Irving Feldman is very simply, I think, one of the greatest poets of our century, and certainly the greatest poetry teacher and later good friend and editor I have ever known. He's the epitome of a "first-class act" in every sense of the word and in every department, as a teacher, poet, friend, and to cover all the bases, human being.

I'll just close by roughly repeating something I said when I last introduced Irving at a reading he did at our college, "He's a poet of a thousand voices, tones, and styles."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRVING -- AND OUTRAGEOUS BEST WISHES!

Ben Hughes