Open Link Monday

Welcome to the Imaginary Garden...

photo credit: tanakawho via photopin cc

Greetings to all poets on this last Monday of July. Many thanks to all who linked up last week - I was moved by the many posts written as tributes to those who had lost their lives in the political unrest which has been so prevalent this month. On that occasion, I asked what was the poet's task. Today, I ask what is the poet's vision?

Arthur Rimbaud said: “A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences... where he becomes all men, the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed--and the Supreme Scientist...  He attains the unknown, and if, demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them!"

Sometimes, this label of "poet" seems difficult to live up to, yet we all do our part, in our own styles, to express what we see, feel and understand of the world around us. However, what is a poet without a reader? This is why we take the opportunity to gather in the Imaginary Garden each week, not only as a source of inspiration but also to share our work with willing readers. Please link up a poem of your choice, and visit the blogs of fellow poets, who share this space with you. And have a wonderful Monday.