Living Alive

        – worth for the while –

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Living Alive

        – worth for the while –

It takes a while 
To finely realize,
You’d been asleep 
Oblivious to alive, 
Whilst ye be replete
For an apposite revive,
Ought so find entreat
Be of worth for the while, 
Thus as acquiescent treat
Fixates so to be living alive!

	                 ode to still being alive…


                                            © Jean-Jacques Fournier 

Imagery - Wikimedia Commons
Music - Excerpt of Chet Baker’s Time After Time
Audio - recital - by Jean-Jacques Fournier


				                  written in Sweetsburg
			                                 April 12, 2022
					 

Alive at Stake

          – in futile haste –

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Alive at Stake

 – in futile haste –

It ought count
Tho ye be late,
By the amount
We deliberate,
Given account
In futile haste,
Of tantamount
To a gale waste,
And life be cast
As to expediate,
The useless sass 
Need find erase,
Fixes mind blur 
Till ye learn way,
Set plan deferred  
Wants obviate play,
The while alive at stake
Realizes ne’er too late,
To preclude futile haste!


                                               © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Imagery - Wikimedia Commons ...
Music – excerpt of Bach - Toccata & Fugue
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier ...

				                  written in Sweetsburg
					              January 14, 2022
					        edited February 1, 2022

Who Will Know – the road –

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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

Autumn Leave – on a shivery eve –

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Autumn Leaves

– on a shivery eve –

As autumn leaves,
Shadows fall 
On a shivery eve,
While mind recalls
Obscuring shades,
I’m made to feel
While vista fades,
A summer’s peal
Nature betrays,
Once sun filled days…

Thus autumn leaves 
My soul behind,
A summer hostage
Of plead declined 
To keep alive
Fair weather skies,
And butterflies …

Soon winter’s blast 
Will cast a haze,
To chase the last
Of autumn days,
And scattered leaves	
When Frost said Jack, 
Will come awake 
In a world near grey,
To soon blustery wakes… 

Tho I’d turn back 
Fall season’s clock, 
Nature chose cold 
As its mortal mock,
To oblige Thanatos 
Who will now wrest,
Fall season’s soul 
As autumn leaves,
To soon make way		     	 
For a winter’s hold!

                      © Jean-Jacques Fourier  
     
Imagery - by MD    
Music - New York Jazz, Classics... 
Audio recital - Jean-Jacques Fournier

Brother – can you spare the time –

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Brother

       – can you spare the time –

The while not my bide
To thus beg for a dime,
For my perishing hide 
Too soon had its time,
Hence afore I’m dead
Mightn’t one not tout,
If you hadn’t yet read
I am no more about,
For ominous debate 
May but allow doubt,
Afore I be deaths bate 
Ought find while alive,
Can you spare the time,
A word or more tho late
To be that brother mine!


                           ode to a lost brother…


		                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Recalling those stories
Of the great depression,
In 1929 to 1933 to WW2
Be common to the times,
Being prelude to ill ease 
Found compose a poem,
Implores please, Brother 
Can you spare a dime, 
As the situate entreats
Thus to spare the time!

Images - Private & public
Music - Misery, by Jani Ukkonen
Audio recital – Jean-Jacques Fournier



	             ov written in Sweetsburg
	                   January 19, 2013
                            abridged edition 
                              June 21, 2021

Valorizing – a state of being –

Valorizing
     -a state of being -

 Between desperate 
 and distraught,
  
 spare ye be invested
 in disparity best forgot, 
  
 But between pain 
 and naught,
  
Take ye the pain,
As alive be right as rain! 
  
                          

          © Jean-Jacques Fournier
              February 18, 2021  

“ Today ” – a gift –

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“ Today ”

– a gift –

 I am alive
 Today,
 The gods provide
 Another day, 
 Thus be a gift
 To find its way,
 As they so deemed
 That I might stay,
 Be not a dream
 For on this day,
 Again it seems
 I am alive,
 Tho by all means
 Perhaps again, 
 Yet be but for today! 


                     © Jean-Jacques Fournier 

 Poem recital,  by Jean-Jacques Fournier
 Music - Excerpt of Time After Time, by Chet Baker ...
 Pictures – Private, unknown and audio closing,
 epitaph excerpt, of John Maxwell Edmonds...
  
                    written in Sweetsburg
                         January 9, 2021  

“ Vertical Imbroglio ” – a shadow state –

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“ Vertical Imbroglio ”                                 

– a shadow state –

I reach ahead

Haltingly so,

As I prepare

To step alas, 

Beyond length

It takes to pass,

A prior stride

Repairs behind,

In effort guide

A next in kind,

Repeats to bide,

Thus so I sense

May tend to slide,

As if said motion

Would so impair,

To suffer notions

Of a lost equilibrium…

While tho awake,

I envisage myself

Inhabiting a place,                              

Of vertical imbroglio

As a shadow state,

Steps be but echoes

In an outer mind

Suggesting guise,

We’re to accept

Its bogus disguise,

Tho manipulated

By what’s left alive,

And still humanlike

Despite emotive pries…

Hence be sagacious                                                                          

Attempt at realism,

Imbroglio’s shadow

State imaging façade,

Said of bemused reality,                                                                                

The while life’s demise   

Be destined irrevocably,                                                                                       

Tho holds mans laudable prize!

                © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
                         1st written in Grasse, France  2005
  
Paintings - by René Magritte ... 
 Audio’s music - exerpt of  Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla ... 

“ A Hyphenated World ” – held fitting guise –

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“ A Hyphenated World ”

                   – held fitting guise –

‘Tis a fitting guise

A hyphenated world,

Of hyphenated people

Barely joined together,

By shortest of lines

Save in desperate times,

If but to stay alive

Until next apprise,

Holds indefinite man

If he is to survive,

Until discord subsides

Tho wanting to encage

He’ll once more fractionize,

By manipulating stage…

In a language to divide

That largely means create

A hyphenated bide,

Trusted so to populate

Heedless of unwise,

Words fixed to engage

By language brigade,

Who spreads confusion

Among the lesser wise,

Maximize demand

To maintain disguise,

Of the hyphenated men

Who power world divides!

                                               © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Photos – by Marianne D. & private collection –

Music – excerpt from Leaving, by Chet Baker –

“ Beginnings ” – goal not forever –

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“ Beginnings ”

            – goal not forever –

 

In the beginning

Declared be alive,

Tho not forever

We’re to survive,

Save a few clever

Perhaps the wiser,

Saw worth persist

Held more aware,

Said of beginnings

As life finds decide,

What be goal’s fare

If one bids to abide…

 

So be of mans mind

To begin with sway,

With resolve to find

Aims fashion to play,

Seeks incite revision

In road of life’s way,

Want alter its vision

Holds be a short stay,

The while not eternal

And goals not forever,

Would sidestep its end

As man aches to suspend!

 

                         an ode to man’s ludicrous dream…

                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Music, Stranger by Aerocity