Pour ma chère J-F:
Les Hasards Nécessaires
Penn Station to Gare Centrale de Montréal
crossing the border by means of a test
originating in Quebec’s magical forest
La Reine des jeux has spoken:
“Necessary Chances are the first step to the Hieros Gamos.”
Did I write test? I meant text!
Les Hasards Nécessaires
is a mathematical marriage proposal
how many synchronicities
make the sacred wedding?
Let’s recount…
#1 is an interview with a Montreal scholar
who believes—not in destiny or fate
but radical contingency
“In French it is hasard,” he says
Les Hasards Nécessaires
“first step” that brought me to Montreal.
#2 begins with two pears
lying in the market
wanting to be caressed.
I purchase both
nibbling one pear in the Sun
Other smooshed in Shadow.
Moon eclipses Sun
Hélio dancing on a Medicine Wheel.
Faro tiles pointing in four directions
bursts upon me as dawn rises
sleeping on a wrought iron bench
facing the Atlantic west
houses of bright hues
cheery tiles that make me smile
white stone obelisk crowning
the cross of the four directions
wrought iron bench to the ocean east
I am in Parc du Portugal
Hélio de Jesus Pereira Mestre
gifts his handmade bag
with his Old World seeds
in my lap of New Worlds born
facing the hexagon gazebo
I stick my index finger into the Pereira heart
Les Hasards Nécessaires
Penn Station to Gare Centrale de Montréal
crossing the border by means of a test
originating in Quebec’s magical forest
La Reine des jeux has spoken:
“Necessary Chances are the first step to the Hieros Gamos.”
pull out two tiny seeds to plant
projecting into his “spacetime”
journey to the magical forest
with the bag of Helio seeds
on my lap on his office couch
awaiting semance from the Unicorn head
who spells out my “scared marriage”
#WeToo
…the term we invented for our Web 3.0 leap
translated upon my seed collection
“Je ne suis pas prêt à te voir.”
then, I will take Montreal…Eros, guide me
to your Tripled Breasted Mont Royal!
I find myself falling in love with the city
named for the Hieros Gamos…
Nietzsche’s Sacre Monte resurrected as
Ville-Marie — Bride of Christ
New World marrying French romance & Anglo reserve
…again, we are reversing roles
Duende, says Lorca is magical power
luring girls and boys into the forest
fumbling their way home
flamenco is how Cohen spiraled
into the interior coniunctio
his six-chord passion play
oh, to balance the Sacred & Profane
at the Cross of the Four Directions
crowning quintessence writ on the Portuguese Flag!
“Leonard Cohen Park!” proclaims his missive
Adding link of Montreal’s troubadour & pal
fraternizing on the bench of my #WeToo pear-I-fact
our/oroboros is complete now
twin Flame’s Les Hasards Nécessaires challenge
our own duende of coniunctios interior/exterior.
#WeToo rendition Stinging Synchronicity
recounting how many for the magical pear
to conjure a pair as One
the maestro’s triad chords
Translating mathematics into poetry
#3 Leonard Cohen himself utters:
“From a third-storey window above the Parc du Portugal,
I’ve watched the snow come down all day.
As usual, there’s no one here. There never is.”
No one but us.
–Lisa Paul Streitfeld
Montreal
March 1, 2019
HERMENEUTICS OF NEW MODERNISM 