In his second volume of poetry, American poet Lucas Hunt captures our hunger for happiness at its most intense. These are poems that anticipate love and revel in the primitive world of our senses. Light on the Concrete is reminiscent of Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Ezra Pound, while pursuing such contemporary greats as Richard Wilbur, Timothy Steele, and Thom Gunn. Lucas Hunt’s voice is lyrical, abstract, and fearless. Light on the Concrete presents those moments of beauty and unrest that define our lives.
Together at Last
We see the world with shadows all around
and rage to be more alive in the light
of love, thus our hearts, as nimble as deer,
pause before leaping the highest fence.
On a Platform
Out from cars ceaselessly rolling
on the red brick of open-armed avenue—
to leave a place to travel elsewhere
or finally reach enchanted station.
Some walk or stand part in a dream—
held by the weight of suitcases in hand
they do not gravitate with other faces
toward the glass of an ethereal sky.
For one step forward leads to bliss
on rails that run an underground course
under lamp-lit city streets at night—
faded light falls on faded leaves.
There go the ghosts of tomorrow
as two lovers embrace a single destiny—
their figures cast a sharp silhouette
against the empty gray of space.
Toll the City Bells
There comes an hour when time no longer matters,
When sun lights building sides beyond the river
And park, trees, water, architecture—
All appear as elements of one colossal being.
Then iron hammers ding upon their shells,
ding the reverberating waves
Of heavy sound that tremble and fall,
ding the hungry pulsing heart
That echoes through the atmosphere,
ding the violence that melts away—
Even the most intense thing dissipates.
Soon church choirs will sing and hum
omens of cloud that pass above,
That ride the air with inhuman wing
high over hill and boulevard,
And as the final embers of fires die
when no longer fed dry wood—
There was a rage dissolved in silence.
Then ding, ding, fades into evening
And floods of afterwork traffic fill the street,
People hurry back from daily adventures
through an elegant maze of life—
Home to family, home to friends, home to love again.