Ponderable polemics, poetic

WordPress site of poet Mark Lucker

remembering

  • From Here to Less Certainty

    A day at the beach we have been here before; I am trying to be Burt Lancaster as you hesitate to play Deborah Kerr with self-conscious protestations I have heard many times But today the kids are not with us, the friends who we accompany sit engrossed in their sun-worshipping, paperbacks, inflatable-floating oblivious to us Read more

  • 33 (For Johnny)*

    Twenty-one years was not nearly enough; we had just embarked when you left. Thirty-three years is not nearly enough to erase what is indelibly sketched not a pencil caricature, a dimly recollected photographic snapshot or grainy home movie just you, at nineteen, before illness rudely smudged and dog-eared the picture you are smiling, damn it Read more

  • Muse bemuse

    She has been a muse nothing more and everything less since we met as teens inspiration still flows from a fleeting reminder; hearing her name (commonly used by others out of parental laziness) the searing stubbed-toe pain of an emotional owie only she could’ve kissed and made better longing springs from trying to remember just Read more

  • On a Wednesday in 1989

    As clear as twelve-hour old coffee she told me goodbye a jolt of caffeinated remorse left me wide-eyed and pondering as the glare from dawn’s light screamed, painfully, ‘morning after’ The pot turned out to be empty a good thing, in retrospect as I sure as hell didn’t need topping off Read more

  • Renovating

    Vestiges of then subtly shade the now today is decorated with yesterday’s hues accenting modern life with retro-chic shades life-makeovers via t.v. show gurus who use family tschotskes as odd focal points visual statements from an old magazine viewed in current settings; obligatory oohing-and-ahhing at the big reveal fading into jaundiced indifference once the show Read more

  • Like son, like father

    The daughter of close friends looks at my son like that they have known each other since first grade – a time when looking at each other like that would have been unthinkable; icky, gross…dis-GUS-ting! Now she looks at him like that When I first noticed her looking his obliviousness was a comfort but now Read more

  • But is it art?

    Large, bold strokes spray painted symbols, words innocent and sinister hieroglyphs and slogans in black and blue on pulsating, animated canvas Names, times, events, places feelings and forgotten emotions weathered, all Some are ancient, indecipherable some still hurt some never did some are funny a few not at all Many names are legible, a.k.a’s various Read more

  • Comfy

    Certain memories are a favorite pair of old slippers; ragged, tattered, not much to look at, but comfortable in a way nothing new could be once you plucked them from the garbage; second thoughts? hard to part, sometimes, with a never-complaining old friend then again, sometimes it’s best to just let the dog chew ‘em Read more

  • dusty hallmarks

    on a high shelf, back of my closet a box filled with greeting cards anticipating events that will be potential celebratory moments categorized for their joyousness or seriousness depending on the occasion and personality involved waiting for the perfect time, the perfect card for the right person at the back of the box those lesser Read more

  • In focus

    Grainy black-and-white squares of life framed in sometimes dated white; glossy paper mosaic tile dioramas snippets of life that have given way to phone-shot, high resolution videos that show all, tell virtually nothing You can’t sift through a file full of instant gratification videos, you can’t scroll through a pile of snapshots of folks in Read more