Tag: mike tucker

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“Walking Toward Yes” by Mike Tucker

The author would like to acknowledge Ram Dass from whom the idea for the poem came.

 

a walk in the woods

tangle of branches

surrounded by trees

each one is different

the tall straight oak

the crooked maple

the wise and prickly pine

the one with few leaves remaining

the sickly one

the robust one

the evergreen

I love each tree

I accept each one without judgement

 

a walk in the city

crowded sidewalk

cement and neon

synthetic forest

surrounded by people

each one is different

the tall one the short one

the dark one the light one

the healthy one the sick one

the rich one the poor one

the one who has not had time to find out who she is

the one who speaks a language that I can’t understand

the one who worships a different goddess

the well- dressed one with the broken heart

the one who sleeps on the park bench at night

can I love each one?

can I accept each person  without judgement?

yes

yes

a resounding yes

I can love them just like I love the trees…

 

but the best part of being human is that

when the music plays

we can all dance together

and not only accept

but celebrate our differences

 

listen

listen

my whole human family

 

they’re playing our song

it sounds like love and inclusion

and the singer tells a beautiful truth

so gather here

and tell your own truth

each of us is on a journey

won’t you come and dance with us…

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“Rust” by Mike Tucker

lonely crunch of snow

wasteland of rust and trees

littered with tires and washing machines

a wreckage of ruined cookware and siding

beautiful as weeds

and sprouting like tumors

we live in a rural wasteland  of rust and trees

red-orange bleeds into dirty whites then rotten browns

and crushing grey skies

which fall on shoulders hunched against a brittle morning chill

sharp and deadly as old barbed wire beneath a crescent moon

we seek the medicine of vulture

we seek the healing ways of snake

to purify      to revive

as we eat our dead and shed our skins

and drink from poison cups

 

to breathe life back into an earth we have almost wasted

in our adolescence of machinery

frozen footsteps fall

and stubbornly remain

echoes of last night:

a fracture of hazel eyes and dubstep

beats             glitching like a mob

all night long

then crashing into frozen morning

and you safe and naked under quilts at home where it smells warm like rice

and

the faucets drip so the pipes won’t freeze

 

and me in this wasteland of rust and trees

each limb a twisted mudra

each bare branch a silent prayer

crying out

feed me the stars’ icy beauty tonight

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“Sestina for Eve” by Mike Tucker

She’s trading apples for Eden these days

on those gray streets where her drizzle does run

so close to the hot foul breath of the beast

dripping but softly with flowers his words

delirium zebra stripe fire in her eyes

blindly we swallow the secrets of stars

 

And you kept whispering, whispering stars

cross eyed with pleasure sweet halcyon days

Lucifer’s fallen right into your eyes

chin up adam, we sure had a good run:

I spent much of my life wrestling with words

stuck in this garden between angel and beast

 

What can I give up this lent to the beast?

fig leaves, sins and your pocketful of stars

but I could not answer with naked words

barefoot beautiful oblivion days

faster now faster with fireflies she’ll run

headlong straight for the bright whites of your eyes

 

Open them open them open your eyes

all wrapped up in furry blankets of beast

kick off your shoes those wet colors will run

quicksilver fish in gutters full of stars

fall down in these last days our lost daze

when I fell in love completely with words

 

And you went to war so fiercely with words

aiming spoken arrows right at my eyes

foxhunts with hot girls- I’m almost there days

far past garden gates they call me the beast

flung down from heaven in a rain of stars

moonlight and mercury my winged heels run

 

Into this myth I will dive swim and run

scapegoat hanging on the cross of your words

she’s penetrating my heart full of stars

I’m far beyond gone with that look in your eyes

slaughter me slaughter me slaughter this beast

bring me forbidden fruit or say goodbye days

 

We run unmasked past serpents’ crystal eyes

where words just like honey slay the hidden beast

and stars burn for you on eve’s snake charming days

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“For Apollo ” Michael Tucker

I find you
each morning
in the sun rise

and in this Western culture

of Estimated Prophets
standing in their shafts of light.
I find you in the daily grind from nine to five

where science is the new religion.

I find you

lighting up action hero movie screens

and while I am sitting at my desk composing poetry

staring back at me from behind the white glow of a an LED monitor.

I find you in the right angles of the polished floor hallway at school

and in the pages of my notebook proudly written.

I find you in the cold marble perfection of gallery statues

from long ago ideal forms made solid

by the cold light of reason
and still staring time
bravely in the eyes

you never blink.

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“For Gawain” By Mike Tucker

An emerald, a clover, grass that’s waiting to be cut,

cat’s eyes and Sheehan’s light, the beam of a young man’s heart.

Beveled glass in the morning light, palm fronds, pumpkin stem, chameleon’s  default.

Please don’t lose your head.

 

Merlin’s cloak, sheep’s pasture, a fresh and virgin spring.

oak leaves and holly sprig, m’ lady’s velvet robe

A Season in Hell all bound up tightly in green.

Please don’t lose your head.

 

A chapel in the wood, dense and overgrown, lush leaves and

ivy creeping up the walls, the smell of rain, the apple worm,

sea glass on sandy shores, the tree outside my window, cracked.

Please don’t lose your head.

 

Gaian mind, moss creeping over rocks,

smooth surface of the water,

sharp flash of the glittering eel

like Mercury on white-crested waves  or

a snake in the grass

in the nick of time

he  slinks off

into one more starless sun rise

off he swims

away he swims

carrying your head

as the last leaf falls

from off the tree.