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.