Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Bookworm Chengdu

Truly my chief objective for a voyage to Chengdu was to visit Allen, to spend quality time together in the interest of shared poetic pursuits, all our correspondence eagerly point that way too. But that was before the mood changed…

Allen had enrolled me in Chengdu’s BOOKWORM LITERARY FESTIVAL as a contributing author!

“Bring the three volumes of your “ACTS” trilogy, plan to read and talk about it.” He wrote to me, “You'll be listed along with me and other writer guys 'n gals! We've got to get "our works" out there in the public eye, Della, and this is the year for doing it…Time to step out into some part of the literary world…”

And more: “Della, send a bio/blurb, a digital photo, and a description of your trilogy to Ben at Chendu’s BOOKWORM so that you may be included in the brochure/events. You're scheduled for March 19, for the “Workshop Open Mike” and some other activity… “

And again: Della, very busy here PROMOTING poetry and poets, both of us included… …I’m pondering on the possibility of inviting several workshop members to join you and me in reading some part or parts of FIELDS OF SNOW. Or you can go solo, or with me, or we can do all three! Prior to the 19 you'll have a chance to attend 3 workshop sessions, so everybody will be familiar with each other.


GRENDEL'S POND” Allen’s new chapbook, and “THE BOXES,” Allen’s -packaged poetry– were “launched” at THE BOOKWORM on March 5th and I was there for the event…

With Cheshire’s invaluable guidance I took Bus 76, got off the bus when I reached the AMERICAN CONSULATE, walked a few hundred yards (on the wrong side of the street) peering into shop windows, after asking a couple of people who could not understand my alien gibberish, I stumbled upon a small front street office with a huge English sign: FOREIGN STUDENT TRAVEL… My destination was a block away across the Sun Jin Hotel…

The BOOKWORM, located on Section 4 Renmin Nanlu, No.28 is a bar with a lending library, a restaurant with western and oriental food, a great meeting place for English speaking expatriates with laptops and where you can sit on western-style toilets…



While in the library area Allen arranged his display of visual poetry, I sat at the bar, drinking a Tsingtao beer, soon after I attended Allen’s launch of GRENDEL’S POND. Always awed by Allen’s masterly manipulation of words, I paid keen attention to his reading, to the comments and questions from the audience, answers from Allen.

I took some photos and returned to the bar. Ordered another beer and gazed at the bottles on the shelves behind the counter… One Smirnoff Vodka, 3 kinds of Absolute, one Finlandia, Martini Rossi Vermouths, 2 Jose Cuervo, one Gordon’s Gin, two Bacardi, and Stolishnaya Vodka. Tall Galliano in the middle, Johnny Walker - Red and Black on one side, Glenn Fiddich, Chivas Regal on the other… All manners of liqueurs and

…halfway through the next beer it happened… I was assailed by travel fever!


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