It is February 1, 2010. In honor of Saint Valentine, I am posting a poem that I have carried with me for many decades. It is a poem written by the Surrealist writer, Robert Desnos.
For the record, I am a bit touchy about the term "surreal" being tossed about rather carelessly these days. Surrealism began as a literary movement and is complex, fascinating and VERY specific.
To be considered actual Surrealism is to conform to Breton's Manifesto. More on that topic in a later post, as yet to be determined.
In the meantime, this is the real thing - the genuine article...
I hope you enjoy it.
As Lenny Kravitz says, "Let Love Rule"
POEM TO THE MYSTERIOUS ONE
I have dreamed of you so much that you are losing
your reality. Is it still time to reach this
living body and to kiss on the mouth the birth
of the voice that is so dear to me? I have dreamed
of you so much that my arms, accustomed while
embracing your shadow to fold over my breast,
would not bend to the shape of your body perhaps.
And that, before the real appearance of what has
been haunting me and governing me for days and
years, I should doubtless become a shadow, O sentimental
scales. I have dreamed of you so much that
it is perhaps no longer possible for me to awaken.
I sleep standing up, my body exposed to all the
appearances of life and love, and you, the only one
who counts today for me, I could touch your brow and
your lips less than the lips and the brow of the first
newcomer. I have dreamed of you so much, walked,
spoken, slept with your phantom so much, that all that
I can do now perhaps and in spite of everything is
to be a phantom among phantoms and one hundred times
more of a shadow than the shadow that walks and will
walk joyfully on the sundial of your life.
by Robert Desnos, date unknown
In Peace, Love and Beauty...
Now you have me backtracking to Freud, Dadaism, Breton, and all sorts of things I had filed in my memory banks. Thank you for the stimulating introduction and Desnos' poem. I have "abused" the term surrealism for years. In my mind it had become enmeshed with Surrealistic Pillow the Jefferson Airplane album, when in reality, or should I say the lack thereof, there lie a much deeper meaning, defined so carefully by Breton, who passed in 1966, the year before the Airplane album was released. Thanks for all your mind expanding posts. I must locate some of Desnos' works and peruse them.
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