The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire. He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none. A language must be foundโฆof the soul, for the soul and will include everything: perfumes, sounds colors, thought grappling with thought
Arthur RimbaudI'm now making myself as scummy as I can. Why? I want to be a poet, and I'm working at turning myself into a seer. You won't understand any of this, and I'm almost incapable of explaining it to you. The idea is to reach the unknown by the derangement of all the senses. It involves enormous suffering, but one must be strong and be a born poet. It's really not my fault.
Arthur RimbaudAnd from then on, I bathed in the Poem of the Sea, star-infused, and opalescent, devouring green azures
Arthur RimbaudStronger than alcohol, vaster than poetry, Ferment the freckled red bitterness of love!
Arthur RimbaudI dreamed of Crusades, voyages of discovery that nobody had heard of, republics without histories, religious wars stamped out, revolutions in morals, movements of races and continents; I used to believe in every kind of magic. I began it as an investigation. I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
Arthur Rimbaud