Looking

– for erudite thought –

Looking

– for erudite thought –

While eager to find
Endures be sought,
Said sanguine time 
For erudite thought, 
Abides one inclined
By inspired epoque, 
Wants trust defined
Composed as ought,
Optimistic assigned 
Tho may’ve sought,
To acquire consign 
Decidedly brought,
Save deviate minds
Shall suppress not,
Hide merit in kind
Held as calculus lot,
Seek Einstein design!

	                     © Jean-Jacques Fournier


						            written in Sweetsburg
				                                 March 30, 2015
                                                       Posted September 2, 2022

Imagery - National Galleries of Scotland
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ Reaching ” – the edge, of life’s design –

Listen to audio

“ Reaching ”

  – the edge, of life’s design –

        

I’ve journeyed    
Far and long,
At times hurried
Thus to prolong,
That meagre stay
Palpably foregone,
A notable evidence
Recall diminishes,
By limited passage
Thru hazy distances
Now on the ledge,
Blurring defines
Life may allege,
Tho be insistent
Prays on a mind,
To suffer existence
In dwindling time,
Tho but an instant
By recall’s decline,
Reaching the edge
Of life’s design,
Fate shan’t pledge
Be shadows assign,
To offer life hedge
On finale it deigns,
Past illusion held fast
As image perceived disappears,
In the dusk of a lifespan once cast!  

  
              © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
    
                  written in Sweetsburg
                                 October 25, 2020
 
Imagery – MD & private collection –
Music - excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade op.35

“ A Morrow ” – too soon –

                                         Listen to audio

“ A Morrow ”

                – too soon –

Now but afternoon

In a lifetime destiny,

Whenever too soon

A morrow’s apathy,

Be angling the room

Ignoring life’s brevity,

Indifferent to gloom

Invading one’s sanity!

                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier

                        A reflection on life, ever fleeting…                   

                                     In the wake of an adversary,

                                     also known as annual anniversary…

Music – Funral, by Zurida

Pictures – Personal collection

                        written in Sweetsburg

                               September 1, 2020

Theo Jansen – and his Strandbeesten (Dutch for “beach beasts”) art in motion –

                                                 Listen to audio

Theo Jansen

– and his Strandbeesten

(Dutch for “beach beasts”) art in motion –

About art… one never ceases to be astonished !

As said by my dear friend Louise F. – The ingenuity of this artist,
 is a marvel, and his museum is simply … the beach.

À propos d’art… on ne cesse pas d’être étonné!

Pour citer ma chère amie Louise F. – L’ingéniosité de cet artiste,
 est une merveille! Et son musée est tout simplement… la plage.

SINCE 1990 JASEN HAS BEEN CREATING
A NEW FORM OF ART IN MOTION
THAT LIVES ON THE BEACH

Jansen is a planar leg mechanism designed by the kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen to generate a smooth walking motion. Jansen has used his mechanism in a variety of kinetic sculptures which are known as Strandbeesten (Dutch for “beach beasts”). Jansen’s linkage bears artistic as well as mechanical merit for its simulation of organic walking motion using a simple rotary input. These leg mechanisms have applications in mobile robotics and in gait analysis.

“ 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 …

“ 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

 

“ The Book ” – of blank pages –

  An author’s torment – revisited –

                                                     Listen to Audio

“ The Book ”

         – of blank pages –

A book in search

Of giving birth,

To pages blank,

Free of dearth

Hopes but record,

View so composed

Of words in accord,

To author predisposed

Might ease the way,

That dares initiate

A scribe’s want say,

Without hesitate

When he finds a play,

Empty of intimidate

Upon a virgin page,

The while a book awaits

Words chosen to breathe life,

To the uninhabited posed state

Held be the book, of blank pages!

 

                                    © Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                                     Written in Roma, It. 2013

      Music, Gymnopédie No.1 – Erik Satie …

 

 

“ The Man ” – of two glasses –

                                                     Listen to audio

“ The Man ”

       – of two glasses –

He sits to face

Across the table,

An empty space

Tho hardly able,

From time ago

The chair since bare,

Remains aglow,

To still reflect

The face he loved,

There upon the glass

Of a pale rosé…

 

Each forlorn day

In vain he stares,

With musing’s say

One can near feel

Her presence there,    

His mind will trace

Upon that empty chair,

A memory of her face                                                

That will not part

That special place,

Fixed in his heart…

 

Alas the man

Said of two glasses,

Sits so to face

As time so passes,

That empty space

He for a moment dwells,

On a memory only he can tell!

                                                © Jean-Jacques Fournier

remembering the sadness of an habitué,

chez Lou Fassum’s grand dining,

on la Côte dAzur, France …

written in Grasse, November of 2006  

Music, Misty by Stan Getz

   

“ My Bibliotheca ” – from old scribes, to new books –

                                                                     Listen to audio

Picture, Benedictine Monastery library founded in 1074.

Music, Book The Rental With It, by Rage

“ My Bibliotheca ”

                  – from old scribes,

                                to new books –

I’ve a library

Overflows,

With books

I’ve read,

While some

Want doze,

Tho be tale

Old that flows,

To ones soul

And so wait,

For old eyes

To be fed,

A said read

Afore avid dies…

 

I’ve books

In my veins,

That beg

Till it pains,

To be written

In stead,

Of poems

I’ve bled,

Would imbue

Near all said,

Tells it true

Of held books,

Be page anew

From birth,

Reaching out

Fated to end,

In man’s final berth!

             ode per se, to books held in one’s library…

                                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ A Joy ” – imagined –

                                                                         Listen to audio

Art, The Joy of Life, Henri Matisse

Music, Kai Engel, Cabetet

“ A Joy ”

      – imagined –

A joy extant infers

Fate lets attain,

I find imagine

What ought contain,

Stuff be of dreams

Imaging the silken,

Rather than lined

In matters coarse,

Though often times

Joy be dark horse,

To masquerade

Masked as a rose,

In joyless shade,

Wanting but dispose…

 

Yet be this joy

Illusion’s dope,

Thirsting to enjoy

We live in hope,

Yet sadly fantasize

In musings empty,

Waiting joy incites

A moment of delight

To more than but survive!

                        A young man’s search recalling joy…

                                                © Jean-Jacques Fournier