Western Canada Poetry Tour part 5: Vancouver and Victoria

I know this is long overdue. Since getting back to New York, I've been overwhelmed with apartment hunting and other things, and also just found it hard and odd to finish off this travel log - when I don't feel like I've come 'home.' The lines between traveling and being home have almost entirely blurred, which I found interesting or depressing depending on what kind of mood I am in.

Getting off the train, 24 hours or so after leaving Edmonton, was surreal and kind of magical. With all due respect to Edmonton, it was kind of like leaving black and white Kansas for the technicolour (Canadian spelling) of Oz. Snow to blue skies and cherry blossoms. Ah, those cherry blossoms, it was beautiful in Vancouver and Victoria I really couldn't take it. I don't know how people live surrounded by such beauty, seems it would lose its meaning after awhile.

and that mountain air.... honestly I would kill myself if surrounded by that all year round.

Looking back on my time now in Vancouver and Victoria, one thing that stands out is reading Dante's Inferno in Stanley Park, after having walked past ducks, geese, had my arms brushed by weeping willows and arriving at the sun setting over the pacific... the reading material made for an interesting contrast.

I felt fortunate to be hosted by my friend Chris and his girlfriend Rebecca - again, I've been blessed with hospitable hosts throughout. Same can be said for my Victoria host, Isa Millman - who truly does offer a poetry palace in what one of the most beautiful houses I have been inside, and I believe the 4th largest house I've ever been in.

3 biggest houses I've been inside:

1. Michelle Jean's "house" (aka Rideau Hall) (for my American readers, that's the Governor General. For my American readers the Governor General is... oh, nevermind)
2. The White House, then Bill Clinton's house (grade 8 field trip)
3. Allan Greg's House (long, long, long story and entirely unimpressive for my American readers)

One of my best reading experiences came at the pulp fiction bookstore in Vancouver... really good turnout, good audience (laughed at all the intentionally funny parts and bought books) and great co-reader - Sonnet L'Abbe. Also, through enjoyed the after reading party at the legion (I believe that's what the bar was called), oh and good to see Ray Hsu after all this time. (ah that poetry name dropping)

Also fought hard against a espresso machine (those espresso machines love poetry) in Victoria at the Planet Poetry reading there - hosted by the poetically astute and delightfully quirky Wendy Morton.

um, what else - I saw a heron and some turtles, and plethora of flowers. again, its sickening.

I feel that now that I've arrived at the end of the trip, I should have some profound insight on Canada and what it means to be Canadian, other than Canada's really big. I can only say that most people I met from a particular place, say if they were born in Saskatoon or Winnipeg, really 'felt' they were from that place in a way that made me envious, that made me realize that I can walk around much of Toronto with my eyes closed and still I have never felt entirely home there - its too big or too much wanting to be other places (i.e. New York) and I was raised by a New Yorker and maybe I've just lost too much there (maybe it used to feel like home and I forget - am I getting too heavy for a blog?)... I don't know. The trip was wonderful - but it made me feel like I come from nowhere, which I suppose, however challenging, is also liberating. and here I am back in the bankrupt land of liberty, not really knowing where I'm going, what I'm doing here...

Anyway, for those who bothered to read these blog entries, I really appreciate it - and might not even begrudge those who pressured me into doing it in the first place.

I might even continuing blogging, once and while... maybe.