Sphere at West Chester
 

Great to see so many Spherians at WC this year, and it was wonderful to see Alex honored for his tireless service to us all.

It is always a pleasure to get to see so many people at West Chester that I know from the Sphere, just as it is a frustration not to get to talk to many of them as much as I would like. The time goes so fast. It was great to see Alex in person after so many years of his being the invisible angel behind the Sphere.

Susan

As soon as you travelers have recovered your energy, do please give the rest of us detailed reports! I for one would especially like to hear about the Able Muse event, and I think others would too.

Anna Evans has promised to blog about the Mezzo Cammin Timeline, and I'm waiting eagerly for that as well.

I was glad to be able to tell Alex in person that the Sphere had just changed my life. What a delightful man he is. So good to see him honored for all his work.

Maryann, where can one read Anna's blog?

Janice, it's Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter

Dummy me. Thanks Maryann.

Actually, Anna`s blog (for now) ends on June 7.

I`ve posted some information on the Eratosphere blogs (at the bottom of the main page) for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Able Muse Panel was wonderful. Of course, I`d met Alex on Wednesday at the first books panel, but there were many people in the audience who had never met Alex before. Leslie Monsour, Julie Kane and Alicia Stallings all treated us with their stories of how they first became acquainted with Able Muse, way back in 2000, and how they were first published there; also their Eratosphere interactions. Kevin Durkin also participated and interviewed Alex for us. Alex spoke about how he came to the decision to begin Able Muse and Eratosphere, and how they have evolved over the years, including going from online to adding print journals, anthologies, and poetry books. Alex also announced that the next step will be poetry available on Kindle and other such media.

Each speaker read a poem of his-her own, as well as a poem by another poet published in Able Muse over the years, such as a poem by Alan Sullivan and Rose Kelleher. There were others, though I just can`t recall them right now (I`m on my lunch break at a school and my notes are at home).

Suffice it to say that the panel had an excellent turnout and Alex charmed us all!

Cathy

I'd be pretty hard pressed to name anyone who's done more for poetry than Alex, possible exception, Mike Peich. Those two guys have worked so hard at the Eratosphere, Able Muse, the Aralia Press, the West Chester Conference. They've brought all of us together, and their reward will be in Heaven. God bless them.

Dear Maryann,

Alas, I took no notes, and I spent much of the hour shushing young James, who was having a heck of a time in the back of the room playing on the theatre seats and generally committing the kinds of mayhem only a six-year-old can devise. So this report is going to bear about as much relation to reality as a Hunter Thompson book bears to a motorcycle race! ;)

Leslie went first, and did the introductions. She talked about the early days, I think she was one of the first features? She had some good tales of those times, but I'll have to let someone else fill in the details, as James was opening about six fortune cookies he'd somehow secreted during his brief visit upstairs. Each time, he wanted me to read the writerly fortunes from the cookies: "Write as if your life depended on it," "I see a book in your near future," etc.

Next was Julie, and she really stole the show. She was comfortable, chatty, lucid, and very witty. It's no exaggeration to say laughter filled the room as she recounted Alex's advice about how to make a good cassette recording, including a detailed description of how to stretch old pantyhose over a microphone to act as a pop filter! We reveled in her descriptions of seeing literature through the keyhole of a 28.8 modem. I know this because Kate had gotten James involved in an intriguing game of hangman, along with a subsequent full page of tic-tac-toe.

Then it was Alicia's turn, and she discussed finding the Able Muse site while she was in Greece, and how much it meant to her. She also talked at length about Eratosphere, most of which I caught, although James kept saying "I miss Jason" and "Can we go to the pool?"

Last came Kevin Durkin. He began by reminiscing about how he met Leslie one rainy evening in L.A., having previously felt isolated, and then told stories of the early Able Muse days. This didn't go on long, as most of his time was spent interviewing Alex. They started on some biographical details, place of origin, Electrical Engineering vs. poetry, silicon valley in the 90's, etc, and then got on to the founding of Able Muse, the early days, the hiatus, the reincarnation, and the new developments. Alex was charming, a little shy, a little self-deprecating, with an excellent turn of phrase and a wry sense of humor. I know this because by then James, having burned up quite a bit of energy, was sleeping, or trying to sleep, across the row of seats right in front of Jane Satterfield, Ned Balbo, and April Lindner, none of whom complained about his previous riotous behavior, for which they have my eternal gratitude!

So that's pretty much how it was, a pleasant hour spent with a few engaging speakers, with only minimal disturbances emanating from the back corner! ;)

Thanks,

Bill

Thank you, Bill! Great report.

Can we persuade anybody else to give us the blow-by-blow of the talks and panels you went to?

Bravo, Bill. Engaging report. Anybody like to tell us about Robert Pinsky?

Blow-by-blow coverage...yeah, Maryann, I'm still waiting to hear about the fistfights, too.

Any mud-wrestling?

Nemo

It was reported to me that Julie Kane read a sonnet of mine, for which
I will gladly donate blood whenever she needs it.

Meeting and greeting. Well! Also teasing. Pointedly accurate comments on prosody (a real live set of mysterious spondees, oh my) and equally productive words from Deep Thought on rhymes, metrix, and other poems to get into. Lots of worthy activities, but I think in some respects the high points of the conference were when Richard Wilbur was on tap. He read well and clearly. His birthday celebration was a song in itself. Quite an intellect, going well at 90.

Somehow in the impetuous twice or thrice daily in-and-out of my dorm room, I let a spare unworn piece of summer clothing fall behind an unoccupied bed in my room, and didn't think to look there when packing up to go. So now I can say, alas, I left my pants in Pennsylvania.

Leaving your pants in Pennsylvania is a bad slant, Allen. You should have left a pen behind. And consider yourself fortunate that you weren't in Baltimore.

Were I in Baltimore every time I leave my pants behind an unoccupied bed that has only a striped mattress on it (apart from my suitcase on wheels), I would leave them each time behind a SIGABA machine for dramatic effect. There's one on display at the NSA museum near the airport. Way cute, but you need to call to set up an appointment. Why SIGABA? According to the biographer that we heard before one of Wilbur's appearances, the SIGABA is that beaut which he operated as near as was safe to German fire in Italy. Here's a link: SIGABA.

They also have a bunch of other stuff from Venona, etc, and some of that is still under consideration I gather from what I read here and there. Not everything on Wikipedia is cut and dried.

Still, pants it was. And Richard Wilbur it was. (I'm not yet cleared to talk about a certain fright wig I saw slithering across ancient seas. Was it Eliot's?) :eek:

PS, while I'm on Eliot, I don't think I've ever heard that anyone caught the probable mandrill image in stanza one of his "Sweeney Among the Nightingales". I think it's pretty clear (though Eliot makes it a jaw, not a nose). Mandrill. Here's the relevant verse : It's all about Lucy before she met Desi.

But that's not West Chester.

West Chester this and that
 

Sorry, I haven’t been participating in these discussions due to too many distractions (but what’s new!).

I’m glad there are already good accounts of events from Cathy and Bill. It was wonderful meeting them in there person. And there was a long list of other Eratosphereans I met at West Chester beside Cathy and Bill, including Micheal Cantor (he’s very charming, I’ll have you know), Peter Coghill (what a tall guy!), Allen Tice, David Landrum, John (J.D.) Smith, Jennifer Reeser, Nicholas Friedman, Gregory Dowling, Susan McLean, Ned Balbo, Anna Evans, Sam Gwynn, David Mason (who read some wonderful new lyric poems instead of his usual narrative poetry), April Lindner (presented by Dana Gioia just before one of the faculty readings, who in turn presented her latest book in the western writers criticism series on Marilyn Nelson . . . and April’s poem from the Able Muse Anthology, “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”, will appear Monday, June 20 in the American Life in Poetry columns). And there are quite a few others, including the Able Muse Anthology panel members already mentioned in other posts.

Of course, I met several distinguished/occasional Eratosphereans such as Len Krisak, Timothy Steele, Rhina P. Espaillat, our last Distinguished Guest Bruce Bennett – who couldn’t thank me and the Sphere enough for inviting him . . . he wanted to personally thank the person who’d suggested him initially. I said everyone, given that he’s well known for French repeating forms. And then I found out that Michael Cantor was the chief suspect, so I pointed him that way. Indeed, I even met Eratosphere lurkers some of you may not be aware of, such as Annabelle Moseley, Susan de Sola (who came all the way from the Netherlands!).

On the first day, I caught the tail end of the Hip Hop workshop with Kim Bridgford, and arrived there just in time to hear Rhina read a really good hip-hoppy poem composed during that workshop, with a clever use the device of repetition. Then later, it was the First Book Panel event with reading by Cathy Chandler, the late Margaret Griffiths (Maz) represented by Michael Cantor, Eratospherean Andrew Sofer, and Brett Foster). Cathy did a great job reading some favorites from her book, Lines of Flight, and even read that one selection we had to remove from the book after it won the Nemerov Sonnet Award! Michael did Maz proud, reading mostly poems that were in a male voice, and occasionally played a recording of Ann Drysdale reading some not-to-be-missed favorites written in a female voice.

Since I’d arrived way early in order to support Cathy’s and Michael’s reading, I had to find something to occupy me between the first and the last day when the Able Muse Anthology panel was scheduled, so I decided to enroll in a workshop. I went for the element of surprise with Micheal O’Siadhail (Sources of Form workshop) whom I’d never heard of before the conference. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Besides the rest of his other impressive achievements, he’s an amazing linguist and speaks and translates from several languages such as Irish, Icelandic, German, French, Hungarian, Norwegian, etc. I have a very good idea of who I’ll need to coopt as Distinguished Guest for our next Translation bake-off! By the way, I found out that the pronunciation of his name is totally disconnected from the spelling – no, it’s not Michael, etc, but something that sounds like Mee-hall O'sh-eel. It was a good coincidence that David Landrum was in the same workshop, along with John Milbury-Steen whom I'd published the Reload, Workshops and Tribute issues of Able Muse.

I attended pretty much all the panels and readings, and the parties. Some of the memorable ones were the small press panel chaired by Anna Evans which garnered a lot of interest and questions from the participants, especially on the issue of paper versus online. Anna mentioned that it moved in a different direction than the one she had planned. On the Mezzo Cammin Panel, besides the discussion of all the accomplishments of the journal which include the largest database of women poets, there was the extremely hilarious highlight of Julie Kane’s her poem on redheads. Of course, the Richard Wilbur tribute panel and the party afterward were tremendous events. As for the most notable party in terms of unusual excitement, the pool party wins hands down with a concluding segment that can be best described as a case of staff gone wild!

There are already some good reports on the Able Muse Panel. I want to commend Leslie Monsour who took it upon herself to sell Kim Bridgford on the idea, then enlisted the panel members, and planned essentially everything. Leslie described how she discovered Able Muse, along with Kevin Durkin and Timothy Steele, and was eventually published there as the featured poet in the Millennial issue. Julie Kane presentation was well-prepared, and humorous, complete with accounts of the early days of Able Muse. It was impressive how much of it she recalled, including events around her first acceptance. Alicia Stallings also described her first encounter with Eratosphere and Able Muse, and how she eventually jumped in and served as one of our earlier moderators. Kevin Durkin started with how he first came in contact with Able Muse after being discouraged by the apparent lack of a metrical poetry scene back then in the Los Angeles area. Then he entered the keywords ‘metrical poetry’ into Google, and there was the Premiere issue of Able Muse. By persisting for several months despite my insistence that it’s best suited to the major poets and writers achieving frequent publication, he and Leslie wore down my resistance to being interviewed. Thus, Kevin ended up by interviewing me on Able Muse, Eratosphere, Able Muse Press – online and paper formats – the beginning days, the future, and everything in-between.

And this looks like a good place to stop since I suspect that I’ve been typing for far too long, and have most likely bored more than a handful of readers who have tuned out a long time ago . . . but not before slipping in that the latest issue of Able Muse (Number 11, Summer 2011) should be available by tomorrow or so in Kindle electronic format on Amazon (and on other e-readers such as the Barnes and Nobles Nook, iPad, etc). And so, the jump by Able Muse Press onto the handheld digital reader bandwagon – ostensibly the book format of the future – begins!

Not boring, not for a minute. More, more.

Great reports, everyone. Thanks so much from the prairie.

Tim, I was so hoping you'd be there. Maybe next year?

Yes, it was great to see Alex suitably honoured - and it was also great to meet him at last and spend some time with him. Alex, I hope you enjoyed the dancing evening, as I didn't get to see you the next morning to hear about it.

It was good, as ever, to re-encounter so many Spherians and to meet others for the first time - including Catherine, of course. I think I bumped into most people - except Bill, for some reason. I can at least reassure you, Bill, that sitting at the front of the auditorium for the Able Muse event I wasn't aware of any child-produced commotion at any point.

Enjoyable events by the poolside in the evening as well, including a remarkable performance by a poet who managed to keep a glass of wine upright while swimming across the pool fully dressed. A feat no free-verse could ever manage, I'm sure...

I'll be there without fail next year, Catherine.

I'll be there too, beside the performing-seal poet, helping him stay afloat, making sure he doesn't spill a drop!

And Alex - if you are there, too, I will tackle you to the ground, bury you in kisses, until huge orange poppies open up all over you!

Cally

All I see in this thread are a bunch of out-of-reach grapes that I am sure must be too sour to eat anyway.

David R.

If I sell a screenplay or hold a winning ticket of any kind over the next twelve months, your conference registration and plane tickets are guaranteed to be in your pocket, David R, and together we will pick those grapes and stomp on them till our toes our indelibly purple, and wine pours from our ears.

Deal??

Cally

Cally, did you know...
 

Cally, did you know that Dave Mason included your powerful poem "Shot with Colour" in his Narrative seminar? The whole class really admired the piece, & Dave sang (actually, spoke) your praises mightily.

Just thought you'd want to know... :D

Not to worry, Ned. I've corrected the spelling of Cally's name!

I was just keeping it in the family, Ned.

Gregory: to the best of my memory, I wasn't FULLY clothed....

Just in: some YouTube videos of the Mezzo Cammin Fifth Anniversary readings.

You carefully removed your shoes and socks, David. And your handsome bowtie, pearl-buttoned vest, suspenders and cummerbund (did you locate them all later?) were nowhere to be seen. The shirt came off after you were in the pool.

I'm looking forward to going through these. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Annabelle Moseley and her husband Mark Staudinger (who I believe shot and produced these videos) are doing some brilliant work, and deserve our support - for their journal, their reading series, and their multimedia ventures. Wonderful stuff...

Now, if we could only get *all* the panels to be taped! ;)

Thanks,

Bill

One of the high points of the Conference for me was the appearance of so many hip-hop performers/poets as guests (great idea, Kim). As a Shakespearean by trade, Tyehimba Jess' "syncopated sonnets" (interlocking duets that can be read separately or together; also forwards and backwards, as well as diagonally) blew my mind. As did Toni Blackman's Freestyling improv in rhymed couplets--in which, among other things, she riffed off folks in the audience's nametags.

Michael C, Catherine C, and Brett: it was an honor to be on the First Books Panel with you. And a great pleasure to meet Alex and so many other wonderful Sphereans, as well as to reconnect with old friends.

Andrew

Cally,

Thanks for the thought. I deeply appreciate it, though I am not much of wine drinker, and any process by which wine starts at my toes and ends uop coming out my ears sounds fairly uncomfortable.

But seriously, even if I could swing a scholarship for the conference, the cost of the plane ride is prohibitive for me. Plus the conference always coincides with my school's most important annual event, which isn't an impossible problems to deal with, but it adds to the difficulty of making the conference possible for me.

Someday...

David R.

For those of us who couldn't go, more spillover of conference joy and enthusiasm at Marly Youmans's blog, which is a good thing to know about in its own right.

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus about what a fabulous conference it was. Even though this was my fifth time attending, I got to meet a bunch of Spherians for the first time (including Alex P, Catherine C, Allen T, Peter C, Gregory D, and Andrew S, of those posting or mentioned so far in this thread) as well as to greet many friends from previous years. Alex, my memory is actually rather foggy, but thankfully I had saved my Able Muse emails from 11 years ago--or your "pantyhose" instructions could have been lost to literary history forever!

I don't want to echo what has been said about many of the highlights of the programming, but I did want to mention that the readings by new faculty members Allison Joseph and Rafael Campo were wonderful, and that Amit Majmudar's Donald Justice Prize reading from HEAVEN AND EARTH was a knock-out. I also purchased his brand new novel, PARTITIONS, which gets my crystal ball prediction for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in fiction (you read it here first!) Someone mentioned Tyehimba Jess's interlocking sonnets that could be read in many different directions, but I don't think it was mentioned that they were on the subject of a pair of 19th-century conjoined twins, nor that Marilyn Nelson also read from a rondeau redouble sequence (note the fittingness of the form, in each case!) on the subject of the same conjoined pair--a stunning performance by both poets, though it was lightly attended on account of being the last panel of the last day.

Drat, I hate that I missed the raucous pool party--though I did make the dance party on the last night, where a number of Spherians (who shall remain anonymous) and some of the young staff members literally danced up a storm (we needed the rain to cool off from the week's heat wave). Hope to see even more of y'all next year!

Hey, guys, hope to be at WC too next year! It's been two years, and have missed you all.

It was such a thrill to meet so many, and re-acquaint myself with a few. Being on the faculty this year made it more difficult, especially since I was "accepting" new consultations even unto the last minute -- but to be sure, I enjoyed what little time I had with some of you, immeasurably.

Marvelous finally to meet Alex, who is the sort of man you want to gravitate towards every single time you see him. And I got a terrific picture of the two of us together, to boot. But you can't see it. It will be our little secret...