Indigo Avenue: Selected Poems

By Craig Tigerman

Spanning 33 years, Craig Tigerman's poetry plumbs the spiritual depths of humanity, collectively and individually. His writing covers a range of classic styles; his mastery of
the English language shines in his lyrical passages, rhythms, and rhyme schemes.

A scholar after the old school style, Tigerman has been likened to several classic poets in his writing, while it also forges ahead into new worlds, intensely personal yet universal in appeal.

These hills are all but haunting me;
They rise and roll, so green and vast,
Or golden, shrouded, wanting me
To worship here, see future's past
In timeless vistas, vaunted mounds
Of rocks and earth, grand trees, hued blooms.
Their secrets speak in silent sounds:
"Commune with me, Nepenthe's rooms."

(-- "Nepenthe's Rooms" by Craig Tigerman)

Craig Tigerman makes his home in Moline, Illinois, with his wife and son, and works as a software support specialist. He is currently working on a new collection of poetry, "Seasons of My Heart."

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 14, 2000
• ISBN: 9781469783031

Craig Tigerman

Born and raised in Chicago, Craig Tigerman still makes his home in northern Illinois, with his wife and son. His hobbies include music, gardening, south Florida history, and Biblical studies.

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All Rights Reserved © 2000 by Craig Tigerman

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Writers Club Press

an imprint of iUniverse.com, Inc.

For information address:

iUniverse.com, Inc.

5220 S 16th, Ste. 200

Lincoln, NE 68512

www.iuniverse.com

ISBN: 0-595-15925-7

ISBN: 978-1-4697-8303-1 (ebook)

Dedication

To all who have journeyed with me at any time along this Avenue...those

whom I have known and loved, those who have been angels unto me, and those I never got to meet but who have been part of this trip nonetheless...without whom these poems could not have been written;

To my Father who has encouraged me and shown so much love;

And to Paula who has enabled me to write freely.

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Side Streets: Bygone Times & Places

1955

Nepenthe’s Rooms

Cape Florida

Colonial Williamsburg

Allerton Gardens

Goodbye Jack

Wine Country

This Isn’t A Love

Self-Portrait

April’s Wisdom

South Miami Morning

Pregnant Pause

Maps and Memories

Spring’s True Riches

Parade of Pearls

The Four Lads

Virginia Railway Express

Nepali

I am 49

Bay Air

Doorways & Bridges: Dreams & Commentaries

Sunshiny Brown Street Dawn: A Dream In Three Parts

The Letting-Go

Secret Space

Fooled by October

Mock around the Rock

Eek! Oh, System!

Sun-S.W.A.T.

Blowing Kisses

The Fate of Our Hate

At Last Shrugging

Autumn

Snowprize

Lake Wowman

Beach of Life

Nightpath

Mish-Mosh

On Fate’s Stage

Same Old Story

Midsummer Motions

The Ways of Peace

Alas

Sans Francisco

Death Valley Dream

Why Do We Write

Forever

Gnostic Umbra

A Sirius Re-Quest

The Man with the Gun

Zeke’s A-Waitin

Self-Rendezvous

Near the End

Sod Oddly Trod

The Criminal Gardener

Heart-Truths

Why We Write

Looking Back

The Creation to Which I Was Called

Isaac

Take Heed

Song of Ages

The Way Ahead:Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love

I Would Have Loved You

Nothing

Heart-Warmer

Seraph in Silence

What I Have Found

His Trusting Eyes

Troubled Child

What Else Can I Do

It Must be a Duck

Fortune Fandango

Quiet Desperation

Three Wishes

Turning Point

Flecks-Time: A Riverside Playground

Watching Over Wounds

What Good are You for?

A Robe of Roses

One Look

Heart-Shine

A Garden Poem

Knee of the Curve

The Battle

Angels are about

Lucidly

A Silence of the Heart

Nothing Can Compare

Giving in

Sweet Meadows

Duet

Crossroads

Two Gifts

Another Poet’s Life

A Father’s Day

Indigo Avenue

Nunc Dimittis

Heart-Book

Ode at Dusk

About the Author

Preface

INDIGO AVENUE is a selection of poems written over the past thirty-

three years. During that time I have been to many places, seen many

faces, and been granted many graces. From exuberant college days in

search of self, through stranger-than-fiction changes, and now into my

second half-century of life, I have tried to plumb the depths of spiritual

love, reflecting upon its beauty and power. Many of these poems are

products of those reflections.

Craig Tigerman

Moline, Illinois

August, 2000

Side Streets:

Bygone Times & Places

1955

In the year of Fifty-Five

It was good to be alive

Postwar boom, American Dream,

Supermarkets, frozen, canned,

Superhighways crossed the land

With Clark Super 100 Gasoline.

In that year my mom arrived

With this little boy of five

In Miami along the Biscayne Bay;

Beachfront sand beneath my feet,

Sky and ocean, life was sweet

At my grandparents’ house where we would play.

I can see it all today

Now so many years away,

I can hear them calling me;

How I’d love to take their hands

So they’d know I understand

Just how fleeting the sweet life can be.

In the year of Fifty-Five

Cuban Winter Baseball thrived

As I watched on black & white TV

Those cigar commercials blared

Unconcerned and unaware

What in four years their island would be.

Exiles, Bay of Pigs, Cold War,

That’s what JFK died for,

Missile crisis, their trust betrayed;