Published on: 7/15/2015
Dead Letter Office: Damon Knight

Dear Damon:

Across the continent, filtered by electrons, I never
saw you so clear as to see your flaws.
Human, there must have been some;
the meticulous writer revised them out
of all those online posts, O eminence
of message boards. I only picked up
some of your good, or tried to.
I learned from the fiction, of course, which left me
(and so many others) envious, and the criticism,
clear and fluent. But you modeled
more. The careful argument, the probing,
your gedankenexperimenten (and calling
them that, not "thought experiments"). Your hopeless
crusades against the apostrophe, against academic
abuse of the language. Principle. The fine-tuned
mind at work. Socrates online and at play.
Pushing us through the mind's workout, to help us— me—
to think, to be, better.
And sending my comments on your new edition
to your editor, even if he knew better
than to put them on the cover.
Patron, advisor, supporter--but we never
had the chance to lift a couple of cold ones.
I'll lift one for you now, with someone young,
and try to carry on as you taught me.