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“There are some people whom we envy not because they are rich or handsome or successful, although they may be all or any of these,” Elizabeth Bishop wrote, “but because everything they are or do seems to be all of a piece, so that even if they wanted to they could not be or do otherwise.” She might have been writing about my old friend John Domini. We first met at the Harvard Faculty Club some forty years ago. I was John’s guest at his mother’s family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts, and we saw each other in Des Moines and at the AWP. He was equally at home in all these diverse settings. John wrote with gusto and enthusiasm, he knew how to have fun, and he had a wonderful gift for friendship. How I shall miss my caro amico!
Richard Tillinghast is the author of twelve books of poetry including, most recently, Selected Poems (2008) and Wayfaring Stranger (2012).