What Good Words Do

I read these lines from Tony Hoagland's poem, Note to Reality:

When my friend died on the way to the hospital
it was not his death that so amazed me

but that the driver of the cab
did not insist upon the fare.

- Tony Hoagland

My first response, my immediate desire, was that I wanted to be this kind of amazing. I wanted to amaze somebody the way this cab driver amazed his passenger.

This is the kind of writer I want to be.
This is the kind of reader I want to be.