FROM CHAUCER TO GIDE

125. FROM CHAUCER TO GIDE:

My leg was killing me right where the knee cap meets the big bone below it and I found I could hardly really move the leg so I started like dragging it a little as I walked and it sometimes caused people to think I was lame or sorry and sad or something but I wasn't always it just hurt more at certain times than other times but getting around in a tired old city when you too are tired if not old anyway was a bit more difficult but there are so many places to sit it's pretty easy to rest or take a break - a hundred little parks and places with benches and the entire expanse of Central Park West with all its benches and observers and people around and it's easy to get nice real quick in that sort of environment and I tried always to keep a small book with me - in a pocket or something - so I always had something to continue reading and a notebook and pencil too with which I could write notes make sketches or memos to myself about things and sometimes even draw people as I saw them if I could - remember at this time I had not much else and certainly no camera of any sort so all I had to witness with was my mind and my eyes and my mind's eye of course so I was pretty certain to be deliberate about things and try to train myself to remember clearly what I was seeing and somewhere even right now I have numerous numerous little coil-bound notebooks from those times as I walked putting words or poetries or things together - long streams of things and instant and raw as I could make them and then I'd rework or distill them later into other things or shorter pieces that I thought stood together well and by that I'd amassed after a while a goodly portion of nice work - at least I thought anyway - and didn't really care about what others thought.