[mandolin]

I'm glad I missed the Paradelle session, but a little disturbed to have had the same hallucinations as David Mason and Paul Lake—is there something in that Hopdevil beer that Mike Peich insists be served at the Alumni House?

Rambling on—Maura Stanton was not only funny in her reading, but ran a fabulous workshop on narrative; the dorm was a definite improvement; David Yezzi's new guitar is wonderful to play (and he plays it wonderfully); it was amazing to hear Frank Reeve tell stories of Robert Frost in Russia; Samuel Menashe and James Fenton knocked my socks off; the Holiday Inn is not too far to walk for a drink but the drinks are too expensive; Alfred Nicol is a fine suitemate and put together a fine anthology of the Powow Poets; I spent far too much money on books; I've listened to Catherine Tufariello read "Free Time" on my iPod about 500 times and it's fabulous to see the poem in her book Keeping My Name and to meet her; I'm completely done in.

It will be a month before I recover.

[This message has been edited by Mike Snider (edited June 12, 2006).]

[Gregory Dowling]

High points: Fenton's reading and conversation with Dana Gioia; the panel with Samuel Menashe; and the faculty readings - especially that great new Greek singer - very soulful. Oh, and Harvey Hix's recitation of B. H. Fairchild's "Body and Soul".

Great to meet everyone again. Counting down till next year.

Mike: where did you get the recording of Catherine Tufariello?

[Yolanda Cruz]

Hey folks just adding my two cents about the conference.

I enjoyed the rhyme workshop. The dorm rooms were clean and neat but the climate control setup was weird.

I assumed each person would be able to control the ac/heat in his/her own room. In reality, one person controled it for both (at least that was the setup in our two rooms). I had control of the thermostat and I like it warm.

My roomate must of been a polar bear in a previous life and she liked it ice cold. . Needless to say, we had a minor disagreement on how hot or cold the room should be.

However, we soon worked it out once we could pry open the damn windows. Since it was cool, opening the window served as ac for my roommate, which she could adjust simply by closing the window.

The readings were great. I fell in love with Hix this time around.

More than likely I will go next year, if they keep us in the new dorms. I want to take the workshop on Revisions.

OK. off I go to work.Cheers.

P.S. It was nice meeting Mary Moore, Mike Slipp, Robin and others from Erato.

[mandolin]

Gregory, Catherine's poem (along with others from Sam Gwynn, Emily Grosholz, Dana Gioia, Hayden Carruth and lots more) is on the 55th Anniversary CD from the Hudson Review. There's a link here: http://www.hudsonreview.com/anniversary.html , and it's apparently still available.

And how could I have not mentioned David Mason's two poems on the CD: "A Dream of Arrival" and "Summer of Love"? Geez.



[This message has been edited by Mike Snider (edited June 13, 2006).]

[Barbara Loots]

Rats. I wasn't there. But it sounds like West Chester still flourishes, so I'll look forward to next year. But "happy poets"? You guys are going to undo centuries of tradition.

[Mary Moore]

I, too, thoroughly enjoyed West Chester. Especially fine were the readings by James Fenton, a
terrific performer, and his interview the next morning by Dana Gioia; the panel on Women and
Form; and the faculty readings by Gwynn, Stallings, Martin and Espaillat . It was nice to see
Yolanda Caraballo and Susan McLean again, to be remembered by Timothy Steele, and to meet
Marilyn Taylor, Jan Hodge and Robin Kemp. Alicia Stalling’s class on the sonnet was great fun
and her one-on-one critique of my poems was an exceptional experience. But the highlight of the
meetings for me was to go up to Rhina Espaillat, of whom I had heard so much, at breakfast,
introduce myself and immediately be invited to sit down. A lovely talk followed. I shall never
forget her gracious manner. Finally, at the last evening’s picnic, I was introduced to Alfred Dorn
and came away with that some sense of being accepted into the fellowship of poets.
Mary

[Clay Stockton]

But what I want to know is . . .

Who will be uploading photos?

--CS

[Lightning Bug]

Yes... pictures, please.

[Quincy Lehr]

I'd like to see photos, too--particularly embarassing ones from all-night bacchanals in various dorm rooms. Lacking those, I suppose pictures of a more prosaic variety will do.

Quincy

[Marilyn Taylor]

Hi, everyone!

I've just unglued my hands from the steering wheel after having driven 800 miles, more or less, from West Chester to my home town in the Wisconsin boonies-- and I would like to add my voice to the chorus that's singing the praises of this year's West Chester conference. I had an exceptionally terrific time, and it was such a pleasure to meet some of you in person for the first time, and to greet old friends like Gregory and Dave Mason and Rhina and Sam and Robin and Alicia and bunches of others whom I'm forgetting at the moment (forgive me, I'm still suffering from Interstate-lag) but I loved seeing you anyway. And it was also good to march up and talk to people I recognized but hadn't really known in my pre-Sphere days. A pleasure!

Want to mention, too, that Tom Cable's seminar on prosody-- which focused on non-iambic meters-- was fascinating and hugely enlightening; and doing a panel with Moira Egan, Amy Lemmon and Kathrine Varnes proved to be a downright memorable collaboration. It's getting to the point where I start counting the days till next year's gathering. Let's see, only 359 to go!

Marilyn

PS-- Tim Murphy said he thinks that Timothy Steele and I look alike. I still don't know quite how to deal with this, Tim.