I spent the past week in Delray Beach at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival and now I’m spending a couple of days in Miami with my son (my sun) and family. It’s chilly and rainy here today, but I’ve been promised (after waffles) a drive through the arts district at Wynwood. Last night my grandson treated me to poke at a cool South Beach style spot. It’s a different Miami than I remember from living here in the seventies.

I’ve never been to the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, now in its 15th year, despite my ties to Florida, in part because the equally amazing Port Townsend Poetry Festival is right down the road from my house on the Olympic Peninsual where I live, which I’ve attended for the past 8 years. But the festival here was pretty jam- and star-packed. I did a workshop all week with the ethereal Ararcelis Girmay and listened all week to readings and craft talks with Greg Pardlo, Eleanor Wilner, Sharon Olds, Tyehimba Jess, Ellen Bass, Nickole Brown, and more. It was a really wonderful and renewing week for me.