S. Alim Reza - S. Alim Reza - Arcane Poetry - A Journey Into Madness And Beyond

Admittedly, some of them are a little rough to get through but tell an underlying, subtextual story of The Arcane Diary. Some of the poems were the first manifestations of the concepts the novel is based on. Many of them are about the underlying experiences that formed the desire to write the other. To be completely honest, I dont even like poetry, which is ironic given the amount of it that comes out of me. But if I read this work for the first time, I would say there was definitely something about it. Whether that something is to your liking or not, well, you can be the judge of that.

Poems are easier to write than novels. One page doesnt necessarily have to flow into the next while you write it. There is no plot, not necessarily any characters or settings. But somehow, a vision of a complex feeling can be condensed into words that are quickly read, even if theyre not immediately digested. These words are my confession. I have bled this story onto the page, which you now hold in your hands.

Shit on the work if you like, hate on it if you must, or ignore it and continue on your merry way. It is an enormous sense of relief and satisfaction to have lived these words and survived them to tell the tale. I sincerely hope that someone who can relate to them will find a sliver of that same hope, even to know that they are not crazy. That they are not alone in feeling what they do. Some of these poems are hard to read because they were hard to write and remain hard to share. These are not all happy words.

Some of them were written during the darkest periods of my life. But here I stay, and somewhat miraculously, so do they. It is a story of disillusionment, descent to the lowest depths a soul can reach, and returning to dangerously uncertain comfort. It is a journey into the depths of the soul, a point-of view of living with mental illness, trauma, and addictions. A story of the struggle, the wonder, the terror of coming-of-age living with concurrent undiagnosed conditions. The hells of our own making, and finally, the battle to equilibrate all the opposing internal forces to varying degrees of success.

Is it heaven or just another kind of hell? It has to get worse before it gets better. As with all dark spots in life, it does get better. Sometimes it gets worse again, but you are better for having lived through it, as you will be once again. Honestly, Im glad to get it off my chest. These stories have been carrying around with me for far too long, and it comes as a hugely liberating experience to share with you now.