Dial-a-Poet

I went to Shakespeare and Co. this evening and heard CM read some of his work. I thought he did rather too much name-dropping, mentioning how he had has poetry lessons from Alan Ginsberg and had read with Sharon Olds etc. etc. I guess this covers up a lack of confidence. He seems quite a shy person, peering out from underneath a mop of white blonde hair.

We walked towards the Metro together at the end of the evening. He told me that he had trained as a psychotherapist. Basically, he would listen to his patients' problems, somewhat in the manner of Freud, and thereby help them to understand what was wrong with them.

In fact, he was still able to do the same job in Paris, and this allowed him to pay his way as an ex-pat poet. He still had the same patients, but now they had to ring him up in Paris. The only problem was, he said, that they were getting better. That made me chuckle.

Then, he asked me if I liked the sound of his voice. I said I wasn't particularly fond of it, but that I didn't dislike it either. He said that the English accent is very popular in America, and then he laughed as well, but a little bitterly I thought.

He then started telling me he was thinking of trying to get some patients from England. I guess that was why he wanted to know if I liked his American accent. I suppose that wouldn't be a bad idea. The phone calls are bound to be cheaper from the UK.