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For John Hawkes

(1925-1998),

once our greatest living stylist, now no longer with us.

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*******************Make haste slowly,

*******************intoner of sonorous music.

*******************Your being has thinned

*******************to one lasting and plangent voice

*******************which endures in your work

*******************and resounds in the ear of the reader:

*******************As your writing survives,

*******************so your style remains mastery's model.

*******************May we live through you always.

*******************May your voice remain always alive.

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His obituary: http://users.visi.net/~cwt/hks-obit.html
A short biography: http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/John-Hawkes.sht
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Hawkes's delicately modulated prose will outlast his passing
because it is often perfect. His flawless unfaltering voice defined
the lyric mode in late twentieth century fiction. Therefore it must endure.
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