20 -- images from Dodge 2002

 














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14 - Back to the future

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  Like most Americans of good conscience in the post 9/11 world, the poets at the Dodge Festival struggled to present their peace platform without appearing anti-patriotic. With the exception of Baraka -- and on Sunday night, Pinsky -- few ventured to present a sharply political opposition to the upcoming war with  Iraq , and even when they issued their lukewarm statements only about half the audience clapped.   Yet as careful as these poets were, they could not shed their growing horror at the mad man they believed occupied the White House, or of the great regret they felt at  America 's perception that the countries we planned to attack were somehow culturally inferior to our own. As much as public propaganda makes savages of those we would fight, in fact, much of what is central to our own culture can trace its roots back to that part of the world. Many of the masterpieces from that region date from ages before Shakespeare or even The Bible.   Of The two nigh...
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15 - A divided state of being

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  Although poets jokingly called the Dodge Festival "Wordstock" to convey the feelings and magnitude the event had for them, this year's festival actually managed to live up to the level of myth-making. For the grand finale, the best of the best in American poetry took to the podium. While I am still not completely clear on the criteria for becoming a  New Jersey  or  United   State  poet laureate, I do realize that talent plays an immense part.   In  New Jersey , of course, the selection process involves a clique of self-important purveyors of poetic powers, mostly academics -- who have hooked onto the government's coat tails, taking charge of issuing grants and such to particular groups of worthy people throughout the state. These funds often as not go to poets whose output would rarely be agreeable to the taxpayers forced to foot the bill -- the way taxpayers were forced to pay for what they considered offensive art on display at the  Broo...
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18 -- Stranger at the gate? Sept. 24, 2002

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    Seeing the man again at the gate to this year's Dodge Poetry Festival startled me, partly because I had not seen him since we drove him home from the last festival two years ago, and partly because he looked so thin. Whereas I had reviewed his poetry as part of my newspaper coverage, his appearance had always defied the stereotype of poet. He did not have the feminine features so commonly painted over poets by the general public. Indeed, he looked more like what the public might think of as a truck driver with a rugged face that would have made the U.S. Marines proud -- features overly emphasized in September 2002 by his loss of weight. Like most poets I reviewed, he didn't always agree with my interpretations of his work. But he told me often my opinions made him think. Until our last encounter at the 2000 Dodge, we had remained professional acquaintances, each of us nodding as we passed each other on the streets of Hoboken or Jersey City. Then, we found him wan...
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