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.
Trapped inside
Unable to scream
Unable to cry
My body heavy
As I lie on back
I see only the blur
He stands there
Taunting me
I’m my prison
All I can do is see
Observe the chaos
My minds creation
L.I.T.
Heart beating fast,
when I stand in front of the room.
Palms sweating,
as I nearly drop my cards.
I can feel the jitters in my throat
as I speak to the audience
Ears are filled with pain
Deaf to the sound of pity
A dark soul is what is left
Escaping a nightmare
Shivers with a cold sweat
I am the lightning and thunder that make rainy days worse.
I am what people feel when they lose someone.
The emotion that makes your heart shatter into many pieces.
I am what creeps through the hallways of a hospital,
What creeps as ghosts throughout the cemetery.
I am sadness.
G Cortez
An emerging sensation
from deep within the heart
begins to spread outwards,
resonating upwards
towards the human brain
poisoning all senses,
unable fight back.
The body suddenly feels heavy
as feelings of dread begins to
to cloud the mind.
All that is left is to wait for
the moment to pass.
Sparkling eyes,
Like beaming stars
Tells the story of a thousand men
Freedom, is what I read
It cages inside me
A clock that does not tick
The secret stuck in the binds
Alive but no heart beating
A cry that makes no sound
Machine that refuses to work
Time will make all things forget
Dived in head first,
Found myself sinking down into the depths of the earth
Holding in all of my emotions at the bottom of the ocean
My pain runs deep & you were supposed to be my savior
Instead, I realize you were the anchor
When it comes to love
I stay afloat
Never did she expect to see such betrayal on her 25th spring. Her eyes jumped out of their sockets when she saw him with her. That anaconda was swallowing him whole. She left that building with a flash. The hair on her cheeks were snakes. Her eyes flowed with tiny rivers. The sky cried in tune with her. Her hands were protective shields. Her heart was jumping out of her chest. Her mouth was a cave with a sad echo within. Her brain fell dead. Then all of a sudden she saw her angel who brightened up her storm.
Her stare felt like sunshine after a long cold winter
His returning smile exalted her senses as they united
Their minds become an eraser as they forget reality
Together as one at last.
Shivers creep down my spine
Making my face
Hands
Feet
Tingle and refuse to move
My breath, shallow
My heart, racing
I can not cry or scream or speak
My voice, broken
My body will not do as nature designed
Why do I get so scared?
Just as the night sky glitters with stars
Looming darkness creeps in the shadows
Your empty eyes; like an endless abyss
My body shivers like an animal
Your arms; tense and filled with anger
Will you not say goodbye?
Still, I look forward
To the day we will reunite in the starry sky
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