And the Thread Held

Dear Mary,

I remember with great fondness and gratitude the time we both spent as poetry fellows (along with Anne Marx, Edmund Pennant, and Robert Casto) at the Fairleigh Dickinson Writers’ conference in 1964.  I particularly remember your Ariadne poem, with its wonderful use of a meter which I learned from you, the last line of which was “and the thread held” and which I used in my poem “The Man Who” (in Uranium Poems).  Although we haven’t managed to see each other since, I have followed your work devotedly since. Please conserve your strength and let yourself be carried by the loving thoughts of poets and poetry lovers.

Much love,

Judy Johnson (it was then Judith Johnson Sherwin, but when the 30-year marriage ended I returned to my original name)