daily prompt · fate · finding the muse · Love · poetry · Writing

By A Poet

Featured Amy
Daily writing prompt
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
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Although I do have many favorite quotes from Zora Neale Hurston, I’m going to try to follow the rules for this prompt. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Why start now?” It’s because I have a favorite quote that I really don’t think of that often but for this prompt, I thought of it.

Years ago, I bought this book:

Filled with requited and unrequited varieties

I don’t recall why I purchased the book, but if I had to venture a guess, it would be because the book is pink, has a heart on it (your girl is obsessed with hearts and collects them – not anatomical hearts, dear reader), and it also has a pink bookmark built right in.

The book contains different chapters, which delve into the many different types of love – requited, unrequited, grief, love for pets, etc. I’m not much of a romantic, but I am sentimental. So I tend towards more eccentric quotes about not just love, but everything.

I nudged this book off my shelf for this prompt and opened it up to the page with the pink bookmark. I never take this bookmark out of this page because this is my favorite quote in the whole book, and that’s not an easy feat to accomplish.

Without further adieu, Let me introduce you to my favorite quote:

When I read this the first time, I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it. Then I realized there were many ways to interpret it. In fact, I have a new interpretation as I write this.

What is a superstition? (We all know, because we all remember the daily prompt from not that long ago.) Examples of superstitions include walking under a ladder is considered bad luck, opening an umbrella in the house is bad luck, breaking a mirror will give you seven years of bad luck, black cats are bad luck, knocking on wood so whatever you’ve just said comes true or stays safe (depends on the situation), and many more. Superstitions are misunderstood, mysterious, used as protection. In my mind, I always think about superstitions as hovering in the air in a cloud. Superstitions are not part of reality, but they are still given deference and respect. They are very real to the person who believes.

Having said that, I believe Monsieur Baudelaire is speaking here of unrequited love, a love that to him is so precious, he keeps it in the clouds just out of reach. The image of his love stays in his mind, and in his heart is where the cherishing blooms, but his love is so much more than that. He seems to be under a spell. To say you are more than an image I dream about and cherish, you are my superstition, means to me, that you are the very thing that I believe in, the idea of which makes no sense, but I love you more than I could ever love anyone else. And yet, there is a mystery about you. Are you bad for me? If my love were requited, would it be a mistake? Would it ruin everything? Superstition has to stay in the clouds, just out of reach, and so does the love. Dream of it, cherish it, hold it in the highest regard. Be also aware of its mystery and respect the unknowingness of it.

Monsieur Baudelaire was a controversial poet in Paris in the 19th century. He was part of the Decadent era. Knowing a bit about poets myself, I’ve been thinking: is the superstition the muse? Oui.

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Published by Amy

I love words. And animals. Photography and fedoras. Welcome. And stay awhile.

53 thoughts on “By A Poet”

      1. Ooh, that might mean there’s something to come back to! And never fear, I’m sure we’ll be asked the same prompt soon enough. ; )

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  4. I love the work of Baudelaire, because it’s so modern and almost radical.

    I agree with your interpretation of the Baudelaire quote. Love should stay out of reach to remain untainted.

    In this light Romeo & Juliet is the perfect love story. Two young people falling in love against all odds, become a tremendous couple for a short-lived, but oh so beautiful moment in time, like a star shining in the night sky. Before exploding like a supernova, meaning both of them die in a very tragic way.

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    1. I’m so excited that you Baudelaire, Chris! I was reading some more of us works last night and I could see where he definitely would be considered radical. For those times, he was ahead of the norm.

      You make a good point about Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed, were they.

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      6. I owe you a better answer Amy. My apologies. Baudelaire was an eccentric, flamboyant poet living of a spectacular inheritance. As the romanticism movement was almost dead, there was an opportunity for new poetry to be born.

        And Baudelaire did jump right in, writing about every day life, even ugly, disturbing things, breaking with the conventional verse form.

        He became the first modern poet, praised soon by Gustave Flaubert and Victor Hugo. He also did extraordinarily good translations of Edgar Allan Poe works. He died 1867 from syphyllis, which he had contracted in his early twenties.

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      7. Thanks, Chris. You were not required to answer in more detail, but I appreciate it. I did not realize he had translated Edgar Allan Poe works, though I suppose that does make sense reflecting on it now. Syphilis is definitely not the best way to die. That’s a shame.

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  6. Quite profound, Amy. Your explanation makes it easier to understand ❤️ Supersition can also become something that a person depends upon, influencing their positive or negative thoughts.

    For example in my country, the call of a greater coucal heralds good fortune, so whenever anyone glimpses this shy bird, or hears its call we automatically assume it portends something good. 😄

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    1. Thanks, Aboli. Yes I totally agree. Superstition means many different things to many people. Where I live, finding a four leaf clover is good luck, finding a penny with the face side up is good luck, but if the penny is faced down, that’s bad luck (to me finding any money at all is good luck lol). Bad things happen in threes is another superstition, meaning if one bad thing happens, and then another bad thing happens, there’s only one more to go and then you’re in the clear. 😊 thanks for sharing!

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  11. I enjoyed this very much as well. ❤️

    Eloquent and incredibly inspiring.

    🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

    I myself can’t compare such deep wisdom as this. All I can possibly share is a quote I read a while back and have carried, in my heart, ever since. It’s one of those nonsense quotes that is silly and at first glance, kinda stupid. However, for some reason it has meaning to my skewed perspective.

    ”Let us violate cakes together.” -John Scalzi

    It’s the kind of quote that makes me feel like I can endure this reality in what ever form comes across my path. As long as I can share it with those of like-minded fervor. Silliness being an added bonus inside of the ever constant whirlwind of mixed signals and heartfelt intentions lost in translation.

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    1. Excellent quote! You had me at cake. I mentally prepared my fork and thought about what kind of cake I would like to have. If we don’t have silliness, we won’t get far in life. Thanks for sharing and I’m glad you liked my post. ♥️🎂😊

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  13. Interesting thoughts and interpretation to hear.

    For me, a superstition is a belief based of something that is believed regardless of logical reasoning, and is unshaken regardless of reasoning. There is a feeling that it is correct.

    So even though he may have an idealised image in his head about you, and all his emotions are favourable, he will still believe in you regardless of all the reasons not to, and will be unshaken by anything. I suppose that’s true love.

    Two quotes I always remember:

    If you fail to plan, you plan to fail (just practical for me!)

    This is perfect, that is perfect, take perfect from perfect and the remainder is perfect. May peace and peace and peace be everywhere. (Bhagavad Gita, it just peaces me out dude…)

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    2. Interesting take, thanks for sharing! There are so many different ways to interpret it.

      Thanks for sharing your quotes . I’ve heard the first one before, but not the second. We could all use a little peace. 😊

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      1. Oh, and ‘superstition’ for the French may have a slightly different nuance I suppose that we don’t get. I once had a discussion about all the nuances of ‘bête noire’ that are just hard to keep in your head unless you grow up with it.

        I love how other languages and cultures have words and sayings that we have no equivalent of. I was going out with a Korean girl who said she loved ‘Australian’ because it had so many slangs and sayings, and she kept a little book with them all. She would ask different people about them all the time (she was a hairdresser, so she had lots of chances) and come back to me and I’d have to clarify what things meant, and then you realise other people have different ideas about the same sayings (even depending on their age). You don’t even know you use a ‘saying’ until you get picked up on them because she didn’t understand. The best part however was that Korean had some really interesting sayings which just blew my mind, subtle ‘true-isms’ and observations that were just every day sayings that the culture has in their mind that we just never cover. And she thought Korean had nothing like this, until we’re watching some TV show and she would be struggling to tell me something and realise it was this little Korean saying. And the concepts are quite deep and complex.

        Anyway, if you want to write a book, there’s an idea, all the cultural sayings of ideas we miss out on! Sorry, I talk too much:-P

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