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Recorded Reading (1:03): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hqsfg6f98nzgrwfksrjak/How-Many-Ways.mp3?rlkey=4afx3lpicefjlp1spp5kwh063&dl=0

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How Many Ways?

How many ways has this heart broken been?
How many tears have fallen from these eyes?
I think that e’er to tally them begin
I must somehow more numbers now devise

How many ways for one soul to be bruised?
How many ways for one heart to feel pain?
How thoroughly can one spirit be used
Not for its own, but for all others’ gain?

How many times will I be driven on?
How many ways to find myself despised?
How oft my innocence heap coals upon?
How many times disast’rously surprised?

And where, in all this woeful world, may be
Such simple thing as true welcome for me?

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This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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