The While

– ye be around –

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The While

– ye be around –

Yet of no say
Best to seek, 
A kindly day
Evades bleak, 
For the while
Life has ye be,
In need of smile
To maybe see,
If not to hear
Hint of sound,
Suggests know
Won’t confound,
With not to show
Nor will respond,
Save to oneself,
As for the while
Be good or bad,
Without beguile
That ye’ve found,
Will go the mile
Or way around,
In the time it takes
While above ground,
For a life’s short state,
Man termed, the while!


                     © Jean-Jacques Fournier	


written in Sweetsburg,
PQ, Canada				       		                                                   
January 18, 2023

Imagery - Wikimedia Commons 
Music – Africa Moon, by John Bartmann
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier	

A Bridge

– by the way home –

Le Pont du Diable… The Devil’s Bridge… Fr.

– by the way home –

I’ve long roamed
Where gods play,
Enchanting Rome 
To Tuscany’s day,
By the way home...

I hold the memory
Of insistent places,
Has ye transformed
Afore its life passes, 
Find a bridge known,
As by the way home!

                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier 

			                            written in Sweetsburg
				                    October 31, 2021
				             edit November 20, 2022


Imagery - Photo by Marianne Dessis 

The Day

– that was –

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The Day                 

       – that was –

The day
Set as was,
Did have a play
Despite faux pas,
Would find a way
Bearing the cause,
Of one’s living stay
Thus, to make room,
For a fated new day
Fixed next to come,
And find its allay
Hence while alone,
Will not be at bay
Tho set afar home,
Holds shy of say
Had need to roam,
Implied being alive
For allotted time,
Be ne’er very long
Ye will soon find, 
The day long gone
Next to be, that was!


                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Photo - Marianne Dessis
Music - except of Almost Blue, by Chet Baker
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier

               					Written in Sweetsburg
						   November 1, 2022

I Awake

– should fate so will –

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I Awake

– should fate so will –

That I awake
Another day,
To live a fate
With little say,
Save to amend
My errant way,
Before the end
Thus to renew,
As to contend
Said life anew,
The while fend
As destine wills,
But a scant stay…

Time tallies still
Tho be few days,
For failing gods
Now dated skills,
Tend fall behind
Too aged to fulfil,
In garbled minds 
Verge on placate, 
Yet decreed still
Our waning state,
Hence so fate's will!

                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier

 written in Sweetsburg
ov February 19, 2017
edit published, August 15, 2022

Music - Ethereal Thoughts, by Victor Wayne
Imagery - Wikimedia Commons
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ 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  

“ The Little Red House ” – on the corner –

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“ The Little Red House ”

– on the corner –

 The fairy tale picture
 Of its little red house,
 Sitting on the corner
 Sure lure for a mouse,
 Or little Jack Horner
 Ye find eating his pie,
 Holds be a reminder 
 The while we walk by,
 Tho soon we be older
 Can but wonder why,
 Be the little red house
 That sits on a corner,
 Seems ever so ageless
 Lends we reminisce,  
 Shoulder to shoulder
 Share memory’s bliss,
 Each day walking by
 As we pass the corner,
 Of that little red house! 

                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier       
  
 For Marie Bertrand, once her grandmother's actual house ... 

 Photos by MD & JJ        
 Music – If I Should Lose You, by Chet Baker ...
  
                                             written in Sweetsburg
                                                   January 6, 2021 

“ A Day In A Life ” – to live as tho twice –

                 Listen to audio

“ A Day In A Life ”

         – to live as tho twice –

If I could but live

A day in a life,

Fate chose to give

Be without strife,

One might feel free

To hence display

The whole that I be,

For today I’d not wept

Holds a day of all days

With euphoria I’ve kept,

Fix this day as a guide

So that I now can see,

All my life till I died…

Such a day in a life

Would be held rule,

Thus to fix the way

Would purge redicule,

And learn to let go

As to feel what you see,

Be the birth of it all

Like a bursting of buds,

On a flowering tree

As spring yawns away,

And dawn’s early hours

Sets sight towards May,

To a first summer’s day…

Yet all of the while

You’ve but time

The gods lend,

Hence a day in a life

From beginning to end

You must live as tho twice,

For that may be all

You’d be given of life!

                                          © Jean-Jacques Fournier    

                          Originally written in Vence, Fr.

Pictures – Public and private collection …

Music – exerpt of Orfeu Negro, Brazil …

“ Life Is But A Minute ” – held implied as a lifetime –

                                                             Listen to audio

“ Life Is But A Minute ”

              – held implied as a lifetime –

The Journey starts

Tho soon too fast,

And way off chart

Predestined cast,

Scarce one recalls

What life is to last,

The span of its all

Save less ye forget,

Said be our lifeline

This nascence day,

Thus a minute past

Had found its way,

A birth ye may ask,

As it came together

Seeks its short stay,

In echo of ones other…

 

Life soon will wither

While none to waste

Pardon my rancour,

Of they who crowd

Or find to anchor,

On my fleeting pace

With so little living,

I reason make haste…

 

With hint to soon rest,

Lying neath memories

Of its life’s alleged fest,

My back to its epitaph

For all who have been,

Knew well to find daft

Held implied as a lifetime,

Denies life is but a minute!

                                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier

              Music, One Minute Waltz, (1847) Fryderyk Chopin

“ We The Homeless ” – not by choice –

It’s not by choice,

We’ve but the street

For our new host,

In this life gone bleak

It be thus a last resort,

Begs we’d not seek

Wanting as consort,

Held so to speak

Apt be a gritty ghost,

Led we live incomplete

Having lost one’s voice,

Mindful of our fate

Now being without choice,

In a discombobulated state

That be life on the street,

The while this last resort

Be until we are too weak,

To drag our bones to port

In a life of empty options,

That be for we the homeless,

Held fixed to muted notions

Reduced we be to nameless,

Drifting in crowded sad seclusion

We’ve to live as shadows on the street…

 

Suffer alas said we the homeless

In a populous fashioned by human apathy,

Offered in overwhelming abundance

To a growing number of ignored failed voices…

 

We the homeless, not by choice!

 

                                                          © Jean-Jacques Fournier