John, this is lovely, and I hesitate to comment upon it, but I do want to point out one poignant thing. In fact, I didn't "try often" to get my poems published, though I know that's a stereotype that's hard to resist. In fact, I tried only very rarely because I was a coward, and often succeeded anyway. But here's why that's important to more than my own ego: the great gay poet Thom Gunn saw one of my poems on the layout wall at the SF Sentinel and told the editor there they should hire me to do something, because for a brief time, the SF Sentinel was a haven for gay bohemians like you and me who didn't fit into the Castro scene and wanted to read and write about more than bar gossip and obituaries. I proposed writing a restaurant review column with my boyfriend, who was you, and as I'm sure you remember, we did that and went on to share another column at San Francisco magazine. The SF Sentinel was a very interesting queer cultural moment for people like us, and it led to your career in food writing, which has been fabulous. I don't think we were "fuckups." I think we were in our 20s, and I'm very glad to say we both made good on whatever promise we had as writers.
John, this is lovely, and I hesitate to comment upon it, but I do want to point out one poignant thing. In fact, I didn't "try often" to get my poems published, though I know that's a stereotype that's hard to resist. In fact, I tried only very rarely because I was a coward, and often succeeded anyway. But here's why that's important to more than my own ego: the great gay poet Thom Gunn saw one of my poems on the layout wall at the SF Sentinel and told the editor there they should hire me to do something, because for a brief time, the SF Sentinel was a haven for gay bohemians like you and me who didn't fit into the Castro scene and wanted to read and write about more than bar gossip and obituaries. I proposed writing a restaurant review column with my boyfriend, who was you, and as I'm sure you remember, we did that and went on to share another column at San Francisco magazine. The SF Sentinel was a very interesting queer cultural moment for people like us, and it led to your career in food writing, which has been fabulous. I don't think we were "fuckups." I think we were in our 20s, and I'm very glad to say we both made good on whatever promise we had as writers.