Poetry by the Sea, and other places

toes in the cold Sound
I spent this past week in Madison, Connecticut with my friend and colleague Jehanne Dubrow at the inaugural Poetry By the Sea Conference. It was a fun, relaxing poetry vacation along the Long Island Sound. I spent some time on the shell-covered beach with my toes in the cold salt water. I collected a fistful of tiny, intricate shells the way I loved to do as a kid. I spent time inside and outside just working on a poem. I even managed to finish my latest Silence of the Lambs poem on the train ride back.

a Sound sonnet, by Jo Yarrington
I took the workshop on hybrid forms and artistic collaboration with the lovely Terri Witek and her visual artist collaborator Cyriaco Lopes. I really enjoyed the playfulness of the workshop and the wonderful poets and visual artists I met there. One of my fellow students, Jo Yarrington, completed a beautiful project: a Sound sonnet, a sonnet without words. It is 14 lines of translucent shells that attempt to approximate iambic pentameter in their numbers. I was so moved and excited by this inspired project. Such a beautiful experiment.

 



P.S. 
On October 10 in Merrillville, Indiana, I will be participating in my first writing panel! I will be part of the "Historical [Re]tell: The Writing & Craft of Telling Retellings of the Historical" Panel Discussion at the 2015 Steel Pen Writers' Conference alongside moderator Laura Madeline Wiseman, and fellow panelists Cat Dixon, Britny Doane,  and P. Ivan Young. Conference registration opens tomorrow (June 1st). Join us!


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