when you sit and read a book that contains perfect phrases, selected and deployed by some caring author, who selected them for reasons of his own, but aware that their perfection would fly beyond his own self-congratulation, you get the same sense of gratitude—of having been granted a lovely gift—as that Anne described one time (making me jealous) by saying she wanted to get down on her knees and say a solemn, humble “Thank you” to The Billys, for playing guitar, perfectly, in the perfect woods. (2016)\_