Robert was the poet in residence at Covenant when I was an undergrad. I took his class and we ended up corresponding over the next few years—he generously looked over many of my poems and even had us to his house in Maine once we moved to New England. The phone conversation I write about here was the last I had with him. It turned out he’d had terminal cancer for the whole time I’d known him and never mentioned it. I called one evening, from the Boston Opera House of all places, to check on a letter of recommendation he’d been going to write me for the poetry program at BU only to hear that he had died two days earlier.
I assume a mentor(?) or respected peer was reviewing a piece of your work. When you later reached out to ask for a reference he was deceased? Who/what? Thanks for sharing.
I’m afraid you’ll have to help me with this one.
Robert was the poet in residence at Covenant when I was an undergrad. I took his class and we ended up corresponding over the next few years—he generously looked over many of my poems and even had us to his house in Maine once we moved to New England. The phone conversation I write about here was the last I had with him. It turned out he’d had terminal cancer for the whole time I’d known him and never mentioned it. I called one evening, from the Boston Opera House of all places, to check on a letter of recommendation he’d been going to write me for the poetry program at BU only to hear that he had died two days earlier.
Thank you, son and I’m so sorry that you lost such a unique friend. I’m grateful you knew him and benefitted from his teaching and his friendship.
He was a good man and a good poet! You should go read A Pentecost of Finches if you ever get the chance.
I assume a mentor(?) or respected peer was reviewing a piece of your work. When you later reached out to ask for a reference he was deceased? Who/what? Thanks for sharing.