Poem + painting – WORDS IN THE LIGHT

Un rêve d’enfant / A Child’s Dream

Je fais souvent ce rêve,
vous venez à la maison,
vous passez le portillon,

nous allons au jardin.
Je vous montre le chêne,
les violettes, les mûres.

Je pourrais presque vous entendre.
Que la lumière est belle
et que tout est joli !

Mais dans la pénombre
tout n’est que silence.
Ce n’était qu’un rêve,

un rêve d’enfant.

I often have a dream that
you’re coming by the house,
you go through the door,

we walk around the garden.
I show you the oak tree, the violets
and the blackberry bush.

I could almost hear your voice.
“What a wonderful light!
Everything’s so nice!”

But everything’s so silent
in the twilight.
It was just a dream,

a child’s dream.

illustration: Houses in Auvers (Vincent Van Gogh, 1890)

Elsewhere

Planets revolve around their star,
the wind blows as the sun sets
trees sway, sapphire rivers flow,
somber flames start to dance.

And the Night mist reveals
deep and hidden things,
and the Moon watches over dreams
until unaware shadows flee,

then bodies wander the world.
But the Hearts still beat as One
for the Soul lives
Elsewhere.

illustration: Fields Of Fog (Eyvind Earle, 1990)

The Unreality of Time

I am the clock without hands
the murky water of the River Lethe
the suspension bridge that has
neither beginning nor end

yesterday
I will be
tomorrow
I was

in very truth
I am not
for I am
the Unreality of Time

illustration: Black Marble Clock (detail)
(Cézanne, c1870)

In a Place of Peace

In a place of peace
I buried Hope with my own hands
I looked for heather in bloom
but could not find any flowers I like.

So I made a cross from twigs and ivy,
and my soul stood there,
naked in the wind, under onyx stars,
till the break of Dawn.

My sweetest Dream has gone,
I will not live on!
The truth has been left untold
and the sunlight looks so cold!

illustration: The Cemetery Entrance
(Caspar David Friedrich, 1825)

The Princess

sketch-for-a-mermaid

She breathes
and sailors smile or worry,
She sings
and mermaids dream or cry.

She poses,
and painters do their best.
Then she disappears after
she sprinkled stardust in their eyes.

She sometimes wears
a wedding veil
but every man knows
she will never marry

for she is
the King’s mistress.
The Sea.
Princess of the seeking Souls.

illustration: Sketch For A Mermaid
(John William Waterhouse, 1892)

Dans un Jardin / In a Garden

Un soir d’été,
peut-être en juillet,
quand la lumière faiblissante
apaise tout,

après avoir touché la terre
et les arbres,
et senti la brise
s’élever jusqu’aux étoiles,

dans ce fin brouillard bleu,
qui fait la beauté
d’un jardin avant la Nuit,
paisiblement,

j’aimerais quitter le monde.

On a Summer evening
maybe in July
when the dimming Light
heals everything

after I touched
trees and soil
and felt the breeze
rising up to the stars

in the blue mist that makes
a garden before the Night
such a peaceful place
I would like to leave

the world behind.

illustration: Garden of Dreams
(Eyvind Earle, 1990)

Not Too Late

Instead of watching tv
I could have gone to your garden.
There you had grown sunflowers
and planted a walnut tree.

But I did not care at all
and didn’t try to cross the wall.
The walnut tree was cut down,
sunflowers turned all to dust,

and now, you’re so far away.
Unsaid words weighs heavy
on my heart. Yet I still dare
to hope it’s not too late.

Daddy! What a wonderful garden!

illustration: the Gardener
Georges Seurat (1884-83)