YES WE CAN SAVE THE DODGE

So.................................................

Did we not all hear our new President proclaim "Yes we can!" today???????
And are we going to sit back and allow what should be a National Treasure go down the tubes?

Ok, so it isn't exactly a treasured national park with endangered species trying to survive, but surely we can all agree that the Dodge is more than a place or an idea or a nice little get-to-gether.... it IS North America's largest poetry festival, a very special oasis, if you will, where for four days there is a gathering of an almost extinct species of human beings who treasure the word, we revere them , we gather words together and watch them create rainbows in our souls, allowing us to dance with the stars. I know I am not the only person in North America who is more fully alive these four days, whose blood pressure lowers, who drops three pounds in four days because who has time to eat when there is so much wonderful poetry to discover, who really should buy stock in Borders, Books and Music just to recoup the sum of money I drop in their tent, who sits on tenterhooks for 24 interminable months until the next Dodge finally finally finally comes around. I know I am not the only one. Yes, I am the only one who dances every chance she gets with Yarina, but I am not the only rabid poetry lover at the Dodge.

So. What are we going to do about the email we all just got from David Grant concerning scaling back the 2010 Dodge and even the lurking threat that "Yet we must at least take a cycle off from the biennial Festival as you have known it".

I say loudly, clearly and with no hesitation... "OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!" I will not stand for anything less than what we have come to expect, what we deserve and what we so very much want and I am just wondering who else out there is willing to start a grass roots campaign to keep our Dodge the way we know it?

I certainly feel we all can afford at least an immediate $10 or $20 to go into the coffers for the 2010 festival and we should be sending a check in ASAP. Next, I am willing to try to see what help I can get from our state politicians. I can't think of anything New Jerseyans can be prouder of and I truly doubt that once we get the publicity we need from the media, most people will want to help donate to such a worthy cause that does so much for the young people who come, learn, participate and find their own voices. Next would be to find a print shop that will donate posters to be placed in every library in the state during April, National Poetry Month, asking for whatever donation people can spare to please be sent to the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Foundation. I would hope we can even try to coordinate pass the hat intermissions at poetry readings ..... I think quite a few poets would support such an endeavor in order to ensure that the Dodge survives. I have Franz Wright's personal email and Robert Bly's personal email and Robert Hass's..... I'll sound them out on this. Anyone else out there can contact a poet that reads at the Dodge, please feel free to approach them. I also would like to even hit up the Library of Congress, other foundations and grants for funds and I would hope my state senators and representatives will be willing to give some sort of support if not just down right tacking on a nice hefty pork barrel spending splurge for our beloved Dodge. Every state has it's own network of Public Television stations and I think we should blitz PBS and get them to re-air the Bill Moyers shows in April of this year and April of 2010, with a intermission asking for contributions to keep the Dodge going. I bet PBS will agree to this. I think we each can try to get a Poetry fundraiser going at a local community college or college or university. I think we all can just get off our duffs and do what needs to be done to make sure we have our Dodge at our Waterloo Village with the same scope, talent and vision that Jim Haba infused it with. Anyone else out there have any ideas? I have already written to David Grant suggesting the basic charge for four days be upped to $100 a person, that there be a $2.00 a day parking fee, and a weekend pass should cost $60-65.00 ( I firmly believe the festival has been underpriced for years). Please respond if you can help, and are willing to join the fight to SAVE OUR DODGE.