Six Variations on a Theme of Jacques Prévert | Michael Paul Hogan

Le bruit du crayon d’Ingres
sur un papier silence…

 

1

 the noise of the pencil of Ingres

the noise of the c-lick Man Ray

le violon d’Ingres

the color pastis RICARD /

a studio

white smoke curl cigOISES le bruit
of the LEICA the camera Man Ray

 

2

the noise of the pencil of Ingres
of the picture being formed

of the LEICA

pastiche Ricard

of the camera

bare wood the walls floor o /
GAULOISES

& how she likes

being taken from behind

 

3

her back the inside smooth

an eggshell LEICA o /

explodes

 

4

f    the pencil pro
file) the noise o /

he wears

white flannel pants

a pair

of english brogues) his shirt

the collar frayed the cuffs GAULOISES

rolled up a cigarette

his eye

the ground glass lens a LEICA o

click     f     her back     f  

 

5

le bruit du crayon le violon

& jazz age Paris my god

chairs tables crazy sidewalk shriek

RICARD

& dancing on the lids of taxis

(re. Bruccoli: Some Kind of Epic Grandeur )

R typewrOYAL

La Dome

of the pencil of Hemingway / 3
Stories she said three flights my god
the shutters open the cold pastis her clothes
she kisses her girlfriend’s breast

le bruit

of the camera the c-lick Man Ray

 

6

the noise of the crayon d’Ingres

of the LEICA the camera Man Ray

& in Paris the ’twenties a young man

with a perfectly o glass eye

/

Michael Paul Hogan is a journalist, poet, and literary essayist whose work has appeared extensively in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and China. His most recent collection, Chinese Bolero, a collaboration with the great contemporary painter Li Bin, was published in September 2015.