Rimbaud Journey
Sometime in the near future, I hope to post some photographs of a special journey I took to follow the footsteps of poet Arthur Rimbaud. On 12 April, 2011, I departed Colorado on my first journey to France. My late mother was born there. I spent seven weeks living in the Latin Quarter of Paris, shooting photography and video all over the city. I took special interest in graves and landmarks pertaining to outlaw artists and writers.
At the end of May, I departed Paris headed by train to spend ten days in the combined towns of Charleville and Mezieres. Arthur Rimbaud was born in Charleville and that's where he is buried. He often wandered into Mezieres with his friend Paul Verlaine. He also visited a friend in the publishing business there. I explored places that Rimbaud lived, walked, found inspiration and got into mischief. I snuck up to the top of a steeple where Rimbaud allegedly dropped flower pots to scare fellow churchgoers. I made inquiries and wandered far beyond the usual tourist points of interest. My photography and video work was focused on capturing actual locations, mostly around beautiful waterways, structures and fortifications where Rimbaud wandered including an area that allegedly inspired his work Illuminations. My longtime interest in Rimbaud was preceded by a strong interest in exploring the dream state and the world of visionaries through planned films, poems and writings of my own. Rimbaud has fueled that vision.
In the third segment of my journey, I wandered further into eastern France to meet my relatives for the very first time. It was a wonderful union that took me back into old family history. They also honored my request to take me to the birthplace of Joan of Arc where my mother had visited around 1932 as a schoolgirl and my father had visited as a soldier liberating France 1944, through no connection to each other. (My parents first met yesrs later in America). My interest in Joan of Arc is somewhat independent of my parents and partly rooted in her visions, final experience and power over tyrants. Thisinterst came about lahgely through Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith..
Currently, I am living a somewhat austere life in my van and searching to buy low cost mountain land in Colorado. Life in a van can be difficult. But being close to the outdoors provides a vital intimacy with nocturnal dream life. I sleep better and often dream better. The experience is also allowing me to keep more money invested in stocks while others prefer to burn money for their landlords. I hate giving vast piles of money to people called "Lord". Money is very much a promising tool for any creative person with hope. When you get some you must make it into a positive factor in what you do. And you must make it grow by any reasonable means. We are all enslaved to money or liberated by it or both.
In due time, I hope to begin posting photos of my Rimbaud journey once I am more settled. I returned from France on 8 July, 2011 Within the coming year I hope to be living on land of my own and creating my first writer retreat to live and work while hopefully making further journeys to Paris every few years. I am also hoping to find cheap rural land within 75 miles of NYC in order to expand my working horizon as a writer, photographer and screenwriter/film aspirant.. |
Specs of gold
That sparkle
Below crystal pools
By torrent waters
In bright June sun
Heavenly blue.... skies
- Rolling Boulder
(poetry section) |
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Reading Surrealist Love Poems.
Photo by Kat G. |
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