I’m a few weeks late to this (sad) party, but I am really kicking myself for not making more of an effort to see, listen to, and interact with this incredible woman, who lived in my hometown when I was growing up, and taught at Wake Forest, right up the street. I was aware of her, I read her, I heard her read once, but I should have done more. She was truly an  incredible woman. Everyone ever should listen to this Fresh Air Interview from 1986, re-broadcast when she passed away a few weeks ago. She remembers, she muses, she shocks, she reads my most favorite sonnet, 29, that I used to copy over and over into my dream journal in high school. Her wise and buttery voice reminds me how language — not written or spoken towards a political end, but just words themselves — are still so very important.