Something very...non-sequitur about her work here. I am glad I was given an introduction. I could not help but think of another poet you recently posted, Clarice Lispector, particularly her cannonball, Aqua Viva.
Their is also a great deal of "unreason", along with the surreal nature of the authors own struggle, broodiness, entanglements with life and death.
It is quite possible my wires got crossed and was thinking there was a recent Clarice Lispector post, but perhaps it was actually Anais Nin. No big loss though, she is great.
So great to find Alejandra in my in-box this morning! Thank you. I've felt such reverence and affinity for her since I discovered her work I'm not sure when or where. Her heroic "radical subjectivity". And the whole lineage of continental poets she cites, for the same reason-- taking Rimbaud's "We must change life!" seriously-- making the imaginative transmutation of experience a life project and viewing that implicitly as an act of political revolt, as the Situationists did explicitly "All power to the imagination!" and also as a sort of yogic path, disintegration or liberation! This results in a poetry of unique commitment and intensity that invites the reader to adventure in the haunted holographic curio shop-- alchemist's lab of the mind. The mind as the prima materia and individual life as the Great Work! A path to affirming life for those lucky cursed who can't be satisfied with "the ambitions of a pig." It is a dangerous path but with a little help from Jung and the Mahasiddhas I think it can result in ownership of one's mind not as an inert commodity, more in the way one might own a demon.
For sure. There are writers who've made their name off the happy moments. An entire generation of Spanish poets, for that matter. I just think, like the universe seeking entropy, many find the chaos a bit easier.
Dig it. Took a really bad break up with a narcissist to get me back into writing poetry, but I was happy to find out when things improved that I could still write and as fun as it is to write dark poetry, I also enjoyed the opposite. I read somewhere that the second law of thermodynamics, about ever increasing entropy in a closed system, has an exception in man, at least if we can look around and see progress, which is an open question of late….
Poetry alone doesn't "heal the fundamental wound,” or “rescue the abomination of human misery by embodying it"; poetry can kick-start, compound or confirm a healing process.
When will we see that the body wants/needs other hearts to resonate with in real-time, to let it heal... let the wounds heal that were inflicted in childhood while desperately trying to relate to others?
Human misery can't embody, neither the abomination of it, but we can feel miserable and let it heal, especially if we dare to come together and witness a body's relief of suffering from society's attempt to isolate individuals. No wonder many poets suicide... no bodies around who witnessed their suffering, and wouldn't lock them in, or wouldn't lock them in the circle of friends, partners and family, going round in circles.
Forget about "break[ing] the barriers between the solitary soul and the world."
Since we're born in soul-groups, no soul is solitary. The barriers between soul and world are convincing but I dare say: 'not real' otherwise healing wouldn't be possible.
If Alejandra's date of birth is correctly stated here, she was on a pathway of consolidation, and learning to let ego distinguish between her feelings and the feelings from people around; she was building an 'inner' structure, which required putting boundaries in place to get to know herself.
In my view it would have been very helpful if she could have had conversations with people without the need "to let them in".
Of course writing and reading poetry helps but without conversations, the opportunity to converse, and revert 'what was done to and for us' we're hindering the body's wish to heal in connection with others without getting entangled in connection with other bodies, i.e. relate (slow down, tell, recount and leave) in real-time what's going on in our spirited body-world.
This is poetry not an excuse for a therapy session. Don't do that on this page. Read the poetry without diagnosing the poets. I despise this type of moralizing and therapeutic jargon.
I guess healing can be a function of poetry, as with the chants of Maria Sabina. I don't think Sabina thought of herself as a poet though. I don't know, but I'm not sure Pizarnik was all that interested in happiness at least in her creative work. In my reading, her and many of the poets and writers she refers to treated their suffering as a source of energy for confronting social facts they experienced as ossified and suffocating. I feel an aspiration to discover and embody an unconditioned state of being in her and their work. I think they were intent on transcendence more than healing. Metamorphosis not recovery. My take.
Thanks for sharing your take, and I'll take it. Let's play on the middle-ground of good and mistakes ☺️
You've helped me to make it clear. I hesitated to go in the direction you point at, but now I see I have to be brave and come out with it and in it.
Poetry can be used to prevent healing and to stay in a state of suffering. There, I said it.
I can suffer my whole life when I won't accept I can't break iron with my bare hands, as well as determined to "embody an unconditioned state", or determined to find dry water, or start a fight to make peace, or train a fish to climb a tree; suffering continues if I can't allow the fact that it's not possible.
Many people only scratch what they're suffering from, afraid to feel pain, or scratch the scabs so that the wound keeps bleeding, or wait till death to allow metamorphosis.
"Suf" in Dutch means boring, drowsy, dull and "sufferd" means oaf, blockhead, dullard, not very bright indeed.
It's like larva trying to stop metamorphosis or a seed wanting to stay in its nut-case.
I'm not against it, but the body is.
When "social factors constrict consciousness", it's time to talk, converse, revert flows of energy, to see the blindspot in our bio-energy sphere, empty the bodily energetic vault full of painful stories by feeling them, preferably with people able to witness this process, and so on... let's be clear, the power and flow of consciousness is not adapting to our constriction, it just flows and we have a choice to flow in it and flower, and the wise idiot in me says that it's possible before death.
Happiness isn't a goal for me to chase either. What I'm saying is: what we won't feel can't heal, can't manifest, and now I see that poetry can be used as a way to bypass feeling, which hinders to feel the tension of individuality i.e. our undivided duality reality, including ideas, thoughts and feelings about society, and on my Substack I crack the nut-case to let the light in. You're welcome to have a look.
Alejandra Pisarnik (Flora Pisarnik Bromiker) was the second daughter in the family of Ukrainian Jews Ilya Pisarnik and Rosa Bromiker, who moved to Argentina from Ukraine. Her unique and incomparable style has transcended time. Very deep and powerful poetry. Thank you for another encounter with talent.
Something very...non-sequitur about her work here. I am glad I was given an introduction. I could not help but think of another poet you recently posted, Clarice Lispector, particularly her cannonball, Aqua Viva.
Their is also a great deal of "unreason", along with the surreal nature of the authors own struggle, broodiness, entanglements with life and death.
Glad to know of Pizarnik.
Agua Viva is a remarkable book.
It certainly is.
I re-read it about every 6 months!
I f*ng LOVE Clarice Lispector. Need to go back and find that post now. Thanks for mentioning it.
It is quite possible my wires got crossed and was thinking there was a recent Clarice Lispector post, but perhaps it was actually Anais Nin. No big loss though, she is great.
Never heard of Alejandra Pizarnik until now. I am so greatful for the introduction. And there are many quotables to stimulate the mind too. 🙏
So great to find Alejandra in my in-box this morning! Thank you. I've felt such reverence and affinity for her since I discovered her work I'm not sure when or where. Her heroic "radical subjectivity". And the whole lineage of continental poets she cites, for the same reason-- taking Rimbaud's "We must change life!" seriously-- making the imaginative transmutation of experience a life project and viewing that implicitly as an act of political revolt, as the Situationists did explicitly "All power to the imagination!" and also as a sort of yogic path, disintegration or liberation! This results in a poetry of unique commitment and intensity that invites the reader to adventure in the haunted holographic curio shop-- alchemist's lab of the mind. The mind as the prima materia and individual life as the Great Work! A path to affirming life for those lucky cursed who can't be satisfied with "the ambitions of a pig." It is a dangerous path but with a little help from Jung and the Mahasiddhas I think it can result in ownership of one's mind not as an inert commodity, more in the way one might own a demon.
Beautiful piece.
"With every word I write I remember the void that makes me write what I couldn’t if I let you in."
I love this idea. Satisfaction and peace can be dangerous to a poet who uses their absence as fuel.
Negative emotions carry so many words, while positive ones can often only carry a silent stupor.
True, but… there’s always a but. But there’s beauty worth writing about too.
For sure. There are writers who've made their name off the happy moments. An entire generation of Spanish poets, for that matter. I just think, like the universe seeking entropy, many find the chaos a bit easier.
Dig it. Took a really bad break up with a narcissist to get me back into writing poetry, but I was happy to find out when things improved that I could still write and as fun as it is to write dark poetry, I also enjoyed the opposite. I read somewhere that the second law of thermodynamics, about ever increasing entropy in a closed system, has an exception in man, at least if we can look around and see progress, which is an open question of late….
thanks for the introduction.
love this line from her poem
"Sex, Night":
"Sometimes we suffer too much reality
in the space of a single night."
Superb. Thank you for introducing this great talent.
Poetry alone doesn't "heal the fundamental wound,” or “rescue the abomination of human misery by embodying it"; poetry can kick-start, compound or confirm a healing process.
When will we see that the body wants/needs other hearts to resonate with in real-time, to let it heal... let the wounds heal that were inflicted in childhood while desperately trying to relate to others?
Human misery can't embody, neither the abomination of it, but we can feel miserable and let it heal, especially if we dare to come together and witness a body's relief of suffering from society's attempt to isolate individuals. No wonder many poets suicide... no bodies around who witnessed their suffering, and wouldn't lock them in, or wouldn't lock them in the circle of friends, partners and family, going round in circles.
Forget about "break[ing] the barriers between the solitary soul and the world."
Since we're born in soul-groups, no soul is solitary. The barriers between soul and world are convincing but I dare say: 'not real' otherwise healing wouldn't be possible.
If Alejandra's date of birth is correctly stated here, she was on a pathway of consolidation, and learning to let ego distinguish between her feelings and the feelings from people around; she was building an 'inner' structure, which required putting boundaries in place to get to know herself.
In my view it would have been very helpful if she could have had conversations with people without the need "to let them in".
Of course writing and reading poetry helps but without conversations, the opportunity to converse, and revert 'what was done to and for us' we're hindering the body's wish to heal in connection with others without getting entangled in connection with other bodies, i.e. relate (slow down, tell, recount and leave) in real-time what's going on in our spirited body-world.
This is poetry not an excuse for a therapy session. Don't do that on this page. Read the poetry without diagnosing the poets. I despise this type of moralizing and therapeutic jargon.
I'm not a therapist. I don't do therapy, so it's not meant to be a session. Just responding to your newsletter 🤗
I guess healing can be a function of poetry, as with the chants of Maria Sabina. I don't think Sabina thought of herself as a poet though. I don't know, but I'm not sure Pizarnik was all that interested in happiness at least in her creative work. In my reading, her and many of the poets and writers she refers to treated their suffering as a source of energy for confronting social facts they experienced as ossified and suffocating. I feel an aspiration to discover and embody an unconditioned state of being in her and their work. I think they were intent on transcendence more than healing. Metamorphosis not recovery. My take.
Thanks for sharing your take, and I'll take it. Let's play on the middle-ground of good and mistakes ☺️
You've helped me to make it clear. I hesitated to go in the direction you point at, but now I see I have to be brave and come out with it and in it.
Poetry can be used to prevent healing and to stay in a state of suffering. There, I said it.
I can suffer my whole life when I won't accept I can't break iron with my bare hands, as well as determined to "embody an unconditioned state", or determined to find dry water, or start a fight to make peace, or train a fish to climb a tree; suffering continues if I can't allow the fact that it's not possible.
Many people only scratch what they're suffering from, afraid to feel pain, or scratch the scabs so that the wound keeps bleeding, or wait till death to allow metamorphosis.
"Suf" in Dutch means boring, drowsy, dull and "sufferd" means oaf, blockhead, dullard, not very bright indeed.
It's like larva trying to stop metamorphosis or a seed wanting to stay in its nut-case.
I'm not against it, but the body is.
When "social factors constrict consciousness", it's time to talk, converse, revert flows of energy, to see the blindspot in our bio-energy sphere, empty the bodily energetic vault full of painful stories by feeling them, preferably with people able to witness this process, and so on... let's be clear, the power and flow of consciousness is not adapting to our constriction, it just flows and we have a choice to flow in it and flower, and the wise idiot in me says that it's possible before death.
Happiness isn't a goal for me to chase either. What I'm saying is: what we won't feel can't heal, can't manifest, and now I see that poetry can be used as a way to bypass feeling, which hinders to feel the tension of individuality i.e. our undivided duality reality, including ideas, thoughts and feelings about society, and on my Substack I crack the nut-case to let the light in. You're welcome to have a look.
❤️
Great. Your talking about one of my favourites
Alejandra Pisarnik (Flora Pisarnik Bromiker) was the second daughter in the family of Ukrainian Jews Ilya Pisarnik and Rosa Bromiker, who moved to Argentina from Ukraine. Her unique and incomparable style has transcended time. Very deep and powerful poetry. Thank you for another encounter with talent.
"I think only of your body while I shape and reshape my poem’s body as if it were broken."
❤️
Thank you, Poetic Outlaws. Once again you introduce me to something wonderful I didn’t know.
Why she speaks... Listening to the music of words is more seducing... Silence plays beautiful melodies..
Yeah. Imagine what we might do if we weren't so terrified all the time.
I discovered Pizarnik in a book I was editing. I immediately ordered a collection of her poems.
Wow, I too appreciate the introduction 🙏