Gay males as influence, Alicia? I don't suppose they are Murphy and Sullivan. In fact, from a close acquaintance with text Stallings, I imagine they are Housman, Auden and Cavafy. Cavafy was a huge influence on me, Housman not at all. I think though that if we're serious about this business of versecraft, our influences aren't those whose lives are parallel to our own, but those who put thoughts together in verses we can't get out of our heads and hearts and spirits. My biggest, overwhelming influence is Yeats. I memorized 10,000 of his lines, even the Wanderings of Oisin, heaven help me. I was twenty-seven before I got over it. Now however, I find that contemporary women are an entirely salutory influence on me. You ladies are making me pay far closer attention to detail, to find my music therein, to enlarge my notion of the poem. Thank you.
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