Parisian Literary Salon

Alesian Literary Salon Newsletter

May 1, 2007

First, A poem by Wislawa Szymborska

NOTHING TWICE

Nothing can ever happen twice.
In consequence, the sorry fact is
that we arrive here improvised
and leave without the chance to practice.

Even if there is no one dumber,
if you’re the planet’s biggest dunce,
you can’t repeat the class in summer:
this course is only offered once.

No day copies yesterday,
no two nights will teach what bliss is
in precisely the same way,
with exactly the same kisses.

One day, perhaps, some idle tongue
mentions your name by accident:
I feel as if a rose were flung
into the room, all hue and scent.

The next day, though you’re here with me,
I can’t help looking at the clock:
A rose? A rose? What could that be?
Is it a flower or a rock?

Why do we treat the fleeting day
with so much needless fear and sorrow?
It’s in its nature not to stav:
Today is always gone tomorrow.

With smiles and kisses, we prefer
to seek accord beneath our star,
although we’re different (we concur)
just as two drops of water are.

Contents

1. Comments on poem
2. Salon update
3. Requests for September 2007
4. Some Events
5. A final Szymborska poem

1. Comments on the poem - If you have not discovered the poetry of Wistawa Szymborska, you are in for a treat. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, but is not generally known outside of poetry circles- which is unfortunate: I found her work so lively and sharp- even in translation, the rhymes dance and the images create reverberations. She balances the private and public realms –the poem above appears at first metaphysical & reflective- but within this there is a drama between two people alluded to but not completely revealed that grounds the arching reflection. She also seems to hold both a worldly despair and a discovery of the bliss of the moment; these do not contradict each other. Let me know what you think, and as always please pass on your favorites so I can discover as well!

2. Salon Update - I have been remiss in the Salon newsletters recently. Perhaps it is the immersion in the Inferno and now struggling up the of Purgatory that has made it difficult for me to pick up my gaze and step out of 13^th ct. Italy, Medieval theology, a visit to Virgil & Ovid and the structures of Hell, Purgatory and (maybe) Heaven. This series on Dante’s Commedia is bringing me to new territory- well, actually very ancient territory that is part of the root system of more contemporary writing. Although I am less able to predict the direction and goal of the Salon conversations, our study together has been rich and dynamic indeed. The current groups of participants (afternoon & evening) are a willing and courageous bunch. Together we are working to understand the layers of Dante’s metaphors along with the word view that impels his poetry. I am finding myself thinking hard about human responsibility and issues of justice and the nature of grace whether divine or human. Rev. Tina Blair, pastor with the American Church, joined us one evening to share her knowledge of the medieval church. Some of the participants have been reading up on Virgil and Ovid to understand the Classical inspirations Dante was weaving into his Christian worldview. I am studying C.S. Lewis’s Allegory of Love to understand a very different paradigm of romantic love that is, for Dante, an aspect of his salvation. Where will this takes us? For now, we are moving up the mountain in Purgatory…

3. Requests for September 2007 - So I am looking ahead to September. I would like to open wide the possibilities for the Fall as I know many folks on the Salon mailing list are interested in doing a Salon now but did not want to jump into Commedia mid-journey. There are probably enough participants wanting to finish the Commedia with Paradisio in September, but I would also like to be offering other studies—either previous Salon offerings or other great works…what would you like to read???? Now is the time for suggestions, I will run these by the current participants and where there is a cluster of interest, I will make an offer. Let me know by sending a message to this email - I am always glad to hear from past and future Salon participants.

4. Some Events - Because I did not get this newsletter out earlier, I did not announce the evening with the author Renee Levine at the Red Wheelbarrow. Renee is part of the greater literary community here in Paris. I am currently reading her autobiographical work, One-Way Tickets, and finding it provocative meditation on the meaning of home. Here is a lively event happening tomorrow night:

http://spokenwordpa ris.blogspot. com/

This Wednesday at L'Ogre à Plumes,

49 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud

metro Parmentier

9pm.

Last time - lots of great poetry from the likes of

Ariana Reines and others too numerous to mention. This

time it's gonna be more ''rapid fire'' - shorter

sharper slots for each poet, and the chance to come

back to the mic for a second go later.

I will pass on more events as I hear about them…but I want to get this out today as the sun and good weather are calling me from my studies. Happy reading and adventures to all — Toby

5. A final Szymborska poem….

Possibilities

I prefer movies.
I prefer cats.
I prefer the oaks along the Warta.
I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.
I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.
I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.
I prefer the color green.
I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.
I prefer exceptions.
I prefer to leave early.
I prefer talking to doctors about something else.
I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.
I prefer, where love’s concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.
I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.
I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.
I prefer the earth in civvies.
I prefer conquered to conquering countries.
I prefer having some reservations.
I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
I prefer Grimms’ fairy tales to the newspapers’ front pages.
I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.
I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.
I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.
I prefer desk drawers.
I prefer many things that I haven’t mentioned here
to many things I’ve also left unsaid.
I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.
I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.
I prefer to knock on wood.
I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.