Writing in Meter and Form
 

The Trustees of the Robert Frost Farm and the Hyla Brook Poets are pleased to announce that a poetry conference dedicated to writing in meter and form will take place June 12th to 14th at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, NH.

In its inaugural year, Poetry at the Frost Farm: Writing in Meter and Form, will provide two days of intense instruction by award-winning poets -- A.M. Juster, Deborah Warren, Joshua Mehigan and Alfred Nicol -- who will immerse participants in the art and craft of formal poetry writing.

To ensure an intimate experience, workshop slots are extremely limited and we encourage registering soon. To learn more or to register, please visit: www.frostfarmpoetry.org

May I say that is wonderful. Fat chance of it happening here where the shapeless and gormless rule and I can't get a poem accepted for love or money except in the Spectator. God bless the Spectator. They printed a poem by Les Murray last week. And God bless him.

Then, come play with us! I am not sure how close you are to Heathrow, but Aer Lingus, Air France, KLM, Virgin, Delta, Iberia and US Airways all have flights into Logan (BOS). We would be delighted to have you! They'll be having an open mic the evening of the reading by the winner of the Frost Farm Prize. As you are probably aware, your fellow mod Rob Wright won and read last year -- I was just in awe of his reading. This year Joshua Mehigan will present the prize and read as well. We also will have other participant readings and some evening socializing at local "pubs" -- but hardly so, I'm sure, by your definition ;-)

So, pack up those poems to share and com'on over, John! Make a week of it. There's a lot to do 50 minutes North of Boston.

I shall be theer is spirit, be assured. Another example of the splendiferousness of the United States.

Who also publish my poems in their enlightened way.

John,

"Shapeless and gormless" rule in Canada, too. And yes, bless Les Murray who has published two of mine in recent years.

Catherine, were I not already attending Poetry by the Sea (and I'm in Joshua Mehigan's workshop), I'd be there for sure! Maybe next year....
Best wishes for a wonderful event.

I too have signed up for the Poetry by the Sea conference, where I will be in Dick Davis's workshop on the sonnet. I think the proliferation of conferences on form may be very good in terms of increasing the local audiences for and participation in poetry in form, so long as it does not wind up whittling down attendance at each conference to the point that none of them is financially feasible. Many people find travel to be one of the big expenses of attending these conferences, so I suppose that having them in various locations may tempt some people in the area to try them out. The East Coast does seem to have more options than elsewhere, but I think the high population concentration in the region may warrant that. Certainly, the Midwest has population centers so spread out that getting anywhere takes a long time. Anyway, I wish this conference well and hope that it succeeds, though I will not be able to attend it this year. In addition to attending the May conference in Madison, CT, I will be attending AWP in Minneapolis in April.

Susan

Congrats on your workshop with Joshua, Catherine. I have a copy of Accepting the Disaster that I just can't bring myself to lend out. He is quite amazing. We are so lucky he will be teaching at the farm. But, you are pretty impressive too! The two of you in one room, WOW! (It would be wonderful if you can find the time to visit next year!)

Susan, how great that you are going to be at Poetry by the Sea with Catherine. And my goodness, you and Dick Davis in a single class!

Kim, Anna and others have put together a truly impressive conference. I had the honor of meeting Kim when she read at the farm last summer. I was slightly in awe of her and the sheer number of projects she spoke about (but only when asked) when a few of us gathered after to chat with her. She gave a delightful reading to a full house who truly enjoyed her. I remember one high school girl approaching Kim and giving her a book of her own poems before reading at open mic. Kim graciously accepted it. The same girl had written on Twitter that she had gone to a poetry reading at the Frost Farm and it was "Hands down the best thing I have ever done." A high school kid!

Hopefully, we can all inspire/support more appreciation of poetry...and more and better writing. Can we ever really have enough?

Our offering is a little smaller in scope, but we hope to have almost as much learning and formal fun as you folks will be having down in CT!

John are you talking about the poet Les Murray, from Catherine's remark it seems it is someone else because I don't think the poet Les Murray has been a publisher although I maybe wrong. Here's one of his poems if anyone doesn't know who I mean, he is generally regarded as Australia's greatest living poet.


Performance

I starred that night, I shone:
I was footwork and firework in one,

a rocket that wriggled up and shot
darkness with a parasol of brilliants
and a peewee descant on a flung bit;
I was busters of glitter-bombs expanding
to mantle and aurora from a crown,
I was fouettés, falls of blazing paint,
para-flares spot-welding cloudy heaven,
loose gold off fierce toeholds of white,
a finale red-tongued as a haka leap:
that too was a butt of all right!

As usual after any triumph, I was
of course, inconsolable.


Les Murray
from
Subhuman Redneck Poems, 1996

Ross, I believe he's one and the same. He accepted two of mine for Quadrant.

Catherine I see Quadrant's online, It's a leading intellectual magazine in Aussieland, used to be very right wing, but I don't know about now.
Les is great, he's a genius poet and a rough diamond, prone to wearing thongs with socks and stealing all the camembert while nobody's looking. I remember once an interviewer asked him what he'd been doing lately and he replied 'Going through the murk.' gotta love him.
Wonderful that he accepted your poems.