I get a daily Google Alert
For Harold Bloom
One of my favorite writers
I read this morning of a brilliant, gifted, recent Yale graduate
Named Marina Keegan
Who died Saturday in a car wreck
In today’s edition of the Yale campus paper
Bloom said that he “can think of only a few other women and men
I have taught whose presence always will be with me”
Bloom has had many thousands of students
Having been at Yale for 57 years
For two years Marina was his assistant
Like Bloom I have had students whose presence is with me
They appear in disguise in Dear Layla
It was one way I chose to pay them tribute
The photo of Marina in the newspaper
Had that Mev and Magan look of confidence and poise announcing
“Get ready, World, here I come!”
The T’ang Dynasty poet Hanshan wrote
“Though they say life last a hundred years
Who has seen a full thirty thousand days?”
Written at Spiritual Exercises, facilitated by Sarah Bollinger, hosted by Becca Gorley, shared with Elizabeth Driscoll on 25 May 2012
