A Life of Wonder

Salman Rusdhie famously asked, “How does newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions, translations, conjoinings is it made? How does it survive, extreme and dangerous as it is?” 

I buried this quote somewhere, maybe scribbled it on a napkin, or underlined it once, or whispered it to myself, pledging to remember it.

And I forget it entirely until today where I read the eulogy of Charles Simic, the poet, being eulogized by another poet, his dear friend:

“Charlie’s poems are certainly original in the only sense that counts: they were impossible to imagine existing before they were written.” -D.R.

That line brought back Rushdie and the feeling that true creativity lives beyond our ability to conceptualize it before it appears.