Zen By Default

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

who must extend wings

to fly



Acknowledging conclusions:



you may return to a place

but never a moment in time

a young man old

an old man feeling young

it matters little

time will not cease

but in your mind

and you are laid to rest

in the grave with your memories

both young and old



Vickers works are typically untitled and entirely in lower case. His themes are interwoven into soliloquy compositions and internalized realizations. The process of discovery is as relentless and ongoing as the travels he has opted to pursue.