Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival

Today I took a professional day to attend the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival at Historic Waterloo Village, NJ. Mark it- a national poetry festival held right here in the Garden State, every other year.

This is a three-day affair, with a general mission towards the celebration and education of the written word. The first day caters to high school students; the second to teachers; leaving the third day for general sessions.

As you can imagine, an event like this attracts a certain type of crowd: a motley mix of NPR / PBS subscribing, literary liberals, denim-intellectuals. College professors. English teachers. The lit. mag. And zine kids. The type to take residence at the local bookstore or coffee shop on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

This morning was overcast, with intermittent cloud-bursts of rain. Secondly, there is no direct route from Central Jersey to the Skylands. Therefore I made plans to arrive around noon (thus avoiding rush hour traffic and sloppy weather).

I arrived just in time for the Poetry Sampler: two hours of poetry recitals; each poet getting about 5 minutes to present. Mimicking art, the poetry ranged from traditional to cutting edge, from solemn to irreverent. All thought provoking.

There is no way that I can give a brief review of all the poetry; though, there were dome definite highlights.

Taha Muhammad Ali presented in Arabic, translator by his side, a rousing poem about the power of revenge. This was the only poem to receive a standing ovation.

Ko Un, a Korean poet, also spoke in his native tongue with a translator giving their rendition. Ko Un had a remarkable knack to encapsulate power and beauty of language in two lines of poetry.

Kurtis Lamkin and Sekou Sundiata melded traditional forms of African oration with American culture and written word. I'd eventually like to purchase their CD's to drop to my ever expanding and ecclectic collection of MP3's for the iPod.

Mark Doty, Tony Hoagland, and Andrew Motion had the audience rolling in their seats.

All in all, the day turned out to be perfect weather for autumn- sunny, cool, and damp. Elsewhere there were open mics, various conversations and debates on the state of poetry and the arts in America, and discussion of craft.

What was scheduled as “professional development” took form of a "mental health" day, giving me renewed appreciation for the art of language.

Tags: Geraldine R. Dodge, poetry, festival, education, English, New Jersey, NJ, Waterloo Village