York native finishes six-year grave-visit tour - York Dispatch
On Friday afternoon, 54-year old Walter Skold poured the last few drops of a 750-ml bottle of cognac onto his father's tombstone in Prospect Hill Cemetery, culminating a unique six-year journey. With that visit, Skold, who was raised in York, completed his fourth and final leg of a trek in which he's visited 530 poets' graves across 46 states. Skold, a poet himself, began his first trip during the spring of 2009 in his Dodge Sprinter van — nicknamed Dedgar the Poemobile — driving to the grave sites of 150 of his favorite poets during a 90-day journey throughout the East, South and... Walter Skold ended an eight-year journey through the United States to poets' graves on Friday, with a stop at York's Prospect Hill Cemetery. Bil Bowden photos This final journey, which began at the burial site of Edgar Allen Poe in Baltimore, has taken him to 97 poets' graves in 70 days, and he's poured cognac onto the tombstone of each. The liquor ritual was inspired by a former unidentified secret admirer or admirers — known in the poetry community as the Poe Toaster — who was famous for visiting Poe's grave each year on the deceased writer's birthday and drinking a glass of... Coming home: Skold decided to finish his journey at the grave of his father, Robert Skold, because he helped inspire the journey. Source: www.yorkdispatch.com
