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RE: Thursday's Poetry Challenge - Exploring Legend

in The Ink Well5 years ago

Yahia, great to see you here!
Your poetry is powerful, succinct, and rich, as always. Your mention of Rimbaud led me to your book review, Rimbaud’s Spiritual Battle, at World Literature Today (Jan. 2019). An excellent review!

In Arthur Rimbaud ...Seth Whidden seeks to fill in the blanks of this enigmatic life. Whidden, professor of French at the University of Oxford and co-editor of a scholarly journal of Rimbaud studies for a decade, loves his subject and knows well the milieu that produced him, demonstrating how the life and poetry of our precocious protagonist inform one another.

Rimbaud’s final weeks before his death, at thirty-seven, are heart-rending: he weeps, is in a daze, and still dreams of future plans.

The last chapter of Whidden’s gripping study is entitled “Afterlives” and considers the many posthumous lives of an unfathomable character who died and was reborn while still alive. We learn of forgeries, influences, and his undying connection to artists and readers alike (apparently, he continues to receive enough mail for authorities to place a mailbox in his cemetery ...

Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan were said to be inspired by Rimbaud. Now that's a sign of how far reaching a poet's influence can be. And to think Rimbaud stopped writing by age 21 - died at 37 - with so many regrets.

Somehow this makes me think of Nick Drake, another poetic soul who died young. (An overdose, an accident.) Those who feel too deeply seem not to last long in this world. Live long and prosper, Yahia!

And if you haven't seen @owasco's posts about the two prisoners, I'll track down the links for you. Oddly, it seems to be a bright side (to my way of thinking) that these souls are "safe behind bars" - might they otherwise be self-destructing on the outside? That's a rhetorical question. I have long been haunted by the short and tragic lives of the great artists, Mozart, Van Gogh, the list is long. Do they fly too close to the sun? Again, no answer expected, but your provocative insight--Nameless, once more, we are reborn into the world--got me thinking along those lines.

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Here we go:
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Her poem is followed by this brief reminder of the story:

Akil Jahi and Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman have both been living on a death row for a very long time. I have started up a correspondence with Akil, whose letters always leave me breathless with both sorrow and joy. These men have learned to live life to the fullest in ways many of us only hope to be able to do. To learn more about my astonishment at what I found in a death row visiting room, please read this post, and this one. Akil has found his way in what has to be one of the bleakest of places to a state of feeling blessed. He has learned how to mine his traumas for riches. He writes poetry. We can learn so much from both of them.

Hey thanks Carol!

Wow, thanks, for sharing this; will explore 🙏🏼

So much to ponder, here, @Carolkean— you really must let me know if you’re ever in S Florida so we can have a long, proper chat.

I, too, did not think I’d live past 25 —now, at 46, I feel as though I’m outliving myself — and share your fascination with the intense one who do not last long.

Thank you, for finding & reading my Rimbaud review. I hope I’m past the stage of being attracted to the destructive ones and look forward to exploring intriguing links you shared.

Stay blessed, kindred spirit 🙏🏼✨