Credits
	"Elegy" (1985) was written on the occasion of the death of Jack J. Boies, a dear friend and mentor, as an offering to the family. With the exception of this essentially hopeful piece, the rest of these writings date from the period between 1991 and 1995. Several poems were composed and given first readings in a 1991 workshop at New York University led by Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, and Michael S. Harper. An early version of "My Father Loved His Death," entitled "On My Father's Death, May 24, 1991," appeared in the resulting chapbook, A Poetry Collection, published by the Faculty Resource Network at New York University. This chimera contained prototypes of "The Fish," the last two sections of the present "My Father Loved His Death," and ended with "She's Still Mad," which segued into "1935." "My Father Loved His Death" and " Ashes" appeared in the Fall/Winter 1996 issue (Volume X, Number 2) of Zone 3, published by Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. In 1997 "The Fish" was included in a special sports issue of The MacGuffin, published by Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. Two prose pieces were the product of a commission by the late, much lamented quarterly Books & Religion. Although in the end neither "Peopling Heaven" nor "The Impatience of the Living" appeared in the magazine, Editor-in-Chief Katherine Kurs provided not only the occasion but also the encouragement necessary to complete these (to me) important meditations. A crude hypertext "chapspace" containing some of these poems was first assembled for Robert Kendall's Hypertext Poetry and Fiction class at the New School Online University in the summer of 1995. The general estimation of this jejeune attempt was that the poems were OK, but it wasn't much of a hypertext. Then, in Rob's Advanced Hypertext Poetry and Fiction course in the fall of 2000, I undertook the conversion of Wyrmes Mete from Storyspace to HTML, and began to use the Connection Muse suite of JavaScript tools to enhance and complexify navigation. It is not possible for me to thank Rob enough for his continued interest and support. I must also thank my hypertext buddies Deena Larsen, Marjorie Luesebrink, Stephanie Strickland, and John McDaid for their suggestions, encouragement, and philosophy. But most amazing was the joyous energy with which Julianne Chatelain attacked the project of reading and responding to this piece in Rob's AdvHTPoFic class, and her more than generous enheartening, a service I sorely needed when the mess I was making got me down. A month-long residency at the Vermont Studio Center in January 2002 provided the time and peace for me to be able to create a readable draft of this HTML version. For this, I am grateful to Jon Gregg and Louise von Weise for founding VSC and keeping it running long enough for me to get there, and to the dedicated staff who fed and housed and sheltered me from the so-called real world for 28 days, especially to Kathy Black for arranging a work exchange, to Gary Clark for his free flow of ideas and righteous flat-picking, and to Arista Alanis for her gentle instruction in the kitchen, whereby I can now prepare bacon & eggs for thousands. Blessed be my all fellow residents, 53 or so writers, painters, and sculptors whose work inspired and energized me, but in particular Marie Harris, Thomas Lakeman, JerriAnne Boggis, Winn Rea, Kenny Cole, Emna Zghal, Mee Kyung Shim, and Kate Cheney Chappell all generously took time out from their own work to help me in my struggle to make Wyrmes Mete better. And finally, I would never have been able to endure the emotional ordeal required by revisiting these events were it not for the prodigious love and unflagging support of my darling Deborah.
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