fatigue and wonder

After attending National Ecopoetics Symposium, two hours away by bus in Brandon, I should have some conclusions for you - and for myself.

Instead, all I have are instances...like how we were all in the same rooms for fourteen hours a day, between dialogues, readings, meals, and performances;

...like how the light was bright and warm through the windows but there was a cutting breeze;

...like how there were only three poets in attendance who weren't invited;

...like how there were no doors that worked consistently. Some were locked some days and not others, and some were open at noon and locked by 12:15.

I can, however, recommend two completely unrelated but in-keeping sites:

"Conversation is one of those acts that require subtle forms of social imagination: an ability to listen and interpret and imagine, an attentiveness to someone whose perspective is always essentially different, a responsiveness that both makes oneself known and allows the other to feel known — or else does none of this, but just keeps up appearances."

"And over the course of the many years these books will be online, they will no doubt be downloaded, printed out, and most importantly read by hundreds of readers who might not otherwise have access to poorly distributed, limited edition small press books."

Hopefully, taken together, these texts will convey something of my admiration and dismay at all of the weekend's goings-on.

(Thanks to George Murray at Bookninja for the former and Jonathan Ball at in progress: a life for the latter...)