"I would like to en-chant you, to give you my poems in my own voice. Whether across my kitchen table with candles burning and shadows dancing on our faces or at a smal theater where you come to hear me read, whether in a circle where you share in return your own poems or even on the radio, I would want to give you not only these words but the sound of them, the spaces in between where I breathe out and breathe in, where we wait on each other's inspirations. Since this wish of presence is not always possible I would ask that you sound these words as you read them, that you find space for your breath, that you en-chant yourself or others with these sounds and silences and that in doing so you make these songs your own."


-- Franklin Abbott, introduction to "Mortal Love"