From left to right: Michael Malinowitz, Chard deNiord (now, poet Laureate of Vermont) and of course John. The background is a carpet bought from David Kermani. Photo (c) Evelyn Horowitz-Malinowitz
Dear Stacey and David,
So many of my memories of John are of John and David and Evelyn and me and all of the friends and acquaintances that entail and entwine the enduing friendship of the 40 plus years I knew John.
So, I thought Evelyn's photo and words would be a fitting tribute.
Yet, I was a student in John's first class at the MFA program at Brooklyn College (where I met his colleague, David Lehman), and for me it's where my JA voyage started. Aside from tutorials where I became acquainted with Dame Edna Everage; Pachelbel's Canon in D; Marias' Sonnerie de Sainte Genevieve; the Perfect Bombay Gin and Vermouth with cucumber Martini, and any poet worth mentioning which to John it seemed to me was almost everyone, it was also where John teased me about the "write a poem in a poetic form"
assignment I handed in to him. I wrote an acrostic starting with J and titled it, The Casey Stengel of Poetry. He said he thought of suing, but
I'd probably win the case on "coincidence."
The last line of the poem--- "You traveled a sweeping pathway."--=well, I'm glad for that line.
As always and with gratitude to you both and giving us a chance to say Thank You John,
Michael
From Evelyn:
I first met John at a dinner given by the writer Jill Hoffman. She had been a colleague of John's at Brooklyn College and a teacher of the poet Michael Malinowitz, whom I had just started dating. My second meeting was in the summer of '78 at Bennington College. John read and after the reading I offered him some Grand Marnier. John later told Jill he liked me as I had nice liquor.
We both returned to Bennington the next summer. I as the "go for" girl for the writer's program and assistant to the poet Stephen Sandy (who died late last year). While killing time before he read John, a student Synn Stern and I sat around a living room and played twenty questions. I don't remember who Synn or I chose but I do remember John's.
Care to guess?
Broderick Crawford
The picture above was taken by me that same summer. From left to right: Michael Malinowitz, Chard deNiord (now, poet Laureate of Vermont) and of course John. The background is a carpet bought from David Kermani.
As always and with gratitude to you both and giving us a chance to say Thank You John,
Michael
From Evelyn:
I first met John at a dinner given by the writer Jill Hoffman. She had been a colleague of John's at Brooklyn College and a teacher of the poet Michael Malinowitz, whom I had just started dating. My second meeting was in the summer of '78 at Bennington College. John read and after the reading I offered him some Grand Marnier. John later told Jill he liked me as I had nice liquor.
We both returned to Bennington the next summer. I as the "go for" girl for the writer's program and assistant to the poet Stephen Sandy (who died late last year). While killing time before he read John, a student Synn Stern and I sat around a living room and played twenty questions. I don't remember who Synn or I chose but I do remember John's.
Care to guess?
Broderick Crawford
The picture above was taken by me that same summer. From left to right: Michael Malinowitz, Chard deNiord (now, poet Laureate of Vermont) and of course John. The background is a carpet bought from David Kermani.
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