PoetSpeak (www.poetspeak.com), an American reading series, created by Kurt Kristensen
(kurtk@poetspeak.com), produces accessible, useful, and enjoyable poetry for people who
do not ordinarily read or listen to poetry. 

---
FEAR IS ONE WAY WE DIE 
by Tim Van Ert 

Decelerate into
then accelerate out of trouble,
Grandpa John told me
before I was old enough to drive.
His advice proved so true
with my Kawasaki on California's
coastal Highway One
leaning down into
then rising up out of
each curve on that road
that I applied it to my heart:
slowing down to civilized
when courting a woman,
then getting out quickly
when I sensed danger.
Did you mean that as a lesson for life?
I wish to turn to, to ask of,
my long passed mentor--
or just a cardinal rule of driving?
But I look left to you
right to her
and straight ahead to life
for the answers I fear.
---

Tim Van Ert is a family physician and PoetSpeak Reading Series featured poet.