The celebrated gay poet William Meredith was 52 years old when he met and fell in love with poetry student Richard Harteis, less than half his age, in 1972. In the early days of their relationship Meredith’s professional reputation continued to grow as he hiked up countless of honors as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress (which was later renamed Poet Laureate), whilst at the same time Harties started to find his own voice in his writing.
Then in 1983 Meredith suffered a stroke and was completely immobilized for two years. One of the many side effects of this rather pernicious stroke was that he suffered with ‘expressive aphasia’ which affected his ability to produce language, a particularly cruel affliction for a man of letters.
This new (ish) narrative from filmmaker Biju Viswanath tells the story from this point on in Meredith’s life and how this catastrophe shaped the relationship between the two lovers from then on. Based on Harteis’s Memoir of the same name, the movie documents how the younger man is determined never to give up on his lover, despite the forebodings of the doctors, and the resistance of Meredith’s sister.
Harteis discovered a new intensive course of treatment for stroke victims in the UK, and he insisted on enrolling Meredith in the program. It paid off big time, and not only did he manage to walk again, but he also regained many of his language skills and eventually back in the US he started to write again and actually produce some of his best work ever. ‘Partial Accounts:New And Selected Poems’ that he published in 1987, won him a Pulitzer, and ten years later ‘Effort at Speech’ won him a National Book Award.
The focus of the movie however is not on how great a Poet Meredith was, or on the success that Harteis own writing garnered, but on how a beautiful loving relationship between these extraordinary men gave them another remarkable 18 years together. To go from partner to full time carer when you are still under 40 years old is no mean sacrifice, but what we witness here is someone who is prepared to do just that, despite the personal cost, because of how much Meredith meant to him.
William Meredith died in 2007 with Harteis still at his side, and still very much in love. They had been together for 36 years. Their story alone is why D.O.M.A. should have been repealed years ago.
Available at AMAZON VOD or DVD
