Baudelaire's Flowers

By Rrose Sélavy

The Name of my book is Baudelaire's Flowers. Charles Baudelaire was a Romantic and Symbolist French Catholic poet of the 18th century. He wrote Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal). "His use of the female, in both unusually erotic and seemingly sadistic imagery, generated much of the controversy that first surrounded his publication of Les Fleurs du Mal. Controversy concerning Baudelaire's poetry has not been limited to his subject matter." What I convey in my poetry is a sense of morose boredom in a purgatory of my own idleness. Followed by a rebirth, and then ascension. The way to enlightenment is a narrow one. "To see infinity in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower." Blake states in his Auguries. Rrose Selavy (ce la vie) was a pseudonym used by Marcel Duchamp. Sela is used in the Psalms of David and means rock. "Sela appears in later history and in the Vulgate under the name of 'Petra', the Greek translation of the Semitic word 'Sela', meaning 'rock'. This led to Sela being confused with the Nabataean city of Rekem, known to the Hellenistic world as Petra." La vie means "The life." "La vie en rose" is a French expression that translates to "life in pink". It's similar to the English idiom "to see life through rose-colored glasses". The expression means seeing life through rose-colored glasses, which is an idealized, naive, or sometimes romantic way of seeing the world. It can also mean having a positive attitude or outlook, and trying to see beauty in the everyday. "La vie en rose" is also the name of a song by French singer Edith Piaf. The song's lyrics express the joy of finding true love and appeal to those who have endured difficult times, such as those who have survived World War II. Piaf's expressive interpretations of the song made her internationally famous. Baudelaire says that "ennui", or boredom is the worst sin because it is the grandaddy of all sins. He states, he would (the sinner), "willingly make of the earth a shambles." Everyone, he says, is guilt of this sin. Søren Kierkegaard, I believe said something similar stating, "How dreadful boredom is -- how dreadfully boring; I know no stronger expression, no truer one, for like is recognized only by like... I lie prostrate, inert; the only thing I see is emptiness, the only thing I live on is emptiness, the only thing I move in is emptiness. I do not even suffer pain... Pain itself has lost its refreshment for me. If I were offered all the glories of the world or all the torments of the world, one would move me no more than the other; I would not turn over to the other side either to attain or to avoid. I am dying death. And what could divert me? Well, if I managed to see a faithfulness that withstood every ordeal, an enthusiasm that endured everything, a faith that moved mountains; if I were to become aware of an idea that joined the finite and the infinite." I was a fool who literally was, "making the fuel for flowers to grow." Manure to mature. Acts 2:2 states, "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting." Ezekiel 37:9 states, "Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." "The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind."--Bob Dylan "How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?" One, if he is wise enough, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it".

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CS3RCK88
• ISBN13: 9798874074685
• Release Date: January 2024
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 102 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"