Skagit River Poetry Festival 2022: The Reboot & What I Learned
Poets: Me (Kelli Russell Agodon, Susan Rich, Marty Silano, Jourdan Keith, Terrance Hayes) (Jane Hirshfield photobomb over Susan's head!) Due to the pandemic, the Skagit River Poetry Festival, like so many other things has been on hold. But since Thursday, I have been in a small town in Washington State allowing poets and poetry to reenter my life. The Skagit River Poetry Festival has been called the little sister of the Dodge Festival, or perhaps, I just named it that right now, but that's how I think of it. It begins Thursday night with a "Poet Soiree" where locals and patrons of the arts eat dinner with poets (2 per table). What I found were the women at the table who weren't poets were WAY more interesting than I was--so I really enjoyed getting to know them. After the dinner, there was an opening reading then we're off! What I realized since basically becoming a lazy (though traveling) Emily Dickinson recluse during the pandemic is that human interacti