Tag Archives: poem a day

Butterman

21 Apr

An interpretive dancer,
digging deep a well-spring of emotion,
a rescue swimmer, conquering a deep blue ocean.

Coaxing waves of sound into the air,
lyrical arms, infinitely fluid,
life’s highs and lows, all in one movement.

You’re a mad painter, with a magnetic brush
a cool conductor, the master electrician,
invisible puppeteer of every musician

As your arms weave a tapestry of sound
gathering, tying, every strand wound,
I am lifted, elevated a few feet off the ground.

Yes-
vanquished, cajoled, and soothed, I am
because you are like butter, man.

This poem is about Michael Butterman, the conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra during their performance of Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes on April 19, 2013. I was very inspired by the theme of the evening, which also featured Angela Brown singing A Woman’s Life by Richard Danielpour, which was inspired by poetry by Maya Angelou. During Les Préludes the words just started coming to me, inspired definitely by the music, but also by the conductor. I used the prompt for Day 18 of NaPoWriMo to get my poem started, which was to begin and end a poem with the same word.

Music & Poetry, Michael Butterman conducting.

Music & Poetry, April 19, 2013.

Update 4/22 – This made me happy:

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Goodbye, Jersey

17 Apr

Goodbye, Jersey

(inspired by Goodnight, Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown.)

The sun is high
The air is still
And everything that will be,
will.
Cars racing on the GSP
and the lady conductor asking, “tickets, please.”

Summer, trees, hydrangeas
Cool ocean breeze and jughandles
Every town in descending order,
and memories calling
from every corner

Goodbye, Jersey
Goodbye, Shore
Goodbye all the Wawa stores

Rt 35 & 36
Radio stations’ eclectic mix
Beginning in Red Bank, on the Navesink River
and traipsing around the state together,

Gingerbread houses in Ocean Grove
Twin Lights beaming from above,
Like an old, cherished love,
“You have not changed!”
(never will!)
Yet, the train moves forward, still.

Goodbye, Jersey
Goodbye, Al
Goodbye horses, farms, and cows
Goodbye ocean breeze, and salty air
and Jersey Girls everywhere.

Copyright 2012 Lupe Eyde-Tucker. All rights reserved.

Ocean Grove, NJ

Ocean Grove, NJ

I did not write ‘Goodbye, Jersey’ during NaPoWriMo 2013. I wrote it last summer after visiting New Jersey, specifically MoCo, and reconnecting with friends and places where I grew up. It was a great trip, and on the last day, as I was waiting for the train from Red Bank to take my mother and I to Newark Airport, all of the sudden the first lines of this poem just popped into my head, and I started writing it, literally on the train schedule. As we took our seats, verses and phrases kept coming to me, and I pulled out my notebook and started just writing it all out. It was a spontaneous poetic moment which I am still awed by. A couple of months later the entire state was slammed by Superstorm Sandy, and Monmouth County was devastated.

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