The year was 1999...in January. A few of us were sitting in a chat room, the old Ninian's Poetry Cafe on Excite. We'd gotten to know each other over time through sharing our poems and talking, and we decided we'd like to take the next step and meet live. Loveisarose, MSallthat and I agreed to head up a committee to plan it. Cathy (Loveisarose) offered to host the gathering in her then hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. Cait (MSallthat) had experience in web design, and she offered to make a site for announcements for the gathering. I didn't have a bit of experience with publishing books, but I volunteered to self-publish a book of poetry from the poets who came to the Cafe to give out as a keepsake for our first gathering. The date was set for July 29th - August 1st. We began meeting with a committee which included Describe, Claudeback, Wichebabe, Serenity35, NightAirs, Whoopeecat and many more to work the details out. None of us had ever met before, so needless to say we were nervous, but the gathering turned out to be a huge success with poets coming from as far away as New Zealand (1Philosopher), several from Canada, and from all over the States.

     It was decided at the first gathering to make it a yearly event, and that the next one would be in Canada. DerGirlo and Ninian agreed to host it, and they chose Burlington, Ontario, with a hotel on the lake as the location. It was a beautiful place. DerGirlo did an excellent job with the professionally published book of poetry Words on the Screen.

     Whoopeecat hosted the next gathering in Dallas, Texas. A month before we were to meet, tragedy struck with the bombing of the twin towers in New York. After much discussion and soul searching, we decided to go ahead and meet, although some who had planned to come, didn't. Whoopee introduced many of us who had never seen it to the Slam Poetry scene, and Deep Ellum was an experience! Ninian was in charge of the book of poetry that year, and A Season of Poetry was the result. Our books just kept getting better and better.

     Our next gathering took a different direction. Branson, Missouri was chosen as the location, and we stayed in log cabins. Community dinners, boat rides on the lake, and poetry around the campfire at night made the gathering memorable. What a great time!

     Joelle hosted the next gathering on the east Georgia coast during the Thanksgiving holidays the following November. The group was smaller, but those who went said they had a wonderful time.

     Sharon (Princess Lovestar) hosted the next gathering in Tupelo Mississippi. She chose the Tombigbee National Park campground as the location, and it was wonderful! Sharon put a lot of time and energy into getting the local poets involved, and the height of the trip was having the local high school poets come read with us!

It's about time for another gathering of the tribe....isn't it, folks?