Yesterday's dance and collaborative theater session was so wonderful: rigorous, hilarious, absorbing, and beautifully awkward. I was recalling afterward how much I appreciate being put into awkward positions . . . yes, it can be uncomfortable, but as one of the participants said, it helps him remember how awkward others may feel when confronted with words. Our own fluencies can blind us.

And Gretchen and Gwynnie are such good teachers: always expecting the best, always forgiving imperfection; process and process and process . . . the deep joy of the making.

It was a risk to bring non-writing artists into a poetry conference, but I'm so glad I did. They have illuminated so much about collaboration and trust and adventure and play.

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Tonight I'll be reading, 7 p.m., at Tenney House, with backup from Teresa on a few poems that we're going to experiment with chorally.