Visiting friends in Ithaca many years ago, I got off Route 17 (the Southern Tier Expressway) a few exits early, headed north on 81, and followed Blackburn's directions for a visiting friend from "October Journal 1979." (He actually offers two sets of directions; I used the first, more detailed ones). Of which, here is a taste:
The first exit that will jolt you says McGRAW-CORTLAND
Don't let it tempt you; take the second one, it says
just CORTLAND. end of the ramp STOP sign
turn left, under the highway to the first light (2-3
gas stations & a Holiday Inn) : turn right
down Clinton into town.
Two more lights will stop you at Main St. (where Clinton ends his upriver
run--but sail on, captain, my brother)...
The directions worked! (Despite changes in the exit designations). The house was still "white-porched." But, of course, in the driveway there was no "VW wain therein, dark green shaming the maples."
I had forgotten the second trip, until I pulled down my copy of
The Journals for this project. Inside, a bus schedule from Aix to Marseilles (Hey,
Cortázar!). August of 92, 93? Sharing a small, very hot apartment with Polish friends on the not so fashionable outskirts of Aix. All the locals decamped for Normandy and cooler weather. For us, it was bus trips to the beach at Calais, or bus then Metro to the beach in Marseilles. At night, the whine of motorcycles climbing the A8
(La Provençale). Bagettes from the BP station. Very cheap (and very good) red wine from the bottom shelf (or floor) of the supermarket. Sometimes we'd drink it with ice and lemon.
"Is any coherence worth the celebration?' Blackburn asked in a early poem. And answered, "Okay." Okay.
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