詩人

其一、法蘭克福機場的免稅商店有一個小吧台，進去的時候小白已經坐在吧台前了。侍酒師是一個英文很好的德國年輕人，掛著黑框眼鏡。拿了塑膠小杯倒了不同的Malt Whiskey給我，他說：「千萬別加冰塊，更別說加可樂了」。講到可樂的時候他露出嫌惡的表情。倒了一些evian礦泉水在我的杯子裡。「Whiskey跟紅酒一樣，要跟空氣接觸，要醒酒的過程才會好喝。因為水裡面有氧氣，所以可以提增酒的風味」他在我把不同酒倒進喉嚨的時候，分別各種果實、起士、季節的譬喻來描述那些液體。我對他說他真是能講。他有點不好意思，回答說也許是因為他能寫，所以也能講。我問說他都寫什麼樣的東西。「詩」他說。最後我向他買了一瓶帶著藥水味的Malt Whiskey，43歐元。他還送了我一本威士忌大師的品酒評鑑。

其二、 在Uncut上讀到Patti Smith的訪問

Q: What's the difference between writing poetry and song lyrics?

A: A lot of that difference is about process. When I'm writing poetry, I close myself off form the world. I need to isolate myself, and my goal is not necessarily communication. My goal is the poem itself, to discover something in the language of poetry. But if I'm writing lyrics, my whole motivation is to communicate something, even if it is also encoded in a poetic language. I don't write lyrics for myself, I don't write lyrics for the God of lyrics, I write lyrics for people. I'm directly expressing something, for people to hear or read or think about. When I'm writing poems, most of my poems aren't even published. The only person who has read them is myself. Of course there is certain formal elements that make something a poem or a lyric. But mainly it's about process and intent.