02-02-25

The first task of a man who wants to be a poet is to study his own self-awareness, in its entirety; he seeks out his soul, he inspects it, he tests it, he learns it. As soon as he knows it, he must cultivate it. [...]

I say that one must be a Seer , make oneself a Visionary.

The Poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disorganization of all the senses. All the forms of love, of suffering, of madness, he searches himself, he exhausts all the poisons in himself, keeping only their quintessences. Unspeakable torment for which he needs the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, and he becomes, above all others, the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed, - and the Supreme Scientist! For he

reaches the unknown ! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone else! He reaches the unknown, and if demented, he ends up by losing the meaning of his visions, he will at least have seen them!