Saturday, June 2, 2007

Leaving for Ottawa on the 5th...

Riddled with dental pain, I am also in the final throes of packing. I'm supposed to take a Norton anthology of literature with me, which is probably the heaviest and bulkiest item I'm taking. Jorie Graham wants us to bring this for the poetry workshop, because, we are told, we are going to be memorizing some poems...I hope I can choose an imagist poem, or perhaps I'll pretend to memorize one of Shakespeare's sonnets, one that I have already memorized. What I should do, though, is memorize part of Paradise Lost...something dark and dramatic about Satan.

I went to a "packing" seminar at a travel store the other day, and learned what sorts of plastic containers I need to use for packing small amounts of shampoo in my carry-on. And I learned (well, had it confirmed) that I never want to go on a cruise where I'll have to wear ex-officio clothing that is so heavily treated with chemicals that I will be immune from the sun's rays and from spilled olive oil, which apparently just rolls off ex-officio clothing. And, of course, keep me away from those plastic sandals "that go with slacks or an evening dress". Nor do I want to go anywhere where I'll be lounging around in the hot sun all day and then pulling my floral wrap around my bathing suit to go to dinner.

Cool luggage, though. I wonder if I can jelly-roll the binders of writing portfolios that I have to take with me, or my laptop?

Bob T. showed me an article in the most recent issue of Geist, written by a playwright who went to SLS in St Petersburg for 8 days last year. Her article was cynical about Russia, and dismissive of the value of the seminars. Well, it didn't exactly make me feel excited about going. On the other hand, the sorts of things that bugged her about her experience are just the sorts of things that I'll probably absorb into my pores : smirking Russian women wearing knock-off Gucci sunglasses who dismiss the war-maimed with a casual wave of a hand, a race through Leningrad in a Lada, a room at the Herzen University Inn described as a "cell" - I mean, what better digs to have while in Russia, but something best described as a cell.

The highlight of her trip was the cab ride back to the airport at its conclusion, during which the cabbie talks about the death of Russia, or something like that.

But truly, I am moving into that pre-trip zone, the place that urges me to stay home, to curl up into my own bed with a book by a familiar author, the place that tells me I'm crazy, I'm not well enough prepared, I have too much to do to get ready, I will never be ready enough, I will forget crucial tools. And then that other familiar response to the pre-trip zone that says that none of the things that I think I will need for my journey will matter once I am on the journey, because it is, after all a journey. Maybe all I really need is the plane ticket and a credit card or two, maybe a change of clothes and a notebook. The rest is all trappings, designed to create the illusion of security or control. If I don't bring a Norton Anthology with me, will I not be able to find a poem to memorize? Are there no books in Russia? In St Petersburg? And why would I want to memorize a poem that's included in that anthology? If it is in that anthology, am I really interested in it? In memorizing it? I'd rather bring John Berger's And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos, and memorize some poetic prose in that. In fact, now that I've thought of it, that's what I'm going to do.

2 comments:

cybon said...

Hi Anne,

It might be comforting to take some ambosol or gel mouth rinse (numbing) with you. Some of the ones made for pain from braces are good I think. I'm sure you know that, I just like suggesting products to people.

I hope you have an inspiring time...and that you don't get a parasite..or typhoid.

And I have to remind you that Paradise Lost is on Audible (and I have it..but I think you're gone already).

:)
Bonnie

Anne said...

...ambosol...no, I don't know about those things, so I will look for some on my way to the airport this morning.

You might be interested to know that I just pulled my women's lit anthology apart into sections so that I could take something shorter...and I took Berger's book, too, I love it so much!

Take care,