Between September 19th and September 22nd it was exhilarating to be at the largest poetry festival in North America: The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. This 8^th biennial festival was held under tents and buildings along the river of the historically recreated Waterloo Village in New Jersey.  17,000 poets, appreciators of poetry, teachers or professors of poetry and (on the Friday), local high school students of poetry attended. The schedule ran daily from 8 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. or later.

Over the 4 days, 21 poets were featured to participate in panel discussions on the craft (for example, Poetry as a disruptive seed and centering force, life within translation). In other sessions they described the evolution of their craft or personal perspectives and lives that formed their most notable poems in Conversations with the Poet. In one evening each featured poet was asked to read 2 poems, one that must be written by the poet reading and another, which must not be written by them. That had the benefit of exposing listeners to twice as many poets and if you disliked a poet, maybe you like a poem that influenced them. If you like a poet, you learn more about what they love in other poets. Billy Collins introduced us to "Did I miss anything?" by Tom Wayman (http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/wayman/poem5.htm) Featured poets also gave readings of their own work as did 45 other less published, less prominent poets in smaller sessions, one each.

Many of the Featured Poets were Poet Laureates of either a state or the United States. One notable exception is Taha Muhammad Ali from Nazareth who read his poems in Arabic to standing ovations as Peter Cole translated. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, who said he spent 90 years of his life perfecting one poem from early childhood, also received a long, standing ovation. Regular Robert Bly and Coleman Barks with his translations of ancient Persian poet Rumi were popular. Other featured poets not yet mentioned included: Current U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, past U.S. Laureates Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, and Robert Hass (and his nasal experimental poet wife, or “lover” as she self announced in her time to speak, Brenda Hillman). Lucille Clifton with her ability to change through different voices inside a poem filled a tent load of audience to the brim.  Edward Hirsch was so popular that people crowded outside the tent in the rain to catch his Conversations with the Poet session. Modest and bumbling like Clark Kent, Li-Young Lee drew a disproportionate female crowd. Gem from Li-Young Lee include the thought that poetry comes from "experiences that sink into your blood and bones and down into your marrow. Writing from the skin is no good." Poetry is a chess game, line by line, opening and shutting. He elaborated:"Poetry  is the negotiation between closure and openness, fatedness and surprise, expectation and chance. If the ratio is wrong, the poem can't work." He, and anti-war, anti-nuclear, pro-feminist, Grace Paley and Marilyn Nelson were part of the panel of the relationship between poetry, truth and beauty. Heather McHugh, Gerald Stern and Poet and Novelist Adam Zagajewski also were core members of the featured poet group.

Although there was little “performance poetry”, except by political black activist Amiri Baraka, and no step-up-slams, the focus was on the spoken word of poetry. There was a gazebo for “Giving Voice” to the poetry of particular poets “who have gone ahead of us” such as June Jordan, Rumi, CP Cavafy, and at some hours, open readings. For their 4^th time, Quichua musicians from Guatamala, Yarina, and a story-teller fiddler from Alaska, Ken Waldman, added their skills to the atmosphere. There were also performances by other groups and a performance by cellist Diane Chaplin. In morning sessions were two career storytellers, Angela Lloyd and Dovie Thomason, who each gave one to two hour performances.

Dovie shared Indian legends from around North America. She emphasized that there is no story without an audience and that the audience forms the story in what they know, what they are interested in, she glosses over or expands on. It was a theme repeated by many poets here too in this celebration. The theme of the festival, of meeting minds and finding he common experience to understand each other through poetry and stories came from Rumi’s words: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

Like many of the poets there, the sharing her words that Dovey does during the festival is not a hobby but a lifestyle and life; she travels around communities, schools, countries by invitation to speak and listen. Naomi Shihab Nye also travels to share her collected experiences and collections of stories, in her case from children. Her personal mandate is bringing poetry to every school and getting poetry from and to every child. She is also devoted to bringing peace to the middle east through a program that brings together people from the west bank and east bank in America in a camp. Proceeds from one of her books goes to these efforts.

Part of the agenda was voices for peace with attendees writing their thoughts and hopes for the future on a tent of sheets. The thoughts were later incorporated into “Finding a Path to the Future through the Poetry of Others” arranged by featured poets Mark Doty and Marie How. It was wonderful to be present for this inspiring part of the show. The effect of a group united for peace was furthered by being inside the audience reaction to Amiri Baraka’s feverous listing of history and jabs against President Bush. To be in an audience of approximately 2000 Americans and feel them cheer against a war with Iraq and against Bush and give an ovation for peace was powerful comfort to my heart as a Canadian and as a human.

The more established poets understood how to move a live audience and create a balance of humorous and serious, manipulating different subjects and moods, and knew what poems could work better on stage than page. They had a different calibre of performance development as much as poetic development, the confidence and relaxation to use their wit to keep their wits about them if an unexpected question came their way. But what came the way of some of the Poets Among Us could be exceptional. Everett Hoagland and Peter Meinke were among some of the Poets Among Us who kept having their performance upstaged by a sheep. Unseen by Hoagland it passed back and forth behind the podium looking up at the reader. At an earnest dramatic juncture of his reading turned its derriere to stand beside Hoagland to audience laughter.

Beyond sheep on the lam, the amount of technical and logistics co-ordination it took to set up this smoothly executed event must have been enormous. Festival Director, Jim Haba, had a lot of teams employed and volunteering to co-ordinate speakers, registration, food concessions, the on-site Border’s Bookstore, set up, electrical, sound and video. Some of the sessions were filmed for PBS to replay to a wider audience. A PBS broadcast is how I first heard of the festival in 2000, immediately after it was over. The festival also has a website http://www.grdodge.org/poetry/general.html where tickets will be able to be ordered for the next festival in 2004. Maybe in that field, or tent, I’ll meet you there in 2004.