What you have in your hands is the trade edition of The Poet’s Funeral. If you’re looking for the Ongepotchket Press edition, complete with pictures of the dead poet and all her friends, and including a bunch of previously unpublished, posthumous poems of obscure origin, let me know and I’ll give you your money back. This is the first and perhaps the only sincere tribute to the poet Heidi Yamada.
Included are eulogies by several of Heidi Yamada’s associates, people who knew her well, some even before she became a celebrity. I have annotated these testimonials with what I know about those speakers, and I have also tied the speeches together with the thread of what really happened during the last few days and evenings of Heidi’s life.
Finally, I must say I take umbrage at John Daniel’s statement that the characters in this book are fictitious. Believe him if you want to, but I’m telling you that what happened in Las Vegas was real and the characters you’re about to read about are real. I ought to know.
—Guy Mallon