Lumiere Premieres
I. Workers Leaving A Factory
Out of the huge dark gate
into the too bright street
(so many so many)
some to the left to the right
out of the dark
the long dark coats and skirts
long white aprons
sturdy shoes and hats
in an endless stream —
they go as the light goes
memoryless repeating
a dream a dream
of endings played over and over
leaving the dark gate
projected from the beginning
as soon as it’s light
in a rush the light is going
suddenly one black horse
pulling a covered carriage
(it’s not a hearse)
swims out of the crowd
like a horse from a fancy fountain
or freeing the pent-up dead
from beneath a mountain
the workers keep coming
one, a wobbly cyclist
straightens his bike, keeps going
no sign of slowing —
the lids, the doors were so heavy —
now they are open
such boisterous joy
as if anything could happen —
: :
II. La Voltige
Get up on your horse!
Get up on your horse!
Get up on your dark, shiny, patient, inscrutable horse!
Where will it take you? Don’t ask.
It stands still on its beautiful four legs
like any immutable structure.
How many more legs? Six! Two are your legs,
two for the man who tends the horse
two for the man who helps you up and over and no!
you’ve slid over the other side —
that’s not how you ride!
Will you get up on your horse —
Get up astride!
: :
III. Bowl with Red Fish
What do you wish?
I give you the world.
You can lean on its rim
in the flickering light.
You are swaddled in white
with a funny white cap
like a hot water bottle:
your face looks up.
Out of the dark
hands are keeping you steady.
What goes around
is hardly a body,
a finny current.
You rock the round world,
reach in
– it’s cold!
: :
IV. Neuville-sur-Saône: Débarquement du Congrès des Photographes à Lyon
The photographical congress disembarks.
The light-writing walk-togethers leave the boat,
as a brisk river of hats: straw boaters with bands,
black bowlers, a few extra-jaunty ones like plates
heaped with silk flowers: two carry parasols:
all the light-writers protecting their heads from the sun.
What are they carrying in those various boxes?
Rooms within rooms where the light-writing gets done,
where the tables are set with silver salt, glass plates.
What are they carrying in those hatted domes?
Dark room, flickering fish, what’s hid stays almost hid.
As the last one disembarks, bearing the biggest box —
a box with three very long legs! he cheerily doffs his lid.
: :
V. Les Forgerons
What are these blacksmiths making
with anvil and bucket and forge:
soundless, but something striking.
Try to remember, what urge
makes us keep looking
hammering on the anvil,
the forge arm turning and turning:
trying to get something straight —
there’s something we’re learning
it’s hard work ironing out.
The two together keep time —
suddenly ah there’s steam
and a puff of smoke.
Quick break for a drink.
: :
VI. Baignade en Mer
Is it because we don’t exactly see
where they are coming from
off screen to the right
when they dash out onto the rickety little pier
and then leap into the sea
sea not so deep that any will disappear
never less than one of them in sight
and sometimes as many as five awash in the frame
clambering up through the foam
back up onto the rocks toward what must be
some bit of land or beach or strand
where the waves, too, are arriving —
in a loop-di-loop of infinity
out of the sea to land, then clamber and stand —
then dash to the end of the pier and leap in with a splash! –
whatever comes out
whatever comes out of the sea
returns with such joy
as if there was never a real beginning or end
the factory keeps on opening its broad doors
from which the procession emerges, the crowd waves and roars
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Note: On March 22, 1895, the Lumiere brothers premiered, for an audience of ten, a very short film of workers leaving the Lumiere factory. In December of that year, for a paying audience in Paris, the Lumiere brothers screened ten short films, beginning with “Workers Leaving the Factory,” and ending with “The Sea.” This series is inspired by six of those short films. The image below is from their film “Workers Leaving A Factory.” JC
