June 11, 1936 is an important date for Surrealism, for it marks the movement’s grand launch to the English-speaking world at the first International Surrealist Exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London. In the introduction to the exhibition’s catalog, Herbert Read reminds us of Plato’s words that the poet “is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him.”
June 11 shall serve as another important date for Surrealism, for it will mark the inaugural poetry of Surreal Poetics, re-establishing the primacy of poetry and the written word within Surrealism to the English-speaking world.
The ability of a poet to be “out of his senses” heightens his sensitivity to his surroundings, opening himself up to becoming the object of chance encounters and the witness of found objects. A revelation occurs when “the mind is no longer in him” and he fully understands, just as the original surrealists understood, a reality that is not devoid of marvelous happenings that are commonly attributed to dreams or delusions. This is the surreality that André Breton spoke of, and this is the surreality that Surreal Poetics will seek to highlight.
Surreally Yours,
Daren Berton, Editor
Surreal Poetics
June 11 shall serve as another important date for Surrealism, for it will mark the inaugural poetry of Surreal Poetics, re-establishing the primacy of poetry and the written word within Surrealism to the English-speaking world.
The ability of a poet to be “out of his senses” heightens his sensitivity to his surroundings, opening himself up to becoming the object of chance encounters and the witness of found objects. A revelation occurs when “the mind is no longer in him” and he fully understands, just as the original surrealists understood, a reality that is not devoid of marvelous happenings that are commonly attributed to dreams or delusions. This is the surreality that André Breton spoke of, and this is the surreality that Surreal Poetics will seek to highlight.
Surreally Yours,
Daren Berton, Editor
Surreal Poetics
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