“I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; Garlands from window to window; Golden chains from star to star … And I dance.”
Arthur Rimbaud 1854-1891
Arthur Rimbaud, the libertine and surrealist poet and writer, created a vast plethora of literature in the form of vivid poems, elaborate essays and decorative letters; that were enriched and layered with celebrative imagery and dynamic symbolism; that entangled and blended with wildly imaginative metaphors.
Some of the wild, expressive, and surrealist poetry he dramatically wrote were inspired and pertained to theme of seasons.
As a corollary, he viewed at least to some degree – Life as a continual shifting of seasons: in space, time, energy, and emotion that were metamorphosing and overlapping into other seasons and dimensions of space and time. That each passage was unique and spontaneous, possessed with its own distinctive, definitive, and enriching qualities and rhythms.
He perceived life, reality, consciousness, from a multi-dimensional and infinite point of view. Far beyond the material.
Rimbaud stated once: “Come from forever, and you will go everywhere.”
He perceived reality as something which moves and flows in infinite directions, that is possessed and expressed with fluidity, that what permeates below the surface is multiple realities constantly fluctuating and evolving.
And therefore, life is motion. Poetry in motion.
Rimbaud’s tumescent perception bled profusely into his entire psyche and transmuted into a deeply iron clad conviction which he fully lived by, and that poured out through artistic expression.
Rimbaud lived and danced through life intensely with the spark of overflowing electricity, and his creativity shattered the banal illusions that reflected in the ideological glass ceilings of a shrunken culture.
In the shattered shards of glass flowed the pulsating currents of his electric creations that sparkled and crackled with vitality. His glistening poetics shown into his audience’s faces, revealing to them – glimpses into the infinite scope and power of imagination.
Illustrating that poetic consciousness went far beyond the fragile structures erected by a society becoming ever-increasingly industrial and mechanical. The omnipotent pillars of modern technology which buttress human existence are revealed as shaky when struck by every piercing word and explosive image he conveys on the page for the reader. Structures crumble from the sheer force of his wild and wonderfully authentic writing.
He thrived living life beyond standard survival response mechanisms – that many are welded and wired so tightly to like Pavlovian androids.
He lived the creative life. He was iconoclastic, and he rejected conventional ideals, preconceptions, and terms by which the majority and collective lived by.
In the face of science and mechanics he embraced uncharted spaces and frontiers of poetic consciousness, and lived there as a true cosmic explorer. Through his unique form of art, he demonstrated to his audience and peers- the dangers and ludicrous insanities of an excessively mechanical culture shifting ever greater towards organisation and material existence designed to enslave humanity.
Through his profound art he was illustrating the power of imagination and poetic consciousness by using wild and surreal imagery and metaphors that appeared absurd but felt so real, so alive. And every time his words are read and spoken they burst once again into life.
His poetry alerted his readers, to stand up against a dry mechanical culture becoming alarmingly more robotic and detached from its innate poetic nature. While simultaneously highlighting the natural and spontaneous creative capacities and impulses which lay dormant and suppressed within them.
His desire on one level was to show people to embrace and liberate themselves through poetic exploration of their own imaginations. For the individual to seek and bring forth the hero, the god, the magician inside their being.
In this age of insanity, his absurd, spectacular, and utterly surreal creative exploits appear ever more poignant and relative.
Rimbaud’s creative impulses were not shackled, and he unleashed them with intense vigour for all to bare witness.
He delved into poetic realms and bathed submerged in their galvanizing elixirs. There he washed himself in the violent and tempestuous currents and streams of the free-flowing rivers that gushed forth from the fountain of his imagination.
Peering into his mind by reading his magical words, I sense he would have revelled in those dynamic and undulating streams and currents and came to the profound realisation that poetic consciousness hooked up with imagination, can revolutionise and liberate the individual, the soul, at the very core of his being.
Perhaps he laughed hysterically as he saw in free-flowing rivers of poetry and imagination, how the dense and oppressive mechanical and materialistic nature of Earth culture is a mere joke.
And that it’s established consensus of ‘what is’ and it’s tightly bound parameters of existence (defined by ruling elites) – is just a fragment of reality, a minor fraction of endless universes. Merely a construct, a pseudo-reality manufactured by the ruling class that’s sold by telling by stories filtered down by authority figures, who are installing propaganda into populations.
Hypnotic propaganda designed to box and coral the free minded and spirited nature of people. To stamp out and crush any imagination and independent thought. So that individuals will surrender their individuality, their uniqueness and creative impulses. And exchange down for the tyranny of collectivism – that flies under the false banners of ‘ for the greater good’, ‘ Diversity, Equality, Inclusion’ and ‘Unity for a better world’.
I reckon Rimbaud saw this as the ‘silver surfer’ traversing through the infinite streams and waves of imagination.
And he saw what is deemed ‘absolute reality’ dissolves away in the relentless rivers of imagination, that acts as a solvent to remove the limitations and illusions.
Here a brief insight into his mind, by parlaying a few words he spoke of regarding the nature of reality:
‘’…For a long time I boasted that I was master of all possible landscapes– and I thought the great figures of modern painting and poetry were laughable.
What I liked were of absurd paintings, pictures over doorways, stage sets, carnival backdrops, billboards, bright-coloured prints, old-fashioned literature, church Latin, erotic books full of misspellings, the kind of novels our grandmothers read, fairy tales, little children’s books, old operas, silly old songs, the naive rhythms of country rimes.
I dreamed of Crusades, voyages of discovery that nobody had heard of, republics without histories, religious wars stamped out, revolutions in morals, movements of races and continents; I used to believe in every kind of magic.
I invented colours for the vowels! A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green. I made rules for the form and movement of every consonant, and I boasted of inventing, with rhythms from within me, a kind of poetry that all the senses, sooner or later, would recognize. And I alone would be its translator.
I began it as an investigation. I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.”
I’ve no doubt Rimbaud through expressing such statements attracted and experienced his fair share of ridicule and mockery from the educated and political classes, and intelligentsia who were bounded tightly with to a pervasive and hypnotic propaganda, that was ever-increasingly fused and imbued with a scientific, moral, and mechanical bent.
His contemporaries most likely declared him either a dangerous lunatic, a naïve idealist, or a deluded dreamer. Maybe all three labels they endeavoured to slap upon His name, His reputation, His art.
Whatever criticism and attack he encountered, most likely he responded and dealt with it by dishing out a brief remark such as: “I’m intact, and I don’t give a damn.” Which he was cited to have said once in regard to an literary critique.
Rimbaud never succumbed to the social pressure to conform, nor did he pander to what others thought. He lived without that fear and pursued his own creative ambitions. He never allowed the collective to stop him exploring his own unique imagination.
Despite the tide of ridicule from establishment consensus gatekeepers. Rimbaud had his admirers, whom were the open-minded and independent individuals who could recognise and resonate with his expressive and free poetry and writing. And could gauge the vast and expansive space from which Rimbaud was conveying himself from.
Because that space is beyond the material world and what society deems to be all reality. It’s a space of infinite imagination.
The frontiers of imagination have been explored by many artists. Rimbaud was a trailblazer, and his creative endeavours and legacy forged and showed the way ahead for those who dare to imagine a world beyond this world, beyond the status quo of lowest common denominator set by weak and malevolent collectivists.
He was an escape artist who showed a way to exit the reality asylum.
As Rimbaud eloquently described : “Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.”
A farce he envisioned to destroy through the poetry he created.
Here is another flicker from the flames of his burning imagination:
“The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire. He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none. A language must be found…of the soul, for the soul and will include everything: perfumes, sounds colours, thought grappling with thought”.’’
As the poet he was Prometheus stealing the fire from the gods. And then using the fire to create a colossal conflagration to Illuminate souls standing in the dark shadows cast by an overbearing ruling elite, and to burn to a cinder their fabricated materialistic world designed to enslave humanity.
His creative fire engendered what he described as: “A thousand Dreams within me softly burn…”. Those words encouraged and evoked souls to liberate themselves from the oppressive shackles of consensus reality. Enabling them to see in the pile of ashes their true infinite powers and desires which had been hidden deep.
His promethean triumph made an impact so profoundly deep that many artists have been heavily influenced by him. Jim Morrison (who found writing poetry more fulfilling than creating music with The Doors), Bob Dylan the prolific songwriter, Richey Edwards (wherever you may be now), and the much reviled but tremendous writer Henry Miller, are but a few names inspired by Arthur Rimbaud.
Artists inspired who dare to dream ‘’ a thousand dreams …’’.
I count myself as one too.
Are you an artist who dares to dream?
And so, staying within the spirit of Rimbaud, (perhaps the spirit of him is within me) my attention homes in on to the theme of seasons once again. I do wonder sometimes if I was Arthur Rimbaud in a past life. There again I may be crazy???
It’s the season of good will, the festive season. Which if you research thoroughly – relates to Winter solstice, which occurred just over a week ago on the 22nd of December 2023.
The solstice represents the rejuvenation of the sun in our hemisphere.
Days will grow longer gradually, and the emanations of the sun will strike upon the land with fiercer intensity, and illuminations will warm the soul through winter.
Although solstice heralds the birth of winter, it’s a period where things spring to life or the hope of spring begins to percolate.
Rimbaud would see this as more than a passing of seasons relating to just an astrological standpoint. He would have perceived it as a poetic metaphor and felt it as an opportunity to embrace the new, the unknown. To capture the essence of something that could revitalise life while being in tune to the rhythms of nature.
And so…
As I write, the fireworks are shooting and cascading explosively in the sable sky, and the festive period is reaching its conclusion. And I can hear the choruses of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ ringing in my ears. Robert Burns that’s another poet.
I know it’s the heralding of new era, a new season. It’s Twenty- Twenty – Fucking-Four.
Wow! How time flies.
Happy new year readers!
A new season is upon us. And with it, the opportunity for you to envision something new and thrilling over the horizon. To manifest new desires that are thrilling and exciting.
To imagine and create something new and pulsating. That goes far beyond the shrunken perception of ‘what is possible’ set by the mediocrity of lowest common denominator.
My unique and dynamic coaching style is directed at encouraging and initiating the creation of new desires and visions, that are hidden within self.
I’m there to support you – to discover desires and visions of new: art, language, relationships, projects, businesses, homes, or experiences.
Because creating these new desires and visions, generates and brings about tremendous personal transformation.
For this to happen, I encourage you to go with the philosophy of imagination and its infinite power and capacity to create reality. To invent new reality, that transforms self.
I teach you to embrace your imagination and to live intensely with and through imagination. What I offer you, is an approach that shows you exciting, innovative, and tremendous ways to stimulate and apply the power of your imagination – that enables you to live a creative, powerful, and joyful life.
From that vast oceanic space of your imagination, anything is possible, anything is achievable, and I do mean anything.
The stale leftovers of not only Christmas, but of material reality and consensus reality are thrown away. Instead, the power, scope, and range of your creative impulses and imagination are tapped into and brought forth. So to envision and create the most profound desires that lie within you.
Life transforms, Big time. Your life expands. Reality expands. Your reality. You move from little self into BIG SELF!
By living intensely and intimately with your unique and infinite imagination – you can create and take quantum leaps into uncharted and unexplored territories of Space, time, energy, and emotion.
That enliven and enrich every fibre of your psyche and being.
Creating your reality becomes your fantastic artistic expression.
Your life is suddenly art that is explosive, euphoric, and ecstatic.
Intense emotion seeps into your bones and then radiates out from you.
As you move into the endless landscapes of your tremendously uplifting imagination, life is no more dull or suffering from a case of chronic boring.
Instead it’s enriched and enlivened by the colouration of vivid: Images, feelings, language, symbols, and experiences that go beyond the mundane of lowest common denominator.
The burdensome stresses and problems that overwhelmed before, now easily recede into the background of this wonderful landscape.
Life is now an adventure! Life becomes electric!
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