Last weekend I picked up my younger daughter from her “performing arts” summer camp in the Catskills; yesterday my older daughter got back on a Greyhound from her oceanography summer camp at Woods Hole. Tomorrow I send her off to another camp, and then Tuesday I see the younger one off to yet another camp in New Hampshire.
I didn’t “do” summer camps when I was a kid. I suspect my parents didn’t see the point in paying good money to get me out of their hair, when I was so quiet and introverted that I could be relied on to shut myself up in my room with my books and records and comic books all summer. It’s true that during high school I spent most weekdays with my Latin club associates at our Latin teacher’s house, doing “study groups” in preparation for the end-0f-summer national Latin club convention competitions. And one summer I spent a couple of days at a church-sponsored summer camp nearby, just to find out what it was like (I didn’t like it one bit).
I’ve always thought of the Orono University of Maine/National Poetry Foundation “decades” conferences as a kind of concentrated “poetry summer camp.” I went to my first one in 1993, a conference on poets of the 1930s, and it’s not exaggerating to say that it changed my life. I was astonished by how many Zukofsky papers had been presented there (I’d just finished an LZ dissertation); walking on campus at twilight, I said to Peter Quartermain, “someone ought to edit an LZ volume from these.” “You do it,” he said, and I was astonished at the audacity of the idea—me, a nobody... That became Upper Limit Music, my first book.
I came back over the years, sometimes talking about LZ, sometimes about other poets. The conferences were a wonderful, concentrated three-ring circus of poetic interest—poets I’d read for years and held in breathless awe, critics and scholars whose work I’d admired from afar, and most importantly what seems like scores of younger scholars and poets who’ve become what I think of as my own “cohort” in the poetry world.
Burt Hatlen, who ran the NPF and edited Sagetrieb and seemingly did everything useful and good—except for attending to publishing his own multitudinous essays in book form—was the linchpin of those conferences. I missed him last month in Orono, at the “Poets and Poetics of the 1990s” conference, and it made at times for a bittersweet feeling. Yes, it was a very good conference: smaller than I had remembered previous events being, but with a perhaps more concentrated dose of poetic energy. A series of wonderful readings, illuminating papers, wonderful conversations.
Oddly perhaps, this was the first Orono conference I’ve been to where I didn’t to some degree feel like an outsider, an intruder, someone faking his way into the inner circles. I’m not sure why that was; perhaps it’s merely a matter of time: if you hang around long enough, the work you’ve done—as flawed and flimsy as you know it to be—acquires a kind of acceptance, becomes a part of the furniture. It was a very good time.
So thank you, Carla Billetteri, Steve Evans, Ben Friedlander, and Jennifer Moxley. I hope you’ve gotten some well-deserved rest.
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Wow, what an incredible story about how the Orono conference led to the creation of Upper Limit Music! I can only imagine how much that first spark must've meant to you. It’s such a great example of how collaboration and conversations can create lasting impacts.
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I loved how you shared your experiences with both poetry and summer camps. It's so interesting to hear how these different "camps" can feel so transformative in different ways. I'm curious to know—do you still attend conferences like this, and do they continue to shape your work?
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I find it fascinating that a "decade" of poetry conferences could serve as a life-changing event. The idea of it being a "poetry summer camp" is so fitting. Also, your reflection about feeling like less of an outsider after attending for so many years resonates with me. It really does take time to find your place!
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I loved your description of the Orono conference as a "three-ring circus of poetic interest"! I can imagine how energizing it must be to meet so many passionate poets and scholars in one place. It’s also nice to hear about how the dynamics of the event have shifted, from larger gatherings to more focused, intimate ones.
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The way you speak about Burt Hatlen and his influence really hits home. It’s clear how central he was to the community that flourished at those conferences. His absence at this year’s event must’ve been a bittersweet moment. I’m glad you still had a meaningful experience despite it.
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Your story of walking around the Orono campus and being inspired by the idea of editing an LZ volume is so inspiring! It makes me wonder how many other life-changing moments are sparked by simple conversations in the right place at the right time.
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