"Grasshoppers" at this year's Wisconsin Book Festival, Sept. 29-Oct. 3
My favorite part of the Wisconsin Book Festival this year was when I saw two women on each side of a little girl, maybe just under kindergarten age, as they walked on the sidewalk and then the bicycle path in the Atwood neighborhood. While holding her hands, they sometimes ran and raised her about a foot or two off the ground to fly through the air a short distance. She was so happy.

I'd gone to the Barrymore Theatre for the Friday Night Festival of Fiction readings to pick up my free ticket. With about an hour to go, I was walking to nearby sites taking part in the Fall Gallery Night, which was scheduled that same evening. What was also nice about the art night was that I was able to tell one photographer how much I liked her photo of a beach with some interesting cloud formations, and she was able to tell me about the location and the way she took it.

This year's festival wasn't as interesting for me as previous years'. That evening, the reading I liked most was by Lan Samantha Chang, the director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, using a selection from a novel about a poetry class. At one point, the teacher in the story tells a student that her poem is one reason why people don't read poetry these days. Later on, I thought about this cruel statement, and maybe I'd have to agree that a lot of today's poetry in the US fails to grab me--the long, T. S. Eliot-ish poems can especially test my patience. An exception that's a very good idea are short poems by students posted in some Madison buses above seats along with the ads.

I've been thinking about authors I'd like to hear at next year's festival. Of course, a lot depends on what has just come out, but many authors at the festivals are invited because of their established work. I'd enjoy hearing Billy Collins again; he read at the Union Theater a few years ago. And I think that Mary Oliver would be interesting. Earlier this year, Anne Strainchamps on WPR quoted from one of Oliver's poems, leading me to borrow a couple of her books from the library. I was reminded of Oliver while recently listening to a zencast.org talk, so I decided to read her again. [Some of her poems are posted at this site: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/oliver/online_poems.htm ]

"The Summer Day," probably a favorite of many, describes her meeting a grasshopper in the fields and ends with this question: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" That's why seeing those two women and the girl made an impression on me.