The Miraculous, Mysterious Life of Arthur Rimbaud
As a teenager, French writer Rimbaud came to realize that he was a poet, but that it was not his fault. He wrote: “It is wrong to say, ‘I think.’ One has to say, ‘I am thought.’ I is another. Too bad for the wood that finds itself a violin.”
In about a 20 month period, while still a teenager, the boy genius more or less proceeded to invent what we know as "modern" poetry. His is a remarkable story; it is no wonder Victor Hugo described him as "an infant Shakespeare".
Rimbaud packed more than one life into his short life of 37 years. He had the nerve to stop writing, and disappear, at the age of 20! Really, it's the stuff myths are made of. My poem, below, is an attempt to understand why he stopped writing...
Could it be that from the start
the thing he sought, this demon-angel,
was always just outside the page
That, after swimming the length of the alphabet,
with fine gills and deranging senses, he created
an opening for others, but a trap for himself?
If so, then slipping through those watery bars
was imperative, a chastened mysticism—
and freedom to write in the air, to be human.
© Yahia Lababidi
Nice poem. Life is full of mysteries and makes people take different choices, even if they didnt choose them.
Yes, as you say, even if we didn’t choose them. I believe in Destiny & Fate. As Rumi says:
Your work almost reads like a "goodbye letter" by Rimbaud himself. Everything happens for a reason, indeed...
High praise to channel a spirit I admire. Thanks, for your kind attention 🙏🏼
Maybe the mantle of "father of modern poetry" was too heavy, or maybe having such a sensitive soul was like having your nerve endings outside of your skin. One life can impact so many others.
I suspect it’s the latter... coupled with a crisis of conscience. He lived a decadent, destructive life as a teenager & wrote my innocence makes me weep.
Yes I see now, sad how suffering and genius seem to attract each other.
One pays a great price for greatness...
This copy of A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat came to me when I was a young teen runaway — A street-punk poet from NYC gave it to me (he was crushin' pretty hard to part with it) and it was love at first read. *So many great stories from that period for me.
Hah, good to see/know! Rimbaud is suited for precocious, rebellious teen runaways (I was one, of sorts) and lived by these words, till recently:
Heaven help us!
SO perfect, the letter to Paul.
I always felt I had no choice but to burn, and burn I did, many times over.
I'm one of those people that believe in experience, that at some point one needs to do scary things (better young..lol), not for the sake of doing them, but for the fact that there is no other choice, one must walk away from safety to really find life -- One must leave their village, people, land, ways, to see more clearly, and I say this as a life long introvert (observer). I know I've waxed on about this before with you but the thought of Rimbuad always sparks this feeling in me.
It’s very much in line with what Jung muses on about, the confrontation with self (the shadow, the unconscious, etc)… walk towards the fear, not away.
I should note, that the last seven years of my life have been the most stable and so I feel I have gained a certain power over the complex (for the time being), and I quite enjoy stability and comfort.
Your "till recently" urged me to come clean, as I'm not a wild child (not really, for me) any longer.
Phew Just read this after my last comment & relieved ... for both our sakes 😜
Yes, I hear you, deeply (but am also burnt out from burning...). Pacing myself as I get older 🙏🏼
Me too! I am grateful to have walked the darker roads early on, I know there is always more, but for now, I'm good. ::cackles::
All the fodder for the 'Greater Work'... fire is only part of it. ;)
:)
I'm not very good at poetry, Yahia. But it seems to me that the fate of any artist is tragic.
The artistic life can be, like Oscar Wilde said, a long suicide...
The artistic life
Can be, like Oscar Wilde said,
A long suicide...
- yahialababidi
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
😃
People have their own reasons. Anything can stop them if reaching their goals.