Four Days in Montpelier

I'm in the fourth day of my residency in Montpelier, Vermont at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and its really quite a ride.

The pace of activities is frantic, running from early a.m. to late p.m. The unfamiliarity during the first days made the residency exciting, futile, confusing, chaotic, exhilarating.  Well, you get the picture.

There have been many lectures, many readings, many workshops and many orientation activities.

I have met many writers and poets and we all seem to be on the same page, feeling the same vagrant emotions. I like that I am not the oldest geezer here. I am close to being that, but am not.

Writers are curious, very introverted, but capable of interacting with each other in a guarded fashion.  For instance, when I go to my workshop, every one sits and says nothing until the facilitators come, unless of course, I start saying stupid shit, which of course I feel compelled to do.  I can't remember what I said today, just that it was an inane, ice-breaking idiocy.  Usually I am the one who holds back and says nothing, but in this class, I'm the extrovert (only by comparison).

In an independent review by a graduate assistant, I found some very interesting, helpful facts about my poetry:

1. My application of adjectives and metaphors is very scattershot and inconsistent, sometimes breaking the established tone of the poem.  This can be distracting

2. My punctuation is also somewhat, let's say "arbitrary". This inconsistency can also break the spell for the reader.

3. My diction can be inconsistent, breaking the tone of the poem.

Okay, so these above items, with the citations on my poems illustrating these foibles were really helpful. I had not really received this information anywhere before, so this is almost already worth the price of admission.....and this was just sort of a casual offer of help.  So, this really sort of psyched me up.

Another poetry nerd thing is the library and online library services. Really good. And, I found out that I can likely get privileges at Rutgers and Princeton university libraries on the basis of my standing as a graduate student.  (As I say, real poetry nerd stuff).

This is really, really great.  And when I mention Andrew Marvell and Gwendolyn Brooks, no one flinches.

The temperature has mostly been below zero.  Perfect.