Recollections of Andy Long

Andy says: there is much more to come, but it may well dribble out over a fair amount of time!

• I have a number of letters from Jeff, but nothing tops the 200+ page opus I got in the early 90s. I'll share a few selections here (and suppress a few other selections!:)
  • (more to come -- I'm working forward from the back....)
  • Poems (pages 141-160)
  • Sub-letter to Bob
  • Jeff signs off
  • Appendices
    • Glimpses O' Poems (not sure if these were finished or not -- he'd warned me that some might not be)
    • His "book report" on Harriet the Spy
    • Jeff's "Guide to Marriage" (for Stacey).

• A few silly recollections....

• We were co-editors of the HS newspaper together -- for awhile...:)

• I was fortunate enough to grab Jeff's copy of Louis Simpson's Ships Going into the Blue: Essays and Notes on Poetry -- which you can see in the picture from the obituary.

  I was sitting with John after the service, at the table holding Jeff's remaining books (his friends had been encouraged to take one or more of his books, as a remembrance). John and I were chatting about a variety of things, and I told John about zooming in on that photo to see which book Jeff was reading; that I'd put it on my list of books to buy, so that I could try to get into that big head of Jeff's.

  Then -- lo and behold! -- the book was before me: it had been passed over (perhaps it was the lamb's blood?), and left there for me to find. I got Jeff's personal copy -- and look forward to communing with Jeff over a favorite book, one more time....