March 5, 2014

Began yesterday with coffee (water, actually) with J, who works at Hiram now, and was a student there the year I taught. Much news and up-dating, and a few literary gifts, from the old home place. Hiram will always be a kind of lost home. Some of her news was more surprising. She knew Sheldon Lawrence after he moved to Akron, and reports that he had died of leukemia four years ago.

Rehearsals in the freezing shabby immensity of the Masonic Temple. Accused last night of channeling Burgess Meredith, whom I couldn’t imitate intentionally if my life depended on it.

Sparse attendance in poetry class. Everyone was off to a lecture by a transgendered actress.