Looking

– wide eyed –

Looking

– wide eyed –

Holding a thought
To ponder its worth,
Sagaciously ought
Ye honor its birth,
Be erudite sought
Observe held bide,
Thus not be fraught
Looking wide eyed,
As tempted to flirt
With fool’s divide, 
Tho find to divert  
The while lets slide,
Implies shan’t avert 
Held fixed be last ride,
Shan’t so flaunt its worth!

                         Ode to inevitable fading memory...

	  © Jean-Jacques Fournier


     written in Sweetsburg                   
     September 11, 2022

Imagery - National Galleries of Scotland

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

The Why – of it all –

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The Why   

– of it all –

 Me, myself 
 And I,
 On the shelf
 Ye ask why,
 Of it all 
 Tho once shy,
 Not the lot
 Yet disguised,
 Or for naught
 Saves one aim, 
 To but hide
 Insecure,  
 Be underside 
 Awaits cure,
 To so bide
 Asks the why, 
 Of it all
 Has one cry,
 May find resolve! 
                                
              © Jean-Jacques Fournier 


    a simple aide-mémoire 
        to remember Conversations,
           save not of the kind to be mistaken 
              with that of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem line, 
                “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die”
                                                        ...    
            written in Sweetsburg                                            
                 December 31, 2020

 Pictures - private and unknown ...
 Music – excerpt of  Alone Together, by Chet Baker ... 

“ 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 –

“ When Memory Fails ” – held in time will –

                                                            Listen to audio

“ When Memory Fails ”

                  – held in time will –

When memory fails

As held in time will,

You’ll find it pales

Said ‘tis all but still,

Tho we’ll so falter

Must find to bide,

In kindly shelter

Until subsides,

Its weary burden

As one tries hide,

Ways it’ll worsen

In destined slide,

Of a dying mind

Be receding use,

Far beyond find

Now so abstruse,

While shy of time

As recall hides,

In its seclusion

Tho one is to abide,

When memory fails

In its retched mental prison,

Time wants tell to say goodbye!

 

                               ode to victims of failed memory…

                                                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier

       Music, of Erik Satie – Gnossienne 1, by Otto Tolonen, guitar

 

“ Silence ” – for gratuitous reason –

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“ Silence ”

                – for gratuitous reason –

Why must I bide

To hear but sounds

Of silence,

At times a virtue

Now but a chide,

Thus weary I be

Ever waiting                             

On verbosity,

That might reflect                                                           

A hint of life…

           

Might I propose

In shades betwixt,

Effort compose

To so thus fix,

The emptiness                                                              

Of inert silence,

And the tedium

Of verbose prolix…

A word or more

I so implore

Even neath

The aural norm,

Albeit to tease

In lieu of please,

To save from silence

Held for gratuitous reason!

                                                             © Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ While I’m Alive ” ~ teach me now ~

Teach me now

While I’m alive,

To not forget,

When I arrive

At regret’s bide,

And must endure

Spent recollect

Of someone near,

Plus fail to hear

Suffered upset,

While I now limbo

In the unclear,

Of telling ways

By one so dear

Who loved me when,

Wouldst hold until

I am no longer,

And even then!

        

“ Memory Ah Memory ” ~ could you not bide ~

 

Memory ah memory

Where did you go,

Must you now hide

To forsake me so,

Or could you not bide

Memory ah memory,

That we end side by side!

 

“ Looking ” ~ for quiescent fit ~

 

Here I sit

Musing still,

In a place

That resembles

A dark pit,

Inside my mind

A state of unlit,

Wants thought denied

If only for a bit…

 

Oh what a rest

This would be,

If I should find

Bide in quiescent fit!

                                              ode to a friend in need of time