BG

a spray of roses pierced the iron door,

inherent and finite;

the curly initials stained by the rain...

a life annulled, her soul congealed -

remnants of hair, teeth, bones

sealed in the cold stone closet...

while dust storms gather elsewhere... 

[mysterious nonentities at the Cimetière du Père Lachaise] 

béate-boîte-brumeuse

Safe in its Glazed Chamber-

Untouched by Mourning-

And untouched by the Moon-

Lies the meek relic of the Insurrection-

Pillow of Satin - and Roof of Stone!*

the Shadow darkly unmoved,
hangs upon its golden Spot;

the Blessed Blood steeps 
in slowly relinquished layers...
curing to soft rapturous Rot!


[*a re-versing of the first stanza of "216", with apologies to Emily DICKINSON, 1830-1886]

[suspended in the Hôpital La Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75013 Paris]

la verte perpétuelle

 

pitted stones sweat blooming mossss...

sleek marble salted by crystal tearsss...

the buried bones split hairs lossss...

a speckled twig falls on your fearsss... 

"et vous qui dormez! autre granit et vieilles roses

qui passez et disparaissez dans un bain pur

sans faiblesse comme sans distance

hautes hautes terres étranger azur

pesez sur elle qui n'est plus

dans le temps ni sein ni spasmes ni larmes

qui s'est retournée sous la terre

vers l'autre plus cendreux soleil."*

[*verse from "La Femme et la Terre" by Pierre-Jean JOUVE, 1887-1976]

l'embrouillement vert

even in death, she is close...

married to his brother, but after his own heart...

painter to painter, talent on talent...

M pour M...

she brushes aside, then lightly upon...

her green eyes darkened in repose,

her white dress splayed,

a wilting camellia on a velvet web... 

[a summer's day at the intimate Cimetière de Passy]

la calotte d'or

to encase a favoured companion dog skull in golden formulation, to display as mnemonic ritualist object upon an antique desk, to revere tender the noblest animalistic spirit, to crown such meagre ancient bones in such propitiatory resplendence...

"...l'incertitude de mourir et le fer de l'amour dans la plaie d'un sourire...la plus lointaine étoile du plus humble des chiens..."*

[*selected lines from "Lanterne magique de Picasso" by  Jacques PREVERT]

[Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature]

rust in peace

I come upon a narrow rusting door, an ambivalent oxidized portal shut tight to a dusty darkened chamber...
what lies within are perhaps a few tangible symbols of a life long faded...or some consecrated offerings to an obnubilated spirit...
what then when the metal wears thin and the neglected vault finally tumbles to the ground?...
the death of a tomb - a double-death unsung in a sepulchral alley, with only heavy rutilant elements of iron still suspended in the dewy corrosive air...

[Cimetière de Belleville, 20e Arr.]

pot-of-iron in repose

like a hollowed out pumpkin "round upon the ground", it reclines "gray and bare" on the step of a neglected tomb...
"it did not give of bird or bush"... its angle of repose betrays a state of rusting dissipation, a dirge to its complete disengagement...
soon it will be removed altogether, perhaps repaired for sale by a wily brocanteur...or discarded into a cauldron of melting iron, sparking embers into the dark, dark night...all the while "[taking] dominion everywhere"*...

[*quoted lines are from Wallace Stevens' "Anecdote of a Jar", 1923]

rest in pieces

I walk through the small busy marché outside the cemetery walls and enter the floating stillness within a garden of perpetual rest...

alone in the bright light of day I am unafraid to approach the neglected tombs of forgotten souls - one now marked by only a broken crucifix and a few fallen twigs - a perfectly untouched nature morte that bespeaks the poetics of death more eloquently than the most ornamented graves...

[Cimetière de Belleville, a small cemetery with one prominent "resident" whom I googled - Léon GAUMONT (1864-1946), an inventor, engineer, industrialist and a pioneer of the motion picture industry]

coffin-couture

from white flat figures in limbo on the urban landscape to a live audience of appreciative young minds, here to learn about the business of ART... and the business of death from the previous incarnation of the space LE CENT QUATRE as the state undertaker...
the display of oddly cool white t-shirts depicting various styles of coffins does not seem to faze these children so full of life and wonder at the creative eccentricities of the world...

deco-rum

the "epitomb" of art deco elegance strains against the messiness of the living above and all around...
even high upon this little hill, Ruhlmann must rue the day they planted him here!
[I jest...this compact and half-hidden Cimetière de Passy is a repository of some haute privileged remains indeed]

l'état moussu

a soft bed of moss upon worn stone, beneath which lies a fading body, a dissolving being...persona incognito...
a soft bed of moss upon which the rain falls where tears had evaporated so long ago...and where now only the birds perch ever so briefly...