Toronto Wedding and Sunday Poetry

We're off to Toronto this weekend for a friend's wedding. Going tonight by train and home early Sunday for a poetry event featuring Kate, among others. I will as usual sit near the back and get red faced during the poems that are about me. Some of which will actually bring a tear to my eye and/or give me goosebumps, a dead give away that I'm the subject. Sometimes I practice my stoic face in the mirror but that's like trying to win a staring contest with the mirror, damn thing always wins. I do like going to the events, Kate is rather talented and often there are at least a couple others of similar quality. The host of this particular event, who happens to be staying in our place while we're in Toronto; bad timing I know, is also fun to hear. It reminds me of the first poetry event I went to.

I of course did not know what to expect, at all. I thought Mike Myers in So I Married An Axe Murdered (he got off lucky) was pretty funny. I dearly hoped I would not have to snap my fingers, which I have seen that from time to time but usually clapping is preferred. Also it was quite early in our relationship, the first non work social event I think. A couple of the poems she read were about other guys, her latest ex specifically. It was still a good poem although I haven't heard it since that day. All the poems Kate read that night were great and she really impressed me. The rest of the poets not so much.

The first guy had published books, I studied poetry, I've even written some, I enjoy it. This guy published a book, it has to be up my alley right? I settle in with a bunch of people I don't know, Kate, and another friend from work. I'm the new guy to be sure, something I'm usually pretty decent with. Of course there is still a bit of awkwardness and I think Kate was a bit surprised I was willing to go at all. I am quite pleased to find out the whole event is in a pub so I have a pint and a chair, really what more could I want. For one thing I could have wanted the first poet to stub his toe and not go on but I didn't know I wanted that until the third or fourth word of his first poem. Were I physic I may have laid a small booby trap. Is it just me or is it really fun to say booby trap? I do not have the ability to see the future though and this guy went on. I wouldn't say it was bad poetry, not to his face anyway, perhaps it had more to offer on the page, I don't know I'm certainly not going to buy his book. For the first ten minutes of his set I basically had one though "What have I done to myself?" Not the 'oh no I cut myself on broken glass' type of thought but the 'oh my God Hell exists and I'm trapped in it, why didn't I let those school children go', kind of thought. Then he started counting to ten. No joke. I'm sure someone somewhere would argue the artistic value of such a poem, the timing of each number, the fact that he counted to ten then back down to one, the simplicity of it or something. In my mind and my one university level poetry class worth of knowledge, it was the worst poem ever. Even worse than the poem the same guy read in which he made a series of sounds, a e i o u, and sometimes even y, or as the French like to call y, egreck. Egreck will be the name of my first child or next pet, whichever comes first by the way.

The second poet certainly had written some nice poetry. It was totally depressing, long, hard to understand when she's saying it and you have zero time to reflect, and it was your typical boring poetry. Not quite as bad as Zorgon poetry, known as the second worst poetry in the universe, second only to the first guy that went on that night I believe. She was depressing and I almost fell asleep. By now I'm really concerned, this is the kind of poetry all these people are here to see, they like it? Do I have to like it? Can I leave? Of course I would never do that but you see why I was concerned.

Kate was third up that night. I think she may have started with the poem I mentioned about her recent ex, a hockey player. I think she was two lines in when I realized that as bad as the others were Kate was neither boring nor over your head artistic, in fact her poems were fantastic. He poems have style and I would certainly consider them art, but not the kind of art that only the artist really understands. Kate's poems are fun, entertaining, they have a social edge. You don't need to spend sixteen hours deciphering them, you can sit back and enjoy them, and everyone who hears them enjoys them. So with great relief I sat back and listened to her set.

I've agreed to go to every event that has come up since, even a couple that Kate has not preformed in. Most of the other poets we hear are similar to Kate, I'm not sure if I've heard anyone better than Kate, but a couple are close or on par. I've not heard anyone as bad as those first two. Now I am confident every time will be fine, it's like once you get bitten by a shark, bees are not really much of a concern. I will note that although many poets have interesting things to say, or funny things, many of them also tend to have this poetry voice. It's the same voice, lots of people have it. This kind of halting type of speech that will pick up speed and turn into a run on sentence ending with a deep breath in, then a punchline of sorts. It's hard to describe but if you ever go to an event you'll notice that there is a common manner of reciting poems. Not everyone does it, Kate doesn't, most of the better poets don't do it although I have heard some really good stuff in that 'poet voice'. I wouldn't call it annoying, I'm sure it's some sort of mechanism to get the poems out, I know I would stumble over the words if I tried reading on stage. So I of course am not complaining about it, but you really can see that the most confident people do not use the 'poet voice', or if they do it's only in bits and pieces. A rookie will often speak exclusively in the 'poet voice'. I don't mean to knock these guys, like I said I couldn't get up there and pour my heart out in the form of a poem, I think I would pass out even if I had to do it. I give a lot of credit to these people that go up, I just think they should lose the 'poet voice', or at least fewer people should use it.

So I do look forward to the Sunday event, although the wedding we are going to is on Saturday and we have an early train. It may be a difficult day on the whole. I would say I'm going to be low key for the wedding but my I'll be seeing a couple of guys that really helped me out a few years ago who I don't get to see as often as I would like these days. When I found myself living alone, for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I was alone in many ways. I was unsure of how I got to the place I was and I had no idea what I was going to do next, I had to almost completely rebuild my life. I of course had friends still, but I only knew one person downtown and he had a life of his own. I had my neighbour who I saw often but I wasn't even sure what was going to happen with him. Turned out he came across the hall more and more often until I eventually nicknamed him Kramer. I can even remember him slamming into my front door when I locked it one day, I think he was carrying as bowl of something that he spilled and had to go back to refill. Kramer helped me out a lot, he introduced me to a couple of guys living a couple floors above us, Andrew and Eric. Eric ended up living with me for almost a year, with Kramer around about as often as we were and Andrew is the guy getting married on Saturday. Seriously, if it wasn't for these guys and a couple of my longer term friends I don't know where I would be today.

Thanks guys, I know they don't read this blog but really thanks. John, Ian, Andrew, Eric, Chris you have no idea how much I owe you.

Enough sappy crap I do have some interesting news. Kate and I have decided to enter the world of home ownership. Of course we haven't found a place and there is always a chance we won't find one that we like but we feel it's a perfect time to buy. We met with a real estate agent yesterday and we found a mortgage broker. We've done a lot of research and have picked out areas we want to check out. We're in no rush so it may be a long process but we're excited to start our hunt. It doesn't mean we're committing to a longer term in Montreal, although we've never really set a time frame for our adventures in Quebec, we just think it's a good decision considering the current economy. I'll provide any updates or fun stories, I'm sure there will be a few of the latter.