An Experiment: Walking Poetry's America, Pt. 2
This experiment is consuming me.
I have done a fair amount of research on just the walking/hiking/running of America. It has been done numerous times, and not just by Forrest Gump.
In an effort to not reinvent the wheel entirely, one of the most popular areas of my research has been the American Discovery Trail, or ADT. It is a stretch of trails, non-motorized and recreational, that stretch across the belly of the country about 6,800 miles long through 15 states. "That's too long!" you cry, "You'd end up in the ocean!" Calm down. bigger brains than ours are aware fo this, and according to the American Discovery Trail Society (ADTS), the organization in possession of the bigger brains:
"...this figure combines the totals of the two routes across the Midwest. The coast-to-coast distance using the northern route (through Chicago) is 4,834 miles. The distance using the southern route (through St. Louis) is 5,057 miles."
...so settle down. Besides: I'm just using it for researching the numbers. Despite shooting down the middle of the country like a crazy-straw arrow, I don't get the impression there's a lot of poetry spots along the ADT of any stripe. Remember, the goal here is, as I have interpreted Gioia:
"I sometimes think it is now possible for a poet to walk across the United States and be able to give a bookstore reading every evening."
If the ADT can't accomplish the prerequisite, then another path - one far less direct between coasts - must be drafted...a sort of American Poetry Discovery Trail.
So I'll be researching just how far off the ADT is from poetry readings. That's some research that's going to hurt.
TO BE CONTINUED...
I have done a fair amount of research on just the walking/hiking/running of America. It has been done numerous times, and not just by Forrest Gump.
In an effort to not reinvent the wheel entirely, one of the most popular areas of my research has been the American Discovery Trail, or ADT. It is a stretch of trails, non-motorized and recreational, that stretch across the belly of the country about 6,800 miles long through 15 states. "That's too long!" you cry, "You'd end up in the ocean!" Calm down. bigger brains than ours are aware fo this, and according to the American Discovery Trail Society (ADTS), the organization in possession of the bigger brains:
"...this figure combines the totals of the two routes across the Midwest. The coast-to-coast distance using the northern route (through Chicago) is 4,834 miles. The distance using the southern route (through St. Louis) is 5,057 miles."
...so settle down. Besides: I'm just using it for researching the numbers. Despite shooting down the middle of the country like a crazy-straw arrow, I don't get the impression there's a lot of poetry spots along the ADT of any stripe. Remember, the goal here is, as I have interpreted Gioia:
"I sometimes think it is now possible for a poet to walk across the United States and be able to give a bookstore reading every evening."
If the ADT can't accomplish the prerequisite, then another path - one far less direct between coasts - must be drafted...a sort of American Poetry Discovery Trail.
So I'll be researching just how far off the ADT is from poetry readings. That's some research that's going to hurt.
TO BE CONTINUED...