for Steve Levine and Gary Lenhart

Heroic speaking without thinking

            on the streetcorner

becomes the model for poems

The beauty of cadenced speech

             in flow

proves the spur to write

Years of wondering at the complexities

             of talk falling on the ear

leads to your writing:

At the root of utterance

              a common perception

unexpressed but no less true

Unnoticed like light play

              on solar cloud arrangement

over the roofs

You know you can

              you will

glance to the heart

              & not look away

then speak

              a graph of energy

                         usage shaped by intent

13:XII:80