACE, SELS: 12 First Line: It was late may when I began the journal, a record of descents Last Line: There at the bedside, her hand on my head, for god only knows %how long FACE, SELS: 17 First Line: ...Adesso transgresso...There I was again, entering the country Last Line: A single leopard with my face, falling out of the vast & empty %winter sky FACE, SELS: 26 First Line: I suppose retrieval from afar is best. Long distance, picking up Last Line: Held longer than my breath. Then the silence. The dark dial tone FACE, SELS: 27 First Line: The voice, a woman's, says, 'you self-absorbed prick!' & I swear Last Line: I mean, really really in love FACE, SELS: 40 First Line: It may be time to abandon my essay on 'the cinematography of the soul' Last Line: Moving along the floor & the wall. The window frame. A page. An empty page FACE: 20 First Line: Easter morning, another easter morning in a life I've reckoned by past Last Line: Assembling...Upon the mobile's multi-limbed & airy cross FACE: 25 First Line: I had lived so long in the black room Last Line: The song I need tattooed on my the black walls of my heart: 'vivre ici' FACE: 33 First Line: I hardly know where to begin. The constant harvest of light warns us Last Line: #name? FACE: 37 First Line: (embroidered silk of the freedom pouch:) tibetan tortoise carved of pale Last Line: Into some open present, %& into present time FACE: 39 First Line: The silent infinite lifted from the white labyrinth Last Line: Of ash, I am singing FACE: 9 First Line: Sleepless, sleepless, sleepless. Not again, again Last Line: She left, so why even bother at all? FAN SKETCHED WITH SILVER EGRETS First Line: With no language %except this single pulse, its shadow beating Last Line: Into my arms, you need not, of his death %or any sorrow, speak... FLUTE First Line: He'd thrown his wool poncho down onto the packed FOR GEORG TRAKL First Line: Your face FOR LERIDA First Line: Clove, salmon knocking FOR PETER EVERWINE First Line: The white silk jacket tossed FORTUNATE MAN First Line: Late news and solitude Last Line: Only the relief that all of the books of praise %promise a fortunate man FOUR O'CLOCK IN SUMMER: HOPE First Line: Something that, in a glance, could be a plump FRANCESCO AND CLARE Poem Text First Line: It was there, in that little town Subject(s): Anniversaries FRANCESCO AND CLARE First Line: It was there, in that little town Last Line: The wheel of sky it always had loved best, %dear lark, dear saint, all my kisses on your nest! FROM A BRIDGE Poem Text First Line: I saw my mother standing there below me Subject(s): Bridges; Mothers FROM A DAYBOOK Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The musk of the cemetery Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death; Graveyards; Dead, The FROM A DAYBOOK First Line: The musk of the cemetery GIN Poem Text Subject(s): Alcoholics & Alcoholism; Friendship; Relationships GIN First Line: There's a mystery Last Line: In such false directions. This way friends who awaken %at night, beside you, awaken alone GUITAR First Line: I have always loved the word guitar Last Line: Stairways, more than the swirling chocolate of wood %I have always loved the word guitar HARD & NOBLE PATIENCE First Line: There is a hard & noble patience Last Line: At the lake's edge a man made lonely %by such beauty %a man with less than perfect faith in any god HER WATCH First Line: It was swiss, of course HOMAGE TO ROBERT JOHNSON Poem Text First Line: Sometimes the moon Subject(s): Music, Rock; Rock & Roll HOMAGE TO ROBERT JOHNSON First Line: Sometimes the moon Last Line: Salvations setting like a moon in its ladt black %spiraling range of sky Subject(s): Music, Rock HOTEL First Line: A friend had once in passing HOTEL SIERRA First Line: The november air Subject(s): Hotels; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses HOTEL SIERRA First Line: The november air Last Line: Drawn simply by the seasons, by their lives Subject(s): Hotels HUSH Poem Text First Line: The way a tired chippewa woman Subject(s): Fathers & Sons HUSH First Line: The way a tired chippewa woman Last Line: To a landscape ravaged %& familiar. The dark watermark of your absence, a hush I KNOW First Line: I know the moon is troubling Last Line: Of fireflies, deeping the shadows of all I do not know ILLUSTRATION First Line: A novice was sitting on a cornice Last Line: Not meant for us, as the leaves are not %winter's because it is the end IN THE HIGH COUNTRY Poem Text First Line: Some days I am happy to be no one Subject(s): Fathers & Sons IN THE PINES First Line: Vertical spindles of shadow, the black INTERLUDE: A TEXT FOR MORNING First Line: Time is a performance staged daily yet INTERLUDE: HEPHAESTION'S PRAYER First Line: Because I love you more than any Last Line: Please swear to me %because you love me more than any %you will not try to follow INVITATION First Line: Let me invite you to kiss Last Line: Of that fortress where lips of ice have sinned Subject(s): Sin IRIS Poem Text First Line: There is a train inside this iris Subject(s): Iris (flower); Death; Dead, The IRIS; VIVIAN ST. JOHN (1891-1974) Poem Text First Line: There is a train inside this iris Subject(s): Railroads; Railways; Trains IRIS; VIVIAN ST. JOHN (1891-1974) First Line: There is a train inside this iris Last Line: Home %& you remain Subject(s): Railroads LAGO DI COMO Poem Text First Line: The nothing you know is as immaculate a knowing Subject(s): Lake Como, Italy LAST NIGHT WITH RAFAELLA Last Line: Like a fragile ladder %to some whole other level of the breath LAST NIGHT WITH RAFAELLA. Last Line: To some whole other level of the breath LAVENDER Poem Text First Line: Here is no / simple circumstance Last Line: Of an open field Subject(s): Funerals LEAP OF FAITH First Line: No less fabulous than the carved marble inner Last Line: Belief remains for a man whose life is spared by %a faith more insupportable than air LEMONS First Line: The white villa sat at the lip of rock Last Line: Of pans as the cook began the late-afternoon meal %of rancor& fried eels LONDON FLAT First Line: We were just the corner LOS ANGELES, 1954 Poem Text First Line: It was in the old days, Subject(s): Love - Cultural Differences; Music & Musicians LOS ANGELES, 1954 First Line: It was in the old days Last Line: Through the open driver's window, said, %my man, jordan... Goodbye LOST MAGIC First Line: Photographs: some in the style of lana turner Last Line: Or else, simply, that wordly measure of their loss LOUIS XVI'S LIBRARY First Line: I think the finality of the circumstance allowed it LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT Poem Text Subject(s): Rome, Italy; Night' Man-woman Relationship LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT First Line: It was something I'd overheard Last Line: Both of us racing silently as light. Nowhere, %then forever... %into the mind of the roman night MAN IN THE YELLOW GLOVES First Line: They were kept in a wooden trunk Last Line: Is snugly choked in its taut loop %its minute noose of leather MANY RIVERS First Line: I speak to you like many rivers MEDITATION Poem Text First Line: Quiet now, sorrow; relax. Calm down, fear ... Subject(s): Night; Bedtime MEDITATION First Line: Quiet now, sorrow; relax. Calm down, fear Last Line: Towards china, shroud of my heart, listen. Listen - %how softly the night steps toward us MERCENARY MUSE First Line: Well, heart's muse, lover, mistress of palaces Last Line: And let your cool laughter, steeped in those tears nobody sees, blow away all of the vulgar spleen o MERIDIAN First Line: The day seemed suddenly to give to black-&-white Last Line: We know what bridging silence to respect %now that neither of us has the heart to care MERLIN; ITALO CALVINO (1923-1985) First Line: It was like a cave of snow, no Last Line: The last wisdoms of avalon MESSAGE FOR MONIQUE First Line: Could he have been more blue Last Line: Small has %something to do with you MIST First Line: The boy on the small wooden Last Line: The neighborhood clock, flowing, its music again %the music of the just possible day MY DAYS AT THE UNIVERSITY First Line: Each evening, after I've finished MY FRIEND First Line: My friend, a man I love as wholly Last Line: He stopped me, saying, 'christ, you know-- %I can't believe how much the world has changed...' MY GRANDFATHER'S CAP Poem Text First Line: There are so few photographs of him Subject(s): Sports MY GRANDFATHER'S CAP First Line: There are so few photographs of him Last Line: Seems of this yet distant, yet pale, future %and now forever-rising moon Subject(s): Sports MY TEA WITH MADAME DESCARTES First Line: She'd said let's have tea Last Line: My hands so self-consciously gripping the small cafe table %which madame had so easily turned NAKED TRUTH First Line: It is the mirror Last Line: Like a body silently & nakedly %& ecstatically as art Subject(s): Truth NAMING THE UNBORN First Line: Once more NO HEAVEN Poem Text First Line: This is the last prayer in the book Subject(s): Life; Passion NO HEAVEN First Line: This is the last prayer in the book Last Line: That we're to be given no heaven %no heaven but this NOCTURNES & AUBADES Poem Text First Line: It was in the night's minute disturbances Last Line: Shattered glass of stars to you. . . . Subject(s): Life; Night; Bedtime NOCTURNES & AUBADES First Line: It was in the night's minute disturbances Last Line: We sail, like rain, against the sky Subject(s): Life; Night NOT A MAN Poem Text First Line: I am not a man who generally Subject(s): Love; Mankind; Human Race NOT A MAN First Line: I am not a man who generally Last Line: Moonlight had swollen into a special prey Subject(s): Love; Mankind NOTHING PERSONAL First Line: Certainly she wasted no words OCCASIONS FOR MONUMENTS First Line: For once she knew why she loved new england ORANGE First Line: Tonight, loneliness or winter PARK First Line: It was I think in a small town in ohio Last Line: Where all of the others wish to go Subject(s): Paintings And Painters; Parks PATIENCE Poem Text First Line: Patience is in my clothes Subject(s): Patience PATIENCE First Line: Patience is in my clothes Last Line: Simply what I said Subject(s): Patience PEACH FIRES Poem Text First Line: Out in the orchards the dogs stood Subject(s): Trees; Fire; Winter PINON Poem Text Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Incense-trees PORTRAIT Poem Text First Line: There is in his daughter's gaze Subject(s): Portraits PORTRAIT First Line: There is in his daughter's gaze Last Line: Seems so certain to withhold Subject(s): Portraits PRISM: 1. ICE First Line: All diamond I'd thought & no rough Last Line: Boy now you just remember...That fuckin' bitch is cold PRISM: 2. RED PYTHON First Line: I didn't see it until she stretched out Last Line: I felt all that useless human breath squeezed out of me PRISM: 3. SEPIA: NOSTALGIA SONG First Line: Everything's worse than it was Last Line: The fabulous failure of an evening in our shimmering %breakdown of embrace PRISM: 4. BUMBLEBEE First Line: It was such a '50s kind of thing Last Line: Breathless turned & said 'oh honey oh honey' PRISM: 5. MEDITERRANEAN MINT First Line: She gathered a fistful of Last Line: Tasted of the faint chartreuse of bloody summer mint PRISM: 6. GENTIANS First Line: Every descent is a promise that one Last Line: Dear orpheus still looking over your own shoulder PRISM: 7. THISTLE First Line: No downy crown of thorns only the passions Last Line: Look up into the light where soon all shall be risen again PRISM: 8. RAVEN'S HOOD First Line: As if the night itself were masked Last Line: The claws of love begin to sing PROVIDENCE Poem Text First Line: A little drunk he walked back slowly Last Line: & then the door slammed firmly behind him Subject(s): Fate RAVENESQUE Poem Text First Line: I dreamt a golden snake Subject(s): Animals; Dreams; Religion; Snakes; Nightmares; Theology; Serpents; Vipers RAVENESQUE First Line: I dreamt a golden snake Last Line: Which was the unbroken surrender of god Subject(s): Animals; Dreams; Religion; Snakes REEF First Line: The most graceful of misunderstandings Last Line: As she let the boat drift in its endlessly %widening & broken arc Subject(s): Seashore RHAPSODY First Line: In the dictionary of sapphires Last Line: & so I know I must take care RIVER First Line: It distracts you, history. The more personal RUINS First Line: In each brick SCARVES First Line: How you compose me, druck SENSE OF THINGS First Line: The door is open. Youare afraid Last Line: You slide it back into the empty snail shell, %utterly content. You smile, smooth your feathered hai SHADOW First Line: I am the shadow you once blessed Last Line: Fell & kissed this scarlet earth %blackened by the lyre of your wings SHORE First Line: So the tide forgets, as morning Last Line: (the stars, the sandpipers whistling) %what we forgive. If you wake soon, wake me Subject(s): Seashore SIX/NINE/FORTY-FOUR First Line: The black windows. Her arms Last Line: Afternoon, & I'm broke. Dead drunk. Very late, %& a long walk home SLOW DANCE First Line: It's like the riddle tolstoy Last Line: With sticks until the pale neck snaps, & flakes spray everyone, & everyone simply dances away SONG WITHOUT FORGIVENESS First Line: You should have known. The moon Last Line: Everything you love loves nothing yet, %you will remember, days, you should have known STAIRWAYS AND FOUNTAINS First Line: More than the scent of flowers STAND BY ME Poem Text First Line: When the solace of angels is named Last Line: Stand by me Subject(s): Friendship STUDY FOR THE WORLD'S BODY: OF TIME & THE BODY First Line: Is there a story? Where Last Line: Released finally & softly %as a prayer STUDY FOR THE WORLD'S BODY: THE BODY OF DESIRE First Line: The self is empty, as empty Last Line: The unmarked tomb of orpheus SWAN AT SHEFFIELD PARK First Line: It is a dim april Last Line: The glistening bar %onto the empty veiled stage %of wood warped gently as waves TEARS BEFORE THEIR TIME First Line: Late feathers of cloud broke Last Line: In her father's library, looking for those delicate black lines %that might band the distance of his TEMPORARY SITUATION First Line: Once I was in love with a woman TERRACES OF RAIN First Line: And the mole crept along the garden Last Line: To be in love is to be granted the only grace %of all women and all men THE ASH TREE Poem Text First Line: My grandmother led me out Subject(s): Grandparents; Gardens & Gardening; Childhood Memories; Ash Trees; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers THE AVENUES Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Some nights when you're off Subject(s): Solitude; Night; Restaurants; City & Town Life; Love; Bedtime; Cafes; Diners THE BOATHOUSE Poem Text First Line: All the last lessons of fatigue Subject(s): Conduct Of Life THE DOORS Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: The doors were oak, massive Subject(s): Doors; Churches; Salome (1st Century A.d.); John The Baptist, Saint (1st Century); Cathedrals THE PARTY'S OVER Poem Text First Line: So it's daylight on the street Last Line: As she goes & comes & goes Subject(s): Parties; Grief THE REEF Poem Text First Line: The most graceful of misunderstandings Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore THE SHORE Poem Text First Line: So the tide forgets, as morning Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore THINKING OF CUBA Poem Text First Line: Sometimes when I am thinking Last Line: Thinking of cuba Subject(s): Cuba THIS First Line: This is the light, I said TO PASOLINI: 1. AT ITALO'S First Line: Out in the visible city, the heart Last Line: Italo turns to me and says, every night of %his life...He spent out in the wilderness Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 2. OSTIA First Line: The orphans of the heart must turn to thee Last Line: The sky streaks with violet veins, then blue. %mama. Mama. They are killing me... Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 3. 1984 First Line: Last night at dinner at vecchia roma Last Line: Last night had been november the second, %the ninth anniversary of your death Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 4. UNA VITA VIOLENTA (1955) First Line: Many children in only one bed Last Line: So many to save from the tiber's cold bed - %then god divides: these to jail, these dead Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 5. THE ART OF ARGUMENT, THE ARGUMENT OF ART First Line: Before our lunch, lovely g tries to explain Last Line: We argue about really everything we think - %I think it's how we learn what we believe Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 6. WINTER SUN First Line: It's mid-december in rome, yet the sun's Last Line: That's what you said. Pier paolo, whose %love are we so terrified to lose? Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 7. HOTEL OF ASH First Line: The hotel room is tawdry, nondescript; Last Line: What better place to die than near the sea? %which coins still left to spill? Which spent? Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975) TO PASOLINI: 8. LOVE FOR THE DRAGON Poem Text First Line: For pasolini, the question was, each day: Last Line: As pasolini wished to, the child of this letter Subject(s): Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1922-1975); Conduct Of Life TO PASOLINI: 8. LOVE FOR THE DRAGON First Line: History is blood; or so history says Last Line: In one's own pure defiant silence - %to have again a dragon's voice; I mean, that is... %the last wo TWO SORROWS First Line: He had lived for the sorrow of numbers UNTIL THE SEA IS DEAD First Line: What the night prepares Last Line: No longer rake the headland sands, %until the sea is dead... UPTOWN LOVE POEM Poem Text First Line: I don't mind it so much any more Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life UPTOWN LOVE POEM First Line: I don't mind it so much any more Last Line: And the open window slides quietly shut in its swollen, sweating frame Subject(s): Cities VAIN IN VAIN First Line: Listen, I know that I'm vain in vain Last Line: I confess, a whole lot more vain in vain Subject(s): Love WATER SERPENTS (1) Poem Text First Line: Beneath the lit silk of your naked body Last Line: The dark sailor's body is found Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Water; Serpents; Vipers WATER SERPENTS (1) First Line: Beneath the lit silk of your naked body Last Line: Those brash & roiling fields of ruby kelp where %the dark sailor's body is found Subject(s): Animals; Snakes; Water WATER SERPENTS (2) First Line: When they found her daughter in the river Last Line: & everywhere inside her a gallery of faces clenched against her given name Subject(s): Animals; Daughters; Death; Snakes; Water WAVELENGTH Poem Text First Line: They were sitting on the thin mattress Subject(s): Books; Togetherness; Reading WAVELENGTH First Line: They were sitting on the thin mattress Last Line: Together of course but separately %as the moon & the wave remain individually one WAVES Poem Text First Line: After the disenchantment Subject(s): Waves WAVES First Line: After the disenchantment Last Line: With an abstract of bloody waves Subject(s): Waves WEDDING PREPARATIONS IN THE COUNTRY First Line: This is a poem like a suitcase Last Line: Someone like you. Like the little man & woman riding %the cake. Close the suitcase. Go back down the WHAT HE SAID First Line: My friend said to me Last Line: Make ring for her late into the solitary night Subject(s): Conversation WHITE PONY First Line: I'd never really given it much thought WHO IS SHE, COMING ALONG THE STREET, TURNING THE HEADS Last Line: Whose charms we'll never hold, in our minds, nor in our arms WINTER FIRES First Line: There are lights soft as milk striking Last Line: I will stand very still in your absence %where the shape of the shame has been named WOMAN AND LEOPARD Poem Text First Line: Although she was beautiful Subject(s): Women; Beauty; Leopards; Zoos WOMAN AND LEOPARD First Line: Although she was beautiful Last Line: Dilating, flashing only for an instant %as the woman suddenly laughed, %and it leapt YOU First Line: Lean out of the boat, & pick |
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