Well… it didn’t snow yesterday but it did everything else, so today is moving day instead. I’m furnitureless except for one chair which I hope might be able to fit in my friend’s minivan after eveything elese- boxes, bags and baskets- have found themselves a place. Kathi and I are both pretty good packers, but i am afraid there will be an overflow of stuff that just won’t fit. if that’s the case I will be leaving the one box of books that I didn’t sell or donate, a box of old journals and a tv. You’d think someone that calls themself a writer would be taking books and journals with them… but there is a beautiful library in Antigonish and i was never one for rereading books. I like to go on to the next book. and the journals… well, I am bringing the blank ones and that seems to make the most sense. if i had a fireplace i might just burn those old journals… not sure i can bring myself to read those again, either!
What else I can leave behind I am not sure- a trash can and waste paper basket maybe, an iron and hair dryer? I wish i could just take as much as I can carry on my back but just the home office stuff alone takes up several boxes, and since i hope to freelanc it seems like neccesary stuff to have on hand. Still, hmm, in a pinch I could ditch it and go paperless… but my hope is to continue to make poetry zines to sell…
I like sleeping and eating and working close to the ground. Really who needs a chair when you can lie on your stomach and type? But there will be some furniture in the apartment I am subletting, thanks to my generous subletting landlady! I hope to live simply and divest myself of even more things by the time my stay there is up at the end of April. Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to live like a turtle, but for now I will build my nest like a bowery bird, lining it with the shiny, ephemeral things I can’t part with… paperclips, staples and papers of all kinds- notes from friends, old love letters, postcards and rejections slips… I realize these are the thing I can’t do without. Try as I might I can’t bear to throw them out.
annaquon 