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.
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.
