I recently caught myself looking at a full sized casting of a grandiose figure who’d claimed the name The Poet. It was in fact the accomplished sculptor Augusten Rodin that conceived this sensational nude male resting deep in thought back in 1880. Since then the figure has lost his original titlage and gained not only a new position as the man that provokes thought and philosophy, but he’s also gained a very smart title to match it. He is now known as The Thinker.
While I stood in the doorway of the Rodin exhibition, I did as his consumers might naturally do. I studied The Thinkers thoughts. Resting nude in thought myself, something magical happened as his nondescript mind eventually dissolved, replacing itself with gratitude for Rodin himself. I saw that the great gift Rodin chose to share with the world was a figure that had absolutely nothing to say about everything.
What I mean is, he told me everything about me. His stern face and solid shoulders took me on a journey through my life. Mostly I recalled the people and places that joined my path, and in their likeness I saw their human kindness. I also saw the way that my mind transported me into a future manifestation of today, where my outlook was presented back to me through a divine order. Today I live in that order as I celebrate the great efforts the city and all its acclaimed poets and literature dwellers have course created for our consumption over the next week.
Since Thursday, Barcelona’s Poetry Festival joined us in harmony and my feet happily harmonised with its opening at Barcelona’s enchanting City Hall. While the trumpet players began their perfect symphony, the cities Cultural Commissioner, Joan Subirats opened the festival with his own important melody. His melody rang true with me as he talked of literatures excellent fusion within education and likewise he discussed its sweet gift in times of hardship. He followed on to pay homeage to Montserrat Abelló, Josep Palau i Fabre, Carles Santos, Miquel Martí i Pol and Maria-Mercè Marçal and presented the prestigious Jocs Florals poetry competition prize to Hilari de Cara i Casaleiz who was an inspiration for his wide contribution to literature.
My next steps that afternoon sang along the pavements to explore some other performances the city fed us through its H’Art. First up was a gregarious performance at the terrific courtyard of Museu Frédéric Mares where a bird had in fact joined on with the discourse and dirtied on my head in line with the beginning of the music. I chose to take it as a sign to enjoy a morsel of the terrific act and made a pact to remain divinely connected to the rest of the festival.
After that poetical baptism, I joyfully made my way to the Estrella Damm factory to be greeted by the incredibly powerful performer, Deborah Emmanuel who sang of interesting questions around the topic of identity and diversity. There I felt the full thud of her messages and took them as a reminder to hold on to my own capacity to love and accept.
Before the day came to a close I paid a visit to the exhibition of a good friend and phenomenal sculptor Antoni Areny who holds poetry within the essence of his work. I paid tribute to his stone carvings and their accompanied philosophies and took myself home to rest my mind and ponder what I’d felt throughout the day.
The feelings were fleeting so I fell asleep peacefully and woke up today to delight in more of the cities H’Art. I dressed and made my way over to the CaixaForum at the Montjuic where a fantastic exhibit displayed a set of Nobel Prize winners, all writers, in their natural habitats. Photographer Kim Manresa and Journalist Xavi Ayén shared and celebrated the essentials of the sincere images that they captured. Once again I shot my own projections and gratitude onto the twenty three authors housed in the exhibition for their generous contributions to both literature and mankind. What they all had in common was remarkably akin to The Thinker. They had published words that had helped mankind open its heart and its mind to the passage of life, of kindness, of art, of diversity and of our collective human identity.
After that twenty four hour swirl around the cities heartistry, I had my own thinking to do so I took myself off to delight in a black coffee and a moment of gratitude at the well established, and I must say, very impressive courtyard of L’Ateneu Barcelonés library before I put pen to pad to share my outlook with you. Then I decided that actually, it could be more enriching if you were to partake in the excitement of the festival yourself this week by manifesting an appearance or simply by choosing your own outlook with a book or a poem to see what it’s telling you.
The Poetry festival continues until 16 May (here’s the link) the Paseos de Nobel continues until 2 September (another link) and The Thinker is here for as long as we wish to think about him. So please, go forth and ponder.
As always, we will continue to share and emphasise the importance of maintaining health and wellness in our lives in whichever capacity that takes. This week, through assuming and consuming the cities art and literature our lives become sweeter and our minds become clearer.
With loving kindness, Anneka at Farmacia Barcelona