French Fried: Giving Arthur Rimbaud A Second Dip

I first tried to read French symbolist/surrealist poet Arthur Rimbaud in my early 20s when I was closer in age to the age he wrote "A Season in Hell," "The Drunken Boat," "Illuminations," and other poems, and at that time I struggled to comprehend Rimbaud's verse (read in English translations).

Older and more patient with dislocation, dissociation, disintegration, and dissatisfaction with one's society, I appreciate Rimbaud more now.

Just finished "A Season in Hell," full of anguish and obvious youthful rebellion against a very constricted life. His mother sounds like a bat out of hell; he was obviously haunted by his Catholicism and its intolerance of the dark side which poets often need to confront (devils, witches, sin): the boy was ready to blow rural France. He quit writing early in his career, lived an adventurous life running guns and doing other bad things in Africa, and having mad affairs. Yet, the poet's life must become superfluous to the poems themselves, and "A Season in Hell" is worth reading for its raw energetic "yawp," especially if you need a vessel to contain your own dissatisfactions and disappointments. Here is poet as exorcist.

Friday's for Fish

Sitting here with poet Judy, trying to share my excitement about doing a blog and new website. All too much to remember and running into glitches, but shan't be turned away! Thankfully, I share Celtic enthusiasm with fellow bard and together we will conquer the mad web world. Someday, I may even have something interesting to post.

Welcome

If you have arrived here, greetings fair traveler. My world is one comprised of equal parts imagination and reality. Literature, history, theater, music and art, and those who create the vital moments and work in our world are my enjoyment. I hope to share my enthusiasms and get turned on to some of your own. I invite visitors near and far to exchange with me. A community of philosophes and aesthetes grounding in the day to day.