[Julie Steiner]

Apparently those of you who attended the conference are modestly waiting for someone else to start a thread so that you can share your highlights and lowlights.

Here's the thread--start talkin'! There was so much suspense built up over the air conditioning issue that I'm just dying to have that mystery cleared up ASAP. (And I wouldn't mind hearing about the poetry, either.)

Julie Stoner

[Simon Hunt]

I've got no gossip, but it was a very good conference. It's a strange but rewarding phenomenon to meet in-person dozens of people you know only as screen-names (and who may or may not resemble the images you have formed of them...). I hope everybody makes it home comfortably.

As to the weather and the AC, it was my first time at West Chester, but I gather the weather was uncommonly cool (even drizzly sometimes, which I liked), so AC was available but not really necessary. I stayed in the dorms, and the talk there was how much better the new dorms were than the old dorms.

Best, --Simon

[Katy Evans-Bush]

Julie it sounds as if there's some top-secret thing going on. Maybe Jack Bauer took it over.

KEB

[Mike Slippkauskas]

All,

The conference was bliss: four nights of great conversation and much laughter. It was wonderful to meet so many prepossessing Spherians. Robin Kemp, Marilyn Taylor, Toni Clark, Susan MacLean, Michael Cantor and the Powows, Simon Hunt, Greg Diprinzio (who made good on his promise of "general lurking"), Gregory Dowling, Tim Murphy, David Anthony, Rob Crawford (I shouldn't have started naming), and to reunite with so many acquaintances.
The keynote by James Fenton was riveting -- once he had finished a long-winded shaggy-dog. But even the poems were controversial and led to some stimulating arguments. I loved them and his performance of them thrilled.
Gossip? Dangerous word. The situation I describe is analogous, not actual. Imagine a panel dealing explicitly with humor and genial satire. Imagine a fond, charming squib on the rotundity of Sir John Falstaff, a squib moreover in which Falstaff emerges as clear victor. Imagine next panelist publicly, emotionally stating offence, seemingly on behalf of the obese, and not obese, everywhere.
My seminar with Dick Davis on rhyme was superb. A new favorite poem: Jinny the Just, of Matthew Prior. Will now seek out more, and pay more attention to the 17th cent. in general. The best thing a conference can do.
Best,
Michael Slipp

edited for spelling of participants' names, mea culpa! Sorry if mistakes remain.



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

[Susan McLean]

Julie and Katy,
I think the lack of information was largely due to the sleep deprivation that most of the participants experienced during the conference and their attempts to catch up on sleep afterwards. It was an excellent conference, but the activities run from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and many (not me) then go on to parties or conversations lasting well into the night. I was at the Holiday Inn, so I can't speak to the comfort of the dorms. The previous dorms were pretty bleak in terms of comfort, so I certainly hope there has been an improvement. The weather was unusually cool and with enough wind and rain that one of the outdoor receptions was moved indoors.

The faculty readings are always one of the highlights of the conference for me, and this time was no exception. One surprise for me was how funny Maura Stanton was. I had read a couple of her books and hadn't come away with an impression that humor was a large part of them, but either my memory is faulty or they are a lot funnier in performance. The session on the paradelle was another very entertaining session, though as Mike mentions, it took a turn for the awkward that occasioned a lot of comment afterwards.

I attended Sam Gwynn's workshop on humor and satire, which was often very funny and very informative about the forms and approaches that can be mined for humor. I hope that the subject is repeated in future conferences, because I think there would be some demand for it. Formal writers often excel at light verse. It is a pity that there are so few publication outlets for it these days, a subject that was also discussed.

Several people commented on how happy most of the participants seemed (not something one tends to remark at other conferences). I think it is because it is so novel to be surrounded by other people who are just as passionate about formal poetry as we are ourselves. The positive energy just radiates. I bought a lot of books of poetry there (including a new one by Dick Davis that I didn't even know was coming out), because it is a great place to get a lot of formalist authors you can't easily find in the local chain store. Many of the participants come back every year. This was my fifth consecutive conference and I wouldn't miss it, even though the timing is a bit awkward for me.

Susan

[David Mason]

I slept for ten hours last night, and woke with a strong recollection of one of my dreams. It was a performance-anxiety dream--you know, where you stand in front of an audience and you've actually got no idea what to do. In this dream, I started singing before three hundred people. I was singing in Greek, which is a complete mystery to me. Anyway, I woke with such a feeling of gratitude that it had not actually happened. I had not, in fact, flown to Pennsylvania and done and said all those perfectly absurd things. I was safe in the cocoon of my home in Colorado. Still, I was sorry not to have seen all those happy people I dreamed about, or smelled the odor of vodka from a clutch of Russians, or learned about such exotic forms as the pantaloon....

[Toni Clark]

Hello All,

I had a fabulous time, as usual. Indeed, in talking to my husband on the phone, I enthused about how great it was to be among so many “happy poets”! I greatly enjoyed meeting other Spherians (only sorry I didn’t meet quite everyone). It was also nice to meet several of the Powow River Poets. Their anthology is superb, too.

Rhina’s class was excellent, of course. We spent some time examining our assumptions about our readers/audience, and exploring ways of inviting readers into our poems. As for the workshopping, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing others’ work (Spherian Simon Hunt’s among them), as well as hearing reactions to my own, and came away encouraged, inspired, and motivated.

As one who has braved the dorms for 5 years now (and had sworn never to do it again), I can attest that the accommodations were quite civilized this year.

I seemed to have missed significant partying. But I got little sleep, as it was.

Every year, I worry: How can it possibly be as good this year as last? And every year, it is.

Toni

PS: Yes, David, it was all a dream. . . .

[Paul Lake]

Since Julie Stoner has already listed the names of Sphereans she met at the conference, I'll use our old tag, "What Julia said." It was a pleasure to meet all of you in the flesh. A special hi to all of you Pow Wows I hung with there. I'll revisit you when I read your anthology.

The dorms were much better than the old ones. I managed to get enough rest in my dorm room each afternoon to make it through the evening without trouble. If I don't get enough sleep, I could do something crazy--like singing a long incomprehensible Greek song at a poetry reading. So I made sure I got lots of sleep.

One night, though, I did dream I was at a concert and everybody was singing in Russian. Weird. Must have had too much beer at the picnic.

See you all next year!

[diprinzio]

From the previous nights' reading, I thought I'd learned that one great funny line in a light poem should not immediately follow another, for the audiences' laughter buries the line and no one hears it, but I hadn't heard R.S. Gwynn, or known his skillful pauses that allowed the audience to sustain a barrage of funny stuff. Gwynn was the funniest and most entertaining. He left the audience wanting more.

A couple who struck me as having particulary authentic voices at that moment when they read were Diane Thiel and David Yezzi. I missed the last nights' reading (which had a line-up of heavy-hitters) having dinner with my niece at Spence's (which I highly recommend if you're in West Chester). Really, everyone was great.

Charles Martin should have gotten a standing ovation for that 911 poem of his.

Nice to meet the Hodges', Alicia, Jennifer Reeser (I still want you to sign my books), Rhina, Yezzi, Cantor, Anthony, Annie Finch, Diane Thiel, Kim, Garrick Davis, Kate Light, Michael Peich, Simon, Lake, Slip, Gioia, Dowling---too many to name but all delightful.

[David Mason]

I agree about Martin's 9-11 poem. A masterpiece.