Return to Paris

As usual, it has been awhile since I've posted. First I went to the US for visa reasons, then we went to India for vacation and the wedding of two friends, and now we've been back a month and I've begun two jobs and my PhD, plus I'm once again taking my writing projects more seriously (good timing, right?)--so there's a lot of news. We'll take it one part at a time.

The visa applications went more easily than expected, given the effort required to arrange appointments, gather paperwork, and even get information. The tourist visa for India took one day to get, and that was only because I missed the morning deadline for same-day processing. The French long-stay student visa took all of thirty-five minutes, of which twenty were spent waiting to be called to present my paperwork and only fifteen were spent processing my dossier and producing the visa. W00t for efficient administration! (I've written a more detailed description of the process, but I am considering creating a separate blog for my foreign PhD experiences so that I can offer help and entertainment for others interested in the situation or hoping to pursue the same sort of path.)

India was a crazy experience, about which I wrote daily journal entries while there. I'll be posting revisions of these in the days to come.

Having returned to Paris, V has begun work at UPMC (Paris VI) again, this time as a tenured, full-time teacher. (Last year, she was a temporary, full-time teacher.) I got my carte de sejour (another story), which allows me to live and work in France, and I began work as a sort of adjunct teacher of English (language) at UPMC. I teach one class a week, and will get paid sometime early next year. I've also begun working for a company called YES (Your English Solution), which teaches English to businesses in the Paris area.

Additionally, my classes have started up. I'm taking my advisor's poetry and poetics course, which so far is interesting, and a short translation course he's teaching as well, so I can practice my French.

V had Lasik eye surgery at the beginning of September, which means that now she can see pretty much as well without glasses as she once could with glasses. There are some small side effects, some of which seem to have faded, but she and I both wish the doctor had informed us more about them, as they may have influenced the decision. (On the plus side, she's very happy to be able to snuggle without removing and protecting her glasses.)

V and I got a PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarit&eaccute;, or French civil union) on the 2nd of September, so now we're officially living together and supporting each other. Pretty cool. It's such a potentially small thing (the document needs only contain one line about how the two of you agree to support each other, but can have more) that we weren't going to do anything for it, but our friends wanted to have a party, so we threw a small fête and got lots of wine. We don't drink much at all, so typically this means we hold onto bottles for weeks or months, until we have guests over.

I've also found a dojo that teaches Ki Aikido, and I had begun going, but our finances were low this month and last due to India+French admin fees+Lasik, so I'm holding off for now. But once things get underway a bit more and I get my paycheck, it's back on the mat for me!

I'm also learning how to better organize myself so that I can do everything I want to. I've made myself very busy, which is fun, and now I'm learning how to manage it all. I'm also teaching myself a bit of Ashtanga Yoga.

That's pretty much the update for now.

Reading Other Poets

I was talking with my housemates (Theresa & Jaime) the other day. We were hanging out in the kitchen eating late breakfast and sipping tea. One of them, I think it was J, brought up her dislike of the idea "enforced" (not her words) by so many of the writing teachers at Sarah Lawrence that in order to write good poetry (or good anything), one must copy and emulate the masters (and hence one must read read read). T assented to the opinion. Both of them felt that such an attitude was merely encouragement to imitate without being original yourself. I gently disagreed, saying that I felt the point was not to copy but to learn what each writer had to teach about technique, craft, and style.

Not long after that conversation, I was browsing through the Internet jungle and remembered a blog I used to enjoy reading--that of Shinichi Tohei Sensei, youngest son of Koichi Tohei Sensei, the founder of Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido. The latest entry has a short parable about an apprentice swordsmith, which Shinichi Sensei relates to the power, importance, and way to use the subconscious mind. (Shinichi Sensei writes:

When we try to achieve something, we will evolve in the shape of our own imagining. If the shape is predictable, we will develop into that shape. If the shape is brilliant, then we will develop into that shape.By imagining the very highest level for the beginning, we are able to create what is to become. The important thing is to feel and know the very best until it gets into your subconscious.)

The parable struck me as extremely relevant to the conversation on Sunday. You can write and learn to write well all on your own, but having others to teach you is incredibly helpful. The point of reading the masters is not to mimic them--not to produce poetry just like theirs--but to learn good technique, so well that it fills your subconscious with understanding of quality craft--of good writing-- and you learn from it so that when you need to use such techniques, you can.