[Jim Moonan]

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Glenn, Matt, Roger, Lavinia, Joe — Thanks for the push to find the right words. The emotion is there. The experience is there. I am still looking for a way to poetically document it.

Mignon, That was a beautifully delicate way of handling the poem. I could cry. But I very rarely do. You recognize the spirit of the poem for what it is trying to say. In the strangest and best way, you are mirroring what the poem is about. Your gentle voice is pushing me forward with the poem. Keep going is what I hear you saying.

I must find the time and place to re-inhabit this poem. How could a small poem require so much of me? Why am I thinking of leaving the world and sitting with this until every word is right? Why? Because it is a love poem, and love deserves all the attention we can give it. That's why.

Btw, every bit of the (original version) poem is a true accounting of the experience I had not practiced the song hard enough; had not memorized the words like I should have; was unsure if it was even finished yet. But that day (it was early morning) I had seized the moment and took a chance. It was not long before I found myself stumbling with the words, the chords, my voice itself.. I remember becoming overwhelmed with self-consciousness and then, just as I was going to stop and say it wasn’t finished or something like that, she pushed me forward to finish it by simply saying "keep going" and I felt the most vulnerable I had ever felt in my life — and it was wonderful.

(Mignon) I have good reason to believe you exist only in spirit. Some day maybe I’ll get there, too.

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