So the people at my table last night were grad student poets. And a couple of critical theory students. OH. MY. GOD. The poor bastards. Hoping for an intellectually stimulating conversation about the literary arts, they found themselves sitting with… me. A person who has always had a similar relationship to poetry as I have to math, which can be summed up as “huh?”
Thank god the other guest author at our table was Melanie Little, whose short story collection Confidence, won raves in 2003. The other bonus is that the table was donated by a generous benefactor, otherwise I’d have felt even guiltier.
As it was, I considered doing a little freeform dancing to entertain my side of the table, because I had nothing to contribute to a discussion about “canoe poetry”. I still have no idea what that is. I presume it’s poetry about canoes, but didn’t want to ask in case it’s some well-known literary term I somehow missed in my undergraduate studies.
The grad students were all very gracious about the fact that, as authors go, I’m sure I was not exactly on their top ten or even top 500 list. And it was lovely to see their faces light up when someone brought Dionne Brand to the table and introduced her. She’s one of Canada’s finest poets and novelists. A couple of the grad students had written papers about her and I think that made it all worthwhile. That and the free meal.
Dionne and the grad students had a rousing discussion about Pablo Neruda’s use of clinking noises and the relative merits of Salman Rushdie. I smiled and nodded and thought about ways to bring up my favourite poem: Mary had a Little Lamb. I was hoping we could have a discussion of agricultural imagery in the pre-school canon, but in the end I didn’t get an opening.
I was also ready to recite the only other poem I know. A haiku by Basho (?) that goes:
Climb Mount Fuji snail,
But slowly,
Slowly.
Only I think I have the words wrong on that one, so it’s a good thing I didn’t get to mention it either.
Other highlights were meeting Will Ferguson, who has my vote for funniest writer in Canada, Tim Wynne-Jones, who is the Grandmaster Flash of YA in Canada, Arthur Slade, who writes fantastic novels and comics and Joseph Boyden who wrote one of my favourite books of 2005, Three Day Road, and Nelofer Pazira, a journalist, actor and author who is one of the best-looking human beings I’ve ever seen. I may not be much for poetry, but I know from good looks!
Until later.