"When the studio / musician remarked / that Russell had /
no technique, there / in that dark room / Pee Wee picked up /
his horn and blew / a mistake so lovely / I saw a tear /
even in the eye of / the idiot..." ..Hayden Carruth
I hear their heavy boots stomping
through poems sinking into air vents
smack unruly lines into place
hammering in apostrophes & commas
to clean up shoddy workmanship
they misunderstood when we asked for their help
we misunderstood
they'd never run breathless into white space
taken a great leap, soared without a net
risked falling, getting hurt
and so what...it's that incredible soaring
unplanned accidental burst of lightening
that got through, when a poem is left
to breathe on its own
Linda Lerner