The Moment

– but a second be –

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The Moment

– but a second be –

Ye learn forever 
Be but a second,
Tho endeavour
To find extend,
Be the moment
We fix pretend,
In prolong time
Albeit beckons,        
To expand clock
Ye gods do lend,
We reckon mock
As would eternal,
Beyond instant
Of kept normal,
As said forever
Held in thought,
Fate opts clever
Set close to lost,
Blink of an eye
Nay to be found,
One day or other
For ye’d be gone,
After the moment 
Ne’er meant long,
Those waning days
Fixate a mind to see,
Of set persistent way
Has but the moment be!    


for my sister, Pierrette...
                                       
            © Jean-Jacques Fournier

written in Sweetsburg
March 2, 2023

Music - excerpt of Almost Blue, by Chet Baker
Imaging - Wikimedia Commons
Audio - Jean-Jacques Fournier

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

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.

                                

                       

                                

“ Inadvertency ” – a lapse of memory –

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“ Inadvertency ”

– a lapse of memory –

 Mindful, be unforeseen
 That memories will fail,
 Hopeful not to extreme
 For fear of minds derail,
 In a posit made sombre
 Thus be forever fraught,
 From a lapse of memory
 Errant as to be brought,
 By its narrated stumble
 Be of words gone awash,
 Has one in a new bubble
 Giving notions to curse, 
 Aired not as a mumble
 Views now but adverse, 
 Left to exist in a jumble... 


 ‘Tis sad state of decline
 All the while you watch,
 Feel its thought melting
 As a reoccurred botch,
 That a word will mend
 Holds cause be reborn,
 Extant failure finds end 
 Tho ye suffer self scorn, 
 Despite held to append... 


 Whilst pained to so find
 An apprise of words lost,
 Tells of old fails conveyed  
 Wants inadvertency tossed! 


                       ode to over worked minds...

 

                   © Jean-Jacques Fournier
                                                                  
                           written in Sweetsburg   
                                        November 23, 2020  
  
 Pictures - Personal & Public Collection...
 Music - Stone, by Hara Noda    

“ The Gift ” – of you – revisited

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“ The Gift ”

                 – of you –

I want not to forget

Fail having tried,

Or simply accept

I’ve reason to regret,

Mindful so I could

Be able to affect,

Without need to try

As if I could deny,

Our love grew beyond

You being easy on the eye…

 

I wanted to recall,

The times you tried

Offering your all,

And I too blind to see

Might’ve realized,

You so needed me,

As I you even more

Tho the gift offered,

I ne’er realized before

Had always been of you …

 

Doesn’t tax one’s memory

To recall there’d been many,

But none the worth, if any

Yet didn’t know enough

I’d the gift of you to hold,

But only now can tell

When grown wiser old,

While you, now too long gone

Be the gift, for someone else to hold!

 

written in Grasse France           

                                                © Jean-Jacques Fournier

 

“ The Hat ” – tit for tat –

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“ The Hat ”

– tit for tat –

He wore the hat

To dress his head,

Tho tit for tat

And so with dread,

He wares it now

Hides pilus dead,

Or gone so thin,

It fails be coaxed

To grow back in,

Thus pate regrets

That bushy hair,

Of peacock fame

Beyond repair,

Held chose delimit

Its germinal game,                                              

Evokes sad memory                                                

Of his lamented mane!

                                                                                                                                                                                                          © Jean-Jacques Fournier

 

“ The Child In Me ” – held shades of used to be –

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The Child In Me

           – held shades of used to be –

Though many say

He’s but a shadow,

Held shades

Of used to be,

I play their game

But truly feel,

He’s still the same

The child in me…

 

Some even doubt

He still be there,

And more maintain

I am for naught,

The child is gone,

My hopes are fraught

With dreams

Of used to be…

 

But I say not,

I know the child

Yet lives in me,

And always must

As part of man,

From birth

Until that day

We turn to dust…

 

It matters not,

Though but a shade

Of used to be,

I know it’s him,

And so insist

He still exists

The child in me!

                                          written in Vence, Fr.

                                                  © 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

“ The Gift ” – of you –

  Listen to audio

“ The Gift ”

             – of you –

I want not to forget

Fail having tried,

Or simply accept

I’ve reason to regret,

Mindful so I could

Be able to affect,

Without need to try

As if I could deny,

Our love grew beyond

You being easy on the eye…

 

I wanted to recall,

The times you tried

Offering your all,

And I too blind to see

Might’ve realized,

You so needed me,

As I you even more

Tho the gift offered,

I ne’er realized before

Had always been of you …

 

Doesn’t tax one’s memory

To recall there’d been many,

But none the worth, if any

Yet didn’t know enough

I’d the gift of you to hold,

But only now can tell

When grown wiser old,

While you, now too long gone

Be the gift, for someone else to hold!

 

                                                           written in Grasse Fr.

                                                                                     © Jean-Jacques Fournier

 

 

 

“ A Garrulous Mind ” ~ in a conformist soul ~

 

In a held conformist soul,

Serves a garrulous mind

That won’t abort its hold,

And matters not be blind

To ludicrous not so droll,

Whatever reason binds

Purpose to feed its psyche,

As it tends to prattle on

Till weariness finds a hole,

For loquaciousness to be gone

In favour of enlightened whole!

 

                                                                        © Jean-Jacques Fournier