Monday, April 28, 2014

Sotère Torregian: HANDLE WITH CARE

The Words “HANDLE WITH CARE" (apparaître tout d’un coup)
for Haroutiun Koundakjian and for Lola

ma saison pleine de saisons
René Char, Seuil

Appear before me out of Nowhere
which is to say
there is Nowhere there is Everywhere
Everywhere you have left your shadow
Where you have stepped across the globe
the instant
of your camera's shutter flicked like a snake's tongue
Sahara’s sands at your heels Africa’s vain glory

The dinner-plate left with unfinished food in Aleppo

The beauty of Woman your gaze gathered into itself
perhaps
having seen them only once before you had to move
on to another assignment

At this moment I pause
as I have lost count
sun moon meridian East West all can be captured in New York
reflected in a department store window as one passes by
As I lift my glass of wine in tribute here
To your converging lens and the rainbow cascaded there
on the painter’s palette of Arshile

as I too partout meet you
in this Everywhere


Sotère Torregian
13 April, dimanche des Rameaux, AD 2014



This poem is in memoriam to photojournalist Harry Koundakjian (1930-2014) whose baptismal name was Haroutioun, which is Armenian for Resurrection.

The poet’s father, Sami Torregian (1910-1992) was also a photographer.
Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) was an Armenian-American surrealist painter.

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