Poet Republik–Jean-Noel Chazelle
This month’s Poet Republik feature is a poem from Jean-Noel Chazelle’s second collection of poetry, Pearl Eye Medium/Perle Oeil Medium. Poet Republik Ltd. is proud to publish this second collection in a bilingual translation. Jean-Noel is already an accomplished artist whose paintings have been exhibited around the globe. Below is a sampling of the outstanding poetry in this collection. You can see the influence of his painterly mind in the lush images in his poetry. Enjoy!
Sous tes mains
Le plein te fascine
Nage à la surface du miroir
l’étendue du désir se dérobe sous
tes mains
Under your hands
The immense fascinates you.
Swimming on the mirror surface
the extent of desire slips away from
your hands
Jean Noel Chazelle is a French Artist living in Montmartre PARIS. He works on multiple support (Painting, Sculpture, Performance, Installation) and various media (Photo, Movie, Sound). After 7 years of performances in Cledalique Gallery created by Salvador Dali and Miette in Cadaques in the north of Spain, following the encouragement of Teeny Duchamp he re-turned to painting and begun to experiment the acrylic paint on plexiglass in 1997. He went to the state after his first exhibition at Sacha Tarass of who associated him with Support Surface. Jean Noel has a Museum in Massachussetts, Noama witch places on front of MassMoca. He as integrated numerous collections: the one of the DeRosa family that belongs to Guggenheim, the collection of Bob and Mary Decelles in Miami , the collection of Bo Peabody in NY, the collection of Carole Levy in Los Angeles, the one of Joel Cohen, Claude Klotz in Paris. He was the last Artist that Joseph Nahmad has collected. Pearl Eye Medium is the his second collection in this limited edition trilogy by Jean Noel and published by Poet Republik Ltd.
“Jean Noel Chazelle’s Pearl Eye Medium showcases a collection of jewel-like vignettes, compressed stories expressed in exquisite, resonant language and surprising images that linger in the reader’s imagination and soul. These poems startle with their originality and beauty, offer echoes of magic and myth.”– Dr. Jennifer Lagier Fellguth, editor of the Monterey Poetry Review.
His legs felt weak again, this time like never before. They often suggested a visit to the doctor, but it would come and go so often he never deemed it necessary. Sometimes it wasn’t even his legs, but his arms. Other days his back. Still, he was never a physical person so it gave him no worries. It was when his dog ran away. When he was yelled at by his parents. When they eventually split up. And now, when he lost his friend.
As dark as the night without its moon,
The light faded and left nothing behind.
Not even the wind could be heard,
Nor understood a meaning or a sense of time.
Trapped in the obis of thought.
A void it has unfortunately become.
Not a feeling can be felt,
And every touch of heart becomes decaying and numb.
Silence continuously roams my mind.
Loneliness no longer is felt as a threat.
Emotion runs dangerously low.
A commonality it is and one to accept.
NC
Countless years have passed
My body is disintegrating
Yet I continue to wait in bliss
When I escape the present world
And visit a strange place
Where dreams ascend
Toes are the first to hit the floor
Rain or shine they have to make it through
Some walk, some run, some fall and some stand still
Some are ugly, some are fat, some are skinny and some are long
Although they come in many shapes, sizes and move at different pace
Each one has a fear of getting hurt through their walk
ACadena
Makeup covers up our flaws,
As clothes covers our body,
Whether we wear it or not,
It makes us feel comfortable.
Your face seems covered,
As I wish to be covered in your arms,
But you are not here,
The diamond on my finger,
Always reminds me you’re in my heart.
The stars above are like glitter in the sky,
The night so dark,
The moon so bright,
You take me in your arms and nothing matters more just the stars, the moon and you and I.
If my hands were a little less sweaty and a little more confident, I would grab hers. She is sitting here next to me, smiling and looking down. I know she is talking but I can’t hear anything over the pounding of my heart and the blood rushing in my ears. She looks up at me, “Why are you staring at me?” “Because I have never wanted to kiss anyone more than I want to kiss you right now.” She leans in towards me, lips shining with gloss and closes her eyelids, eyelashes long and black. I lean in towards her and I swear, for just a moment, time stopped and we existed alone in this universe, infinite and indestructible. My soul had finally found its other half. I smiled at the thought.
It started as a rumble, a tremble
From her toes onwards up
Winding slowly through tissue,
through sinew and cord
Reaching and clawing
Past a slowly expanding diaphragm
Breathe in, breathe out
He watched as he waited
His form tense, black eyes examining
Calculating, accessing
A tremble so violently quiet
he stood transfixed
A fleeting glance to the side
The tremble dying before it reached beautiful, hollow eyes
Turning slowly she fades away
And all he’ll be left with is silence
Icy cold, fingers disappear
Ribs a cage that keep everything together
Curtains, the mind’s respite, block out the world
Tapping drones on outside
Lessons
The human heart,
One of many organs which supports life and can also end it,
But the only one that can do both at the same time.
Capable of sustaining life while making it feel like it’s over.
The heart can pump blood and oxygen,
And it can do so while broken.
A true marvel.
It can feel shattered and still perform,
Like the heart,
We too can feel broken,
And still keep beating.
The end of the affair is always death.
She’s my workshop. Slippery eye,
out of the tribe of myself my breath
finds you gone. I horrify
those who stand by. I am fed.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.
Finger to finger, now she’s mine.
She’s not too far. She’s my encounter.
I beat her like a bell. I recline
in the bower where you used to mount her.
You borrowed me on the flowered spread.
At night, alone, I marry the bed.
Take for instance this night, my love,
that every single couple puts together
with a joint overturning, beneath, above,
the abundant two on sponge and feather,
kneeling and pushing, head to head.
At night alone, I marry the bed.
Soft and warm,
Peach and tranquility,
Breezes by like the skin of yours.
Pink tones dance across.
Unforgettable.
Goosebumps
Leaves fall gracefully
onto the cold cement
It welcomes its cover
The wind begins to echo
its harsh blows
Warmth removed
My body now shivers
Happiness.
Sunlight caresses her face with its warmth,
A creature full of life.
The wind plays with her hair softly,
Joy is inevitable, a burst of bright light.
V.Saldana
Feet sink deep into the dirt
Roots spread underground
Torso extended, reaching, stretching
Trunk expanding, ever growing
Arms extended up and out
Branches long reaching for the sun
Hair blowing in the wind
Leaves rustling through the breeze
Elbows are a blunt weapon that can knock a man down. Elbows hide a funny bone to laugh at your whimsical jokes. Tough, they are the first to take a fall, bruise, and cut. Yet they can bleed for days when jabbed from a wrong angle. Elbows–my ego, my pride. You are the scar-covered partner of my younger days.
The taste on my buds
is a bitter, sour, salty
one. Can hardly forget
the emotion that comes along
I should turn off my brain,
So I could be cold.
Now that is experience
from somebody old.
Hear ur shoulders.
Listen to ur gut.
Be all ears,
to the hair that sticks up.
Looking for a dream, he travels through a sea of sand. The sand is so hot that his feet are bursting, he lifted his eyes and saw an oasis of water. He rubbed his eyes, was it a mirage or was there water in this sea of sand. He had been walking for days in search of this dream, the food and water he had were already gone. He thought to himself was it worth it, but he remembered those beautiful blue eyes her smile and continued. Every single second of this journey is worth it, if it means a better life and happiness for that little angel that he left behind.
The human body is the feeling of wonder. It all comes with the small things of the human body. Wide eyes when you see the heaven change colors. It’s in the way that your flesh breaks out in goosebumps when you hear the first notes of a masterpiece. Or in the way that your heart stutters in your chest when you feel something overwhelmingly pure. The human body is a wonder with gasps, cries, screams, moans, whispers, and laughs. There is nothing more wonderful than the body and its handle of wonder. Such a simple emotion with such a strength over our bodies.
Our heart is an engine,
And our feet move the earth.
Like putty,
We move the ground to where we need to be,
Guided by the sound of our heartbeat.