3 Poems by Tracy Lynn Repchuk

Random Control

Inspired rituals from earthly connections

as hands create, nurture and plant

Joyous celebrations in every occasion

through the spiritual healing of colour.

Random delights enhance and entrance

as life’s story is told

on tiles as varied as mankind

Each able to move and shift to change

the outcome on any given day.

So it becomes a matter of choice -

whether it be dark or bright,

coloured, grey, fluorescent,

with the excitement of the future

under your control

Like a strategic game of chess

you move your piece

into the best position

Not to overcome – 

but to oversee.

Resolutions

I knew it was time

For me to look hard at what I had done

Or not done

At what I wanted to do

But did not do

At the carnage that lay in my wake

Of broken dreams that would have to once again

Be picked up, and scraped off the poured concrete

and confronted.

Unfulfilled, unconscious barriers 

Silently seep through 

and comfortably take their place 

while I continuously walked face first

into the brick wall that is my life.

It doesn’t happen in one day

That - I would have noticed

It is the tiny, insidious little events

Once accumulated to become 

The Mount Everest of reality 

for such paltry desires. 

And as each occurrence strangles

Hope screams

My floral bloom shrinks to the prickly

State of cactus

Living off of shards of water 

Surrounded by breathless air

But still - 

It is a new year, and I will take this

minimalistic opportunity to cast

my shredded net into the ocean

of this game I chose to play

and pray that I once again do not

get caught on life’s discards

so that I may catch my whale.

Serenade of the cicadas

Black-eyed blossoms invisibly 

intoxicate from distant woodlands

where emerald streams of healthy crops cascade along turquoise horizons;

and hints of sun-kissed buttercups invite me to dance.

From a long hibernation I emerge

as buds press against rigid soil  

I swing lazily carving breezes while whispering winds promise spring;

under the covered porch that hugs the house majestically.

Baked peaches torment from sweet sills

and my senses salivate 

anticipating this evening’s delights;

among drones suckling nectar from receptive chambers.

A wind-chapped smile erupts 

to rejoice my favorite season

as lapping waves of sunshine nourish;

and clinking cubes marry tart lemons.

Draping trees fill with the operatic melodies

resonating organs 

debut to a command performance;

where friction and limb triumph.

Heated cardinals and brown speckled jockos meditate

inhaling the heavenly view

I drift outwards;

licking colorful clouds and bands of jade over parched fields.

Handfuls of divine light 

gift-wrap my spirit

until temporal sounds transcend me back;

to the symphonic serenade of the cicadas.

Bionote


Tracy Lynn Repchuk (born 1965) is a Canadian writer and poet. Repchuk is the president and founder of the Canadian Federation of Poets and Editor of Poetry Canada Magazine. Repchuk lives in Burbank, California.