Never, dear reader, underestimate your role
Without your eyes my words would die still-born
Without your ears my songs could never wake

Your responses are precious beyond compare
For each verse opens new vistas in which to play
Spaces I would not have danced were I alone

Without a reader there can be no poetry
Without a conversation there can be no life

How could you doubt that I feel a thrill
When someone takes my meager words
And builds on them their own gentle song

What a quickening of the heart ensues
Hushed down by fears of ego rising
But quietly burning in its corner

Imagining someone might respond
To my words with something greater