[Michael Juster]

The inaugural Frost Farm conference on meter and form finished yesterday and went extremely well. Bill Baer gave a spectacular opening talk on the history of New Formalism, Joshua Mehigan was superb as a keynoter, and longsuffering Kevin Durkin, who is the managing editor at Light, accepted his contest award and did a fine reading. It was nice to see Kevin, who cheerfully does a lot of the grunt work for all of us, get a bit of his due with an appreciative audience. Rhina Espaillat read from her translations of Frost into Spanish.

The Hyla Brook Poets, who run a workshop & reading series based at the Farm, have always been friendly with their southern friends, the Powow River poets, and the Powows supplied most of the faculty. In addition to Josh, Deborah Warren, Alfred Nicol and I taught three intensive workshops over a 36 hour period. I, for one, am still exhausted this morning--but happy.

The participants seemed to enjoy the long weekend and many of them were trying to sign up for next year as they were leaving. Bob Crawford, who ran the show with a skilled hand, has some plans to allow for a little expansion next year, but the footprint of the site will keep this event intimate.

The weather was great, so I ran my workshop near an apple tree that figures in Frost lore and the stump of a tree that appears in one of his early poems. I did my one-on-ones in the Frost kitchen from an old rocking chair next to his gorgeous old stove.

The local hotels/motels are a little bit of a hike, but after having been kept awake all night a week ago Friday by drunken revelry of middle-aged translators at the Breadloaf Translator's Conference, this crusty old New Englander prefers a little peace & privacy.

All in all, a superb weekend. Congratulations to Bob Crawford and his two top volunteers, Cathy McDonald & Kyle Potvin, who took the risk & pulled it off.