To Raymond Carver

I wish I could have met you
But what would I have said?
That I hear your voice, it echoes
Across the expanse
And uneven terrain
Of distance and time

What did your face look like, as you wrote the lines
That rattle and shake my bones?

Did you linger over verses
Did you read your words aloud
Did it come to you in a torrent
Or silver drops of rain?

Or perhaps it's not your soul
The secret those letters tell
Perhaps your words have tricked me
You used them to conceal
The essence of yourself