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Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
Portuguese giant,
Heteronomous poet,
Mercurial mind.
A Modernist dreamer he is.
Like Luis Borges himself.
Argentine poet.
A man of two sides.
The private and the public personas.
The “Yo y El Otro” (I and Other).
And Pessoa, a self-discovery visionary.
Ruminating like Rumi.
The Persian poet.
The Islamic scholar,
Of transcendentalism
Discoursing dimensions of the divine I.
Our nature of I…
Is beyond common understanding.
Seen, yet remaining hidden.
In step with Jung, Pessoa sees I as archetype.
Searching for that royal I-ness…
Both thinkers declare it as Self.
Here is Carl Jung declaring to himself.
In The Red Book, paragraph 333…
A confessional statement:
“What am I? What is my I?
I always presume my I.
Now it stands before me.
I before my I.
I speak to you…
Now, my I…”
So too like the Austrian Martin Buber,
Pessoa ponders the symbolic Ich und Du,
The I in company with thou.
A poet’s task is to ever pursue
The heteronomous puzzling game…
Of self-reflection.
To discover the many I’s,
Hidden in you, me, thou; and in it.
To cease looking myopically.
For mankind’s look is outwardly…
Not at the Self that remains inward.
Seeing with blinders on. Oh what irony!
O Fernando Pessoa,
We’re all influenced by inner forces…
Buried we are —in psyche.
We need to engage I with our eyes.
To be enlightened by the I-sight…
Of multiple I’s.
We’re all many I’s.
We’re all multiple I’s.
Heteronomous souls.
Here now Pessoa.
In reflective engagement…
Concerning the Self.
“I don’t know, when I think or feel,
Who is thinking or feeling.
I am merely the place…
Where things are thought or felt.
I have more than just one soul.
There are more I’s than I myself.”
Portuguese giant,
Heteronomous poet,
Mercurial mind…
About this poem
This extended haiku poem is an expansion of an earlier three-line haiku poem that I composed and posted online in December 2021, entitled “Heteronomous Fernando Pessoa” concerning the artistic life of the Portuguese Surrealist writer, essayist and poet; astrologically a Gemini-an like myself, born at the cusp of Cancer; by inclination and temperament of multiple persuasions and perspectives (a man of 70 or so dramatis personae). This poem connects Pessoa’s philosophical frame of mind with those of other artists and thinkers like Rumi, Buber, Carl Jung, and Luis Borges. more »
Written on September 10, 2024
Submitted by karlcfolkes on September 10, 2024
Modified by karlcfolkes on September 13, 2024
- 1:50 min read
- 276 Views
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"Poetry.com" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/>.
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