Tuesday 24 March 2015: MARRAKECH
ON THE ROAD from Guelmim to Marrakech, we were treated to some lovely French ‘chansons’, sung in a somewhat rusty voice, by the venerable French poet, Tristan Cabral. Also in the bus with us was Ilia Galan, a Spanish poet from Castile who is a Professor of Philosophy and Fine Art at the University of Carlos III in Madrid.
He has been a visiting Professor in Oxford and knows the city quite well, including having taken walks in Hinksey Park (three streets away from my house in Grandpont) – what a small world it is.
Talking about small worlds, being at this festival has shown me a new outlook on poetry - there is a breadth of cosmopolitanism among these poets that is refreshing after the more insular British poetry world.
Most of them speak at least two or three languages fluently and are familiar with a much wider range of classical and contemporary world literature than seems the case with UK poets (of course, I may be wrong as this comes from the standpoint of a uni-linguist).
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| Marrakech Souk |
We got to Marrakech at about 5pm at which point the rain redoubled its efforts to drown us; but we are staying at the Riad Sahara Nour, Centre for Creative Artists which is beautiful and full of paintings, books and quiet corners to read them in. I’m pleased to say that I’m in the Karen Blixen room. The film was such a travesty of the book – surely Out of Africa was about a love affair with solitude and Kenya itself, rather than with Denys Finch Hatton: an example of how cinema can be brutally reductive of books when not handled well (although the star of that film was probably Africa itself).
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| Marrakech Souk |
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| Marrakech snake charmers |
We had time to change quickly and then onto the bus again to the Café Victo which is where the poetry café and library is upstairs (our first port of call on arriving on 17 March). The audience was mainly Arabic. We read ‘Song for Inanna/ Ishtar’ (originally published in Now as Then: Mesopotamia-Iraq by Mulfran Press, 2013 and Taking Mesopotamia, Carcanet Press, 2014) and were presented with certificates. I can now make out my name in Arabic.
Then back to the Hotel for another, longer poetry reading to a predominantly French audience at which we read ‘Notes from Exile’ from Taking Mesopotamia.
The hotel sold wine (oh joy!) and we bought some from a little pantry-like room with an old fashioned sink and painted dresser and watched two women preparing pastilla for our supper.
Pastilla is made by making layers of very thin, crisp, pancake-like sheets on a hot plate (a bit like crêpes only much thinner). They can be savoury (for example with layers of a minced pigeon and hard boiled egg mixture between them) or sweet with a mille-feuille custard and fruit filling. This was the one we had later for dessert. At supper I sat with Annie Sumari and Bjorn Ursu talking about Beowulf, epic, and Norse gods while making toasts to poetry, good food, the world, Shamash the sun god, and our (now to be) everlasting friendship.
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| Bjorn Ursu with two blue ladies |
Wednesday 25 March 2015: BENI MELLAL
Fantastic morning exploring the souk. A 130 dirham scarf was reduced to 40 dirhams (about £3) with Adnan’s help and the trick of being able to walk off aghast when told original price – not easy for polite English people. Then later by bus again 107 miles to Beni Mellal, the second to last city on our trip.
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| Beni Mellal with Atlas Mountains |
Beni Mellal is in the Atlas mountains and, after a very long event last night to a large audience at the local theatre (we finished the readings and music performances at 11.30pm) we got to bed about 1.30am. Up at 7am and breakfast of French bread and soft goats cheese with honey before departing for the last city on our trip – Khenifra, about a two hour drive away.
Final installment tomorrow – then home and a hot bath (I’m obsessing about that now as it has been so COLD!!!)
Thursday 26 March 2015: KHENIFRA
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| Beni Mellal castle |
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| Beni Mellal castle through the gate |
Leaving Beni Mellal, we stopped at a castle and again, shortly afterwards, at a nature park where I had a pleasant encounter with a monkey. Then on to Khenifra itself which is breathtakingly beautiful and reminiscent of European alpine towns.
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| Jenny with a monkey friend! |
In the distance, snow-covered mountains, close-up, winding roads through meadows full of wild flowers…and the air is so clean and clear. It’s hard to believe that a short time ago we were in the desert.
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| Khenifra High School |
We read to a rumbustiously responsive audience at Khenifra High School and later, to a more sedate audience at the Atlas Khenifra Centre for Art and Culture where the French poets, Christian Deudon and Tristan Cabral, read from an anthology of recently republished writings by André Breton and other surrealists against the occupation of France in 1941 – La Main à Plume…Anthologie du surréalism sous Occupation(Paris, 1945/ 2008).
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| Arts Institute Khenifra |
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| Audience at Khenifra High School |
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| Audience at Khenifra Arts Institute |
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| Reading at Khenifra Arts Institute |
Friday 27 March 2015: back to MARRAKECH
Now this amazing trip is coming to a close it will be hard to settle down to life in Oxford again. Discounting 17 and 27 March (arriving and departing) we have had eight days of poetry and discussion, given 12 readings, traveled around 1200 miles and made lifelong friendships through poetry. I brought 20 books from home and am going home with just one – my reading copy.
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| Poets at Khenifra Arts Institute |
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| Poetry and Resistance Conference poster |
The third Rencontre Internationale de la Poésie and subsequent five city Voyage Poétique has been an extraordinary multicultural experience that I feel privileged to have been part of. I look forward very much to the next adventure… regarder cet espace…
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| Spring flowers in the meadow, Khenifra |
The Carcanet Blog Sale
With every blogpost we offer 25% off a Carcanet title, or titles by a particular author or group of authors.
For the next two weeks, we're giving you 25% off Jenny Lewis' Taking Mesopotamia
With every blogpost we offer 25% off a Carcanet title, or titles by a particular author or group of authors.
For the next two weeks, we're giving you 25% off Jenny Lewis' Taking Mesopotamia
All books come with 10% off and and free delivery at www.carcanet.co.uk so to claim your extra discount, use the code BLOGLEWIS (case-sensitive). Happy reading!