From a NY Times obituary for an Arkansas poet,
Miller Williams, who reportedly died at 84
on New Year's Day —
The title of Lucinda Williams’s most recent album,
"Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone,” is a
slightly altered line from one of her father’s poems,
which reads in its entirety:
Have compassion for everyone you meet,
even if they don’t want it. What seems conceit,
bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign
of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.
You do not know what wars are going on
down there where the spirit meets the bone.
Related material:
And from a sequel to
New Year's Greeting from Franz Kafka:
The above phrase "aimed at the heart of poetic language"
suggests an image from the poet's daughter's album —
