When the Lights Go Down in the City

I'm happier now that we've fallen back than I was when we sprung ahead. It's wonderful to wake up with the sunshine. How strange to spend so much of my free time after work in the dark, though.

Last weekend, I went to the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Fall Conference in Stevens Point.  It was great to see so many poets in one place!  There were "serious" poets and weekend poets and divine-intervention poets. Old poets, (a few) young poets, funny poets, lofty poets... it reminded me that poetry plays a different role in people's lives.  How great that poetry is important enough to so many people that they'd drive to Stevens Point for the weekend! 

Oh! and I won this little book as a door prize, Out of the Black Forest, by F.J. Bergman, published by Centennial Press.  They had the most beautifully designed chapbooks on display.  Not only are the covers wonderful, but the detail inside blew my socks off. This isn't your grandma's small press!

Speaking of books: Wisconsin Book Festival kicks off on Wednesday, and I actually had to call in reinforcement (my mother-in-law) to help keep things in order at my house while I stay out every day/night book-festivaling.  Hooray, Book Fest!