Читать книгу Duende - N. Thomas Johnson-Medland - Страница 6

This new volume of poetry is going to be tricky. The theme is a bit beyond the usual construct for the modern reader of poetry. DUENDE.

It is the concept that does not come immediately to fore of peoples’ ken. But, that is just to the cognitive side. It clearly does come to the fore of the unconscious mind because it is wrapped all around the role and function of it.

DUENDE is the shadow side . . . it is all of the personality that is really about making up that alter ego. It is the BATMAN side of Bruce Wayne. It is the weakness, brokenness, and darkness we go through and embody to make us whole.

And yet, in terms of poetry, it is the very thing that poets are putting out from their own being. It is the ethos, penthos, and pathos of every word/image of all poets of all times. It is at the heart of what mesmerizes us in the poems we are called to write, read, and hold deep within as meaningful, truthful, and alive. It is what we modern folk would call ROBUST INTEGRITY.

In scriptures, it appears as the prodigal son tales. It is the person who wanders away and then has an awakening and comes back to himself (but now he is more HIMSELF), but in a fuller way. Many faiths have this sort of broken open wholeness theme in them.

It is that part of a person that is just beyond being able to grasp, to hold, and to tether. It is that odd or undefinable characteristic in a person that somehow makes them seem more whole and settling than other people. It is the stuff that roots our perception of others in a deep and rich genuineness. It is what we may associate with the term “tried by fire”, in regard to the purifying process and nature of life on the other side of “hard-times”.

It will be a challenge—my challenge—to hold this jewel up before others and have them go, “hmmmm.”

I am up to it. And now, back to the page.