Thank You Mr. Blake



He taught me poetry and Zen
Being influential
To my being for having been

Seeing existential
Me being then essentially
Haunted by my being
18 not seeing anything
Not really wanting to

Not understanding the meaning
Wondering what to do
In 1973 then
What to do about me?

But he said he had been seeing
What I meant and said he
Thought I ought to write poetry

The greatest poem is
Silence but try it anyway
As I remember his
Words in December heard in May
He said write what you know

Though he wrote of the Amazon
And never got to go
Far as I know but he is gone
Now wherever he went

Thank you is what I meant to say
For seeing what I meant
My being in that Hall of Fame

By your encouragement
The one to credit or to blame



Steven Curtis Lance