Listen In
"A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with."
- Kenneth A. Wells
"Poetry comes from listening; what you're listening for is what you don't know."
-W.S. Merwin
(from Lannan Foundation interview: W. S. Merwin with Naomi Shihab Nye, 18 October 2000)
I am going to stand beside the man who works all day combing
his thatch of gray hair corkscrewed in every direction.
I am going to pay attention to our lives
unraveling between the forks of his fine-tooth comb.
-Major Jackson (How to Listen)