Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress site of poet Mark Lucker

  • As best he could

    A promise once made ‘I’ll take that to my grave’sense of honor, integritybest of intentionslaid waste by dementiahe told me the story when I came to visit thinking I was . . .someone else entirelyagain, promise made ‘I’ll take that to my grave’hopefully he doesI know I will.– Mark L. Lucker© 2024http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd Read more

  • ’51 Syllables on Coffee’

    I Half-and-half, so-so coffee; incrementally less disappointing II needing barista alchemy in lieu of meh coffee place beckons III potification middle-age fettish; I am arabica snob   – Mark L. Lucker © 2024 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd Read more

  • Campground Neighbors (Campfire Poem #72)

    Couple next door way older than sixtyish me compact camper in place when we arrived a man, a woman silver hair matching dog say hello when they return late evening Early risers, both come morning they let dog out back in we nod ‘hello’ As I enjoy my morning campfire coffee I am reminded how… Read more

  • Confirmation, 06/11/22

    In the hierarchy of experiences life, death love, loss nothing to a poet is as evocative of godliness, eternal truth as northern rain falling fiercely on meager roof – Mark L. Lucker © 2022 http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd Read more

  • Self portrait

    The extremes of who, what I am whence I hail internally DNA, culturally, spiritually nature/nurture all fun to puzzle-piece together free form, no squared-off edges of big-picture guidance What my forebearers were who they were what they did what was done to them is historically recorded, reported yet remains very personally unresolved My now obsessive,… Read more

  • Open

    I long for the sound of an old wooden screen door slamming oak frame, wire mesh heavy, with a new spring so the initial slam triggers recoil – residual wood WHAP! Thump! clunk. Nothing to stop an old wooden screen door save gravity those doors were rapt percussion a backbeat to youthful adventure The one… Read more

  • Sampling

    Sitting at a brewery rural, northern Minnesota tasting a variety of beers, ales small flights of five A couple – mid-twenties sits across from us they too, are sampling each other – first timers comparing dating app peccadillos head-scratching mismatches awkward exchanges preferences for beer types, each other quickly give way to comfortable laughter Another… Read more

  • Witness 04/20/21

    ‘A bouquet of humanity.’ – Jerry Blackwell   The youngest among the crowd that day was nine On her way to that very store to buy snacks Walking with her cousin, who was twelve that day “Get off of him!” said the younger girl, with plaintive scowl   She said it more than once.  … Read more

  • The Zoom boom

    Setting up a Zoom social for high school classmates – class of 1977, bay-bee! – one invitee, confused or simply stuck in wrong mode repeatedly refers to our impending ‘conference’   I teasingly remind him this is no business-tinged partitioned hotel ballroom gift-bags, sales-pitch fest imploring him to instead think ‘virtual cocktail party’   Bring… Read more

  • More

    A woman I know mid-fiftieswent protestingfirst timer missing out asteenagerwith strict parentsshe wanted‘self-fulfillment’ Seeing her a fewdays later I asked if she foundwhat she had been seeking “Yes and no” she smiled ruefully“I fell in with a group of college kidswho poured milk on my face”quickly adding “for the tear gas” Her voice trailed.“It wasn’t… Read more

  • Father’s Day Requiem

    We never had one of those TV sitcom father-imparts-his-sage wisdom, serious sit-downs that I can recall I have no fatherly counsel fortune-cookie-inclusion viral-meme-worthy wisdom to share rarely proclaiming, “As my daddy used to say…” Sans great punchline parts of my father I carry with me, mirth more tangible than profundity less open to interpretation than… Read more

  • Delicacies

    Notebooks a lot of them stacked in an open shelf next to my desk varietal chronicles spiral-bound, stitched binding, composition books, cheap dollar store pocket, leather-covered, gifted to me verse, prose, musings pontifications and declarations the older ones bottom-of-the stack the better brittle pages in varying shades of sepia all the edges time has never… Read more

  • Outside the lines

    You opened me like a flimsy book thumbed through pages of boldly outlined caricatures mercurially finding me, you chose your weapon from boxed arsenal Sharp,new-to-the-point unused you busted-pieces me You are 64-box of Crayolas using all the colors to colorfully flesh out the person that is me pictures that became us showing all the restraint… Read more

  • Labels

    Like the pine trees lining the winding road I got a name. I got a name….    –  Jim Croce I see my name all the time forms, documents – computer screen at log in the world it seems, knows me I too, know the world – though less familiarly When I was eleven my… Read more

  • Nonmonochromic

    My yin blue yang red cold, hot spiritual Rock’em Sock’em Robots equal footing confined battle to the end “He knocked his block off!” proclaimed black-and-white TV commercial peers of my youth in victorious awe such is the nature of my id whapwhapwhap kaaa-chinng! Block knocked off. Stoic head pushed back down locking in with sharp… Read more

  • Finials

    Chinese takeout whiskey sour, two cherries living room recliner not yet in full-on mode   discussions of recent past upcoming future plans, goals, objectives abstract in low-resolution   wistful recollections glad-its-over conversations annual ‘old’ sounds-better rebuke – same auld, same auld   old acquaintances unforgotten checking in/on via social media I’m fine/have a happy memes… Read more