Silhouettes: Literary Passageways

By Mitzi Libsohn

Mitzi Libsohn’s reputation of distinction stems from her extraordinary mental images which convey the force and power of life – they endure, they stir the emotions. The opulence of language, the intensity of color, at once produce and achieve the effect of a picture in words, as from a scene presented on stage by costumed actors. Her wondrous skill and profound sense of perception, are apparent in the quality and character of her text – the extraordinary arrangement and placement of her carefully chosen words, is in and of itself, an awesome achievement. In her writing, one discovers an elaborate interweaving of various themes, giving the interpretation of their roles several possibilities. Mitzi Libsohn’s lines assume an existence of their own in a literary intersection which persists long after reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635686593

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Silhouettes

LITERARY PASSAGEWAYS

OTHER BOOKS BY MITZI LIBSOHN

Immortal Kisses—Confessions Of a Poet

Songs Of You—A Postscript

Silhouettes

Literary Passageways

By

Mitzi Libsohn

Arranged and Compiled

By

Pauli Rose Libsohn

Copyright © 2017 Mitzi Libsohn

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-63568-658-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63568-659-3 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Vision

My undying determination

Was the impetus

For the creation of this literary work,

Written by my mother all those years ago.

But it was her exquisite brilliance

That was the raison d’etre

For its inception and ultimate creation.

Composed and conceived by her,

I lovingly took upon myself

To arrange and mold

Her trove of poetic essays

Into a magnificent collection

In her honor,

For it is my belief that she wrote these

Literary silhouettes

With the greatest of love.

And so I dedicate this work of art

To my mother

Mitzi Libsohn

To whom I believe I have brought

Distinction, dignity, and high esteem.

Language And The Written Word

The key to any understanding of the development of mankind’s attitudes, beliefs, principles and opinions, lies in the profoundly influential role played by language. As the more sophisticated needs of man demanded a greater sophistication in communication, advances were made from various abstract and primitive stages to language as a powerful tool. But it was a flexible tool—responsive, bending to man’s inventions, aggressions, philosophy and religion. Transformations and adaptions took place to conform to changing behavior, environment, and cultural patterns, with the diversity of its character matching the diversity of the groups who contributed to its development.

In the struggle for existence, man experienced conflicts and disagreement over interests and ideas. Whether the struggle was widespread physical engagement, or hand-to-hand combat, supremacy, accord, and reduced antagonisms, were gained through talk, gestures, and messages. That is communication. That is language.

One of the most dramatic effects wrought on language was the beginning of the written word, bringing with it, the advent of letters, symbols, documents, literary and musical compositions, all of which could now be recorded. Writing advanced to the stage of an art, a craft—with the toolmaker being the common man. Through the initiation of recorded communication people found a means to bridge understanding and knowledge. Popular expression through the medium of language flowered, no longer inhibited by the lack of written skills. Knowledge, learning, enlightenment—facts accrued by mankind—could now be exchanged and disseminated. The power of the written word was the underlying dramatic breakthrough, bringing human beings together for the purpose of communication. In progressing from vocal to written, language acquired permanent value and produced greater emotional effects.

The abundance of words is a gift of many talents—a vast tapestry woven by many hands, interwoven with life’s experiences and laden with the emotionalism of its creation, like seeds sown in the wild.

Mitzi Libsohn

Foreword

Mitzi Libsohn combines the sumptuous splendor of words with a complexity of style and theme. She conceals symbolical events and figures beneath the rich overlay of distinctive features which characterize her literary work. Variations on these topics of discourse are celebrated in much of her writing, which manifest themselves into awe inspiring works of art. Daring and free, she owns her own style–explicitly and purposely setting it forth. Never pompous, the lyrical beauty of her writings, are arranged in an artistic and elegant fashion that are her signature. Fortunately for us, they did not suffer from extinction in her release from life.

Pauli Rose Libsohn

Attaining Shangri-La

Yes there is a Shangri-La!

My remarkable writing easily eclipses anything I have ever created. But even more remarkable, is the interaction of its charisma with my own. If it were possible to give my eloquent writing a standing ovation—I would!

Mitzi Libsohn, 1996

The Embodiment Of Ideas

Philosophy Of Creativity

In recording in comprehensible form the essential truths which he has felt in the analysis of his life’s experiences, man is able to create. If the philosopher is involved with conscious evaluations of human activities, man is involved with truth as he FEELS it and his analysis of human activities is an unconscious act.

The importance of what a man creates, whether he writes, paints, composes music, or designs buildings, is that he has succeeded in capturing and recording as permanent artifacts of the future—a comprehensible symbol of the truth. Man’s most dramatic and personal experiences in love and war, in religion and nature, are interwoven in the symbols he has created to enable us to analyze those experiences. Although the relationship established between the created work and the beholder of that work is complex and escapes definition, it is nevertheless a valid one. In the representation of things which is the essence of creativity, the memory responds to relive the experience of those things. The creator endows experience with exceptional meaning through theme and design, order and pattern—thus capturing a deeper meaning. The human experience is enlightened, new truths are derived, old truths are renewed through the creative efforts produced by the genius of the creator.

The answer to the importance of creativity as it is involved with human activities, can be found if we consider what we see as we look at any portrait of a great man—in sculpture or on canvas; in fiction or non-fiction. Stand before any daVinci, any Rodin: the strong hand of the artist—creator—has reproduced the physical looks of the subject and painted sharp, incisive eyes, lips, eyebrows and a smile perhaps that reveals cynicism and intellectual qualities that stir the imagination to fill in the rest. Details of costume may be reproduced with great accuracy, but incidental, so as not to overwhelm the face. The point of the subject which impresses the mind, is that we are looking at the embodiment of an idea—of the idea of the subject in the painting or in the sculptured face. The observer recognizes a total identity—the unique identity of a person: that is, a unique personality which represents the subject to him.

Henry James, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters—through these writers’ analyses and representations of the intellectual qualities of the characters they have created, we have the extraordinary experience of knowing and caring about the characters of the people reproduced on the printed page. We know more about the subjects, know all that they represent—the IDEA of them—through the genius of the authors who have successfully synthesized their analysis of the characters and given them universal and permanent personification to justify their existence.

Creativity has achieved an established place in society and is an integral part of various functions of society—not just to amuse or entertain. Whether creativity is musical, literary or visual, it must be seen or heard, to have meaning