Yesterday I did something I’ve had on my to-do list for years. Yes, years. I picked up the phone and called Ellen Kort, the author of one of my favorite poems, If Death Were a Woman, from Appleton, Wisconsin. It felt a little odd to do this, that is, to call a stranger at home just to chat. This is the day and age of unwanted phone solicitations and thus no-call lists. The trend is toward less direct, more impersonal…
