Shadows – where faces hide –

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Shadows
         - where faces hide -

In time dawn’s shadow
Would dim the cruelty,
A face deemed bide 
From its carved path,
Will transmute hide
Said nature’s trap,
For wind burnt flesh
That reads like brail,
Or weathered mesh
On skin humanly frail,
Finds soon be paired
To rock-strewn canyons,
Reflection of a dire face
As pain unravels memory,
Of its passing shadows
Hence where faces hide,
Among phantoms of the past 
Where these faces did emerge! 

                                                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Images – Private authors; Malik Earnest 2015

Music – Leaving by Chet Baker

Audio Recital – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                                                             written in Sweetsburg

                                                                                   January 2, 2022

                                                                       edited January 10, 2022

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 ... 

“ A Space ” – held in awe, be our planet earth –

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A Space

– held in awe,

be our planet earth –

 ‘Tis a space,
 Held in awe
 Our planet earth,
 A place we crave
 Thus so we may,
 From birth to grave
 Tho be fates play,
 One you can’t save
 Nor meant we stay,
 On its passing wave
 We’ll not want stray
 Tho holds your breath,
 With its waning taste 
 Wouldst suffer death, 
 To extend embrace... 

 Held in veiled guise,
 Tho bares one’s face
 Who finds will hide, 
 Said man’s disgrace
 And denigrating bide,
 Of our earthly prize,
 Whilst apathetically
 Man in kind deface, 
 To discombobulate
 Our memory’s state,
 Tho while held in awe
 Insentient of its worth,
 Denies many having place
 For all to be on planet earth! 

                       © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
                                          November 17, 2020
  
 Photos - public collection...
 Music - Excerpt of, If I should lose you, by Chet Baker...                     

“ When Memory Fails ” – held in time will –

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“ 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 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 Façade ” ~ of a smile ~

He wears a smile

Save no surprise,

If but the while

He means to hide,

His shaded guile

Woefully apprised,

In a conjured façade…

 

He has known wile

In angst of sorrow,

More than enough

To find not borrow,

He’d known tears

Gathered for years

Beyond subsides,

Rendered invasive

To the outer side,

Of harbouring mazes…

 

Thus the façade

Blurred in guises,

Holds few surprises

Be joy or sadness                                          

That smiles disguise,                                      

Alas but for appearance!

“ Hiding ”~ inside time ~

We chose hiding

Thus not to see,

Days accumulate

In fulgent degree,

Beg to decelerate

Its senescence art,

For to compensate

By young at heart,

Would inside time

Only suffer to hide,

From fading mind

We allege ‘tis alive,

In its state of decline!

 

“ 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!

 

“ The Mask ” ~ a place to hide ~

You now find
A need hide,
Where time
Sets disguise,
Be the mask
Fits façade,
Meant to hold
Live inside,
There to be bold
Reinventing
A fatiguing soul,
Best obscured
In the interim,
One ways discern
Thence half alive,
To suffer return
Eluding hell’s burn
In this interval bide,
Held be place to hide!