[nyctom]

Actually I would be very interested to hear your take on the conference and the workshops you attend. It does seem like a golden opportunity to gather the tips and wisdom of so many potential lariats, even if only by proxy.

Have a good time and bring lots of extra money with you--people tell me the bookstore is A Welcome Temptation.

Tom

[Yolanda Cruz]

Originally posted by Tom Jardine:

I'll be there.

If anyone wants to hear my latest theory on the three things a poet should never do, just ask.

Or maybe the three elements that make a magical line.

Then again, if all you want is a ride back to the hotel, let me know, I'll have a car there.

TJ

Tom,

Is your theory too long to explain here or PM? I may not meet up with you or other things may come up. Would be interested in knowing what are the "three things a poet should never do."

[albert geiser]

Tom,

Is there a time when a poet should not drink coffee? I ask this for a friend of mine.

[R. S. Gwynn]

David, if you're going to do Civil War battlefields, you might consider Antietam as well as Gettysburg. Gettysburg is pretty well commercialized (the town and major highway bisect the battlefield) while Antietam is preserved in pristine condition.

[albert geiser]

Poets should never get drunk and read their poetry out loud in the middle of tourists on Civil War battlefields.

[Tom Jardine]

albert,

Less the coffee the better, I think. I recently gave up coffee, and my energy and clear thinking went way up.
Whenever one wants to write poetry, I think it is not the time to drink coffee. Your body is a temple and treat it so.

Yolanda,

Check later for a PM. I'd rather not take this thread to expound, but NONE of the three is don't drink, don't take drugs, don't jump out of airplanes, stuff like that, nothing pertaining to politics, religion, morals, sex, cultural views, or career advancement.

But all three would enrage a number of people.

TJ

[albert geiser]

Tom-

I stopped drinking coffee a year ago. I think I wrote better when I did but then the poetry I write now turns out no worse, different, less frantic, but probably better in the long run. I just have no control with caffeine, and I need to hang around people who soak up coffee, the vapors of their coffee drinks, and the vicarious experience.

[David Anthony]

Sam, yes, I think Sharpsburg was as close as Stonewall ever came to getting beat, and that was not close at all.
Ideally I'd like to follow the Shenandoah campaigns, but I know I cannot in the time available.
Which is the best day, I wonder, to bunk off from the poetry conference for valid historical purposes?
Best regards,
David

[albert geiser]

Does anyone know if there's a swimming pool available to us at the conference?

[Yolanda Cruz]

Good point. I thoght I read somewhere on the website that the Univ. had a swimming pool but whether or not it would be open to us is another story.