some ways back,
new babe poets
sought me out,
asking, seeking

The How
and the
Please Sir,
touch me,
here and there,
tell me secrets,
as if any I knew

but I did,
sotto voce,
behind the scenes
gladly,
for the greatest pleasure
man invented is
lending a hand,
a kind word

would write them
long essays
but never
sent them

two standards I could
never ever meet:

what did I know,
worth keeping,
whom am I
to judge

these days,
must stop to thank them
my voice is changing,
when I answered myself

now only simplest words
emerging
knowing that each of us,
value galore,
ad valorem

move quieter,
fingerprinting my modest stays
in your words and lives,
semi-loudly, and semi-humbly,
for they tell me
so much,
so well,
teaching that,
that all
is worth keeping.

and that is the best advice
I ever got
to give