Miles allowed me and my friend Niina Pollari to emcee the first ever Palm Beach Poetry Festival open mic in 2005. We were given little to no direction but with a twinkle of his eye and lots of encouragement we somehow managed to get through two hours of open mic poetry of varying quality. Did we actively shout over people encouraging them to stop their poem when it went on too long? Yes. Did we use a foghorn when the poetry was actively bad or offensive? Yes. Did Miles refuse to release the recorded audio of the open mic because of how we emceed it? Also yes. Miles was a very wise and funny man and I’m sorry to hear that he has died. I hope finishing his book even if he didn’t get to see it released brought him a lot of joy.