Saying what must be saved

WHAT RAY CARVER SAID

            I'm searching for phrases
            Bob Dylan

We save so many things Ray
said, but we never met. He said,
Use it up, going from short stories
to poems, until he gave the page

all he had. I stumbled
into the Oregon town he was born in
once coming back from the ocean.
We pulled off to have a sandwich,

snapped some pics at the memorial,
went into the small library
and took his books off the shelf
and read poems for an hour. The Dylan

epigraph comes from Tempest,
the song, Just After Midnight,
and Dylan's punching in,
going to work. Just after

he sings Searching for phrases,
describing his process of writing,
he sings, to sing your praises.
My take on this is the muse.

That you --you and I--we live,
Zev, in the era of Dylan,
and we know that.
Knowing that pretty much

does us in, finishes us.
We're so thankful for this,
we're speechless. The others
at the table, we owe them

the kindness we owe family.
With that one exception we're allowed.
I don't have to spell it out.
We don't have anything to add.

Jim 
27 Nov 2017 /Scottsdale, AZ



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