Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress site of poet Mark Lucker

  • The Poet Takes His Meds

    I recently had a ‘heart procedure’doctor clearing out nearly blocked arteryeliminated offending clog with a new stentNow I take medication to keep my blood thinnerflowing more freely The med’s name – clopidogrel – amuses me greatly asI have composed plenty of doggerel inmy many years ofwaxing poeticBut knowing nothing of pharmaceutical naming conventions Ihave to Read more

  • Beings, being

    I was once hanging out with an eclectic group one of whom casually asked if any of us believed in ghostsbefore I could answeranother said “Not ghosts, but angels”bringing awkwardnessblank looks all around While I couldn’t see myself I like to think I was more contemplativethough it got me pondering whysomeone would staunchlybelieve in one Read more

  • Pseudo 23

    Modern-day Psalmistsplying their trade via pithy sayingsbasic fonts, splashy backdropsportmanteaus of varying interpretation revelationsshifting dunes rounded byprevailing winds as arid, accepted gospellacking lyricism posted for the world byself-anointed prophetsclaiming persecution, occasionally lapsing into lamenting angstbitterly masquerading as witpleading cases to merciful gods/laptop Pharisees issuing agreeable protestationsnever to grasp ‘liking’ is not prayerweeping ideograms donot denote Read more

  • Ghosts of Niemöller

    First they came for the immigrantsAnd I did not speak out Because I was not an immigrantMy ancestors were, but that was differentThen they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Even though America is kind of socialistBut real socialists are evil – so they sayThen they came for the trade unionists Read more

  • Mapped. Out.

    Our path to perdition startedat not eating French frieswound through calling gasoline ‘freedom molecules’imagined ‘wars’ on Christmas, culture veering torepeatedly shooting upcases of light beer light-on-logic moves, each For the past few generations Americans have done more of their critical reading in supermarket checkout lines than libraries Eliminating our nation’seducation department only completes the process Read more

  • Inheritances

    This is a dark time for many Americansamong the more somber of my lifehopefulness has trouble finding any sort of foothold, sense of balanceMonths away from retirement I already see the tarnish descending on my planned golden yearssitting in a recliner with my feet up letting others take up the resistance just doesn’t sit well Read more

  • Red Hook, Brooklyn. 07/27/24

    Sitting on the fringe of large patio contemplating retaining wall perch, New York Bay lapping gently every table, chair, square foot occupied genial reverie of twenty, thirty-somethings enjoying summer Saturday night companion and I well beyond the demographic   Our backs to Staten Island, I squint my mind’s eye at ancient brick-warehouse-turned-hip-brewery easily imagining much Read more

  • 07/24/2024

    I cried to my grandparents todaya first for memy father’s parents, who diedbefore I was born never heard their voicesfelt their touch never knew where they wereeven buried until recently I cried to my grandparents todaythey never had a shoulderthey could offerneither ever rocked meto sleep, or just for comfortnever dried one of my tearsuntil Read more

  • Oops.

    “I like to live my life the way I type – fast, and with a lot of mistakes.” – Anonymous Mistakes have always been madecorrections ever problematic the ancients inscribing in clayused wet thumb to smooth outill-placed < \ x = # or ^when caught before the sun bakederrors into eternity rune carvers had less Read more

  • Shake-up

    The time is now complacencyshould find no solace false startsdo-overs and tomorrowsbeen there done that nearly to deathSo what makes this timeany differentwhat says I can do this with any more conviction than the time before the timesbefore those other timesPenultimate torock-bottomdon’t miss a stepzig this timewhere you usually zagwith clarity oflast chancescomes reality, resolvenow, Read more

  • 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 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

  • January, won

    The first day of a new yearcliché is the currency we traffic innew pages are turnedexpectations for whateverlies aheadexceedingly optimistic self-talk, public proclamationspersonal plans for change, regenerationrenewal carries vagueexpiration date mentally stamped at factorywarning us with certaintylike a gallon of milk ‘hopes will curdle if not used by…’Those with calendars still hanging from walls,refrigeratorsripping last Read more