Monday, 15 February 2016

Le p'ti' liv'



















Le p’ti’ liv’   (Pour Adele)

What riches in a little book?
The epiphanies of years, small but
mighty crafted moments of clarity,
playful transformations
and adjusted conformations,
multiplying ‘til the pages cannot hold
the outpourings of such a large heart;
le p’tit liv’ becomes a fountain overflowing
transfusing the lifeblood,
the painter’s vision, passion, love
for life out beyond its margins and
into the eyes of the grateful world.

Don Perkins 28 March 2015

I bought this little painting at a memorial display for Normand Fontaine last year. It was the first page of a book of crafty little studies he did over the years, playing with perspectives and unusual twists of relationship. It was, in effect, his manifesto for the book as a whole. His wife, Adele, asked me what I thought the blood pooling out of the booklet in the picture meant, so I wrote her this poem to explain what I saw in it.

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