Sure to most folks this seems like a no brainer. It would be like Hulk Hogan in his hey day fighting Urkel prior to his invention of the Urkel-bot. The winner would be chosen before the brawl; beautiful, sunny, laid back Islands in the first round, poetry weeping sensitively in a corner after one punch. Maybe then I'm just not most folks.
The Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching
Upon arriving at the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching I immediately feared that I had made a terrible decision. I look less like a teacher than most folks and the extent of my in depth knowledge of poetry from reading it is the collected works of Shel Silverstein and my own hilarious poems which are (usually) no more talented than those of Mr. Deeds. Everyone who was showing up seemed to fit the stereotype I had (unfortunately) been conjuring in my head for the weeks leading up to the conference. You can picture them, sensitive looking, shy yet enthusiastic, not my age at all...
It would have been fairly simple to call it a loss and leave (and believe you me I did think about doing that) for some reason though I figured it was worth a shot - if it was terrible I could always leave the second day having hopefully at least gotten some good material for my website. That never happened though.
The four full days that I attended the conference flew by. Morning sessions from teachers (some who certainly did fit the stereotypical mold I'd concocted and many more who did not) sharing successful methods of teaching poetry in their classrooms were followed up by daily special guests (Shara McCallum, J.D. Scrimegeour, et. al) and then afternoon sessions with the absolutely terrific Maine poet Dawn Potter. All the while being MC'ed by one of the most down to earth poet/comedians I have ever met, Baron Wormser (do I even need to compliment the name?)
Located at Frost's old homestead up in Franconia the weather was flawless for our time spent in the barn and remained beautiful for afternoon swimming jaunts and opportunities for some terrific conversations over dinners. All in all it was the most relaxing and unpretentious conference I have ever attended (which blew my mind since it was, in fact, about poetry - something that is wrought with pretense and obnoxi).
Oahu and Maui, Hawaiian Islands
Islands are one of my favorite places to go in life. There is something inherently cool about being tucked away from society and civilization and living out on an island. Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks so as the once sparsely populated island of Oahu is now filled to the brim with folks who must have loved the idea of traveling to an island. As such, the initial desire to 'escape' to an island has lost its meaning when it comes to Hawai'i.
Alas, this does not make Hawai'i a total loss - that would be just foolish to say. Upon arrival I spent time exploring Waikiki and Honolulu before heading off to the Windward side of the island (that's the right side, ya know, to the East) to do some kayaking. Sure, it was not remote by any means, even in the middle of the sea on a kayak there were still folks all up in my grill (or at least within a hundred yards of said grill) and it made sense - it was an absolutely gorgeous place. Aqua colored 75-degree water, the sun shining through cotton candy clouds, giant sea turtles, you can't really go wrong.
The trip also brought me to the island of Maui (kicks Oahu's ass by the way - especially the country radio station) where I got the Hawaiian experience I expected (deserted (and private) beaches), hikes to waterfalls, old fishing towns, fancy lad resort restaurants). And although there is something to be said about having an opportunity at (literally) every turn to go swimming there happen to be other places one could do that (say the White Mountains....at least this time of year).
And so although I was in what many considered a paradise I must say I would have traded five of those Hawaiian days and nights for one more full day and night at a conference where I feel I learned something valuable around people whose opinions I value (I'm sorry Johnny American-WaikikiVisitor - I just do not care what you think!)
I thought that maybe I should come here and extol the virtues of choosing the former over the latter yet I found myself not wanting to because I'm alright with not going to Hawai'i again - I would like to be able to attend a poetry conference in the future without a couple hundred drunk frat boy and girl types mussin' things up. Luckily for us (and unfortunately for them) I don't foresee them attending ANY conferences anytime soon, especially not on poetry.
Who knows though, maybe someday we'll live in a world where folks line up not to take shots at a bar but to ask questions of a bard - probably not in my lifetime though.