Currents and Tides

By Mackenzie Li Fertig

As I write these poems and the stories of others that desperately need to be told, I find strength and desire to give others a voice that do not have one, those that have not found it yet. I write so that you may find hope and access a power in yourself that you didn’t know was there. No matter the season of life, I encourage you to find grace for yourself and confidence in your search for strength within to create something positive with what you have been given. Value yourself with your imperfections because you have a place and have much to offer with the gifts you have. It is okay to rest, to not feel okay, and be right where they are at in the moment—it is okay to be human.

The following is a compilation of poems titled “Currents and Tides”. The chapters being “Reef ”, “Low Tide”, “Rip Tide”, and “High Tide” represent landmarks in our life, the highs, struggles, and pains. Each poem in its designated chapter provides insight via stories on how to navigate the waves of that particular season in one’s life. What is your “wave”? How do you face it head-on?

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663224286

Mackenzie Li Fertig

MACKENZIE LI FERTIG is a poet, writer, and author of the new book Currents and Tides. She is a fine arts educator and graduate student working towards her Masters of Science in Counseling, adding a touch of hope and a creative spark to each work. Colorful and vibrant, each poem tells a unique story, relatable and inspiring to all. Mackenzie has been a lifelong writer, creating new worlds in storytelling from an early age, some reflecting her life of being raised on the Texas- Mexico border, and living in New York City, West Texas, and Dallas, Texas. Mackenzie lives for adventure and spends a lot of time hiking outdoors, enjoying time on the island she grew up on, and traveling with her loved ones. “Stand up and sail with me, up but not away, through the currents and tides we call life”.

Book preview

Tidal Pools: The Reef

Sunrise

The Reef: A vibrant, lively metalliferous mineral deposit, especially one that is bedded and contains gold. A coral reef breeds and shelters diversity, vitality, and life.

Release

Worry is invisible waste,

Unnecessary, smoky smog

Covering your vast watercolor skies;

Smeared, it disappears, abandoned in the fog.

You’ve come so far,

But you’re pinned down

By the weight of your security blanket,

Crippling thoughts trapped in one town:

Go places—

Do what is rare and truly live.

Give back more than breath, stress, static waste.

You have time. Don’t grip with haste.

But then again, how do we know?

We don’t have a timer built into our hands.

So, unclench that fist;

Learn to let go and truly live.

Indigo

We are ahead of our time, love—

Their eyes cannot look under the cloudy surfaces,

The hurling, dusty, wispy mist

That conceals cerulean cosmic reflections,

Glass shards bouncing astral stories in beams

That illuminate the boundless ocean floor.

We dive deep into the divine,

Where your brave soul is anchored

And mine is in chains;

You pull me in under rough ripples

That roll over our tumultuous bodies

To reach that place

Where stillness breeds.

They won’t understand why we never go home,

Why our feet refuse to meet the land,

Why we paddle high above the shifting sand.

But that’s our divulging secret, for us alone;

When I’m with you

The waves whisper a notion

Only we can hear; only our fingertips

Feel the tremble of heaven’s touch,

Briefing us to grieve easy,

To stay,

Wave by indigo wave,

Graving us with the ability to sense

Solace is sailing our way.

Darling

Darling,

To structure the combinations of all the symphonies born

Composed here and beyond our universe’s noted structure

Surpassing comprehension of written and unspoken verses per capita—

To capture all and more

Would never be enough to surmise your adored melody.

To conclude how even the angels are enraptured by your definition,

By the invention of a new truth

Behind your eyes,

May only be heard by an equivalent divine listener.

In a glance of violet velvet glowing in space

Your pigment that suppressed place of unknown memory,

Immediately blowing up dusty thoughts within the second.

You initiate contact without touch,

As if you understand every outlined detail,

Clearing the haze with a brush of your sight.

With mine, I graze your imprinted fear of lies,

Swollen and tender as your pink lids

And bent lashes spread wide, revealing surveillance lenses

To rid and filter out with hyperawareness,

Focusing on your analysis of all that goes wrong;

But, this laser of distress tears through your sweet song.

The warm truth is in you, darling.

You are the truth in your true form—

Stop searching for it.

Walking Angels

Mothers are not human.

They are angels.

Their glowing haloes guide.

They fly to the rescue at any time,

Soaring high to discipline and protect.

A safe haven to cry into; they use their white sleeves,

Mopping up the mess

At the end of a torturous school day.

Awake and warm at the crack of dawn,

She’s the last to lay down her full head,

Relax her heavy hands, aching ankles,

In the dark of the deepest onyx nights.

When the whole world is rightly asleep,

The angels remain awake.

Mothers carry a weight so heavy

Only angel wings can hold them up.

Holiday

And the crickets sang for us

Under the thick trees that night,

Huddling below the tallest palms

In the glow of the spritely stringed lights.

The array of blurred colors,

The rainbow light rained down on our faces

As the wind leaned in

And the hidden white light lined the cobbled path;

We strode to new places, your fingers like lightning

Traced my cheeks, with currents of energy shocking me,

Leading like the stars already do

And have done for centuries.

You are electrifying with those eyes,

And by your powerful hand,

We traveled

Up above,

Beyond today.

We followed this path.

It led to a kiss

That was meant to last for days

But was built up within ten seconds.

Like fireflies in a glass bulb of light,

Our delicate limitations

Encasing our electricity, polarizing all the wonder

Our helpless, giddy thoughts,

The sweet scenarios,

Into this small, yet significant, moment.

Distance

Even this wobbly, miniature table

Between our wealthy words and warm bodies

Creates too much distance; in lingering stagnancy

An explosion of space across galaxies

Form lengthy light years between our fingers.

Peering with telescope eyes,

I take a shot in the dark

To find your onyx eyes, matte like bullets.

Then, we reached our target

And relished in flirtation,

Reflecting the window’s lovely light

With pearly, starry smiles.

Our touch shocked, fingers interlaced,

Proving that we have overcome miles.

Remember the bold old man

Who once laughed and said,

I remember being like that?

We drew close then.

And we draw even closer now.

We live with almost 2,000 miles

Stretching between our eager bodies,

Tearing a gaping hole through our fantasies.

Fairness isn’t an option here—

You wear as I tear in this filtering:

How can I explore euphoria in a city

When it is missing an exuberant piece of me,

The most important ingredient

In the concoction of young adulthood?

I am almost complete

Without the other half of me.

Poema Secreto

You are the blooming poem in my heart—

Unscripted words bustle, bubble, hustle,

Crawling to their angelic, resting destiny.

Beautifully inscribed calligraphy covers the faded graffiti

Permanently imprinted on my painted insides,