sea o(h) mother
that's what we say
sea o(h) mother
sea that if you look you see waves
waves that if you look you see rocks
rocks rocks
eroded
rock wave rock wave rock wave
eroded
all this sea
all this say if you look you see waves
Radical Romanticism rejects the idea of the poetry master as one fully in charge of (usually) his materials and the fulfilment of intentions. The poet of Romantic manifestos lives in “uncertainties mysteries doubts” on the one hand, and on the other, praises poetry that discovers itself in the process of its making. If a poet is a “man speaking to men” (sic), then no one should be anyone else’s master. In Mallarmé’s Un Coup des Dés, the master drowns and the starry constellations are revealed. At times the “master” seems to indicate expanse and extent of vision, a hope for the conscious, celebratory presence of the subject flowing through the world, also participation and improvisation. “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass” (Whitman), or Adam Mickiewicz more spectacularly: “I am the master! I stretch forth my hands, even to the skies! I lay may hands upon the stars, as on the crystal wheels of the harmonica. Now fast, now slow, as my soul wills, I turn the stars. I weave them into rainbows, harmonies. I feel immortality! I create immortality!”
that's what we say
sea o(h) mother
sea that if you look you see waves
waves that if you look you see rocks
rocks rocks
eroded
rock wave rock wave rock wave
eroded
all this sea
all this say if you look you see waves
Radical Romanticism rejects the idea of the poetry master as one fully in charge of (usually) his materials and the fulfilment of intentions. The poet of Romantic manifestos lives in “uncertainties mysteries doubts” on the one hand, and on the other, praises poetry that discovers itself in the process of its making. If a poet is a “man speaking to men” (sic), then no one should be anyone else’s master. In Mallarmé’s Un Coup des Dés, the master drowns and the starry constellations are revealed. At times the “master” seems to indicate expanse and extent of vision, a hope for the conscious, celebratory presence of the subject flowing through the world, also participation and improvisation. “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass” (Whitman), or Adam Mickiewicz more spectacularly: “I am the master! I stretch forth my hands, even to the skies! I lay may hands upon the stars, as on the crystal wheels of the harmonica. Now fast, now slow, as my soul wills, I turn the stars. I weave them into rainbows, harmonies. I feel immortality! I create immortality!”
Text by Jeffrey Robinson, from Romantic Manifestos Manifest (2024)
ABOVE & BELOW
Mare, by Jessica Pujol Duran
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