Painting A Mind

               – in shadows dark –

Johann Robert Schürch – Clown, 1921

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– shadows dark –

Be hollows stark
Painting a mind,
In shadows dark 
To survive time,
Be need of world
Best ne’er blind,
As creatures we
Given short line,
Expecting future
Soon fades offline,
Will want a tutor 
For make believe,
Set as fake humans
Be computer achieved,
Save a life’s meagre race
Holds no reason to grieve,
With compos mentis in place
Ye ought find painting a mind
Seeks not dark shadows embrace!

		     © Jean-Jacques Fournier

	                                          written in Sweetsburg				
			                       April 23, 2022

Imagery - Wikimedia Commons…
Music – Diane by Chet Baker…
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.

                                

                       

                                

The Face

     – in inure place –

by Boris Grigoriev

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The Face

– in inure place –

I see the face,
Now as in life
In inured place,
Eased of strife 
To rid of waste,
As dubious rife
In rawest sense,
Like stiletto knife
Inflicts offence,
To callous tense…

As face reflects
A raced journey,
Creates an image 
To fixate markedly, 
Begs want end travel 
Of memories passing,
Finds scold bold arrival 
Of phantoms trespassing, 
As tho one’s fate be trivial
In the face of an inured place,
The gods rendered us negligible! 

                                                                      © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Imagery – Wikimedia Commons

Music – Wikimedia Commons, Rainy Jazz & Rain Sounds

Audio – Jean-Jacques Fournier, April 3, 2022

                                                                          ov written in Montréal
                                                                              February 8, 2002
						                            

A Wandering Man

            – seeks a longer while –

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A Wandering Man            

 – seeks a longer while –                                                           

He wanders about
For trenchant life,
But without doubt
Save eonian strife,
Fixes a sure bout 
As afore afterlife,
Be willing to wait
A progeny clever,
Till ye find place
Visualizes forever,
That allows placate
For no reason ever,
This wandering man
Seeks a longer while,
Thus, so to find whole
With but copious guile
Might delay growing old!

				ode to forever young of spirit…

                             © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
			   
Imagery - Wikimedia Commons
Music - Excerpt of Wandering by Steve Combs
Audio recital – by Jean-Jacques Fournier

written in Sweetsburg
March 20, 2022

This Face

     – be as tho painted –

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This Face

     – be as tho painted –

This face you see
Be as tho painted, 
Told idiosyncrasy   
Disorderly related,
Still has a grandee
Fixed thus to elate,
Not au contrair be
Of a mindful trait,
But of astute being
In that erudite state
Affects as depicted,
Note ingress's place
Tho ilk’s affixed bait,
See face, as tho painted...

A face will so emerge
In life unacquainted, 
Yet ‘tis discouraged
At seen underrated, 
For fruit of one’s urge 
Begs shan’t be wasted,
As but a dreamlike hold
Life fancied be untainted,
And that you not fail extol  
This face, be as tho painted!

                                                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier

Imagery - Oskar Kokoschka
Music – Maurice Ravel – Pavane Pour une infante Défunte 
(for a dead Princess) 
Audio Recital – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                                                           ov written in Montreal
                                                                                 January 2, 2002
					                                   rewrote in Sweetsburg
                                                                                January 25, 2022

The Look

        – of a forlorn smile –

Flora Priestley Lamplight, by John Singer Sargent

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The Look

– of a forlorn smile –

I picture the look
Of a beguiled face,
That wants to brook 
Find an affable place,
For the very long while
Hence want not lose pace,
Nor to misplace found smile
Tho all gods shan’t pay grace,
When irrelevant be man’s guile 
Who wouldst try calm sadly face,
With the tacit mind, of a forlorn smile!

                                 © Jean-Jacques Fournier


Imagery - Amedeo Modigliani & John Singer Sargent
Music – If I Should You – by Chet Baker
Audio – Jean-Jacques Fournier

                                          written in Sweetsburg

                                              January 18, 2022

                                                         

A Poetic Trio – of fated time –

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A Mask

Will in time
Knit façade,
Like a mask
For the mind,
Blinds fate past!

Shades – of time –

Seem out of place
Fate’s shades of time,
Too soon effaced
A once upon sublime, 
Find lost in waist 
Humanity’s sad define,
Tho truth known 
Rashly yours and mine! 

Trickeries

          – adjudged end unknown –

As I recall now,
Of early dawn
The gods avow,
Scant paragon
Be held to end,
As I grow wise
Find so intend,
To forever thrive,
In minds eye norm
Be of fates trickeries,
Adjudged end unknown!  

                           © Jean-Jacques Fournier

All 3 poems, abridged for short version, 
written in Sweetsburg July 10, 2021
Music - Maurice Ravel, Excerpt of Sonatine 1
Imagery - Private & public
Audio Recital - Jean-Jacques Fournier

“ Vertical Imbroglio ” – a shadow state –

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“ Vertical Imbroglio ”                                 

– a shadow state –

I reach ahead

Haltingly so,

As I prepare

To step alas, 

Beyond length

It takes to pass,

A prior stride

Repairs behind,

In effort guide

A next in kind,

Repeats to bide,

Thus so I sense

May tend to slide,

As if said motion

Would so impair,

To suffer notions

Of a lost equilibrium…

While tho awake,

I envisage myself

Inhabiting a place,                              

Of vertical imbroglio

As a shadow state,

Steps be but echoes

In an outer mind

Suggesting guise,

We’re to accept

Its bogus disguise,

Tho manipulated

By what’s left alive,

And still humanlike

Despite emotive pries…

Hence be sagacious                                                                          

Attempt at realism,

Imbroglio’s shadow

State imaging façade,

Said of bemused reality,                                                                                

The while life’s demise   

Be destined irrevocably,                                                                                       

Tho holds mans laudable prize!

                © Jean-Jacques Fournier 
                         1st written in Grasse, France  2005
  
Paintings - by René Magritte ... 
 Audio’s music - exerpt of  Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla ... 

“ The Other Side ” – of nowhere –

                                                 Listen to audio

“ 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 Raven ” – a mysterious fellow –

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Be the raven’s bent

In a populous stead,

Did ye gods ferment

He be of noble head,

Thus to be potentate

Rates occupy a state,

For the raven to lead

As he’ll find placate,

In mind and in deed

Despite he so deigns,

Be notion one heeds

As held cause of bane…

 

Too long perceived

Said distorted vein,

Of pods vulgar seed

Be ill-informed say,

To induce bias feed

Will imply be stray,

Yet will recall face

Of kind behaviour,

No matter the place

To share information,

Among fellow ravens

That identify humans,

Who mean recognize

A genius well proven…

 

Thus so cawing bellows

Assumes adorns the heavens,

Till be croaks rendered hollow

To attest be a mysterious fellow!

 

© Jean-Jacques Fournier