Richard Harteis

Legacy Richard Harteis

LEGACY is an extended elegy for the poet William Meredith, written by Meredith's partner of 36 years, Richard Harteis, after Meredith's death in the spring of 2007. This group of poems is spoken out of the silence of a great personal loss and a great literary loss. When Meredith, former U. S. Poet Laureate suffered a stroke, Richard - a health professional and writer - restored William through the courageous bond that compels poets to write. LEGACY sustains the author, and any of us who has experienced such pain. During the course of their days, William Meredith and Richard Harteis lived a dazzling poetry-making life in dual activities -- a luxury of mutual contemplation. Now, one is gone, and the other pilots his loss through the unanswerable questions showing why we love and why we write. These poems are how a poet speaks, transforming stillness into animation. Each poem leads to another poem, inviting the reader into the reward of trust and love. Grace Cavalieri