This morning, the very first email I opened was forwarded from poet, photographer, and Dead Poets Society of America founder, Walter Skold, who is throwing an impromptu Dead Poets Bash (in this sense, bash meaning big party). Skold, hailing from Maine, is on a whirlwind tour through America for a 65 day tour of over 90 grave sites of American poets. In two weeks at the end of his tour, Skold will visit the grave of Robert Penn Warren who was buried in Vermont. You can read more about his travels and the Dead Poets Society of America at: http://www.deadpoes.org
Now he’s in Kentucky and wants to film Kentucky writers and other dead poet enthusiasts reading the works of our finest poets who happen to no longer be among the land of the living. So far, Skold as visited the graves of Merton, Cawein, O’hara, and Stuart. And what better way to showcase Kentucky poets by having kindred spirits read their work?
At 5:30 PM on Tuesday, August 4, in Gratz Park, Skold will film and document any interested writers and readers who wish to participate in this historic occasion. He welcomes poems from James Baker Hall, Hollis Summers, Madison Cawein, Joseph Seamon Carter, Olive Tilford Dargan, and Effie Waller Smith on the topics of death, cemeteries, and the afterlife. Also, bring along a favorite poem, not necessarily confined to Kentucky poets, and a brief explanation as to why they love it so.
See you there!
