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    Zen By Default: The Poetry of Marques Vickers
    Zen By Default: The Poetry of Marques Vickers
    Zen By Default: The Poetry of Marques Vickers
    Ebook172 pages59 minutes

    Zen By Default: The Poetry of Marques Vickers

    By Marques Vickers

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    About this ebook

    California artist Marques Vickers’ second poetic edition “Zen By Default” establishes a sustained interior dialogue between the poet and his ongoing life evolution living along the American Pacific Coast. His 300+ concise works address the ongoing themes of displacement and relocation and the challenge of cultivating and sustaining relationships in the midst of upheaval.

    Vickers examines his spectator role with regard to his own life:

    i am a third party
    to my own life
    spectator of my existence
    my river of words
    a stream
    overflowing the banks
    of reason
    as if eros alone
    were reason enough
    and i inhabit you
    you me
    for the short span
    of eternity
    those small hours
    destiny has provided

    Reminiscences of youth:

    the nutmeg radiance
    of youth
    adorns the summer sands
    forcing the amnesia
    of aging
    into remission

    Love and its complications:

    the fire of my soul
    faces my terrors
    contrast and paradox
    i look at myself
    i look for you
    one to kiss, embrace, stroke
    a splash of dazzling wash’
    my heart packs itself and contains itself
    my heart astonishes itself
    without bar or barrier
    more vast than a memory
    we trade vows we may not keep
    a time where the shadows die
    only instants prevail
    the broken silences
    shedding our perceived chains
    yes my love we do not inhabit the air
    we must separate as simply
    as continents divide, waters disperse

    Language and sounds:

    i know the song of the night
    through the tenor of your words
    the sacred chant of rossignols
    serenading a panorama of stars
    beside me on the hillside garrigue
    we trade candies of conversation
    muses and supposition
    over the lyrics of each song

    Shredding Personal Limitations:

    a window shatters
    glass ceiling mirrors southward
    no longer
    mosaic tiles of imagination
    adjoined and mortared
    stray impressions fastened
    plumbed from the depths
    mined from experience
    a simple twisted phrase
    keying a bolted memory
    an unspoken phrase
    i bury my soul
    on the parchment
    of posterity

    A View of One’s Mortality:

    a man stares at the crossroad of his immortality
    a man realizes his years are passing
    he looks back at the mirror of his youth
    distant and removed from the present
    an intersection with no return
    poverty no longer stalks his doorway
    he is simply too far to take the return road

    The View of His Lover:

    settling slow and soft into an intimacy
    sweet and sacred
    tangled words like our wrapped bodies
    awaken my anticipation
    of dialogues in accord
    harmonies in synch
    you cannot imagine
    my silent soliloquies
    shrouded in dreams
    the tenor of your voice
    soft and slow
    as a graceful and welcomed caress

    As the Days Pass Between Them:

    dark days night descent

    enter the dense night bravely beauty
    as a darkness descends on another day
    lacking the lightness of youth
    innocence separated
    engulfed into the depths
    of rest eternal

    Goodbyes:

    you are next to me
    as parallel wings on a soaring bird
    i carry a tear in my clenched hand
    because goodbyes wear poorly on me
    there are few farewells in my existence
    only separations
    where the fissures and pauses
    remain gray
    repairable

    More views of time:

    by the flame of a thousand lit candles
    i scan the horizon of time
    an eternal reminiscence
    of the long grass of springtime
    lying in our shared sunshine
    you crawl inside my beautiful memories
    my cyclone of emotions
    the roots of desire planted upon my lips

    The eternal crossroads:

    rows of light
    illuminate
    the stranger within
    my vision blinded
    by the currency
    of strangely traded words
    crossroads of time
    blind a caged bird
    w

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMarques Vickers
    Release dateApr 13, 2017
    ISBN9781370598533
    Zen By Default: The Poetry of Marques Vickers
    Author

    Marques Vickers

    Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions. He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86. Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com. Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography. His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism. He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

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      Book preview

      Zen By Default - Marques Vickers

      ZEN BY DEFAULT:

      A Ulysses Odyssey

      Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

      Copyright 2020 Marques Vickers

      MARQUIS PUBLISHING

      HERRON ISLAND, WASHINGTON

      there is little need

      for inspiration to be past tense

      a comet streaking electrically

      across the others’ sky

      the bewitching moments

      one must always hold onto

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      a man stares at the crossroad of his immortality

      a man realizes his years are passing

      he looks back at the mirror of his youth

      distant and removed from the present

      an intersection with no return

      poverty no longer stalks his doorway

      he is simply too far to take the return road

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      one writes in a vacuum

      never knowing if the written word

      will seize daylight

      or be revealed

      he writes in the emptiness

      of the void

      blackness which shrouds daylight

      our capsule of existence

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      i am a third party

      to my own life

      spectator of my existence

      my river of words

      a stream

      overflowing the banks

      of reason

      as if eros alone

      were reason enough

      and i inhabit you

      you me

      for the short span

      of eternity

      those small hours

      destiny has provided

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      long forgotten embrace

      in the recess of a long forgotten embrace

      we taste

      intoxicants of sweet memory

      those lips who've since been replaced

      by successive kisses

      lovers

      fresh faces

      endure as compasses

      to remembrance

      our frail sense of love

      eternal

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      full moon penetration

      a full moon night

      when the logic of reason

      ceased to be a marriage of imagination

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      Let us speak of love and its infinite beauty.

      The force of your words cause me to dream

      Does such beauty exist in such a callous world?

      Are you in fact a woman?

      Or a dream?

      Do you bathe in the same sunlight

      Which awaken me each morning?

      Do you chase the same illusions?

      A notion that beauty exists

      Beyond the pale body

      Our souls must confine themselves within

      There is a world for two such as ourselves.

      But is it this one?

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      perhaps you heard me whisper your name

      it becomes a pleasant candy on my lips

      a sweet wine which begs for another glass

      another bottle.

      a wine without the effects of alcohol

      pleasurable intoxication

      that knows no moderation

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      i am inside of you

      wild as the sea

      roaring as a savage wave

      receding only to lose myself

      the vain consciousness I grasp

      i am so inside of you

      content solely

      inhaling in synch

      exhaling in tandem

      tasting the sugary delights

      of your willing tongue

      cream oozing from

      your nipples

      infinity between your thighs

      i remain within you

      never imaging for a solitary second

      to sever, release

      this moment of attachment

      i have sought, seek, dream

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      circle of candlelight

      surrounds eros’ bed

      rivers of memory

      pendulum of desire

      between passion and control

      and the portal it opens

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      settling slow and soft into an intimacy

      sweet and sacred

      tangled words like our wrapped bodies

      awaken my anticipation

      of dialogues in accord

      harmonies in synch

      you cannot imagine

      my silent soliloquies

      shrouded in dreams

      the tenor of your voice

      soft and slow

      as a graceful and welcomed caress

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      while I wait for you

      as I wait

      for your tender embrace

      kisses which warm my face

      with heat

      that penetrates

      as I wish to you

      as I wait

      there is but a single soul

      we shall share

      in our natural state

      I adore the anticipation of love

      knowing the sensation

      of two bodies

      two mouths

      locked together

      in a precious twist

      only two may share

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      long forgotten embrace

      in the recess of a long forgotten embrace

      we taste

      intoxicants of sweet memory

      those lips who've since been replaced

      by successive kisses

      lovers

      fresh faces

      endure as compasses

      to remembrance

      our frail sense of love

      eternal

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      dark days night descent

      enter the dense night bravely beauty

      as a darkness descends on another day

      lacking the lightness of youth

      innocence separated

      engulfed into the depths

      of rest eternal

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      a man broken

      it's the kind of memory that leaves you strangely silent

      walking separate circles and missing promised tomorrows

      missing her this evening a prisoner to the phones silence

      motionless I lay surveying the circles which surround your eyes

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      past loves

      the fragrant trail of flowered dreams

      follows a path which my mind leads

      past streams of forgotten trauma

      you were never as good

      as I remember you now

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      you are next to me

      as parallel wings on a soaring bird

      i carry a tear in my clenched hand

      because goodbyes wear poorly on me

      there are few farewells in my existence

      only separations

      where the fissures and pauses

      remain gray

      repairable

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      it is as spilled wine, my lovers departure

      so noble the fruited nose, so bitter the aftertaste

      ∆∆∆∆∆

      i long for your touch

      a corruption of memory

      that borders on nostalgia

      that lingers in retrospect

      as illusions may

      i long for your embrace

      but

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