Prologue: Poem of the Sea Deregulation Abomination Possession Codependence The Tortured Heart Genius		Holly Tannen's one-woman, one-entity show, directed by Lynne Abels, debuted to sold-out houses at the Helen Schoeni Theatre in Mendocino, California, February 11th and 12th 2000.      In song and story, Holly recounts the history of her love affair with 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
about Practical Alchemy Songs from Practical Alchemy Translations of Rimbaud

Between the worlds of day and night The living and the dead Between the darkness and the light Our ancient teachers tread. Passing their vision on to one Feral and unforeseen Who reaches out and teaches me To tread the edge between.

	Arthur Rimbaud was sixteen when he arrived in Paris in 1871, bringing with him nothing but his epic poem "The Drunken Boat."

...and since then, I've been bathing in the poem of the sea, Milk-white, infused with stars... I know the sky split wide by lightning, tides, And surf, and waterspouts; I know the night, And dawn exalted like a flock of doves...

His host, Paul Verlaine, showed off the new phenomenon around the Quartier Latin. "Big hands, big feet, the absolutely childish face of a boy of thirteen" wrote Léon Valade. "Deep blue eyes, temperament more wild than shy, this is the brat whose imagination, full of undreamed-of power and corruption, has amazed and terrified all our friends."

"He looked like an escapee from a house of correction," declared Verlaine's biographer, Edmond Lepelletier. "He could tolerate neither wine, nor poetry that was not his own ... twenty years ago, we were never sure he wouldn't end up on the scaffold. But we were persuaded that when his head rolled into that infamous basket, it would be crowned with an aureola of glory."

Rimbaud in 1871 A drawing by F.A. Cazals

A drawing by Ernest Pignon-Ernest	Rimbaud dreams of creating a poetic language "accessible someday to all the senses; a language of the soul, for the soul, encompassing everything: sound, scent, color; thought catching thought and pulling."

Holly Tannen was fifteen, determined to escape Manhattan and her parents, when she first read Rimbaud. She was fifty-one when she rediscovered "Illuminations" and "A Season In Hell," and found herself driven into ecstatic states by the "exquisitely perverse grace" of Rimbaud's vision. "I've been studying magic since 1980," says Holly. "I've been an initiated priestess since 1984. It's about time something interesting happened..."

next: Poem of the Sea about Practical Alchemy         Translations of Rimbaud's work

(An Exquisitely Perverse Grace)

Photographs by Antonia Lamb Practical Alchemy logo by Teresa Whitehill, Colored Horse Studios Colorization by Roberta Weir

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Holly Tannen teaches folklore and anthropology, and has lectured on contemporary magic at U.C. Berkeley and at Yale University. Her recordings include "Invocation", "Between the Worlds", and "Rime of the Ancient Matriarch" Holly's home page :  CDs :  concerts :  workshops :  vita :  quotes updated 25 April 2002 : 9:44 Caspar (Pacific) time

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