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WILLIAM HEYEN Angels Years ago Dick Hugo wrote me to answer why he’d cut out early from the White House reception for poets—“too many angels there.” Jimmy Carter left his Oval Office for our reception line. My wife & I followed Simic. When Charlie answered “New Hampshire,” our president’s eyes brightened— the “Live Free or Die” state’s primary once mattered— but then clouded again with the hostages in Tehran who would cost him the next election. . . . There were readings, we drank champagne. We did not pose on a marble staircase for a photo. Karl Shapiro said something rough & true for the papers, & we all left this elegant wake for our homes where we’d wonder what to do other than trust to the underground tremors & voices of poetry. Now many angels—James Wright, James Dickey, Hugo, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ammons, May Swenson, Shapiro— have died off who for one evening visited the powerless residence of American power, but I’ll remember being with Han in one of the color-coded rooms. Candleflame. A marine in dress blues standing in shadows in each corner. Our pride. Our fear. The crystal geometries of a chandelier. A tall empire bookcase filled with leather wings. 52 ✦ WILLIAM HEYEN ...

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