I'm thrilled to announce that registration is open for the Conference on Poetry & Learning at Monson Arts.  In addition to K-12 teachers, university instructors, and teaching artists, we welcome participants from other community-based settings, such as social services, the prison system, and lifelong learning programs as well as anyone who's following a nontraditional path as they strive to integrate poetry into daily life. The conference will take place in early July, with Teresa Carson, Maudelle Driskell, and me serving as faculty.

We would love to see you there; we would love it if you would share this news widely. We will have scholarships available and will offer professional development credits. And the setting and the food are amazing.

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So far my vacation week has involved a fair amount of non-vacationing, but that's fine. Yesterday I somehow used up most of the day on conference-launch projects and a giant grocery-shopping trip, though I did get in that beach walk with friends. Today I've got a phone meeting about press releases, etc., but otherwise the day should be quieter. I hope to take a long walk, work on Christmas cards, mess around with revisions, finish Oliver Twist, do a spot of housework, and go out to write tonight. For some reason the week seems to be moving very slowly--not in a frustrating or sloggy way, but I keep getting confused about dates and times. Should it be Tuesday or should it be Friday? I'm really not sure.

Anyway, the little tree shines bravely against the panes. Frost coats the windshields. Flocks of starlings and gulls sweep through the early-morning sky. The teakettle creaks and hums. The cat blinks in his chair. The house is tidy and warm, a sturdy little ship in a winter sea.

Love lives beyond 

The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew— 

               I love the fond, 

The faithful, and the true.

--John Clare