Monday, March 9, 2009

Pierre Reverdy et moi

“ Poetry is born of absence; Poetry is in what is not. In what we lack…Poetry is the link between us and absent reality.”- Thus said this French poet. This gap is tragic, but it is the poet’s reason for being.

 

And hence, there is an anguished sense of loss, of incompleteness and inner void permeating his work. He once described his writings as “crystals deposited after the effervescent contact of the mind with reality.”

 

Son of a wine grower, he was essentially a solitary man and at the age of thirty seven withdrew to the monastery of Solesmes and remained there until his death.

 

A pure poet, the eye often took priority over the ear in his poems.

 

Central Heating [ Chauffage Central]

 

A little light

You see a little light come down on your abdomen to light you up

-A woman stretches herself like a rocket-

In the corner over there a shadow is reading

Her feet swinging free are too pretty

 

Short-circuit in the heart

A breakdown in the motor

What magnet holds me up?

My eyes and my love are losing their way

 

A mere nothing

A fire we rekindle and which goes out

I’ve had enough of the wind

I’ve had enough of the sky

At heart all we see is artificial

Even your mouth

And yet I am hot where your hand touches me

 

The door is open and I don’t go in

I see your face and I don’t believe in it

You are pale

One evening when we were sad we wept on a trunk

Over there men were laughing

Nearly naked children sometimes strolled by

The water was clear

A red copper wire guides the light there

The sun and your heart are of the same substance

 

“The sun and your heart are of the same substance.” This was the message I sent [smsed] to Soha on Valentine’s Day three years ago. And her reply-“What a lovely message….thank you Rajiv.”

 

In fact, this [above] poem is the first of Reverdy’s poems that I read. And I believe that’s one of the best messages I’ve ever sent to a girl/woman.

 

And since then I’ve been in love with his poems and the woman I sent his poem to!!!!   

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