[Cally Conan-Davies]

I've just read this thread for the first time in months - I had no idea it had developed in this direction! As you can see at the start, I love Eliot. I spent an afternoon with him, and I don't know about alive - who ever really knows another person? - but he was great company dead! He has come so close to my life. I cannot imagine how different things would be if I had never read 'Marina' - if 'Marina' had not been there when I needed it. I don't care how it got here - it's 'Marina' I needed.

I also find that my great-great-great (would there be one more great?) grandfather John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, has been maligned by one Whitworth!

I feel all my beloveds are being attacked, and I am just piping up to say I still love them, for always. Not to defend anything, or anyone, but just to say I don't know people, but I know poetry when it confronts me. I deal with what confronts me. And I'm so grateful for everyone who has come before and gone ahead.

best wishes to all!

Cally