Springtime in Paris is here again
and all along the banks of the Seine
artists are unpacking chalks and oils,
canvases, water colours, and easels,
ignored by preoccupied passers-by
and unaware of the all-seeing eye
of the Académie Française clock.
Above every one of its ticks and tocks,
it’s listening for foreign impurity
on the streets of the capital city,
preferring ordinateur, logiciel, and courriel
to the snappier computer, software and e-mail.
A shadowy presence behind time’s face
safeguards language from the pace
of progress and gender inclusive spelling,
promoting purism and feminist quelling.
Kim M. Russell, 2nd June 2018
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Camera FLASH!
Kerry says it’s time to strike a pose with our photographic challenge for June, which comes with a wide angle and any filter of our choosing.
As soon as I read the words ‘Académie Française’, I was reminded of the purist debate from the days when I studied linguistics at university. I hadn’t really explored it until I started a project about the use of English loan words in French and German advertising. The Académie’s language police started another row last year when they argued that new gender-inclusive spellings being adopted by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, the civil service and academics pose a “mortal danger” to the purity of French.
writing in north norfolk 
Words mean something (in English too) but some people want to erase distinctions…then how shall we make sense of the world? Extreme feminism/anti-genderism is rubbish!
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Language is a living thing, they won’t be able to hold it back, not as long as we have voices and something to say. 😊
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Amen to that, Kim! 🙂
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This is absolutely brilliant! Love “A shadowy presence behind time’s face”.. such a potent image of a bygone era.
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Thank you, Sanaa! It’s been pouring all day here and my husband saved us from a flood with sandbags and a stiff broom. I’ve been suffering from migraine and twitchy eyes, so it’s early to bed for me. I’ll be back to read in the morning.
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I am so sorry to hear that.. hope you feel better soon 💜
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words do mean something they can be inclusive and provide distinction… both are important
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Ah!…the new language with its nuances cannot be stopped. ‘Tis the nature of progress.
Sorry to hear about the near-flood. Hope it all seems like a bad dream in the morning!
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Thanks Viv! The sun’s trying to break through this morning. It looks very damp, with so many puddles. I feel sorry for the poor person whose van got stuck in the flood under a railway bridge in the next town. Our garden looks a lot greener this morning!
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Oh my! Im glad you weren’t badly affected.
A flooded van?…poor soul.
Stay dry out there 🙂
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🙂
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Kim, I do hope the rain stops and you will not get flooded out. There is so much of that going on right now. I enjoyed your poem, and the notes after.
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Thank you, Sherry. The sandbags helped a lot. This morning the sun is trying to break through, so I hope it does a good job of drying things out.
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kaykuala
ignored by preoccupied passers-by
and unaware of the all-seeing eye
of the Académie Française clock.
Activities have a way of making itself available irrespective of the locations especially where foreigners meet!
Hank
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For me, this line is a brilliant reading of the image:
“A shadowy presence behind time’s face”
and how well you have presented the stalling of history, and progress from this vantage point.
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Thank you, Kerry.
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Any language emerges from the past and can never remain pure because it never was from the start as it grew from others…however they tried whereas the USA and Australia have made theirs a hodge podge of many languages!
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So true, Robin.
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I enjoyed your poem!
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It is almost as if that presence behind the clock is trying to hold the hands, to keep the clock from chiming and time going by. Progress…
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🕛
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‘listening for foreign impurity’ – Such a powerful statement!
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Thank you, Sara!
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There is nothing more dangerous than cleansing a language… almost as dangerous as newspeak
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So true, Bjorn.
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