submitted by Rachael Shaw, 

 "The Ways We Touch"

 Have compassion for everyone you meet, 
 even if they don't want it. 
 What appears bad manners, an ill temper or cynicism 
 is always a sign of things no ears have heard, 
 no eyes have seen. 
 You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets
the bone.

	-- Miller Williams

I have recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee - the home of country music. I
was fortunate on my first night in town to see a rare performance by
singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams and her father, poet Miller Williams
called 'Poetry Said, Poetry Sung'. Miller Williams recited a poem and
Lucinda picked a song to play that would fit the poem her dad had just read.


His poems really spoke to me and I went to the library the following day to
look for his work. On reading a few poems from 'Points of Departure' and
'Some Jazz a While', I was disappointed that the poems did not have such an
impact on me as they did when they were spoken by Miller the night before. I
fear this may happen with readers as well so I ask that you imagine an old,
grey man of slight stature and big glasses, whose body rocks when he laughs
and whose voice crackles when he talks ever so slowly. A man who knows of
struggle and loss. At one point during the show Lucinda said "Takes me
longer to say in a song what dad can do in a few lines." I think this is so
very true. For me, 'The Ways We Touch' was made to be spoken. 

To experience Miller Williams, click on this videolink:
  http://www.press.uillinois.edu/poetry/images/inaugural.mov. 
Miller was chosen to read a poem at Bill Clinton's innaugauration in 1997
('Of History and Hope').

Rachael.