Another Face

             – looking for shadows –

Image by Amedeo Modigliani

Another Face

             – looking for shadows –

Tho time mayn’t hold 
Another face indicates,
Would insist ever bold
Search to find migrate, 
In yawning sculpt lines
Of craggy viewed traits,
Etched deep to the touch
By each journey so traced,
Wants bare story nonesuch 
For be mortals’ life travels,
Found embrace life as such... 

In time dawns to follow
Find hides age’s cruelty,
Neath dimly lit shadows 
Where fashions discreetly,
Not of wind burnt or blue
Thought be rather as brail,
Affixed carve its path thru
Another face might prevail,
Convincing mindful of true
Yet ever looking for shadows!

                                                                              written in Montreal
                                                                        © Jean-Jacques Fournier
                                                                                January 2, 2002
					                                 edited January 23, 2022

The Look

        – of a forlorn smile –

Flora Priestley Lamplight, by John Singer Sargent

Listen to audio

The Look

– of a forlorn smile –

I picture the look
Of a beguiled face,
That wants to brook 
Find an affable place,
For the very long while
Hence want not lose pace,
Nor to misplace found smile
Tho all gods shan’t pay grace,
When irrelevant be man’s guile 
Who wouldst try calm sadly face,
With the tacit mind, of a forlorn smile!

                                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier


Imagery - Amedeo Modigliani & John Singer Sargent
Music – If I Should You – by Chet Baker
Audio – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                          written in Sweetsburg

                                              January 18, 2022

                                                         

While Ye Sleep

          – life aims to recur –

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While Ye Sleep

          – life aims to recur –

Ought to count
Ye contemplate,
A given amount
Thus undertake,
In a set response
End futile haste,
With life too fast
Fixes we’ll waste,
Even a mind blur 
Finds lessen state,
Life aims to recur 
Tho be fates take,
We fail not deter
Yet whilst awake,
To find won’t last
The while ye sleep,
Life ever rushes past!

                                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier

				                  written in Sweetsburg
					         January 15, 2022

Imagery - Source Wikimedia Commons
Music - Alone Together - Chet Baker
Audio recital - Jean-Jacques Fournier

Shadows – where faces hide –

Listen to audio

Shadows
         - where faces hide -

In time dawn’s shadow
Would dim the cruelty,
A face deemed bide 
From its carved path,
Will transmute hide
Said nature’s trap,
For wind burnt flesh
That reads like brail,
Or weathered mesh
On skin humanly frail,
Finds soon be paired
To rock-strewn canyons,
Reflection of a dire face
As pain unravels memory,
Of its passing shadows
Hence where faces hide,
Among phantoms of the past 
Where these faces did emerge! 

                                                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Images – Private authors; Malik Earnest 2015

Music – Leaving by Chet Baker

Audio Recital – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                                                             written in Sweetsburg

                                                                                   January 2, 2022

                                                                       edited January 10, 2022

Dinosaurians

– of reptilian instinct –

Between 243 and 233 million years ago…

Listen to audio

Dinosaurians

     – of reptilian instinct –

Of Dinosauria,

You’d expect

A destined end,

In retrospect

Ye found inanely

Assails its planet,

And without limit,

Eating till extinct

Till its ensuing man,

Of reptilian instinct

Will aim to lord haver,

Tho world on the brink

Ne’er far from theory,

Be its fixed behaviour,

As man cued humans

Save beyond cavers,

Be Dinosaurians find

Of exploitive players,

Said prehuman specie 

In those dinosaur times!

              Ode to careless inflicted, Covid-19ers,

                             now on or beyond a life that goes on!

                                                                       written in Sweetsburg

                                                                    © Jean-Jacques Fournier           

                                                                      December 19, 2021

PS: Dinosaurs, as in Dinosaurian, first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233 million years ago and became extinct some 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Thus so after living on Earth for about 165 million years. It would seem man need not fear for his longevity, for at our present rate of self destruct, we shall achieve extinction, in far fewer years than our dinosaurian forerunners!

    

On Faces

     – of ensuing phases –

Listen to audio

On Faces

     – of ensuing phases –

On faces lined so deep 
Its dawn shadows pale,
As if cowed to life’s cruelty
Bears non dissipative crinkles, 
Would fix ye seek empaled paths 
In pitiless valleys of aged wrinkles....

Despite ill meant fallows
In yawning sculpted lines, 
Imaging cragged hollows 
On aging faces thus inclined,
Etched so to not find mellow
When soul wants mirror life, 
If but to blur ye fated journey
That bares one’s tales of strife,
A way in mortal’s thorny travel…

Alas, on faces of ensuing phases     
As in near end of memory’s purpose,
To find space sits in mind’s lost places
Will suffer interpret phantasms traces, 
While recall occurs late and sadly wasted! 

written in Sweetsburg
© Jean-Jacques Fournier
December 11, 2021



Images - Private & Public
Music - Alone Together, by Chet Baker 
Audio recital - Jean-Jacques Fournier

Façades

– that all seem the same –

Façades 
         - that all seem the same -

You try blind
Façades game,
Front or hind
Seem the same,
As man’s kind
Some be worm,
Wriggle round
In fixed squirm, 
Won’t be found 
Save you’re firm,
And thus bound
Want to uncover,
Rates be exposed
Thru endeavour,
Hence compose
Its bent measure,
With baleful mind
He works his game,
Of greed’s assign 
Be without shame,
He’ll find the time,
To deploy his tricks
Meant keep us blind,
Thus be man’s façades
That all seem the same! 

                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier
                                   written in Sweetsburg
				                 September 2, 2020

Art, by Félix Vallotton…

           A reflection on alleged world caretakers,

                        in the yet near leaderless times, of this year 2020 – 21 …

A Placid Face – has a singular place –

Portrait of Semyon Petrovich Chokolov

click here for audio

A Placid Face

– has a singular place –

Of many faces 
Lined so deep, 
A singular place
For time’s keep, 
Its story braces
Welcome sleep,
As shadows pale
Has ye find weep,
For memory frail
Persuades recall, 
Afore dreams fail 
One’s eyes too old,
Ye’d share in brail
Might ignore hold,
Now, a placid face
Behind a cruel veil,
Find life has carved 
Unpredictable paths,
Be in a singular place!

  © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
  November 21, 2021

Poetry in Brief – a blissful silence –

This is to announce the publication of my 18th book of poems

Another pocket book and ebook of short poems

For more information, click here for pocket book or ebook

Who Will Know – the road –

Listen to audio

Who will know
When we arrive,
The road to go
To thus survive,
As fellow human
Found yet alive,
Knowing naught 
Of who we follow,
Did find bestow
But dubious plan,
For a life hollow
We naïvely accept,
Tho so contrived
As inimical deed, 
The likes devised
By powers of greed,
We’d failed advised
Be iniquitous mislead!

© Jean-Jacques Fournier 

ov written in Sweetsburg
October 27, 2021