A Face

– behind round glasses –

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A Face

– behind round glasses –

Of fixed eyes intense 
Look thru round glasses,
With newcomer’s sense
Who insists on looking,
Even from afar distance 
All the while frowning, 
With ongoing insistence 
As to seek determination,
For wanting of persistent 
Might bring her a destiny,
Thus, beyond infatuation 
Of face seemingly captured,
Aversely behind round glasses!

                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier 

written in Ciboure, Fr.
October 8, 2022
               

Imagery - JJF Photo & Wikimedia Commons
Music - excerpt of Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture 
Audio – Jean-Jacques Fournier

A Man

– called Marc –

Wanderer Above the Sea by David Friedrich

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A Man

– called Marc –

He’d not stay long,
In life’s short run
Be too soon gone,
As if one shunned
To an early dawn,
From a place won 
In a shortish song,
He as a brother be
Far too young gone, 
Gods fixed not see,
As life span of a pawn
Alas was short-lived run 
Thus, alike an early dawn!

                   Might you have parted
                               without telling your friend,
                                      dear Marc, until it was too late…? 

                               © Jean-Jacques Fournier

  Ode, two scores late, for the passing
        of Marc Tetreault, the rarest of dear friends.

          written in Sweetsburg
		April 17, 2022

Imagery - Wanderer Above the Sea by David Friedrich
Music - No Problem by Chet Baker Quartet
Audio - recital by Jean-Jacques Fournier

PS: If there should be an afterlife or such a thing as a next life,
                Marc is the one true friend I would seek to befriend again.

                                

                       

                                

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

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“ 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

“ The Almighty Time ” – the god to whom mortals pray –

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“ The Almighty Time ”

– the god to whom mortals pray –

A prerequisite is to be friends,

And so of our Almighty Time

Held we the naïve would tend,

Ne’er fall short to toe his line

Or fail not err that so offends,

To suffer alas its cruel assign

As this god an ultimate killer,

On a whim may find consign

Ye now be but mortal sinner,

Piteous to the Almighty Time,

The god to whom mortals pray

Tho fated their peace of mind,

Ever so far from extended stay

For an apathetic god sees deign,

If The Almighty Time gives way!

                     © Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                     ode to all we who seek to stall time…

Music – exerpt of As time Goes By, by Dexter Gordon …

Photos – Independent collection…                                   

                                    written in Sweetsburg

                                        September 6, 2020

“ The Other Side ” – of nowhere –

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“ The Other Side ”

             – of nowhere –

It’s a state of mind

Where the place to be,

Is a paradise uncharted

That sanity infers,

Is a situate must see

While so far it seems,

Getting there does mean

One need travel,

If but a gift for dreaming

On the other side of nowhere…

Doubt may at times

Discern ye be afraid,

Clouds so our mind

Yet fails to dissuade,

Of new worlds define

Be humanly worthy,

Said majority’s kind

So unlike parasitical,

Precursor to the blind

Seen perilous politicals,

Since inept left behind …

Hence I daren’t hesitate

With this bold escapade,

Want readily participate

In what leads to souls aid,

Facing a world, in decline

Not iniquitous charade,                                                                      

Held be set state of mind

If ye should opt to believe,

Can so resolve to soon find,

The other side of nowhere!

 

                     ov written in Montreal in 2001                        

                                            © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Music, The Journey Before Dawn – by Natura Silentia

Paintings include, Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and William Blake, Illustration to Dante’s Inferno, Dante and Virgil at the Gates of Hell.

Photos by/par, MD

“ The Sound of Silence ” – a blissful pleasure – revisited –

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“ The Sound of Silence ”

                             – a blissful pleasure – revisited –

 Ah to be free

Of obstreperous sounds,

Man’s din vociferous

That so abounds,

Ever torturing

An anguished ear

Implied inured,

We’re made to hear

Too far beyond,

Man meant endure…

 

Oh for the sound

Of deafening stillness,

A resounding calm

Of blissful pleasure,

In the healing balm

Of echoing silence,

You can almost hear

From the quiet whisper

Of a falling tear,

For the sound of silence! 

                           Music, Laburnum by Kai Engel                                              

                                                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ If Memory Fails ” – guide me to a shelter –

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“ If Memory Fails ”

            – guide me to a shelter –

Now that you’re here

Will you see I not falter,

As in time I yet fear

Fate chose not to alter,

Thence I might know

As age won’t be kinder,

And if memory fails

Thus with love you offer,

I pray the gods avail

Find you to be there

To guide me to a shelter…

 

Now that you’re near

A joy you be each day,

Tho I no longer hear

An easy voice at play,

Be yours ever so dear

Now fading far away,

Near muted to my ear

Save recall ere so clear,

Retention can but stay

Tho memory fades away…

 

Alas serenity assured

The while you be there,

With music you so speak,

There is sanity you bring

That has my world sing,

And does but so relieve

That foreboding cling,

For you are to be here  

A prompt ever so clear

Keeping mind yet sane,

The while if memory fails

Life destined be our bane,

Tho your love will still remain!

                               ode to my mother and father…                                                                

                                       © Jean-Jacques Fournier

 

“ The Last Train ” – may have gone –

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                                                            painting by Claude Monet

“ The Last Train ” – may have gone –

I’d bought in too

A youth’s fallacy,

Ye want find true

Save failed to see,

Fate shan’t renew

A life forever be,

Tho we continue

Frivolously free,

To ponder pursue

And endlessly roam,

Tho state of askew

Too far from home,

Long past ye renew

Will find one alone,

When the last train

Now may have gone!

                                             © Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ Mind ” ~ inside out ~

Mind in a bind

As recall fades,

Be need to find

What in my soul,

Extends to mind

In part or whole,

Want learn turn

Mind inside out,

Then too return

And bring about,

Fixed process all

Mind outside in,

As far as I recall!

 

“ You Want Black ” ~ in a world so marred ~

You want black

It won’t be far,

You find tracts

Of spirit’s char,

You want dark

Just look about,

Man fixed stark

And imaged sad,

In fare he’s spun

Yet ne’er regard,

The ruin he runs

To distort colour,

That will blur sun

Thus attain pallor,

Till dark turns black

In a world so marred,

There be no turning back!

                                                           ode to Leonard Cohen