Shades of Grey and Billy

Piles of gear are beginning to erupt from the floors. Sleeping bags and pads, cooking utensils, tarp, tent, Duluth packs in the garage. Dehydrated food in the dining room. A small mound of clothing in the bedroom. The fourteen day list of gear is out, slashed in half and a permit awaits our pick up at the Kawishiwi ranger station.

There are a few odd things being packed for this trip and by odd I don't mean as in "a few odds and ends", I mean odd, as in, we have never taken them on a canoe trip before. The two red folding chairs and a Coleman stove look out of place. They aren't even on the list, yet they they stand all anticipatory next to the gear which is standard for our canoe trips.

This is our first canoe trip since Mike had cancer and wrecked his shoulder and since I had surgery and school for my fibromyalgia. We decided that it would be a good idea to take an "easy" trip. So, we have two portages, wide and nearly paved by portage standards, and a one day paddle to a base camp. Something we have never in the history of us done. Our M.O. is to travel every day. To, put on miles both on water and land. The last trip we were on covered 90 some water miles and 20 some portage miles. Not this time. We are being, I hesitate to say, cautious.Mike doesn't know how is shoulder will do or how managing an ostomy will shake down; I just don't know how my body will react.

Cautious is not really like us in the wilderness and base camping is a foreign concept. Still, what this lacks in reckless abandon it makes up for in luxury - lawn chairs and a camp stove. Also, I am bringing a little hand work and a book. Or at least I was going to bring a book. Nearly ashamed to admit it, but feeling like I can since no purchase was made, I had planned on reading Fifty Shades of Grey, a shameless, soft porn, work of fiction AND a complete departure from my normal genre' of non-fiction outdoor essay writing and poetry. BUT thankfully Billy Collins intervened this morning.

As we sat together in the sun on my couch he said:

"And there was I.
up on a rose-grey block of granite
near a cluster of shade trees in the local park, 
my name and dates pressed into a plaque,

down on my knees, eyes lifted,
praying to the passing clouds, 
forever begging for just one more day." (1)

And then he said:

"before the invention of the window,
the poets would have had to put on a jacket
and a winter hat to go outside
or remain indoors with only a wall to stare at." (2)

.........a wise man this Billy Collins.

The trash novel will remain unpurchased.I will not pack pages of paragraphs nor allow chapters to distract me from the windowless vistas which will be ours for a week. Instead, my journal, full of dust, with it's stiff binding will slide into the waterproof pouch. My favorite mechanical pencil, hungry for words, will get a belly full of graphite and together they will be put into the front of my pack just behind the flap that reads "Got Portage?"


 Oh, and Billy Collins just got invited on this trip. I hope he doesn't mind the feel of canvas on his skin. I'll try my best not to let him end up under the spot on my pack that says, "kick me." He deserves so much more than that. He deserves to sit upon rose-grey knobs of granite under clear blue skies, breeze on our skins, pungent warm pine twining up into our noses, the sound of nuthatches and no window or wall to be seen  for miles. There we will sit as Jackfish place concentric rings on flat black water and beg for one more day.

Peace,
Karen


Both excerpts taken from "The Trouble with Poetry" by Billy Collins

1) Statues in the Park

2) Monday

Testing Testing

Yup, I'm on Facebook strike and maybe that's a good thing because here I am on our abandoned blog. I know we said we hadn't abandoned it just neglected but let's be honest....

I'm not gonna play catch up on this post or any post so no worries that this is like the dreaded Christmas newsletter you get in December or if you are like many of my people....January or February.

Mostly, I'm just testing. Seeing who's out there. Finding out that I've been wasting my time on Facebook when I could be here writing something substantial instead of reposting cartoons or cat videooowwwsss...er videos.

Any how....hello...is anyone out there?

Peace,
Karen