KENNETH KOCH
87
are, many of th ese things, th e same ones I put in . For exampl e, the blue
white rectan gul ar qua li ty of Essaoui ra. Most people go th ere and tha t's
that. It 's an aft ern oon , a mo rning, or a day. But many must go there,
LOO,
as I di d, a d reamer of th e present actualit y, as if a street made up of
di fferent cobbleston es coul d, for the carri age tha t went over it, be one
huge uneven unca red-fo r SLOn e. Wh a t is Essaouira? I love the name. O r
rather I like it. On e guidebook says it is a shame LO lose its old name
Mogador. I can imagin e drea ry di scussions of thi s, grey wallpapers,
snooty-looking people. Pa lm trees. But I li ke "Essaouira" better by far.
"Mogador" has some o bvious cha rm o f an old-fashi oned kind tha t
completely p ut s me off it. Everyone knows how LO respond to the wo rd
"Mogado r. " In thi s book you , de li ghtful reader, may be respondin g to
the word "Essaouira" for th e first time. T h e long dusty pa th there. I've
already said tha t. Wha t d id I no t say. Ameri can poetry a t the lesser
levels has imp roved since I began thi s Essay, though a t its hi gher levels
I do not beli eve one coul d say tha t tha t was the case. Is thi s a kind o f
cultural leveling th a t is frequ ent in sma ll hi sLOri es of cu ltures? Let's
walk into Eassouira and find out. You can 't find tha t out in Essaouira.
And I do ubt you can find it out an ywhere. How strange to be among
these peopl e whose front is as much as th eir back indifferent to
everything I think and say and do. Yet no t wholl y indifferent. I always
[eel they would be surpri sed by the thou ghts I was having because these
though ts would no t seem to them signifi cant. I think they, like o thers,
are chi efl y p racti cal, but experi ence shows th a t once some littl e
adjustment is made thi s is no t necessaril y so. Oops! I'm sorry. I almost
bumped in LO tha t woman . She is wea rin g a veil as no one here does. As
usual I am spending my life do ing no thin g.
If
I had never come to
Essaouira, would my life be the same? I see the bea rd t witchin g, I hear
the boredom. Are certain ph ys ica l movements o f our parents' and our
own bod ies in infancy th e determining factors in our li ves? T h e fo rtress
she is th a t way and the market th ey a re th is.
If
I were at my typewri ter
describin g thi s, in stead o f being here read y with the experi ence. Of
course I am now. I would like LO know wh at fin all y Essaouira
you are Essaouira
obviously palm trees I like your name
You have forgotten about Zagora and Ouarzaza te. Tha t's impossibl e. I
just went back to Essaouira beca use tha t's where I began . Once the man
fixed my windshi eld I knew I would n ever go back LO Essaouira.
It
was
like the first ca rd dea lt. You don 't try to draw tha t aga in in the same
game. T ravel, a t its utmost reaches. requires a new experi ence or
gamble every ti me. In experience - you go back LO the same girl and
