An Experiment: Walking Poetry's America, Pt. 5
So what hit my radar today? This guy doing a tour of dead poets' gravesites to generate interest in a day of national recognition of dead poets. It's kind of cool. He's done a version of the tour before but he starts his 2010 version today. I'll probably try to set-up a reading for the national observation on October 7 once I determine some things about what he's trying to do.
Back to the experiment.
So my friend, Bill MacMillan of Worcestor, posted a comment about the New England area and how all of the maps I posted basically skip that poetry-rich area. I knew a lot of poetry was there of course - I've toured the area a number of times - but in my mind the goal was to make it from one coast to the other and hit what could be hit while maintaining a steady course. Doing New England would basically stick you along the Eastern Seaboard hitting lots of poetry spots but not making much headway INTO the country for possibly a few weeks.
Which master does the experiment serve? Is there a middle ground between poetry density and reasonable travel?
So, following most of Bill's recommended course, I came up with a new map. I call it the Eastern Seaboard Skip.
The Eastern Seaboard Skip
Something you may notice is that the eastern part of the journey looks far more determined and lid-out than the western part. That's not a trick of the light. Once you start pulling out the atlas and chunking actual cities into the mix the path becomes much clearer and the stops more concrete. So couple the fact that I haven't given the west as much attention as I did New England just now AND that vast parts of the west are unpopulated desert, and you get a straight line of curioisty to look at. While this version is more thought-out, it's only about 40% "correct".
(There is no genuine "correct" or "right" course. For god's sake, this map only has Chicago in it because it's Chicago, not because it's the way one should actually travel. So there is some personal taste at play here, and that has to be allowed even in an empircal experiment like this one.)
I do like this route though. It hits a LOT of poetry, which probably makes the extended stay in that area worthwhile.