Looking for the words

The AWP conference in Atlanta will bring writers from all over the country to the Georgia's sprawling metropolis. While we'll wax on about the how's and why's of writing and argue about the minute politics of publishing and academia, most of us will be looking to reconnect with old friends, find time for a glass of wine, a smooth cigar, a good barroom conversation, a fine meal or two. We'll endure the countless jokes about Peachtree St. and enjoy the warming spring weather and think about what we do, maybe too much. Profligacy will abound and our penumbras will darken the sidewalks late into the night. Much will haunt me from the last Atlanta conference over a decade ago where someone wonderful came into my life and taught me to listen, her smoky voice a lost adventure, her eyes quick, curious, wise. More when I can bear it.