Andrew Buckner

Andrew Buckner, along with acting in three Independent motion pictures, is the author of two full-length poetry books. They are The Human Condition and Song of Survival: Poetry in the key of Freedom. His children’s book Grand Poppa’s Favorite Chair and his dual autobiography Into Existence’s Immortal Flame have just been released. As a screenwriter, he has co-authored the horror work Whispers in the Darkness with Russell Stiver. Currently, he is working on his first novel.

Middle Island Press chapbooks by Andrew Buckner:








A Call to Life, A Cry of Pain (2013)
ISBN 978-1-4675-6993-4
by Andrew Buckner

In A Call to Life, A Cry of Pain, poet Andrew Buckner brings us a breathtaking collection of twenty sonnets. As the title suggests, they are poetic works that can be read as both an inspiration to motivate our existence and an anguish-filled scream of authentic despair. Whether these themes can be read on the surface together or deeply embedded within the work itself, the introspective and social subject matter found
inside these pages are both timeless and triumphant. 47 pages.

(A browse upon pages 11 and 41…)

“The Weight of Years”

Alas! The pulverizing weight of years
Bears far too heavy on the defeated
Those whom the idol of faith hath cheated
Despite the spiteful instrument of tears
Labor, family calling with somber cheers
Like a young child acting bashful! Deceit
Summoned by the rich, opulent! Retreat
From this slumbering falsity! Our fears
Are being honed to grief by self-possessed deeds!
Forsaking the clone-like path they’ve beset!
The toil we immerse ourselves ceaseless in
Is but a sacrifice to gods of greed
Silently we say joyful life is yet
To rise! The truth screams ragingly within.

“Humanity’s Body Comes Unburdened”

Jealous, gentle subject! Night’s burden far
Outweighs the mocking change! The scathing truth
Ruddy, crimson tear! Bloom of seasons! Youth
Begging dull-winged! On knees bent, lowered, scarred
Wishing wistfully! Come time, life unbarred!
Flee from the fleshy shell, verified proof
That all outcomes are finitely aloof
Anxiety is the gasping soul marred
Aimless as the autumn rain, winter dust
She strays! From the begotten ivory womb
Once pregnant with chance! Now empty with age
The inevitable corrosion, rust
Serpentine shrouds! Somber secluded tomb
Self’s burial grounds! Cathedrals of rage!


Unity Amidst Our Suffering (2011)
by Andrew Buckner

Unity Amidst Our Suffering is a powerfully charged two-volume chapbook set that divides themes according to their social or personal nature while retaining them as a set for the common thread of unity (as suggested in the title). Buckner’s delivery is straight from an impassioned poet’s heart, and akin in majesty to Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks.

(A browse upon Pages 16 and 40):

Lines 59-76 of “Turn Not Your Unremorseful Eyes”

Ashamed! Ashamed am I!
Of the history of ethnic abhorrence and cultural ignorance
That is the state of the more providential individual’s utter indifference!

Turn not your senses, your emotions,
Your eminent feelings,
O’ worldly citizens,
To the uncorrupted knowledge
That it happened in Pretoria
And it’s happening there now!

It happened in Rwanda
And it’s happening there now!

It happened in Brazil
And it’s happening there now!

It happened in South America, Puerto Rico
And it’s happening there now!

Turn not your weeping hearts,
Turn not your sympathies,
Your unrepentant, unabashed, unremorseful eyes,
For this agony,
This ‘foreign’ despair…

Is as real as you and I!

“Oh, How Dearly I Yearn”

Oh, how dearly I yearn to make sense
Of this meaningless existence of mine,
To again feel the hands of serenity tense
Their stalwart grip upon this bitter heart’s decrepit shrine

How I yearn to achieve
A soulful gaze from the iris of understanding,
To finally conceive
The knowledge of why I remain standing
Amidst the arduous meadows of optimistic aspiration
When the world has so hopelessly scorned me as a fool

Oh, soulful misery! Why are you the only sensation
I’ve known
Since I was birthed into this world so cruel?

Oh, painful humiliation!
Why must I become so acquainted
With thy deceiving temptation?

Oh, how the vitality of thy core is tainted
With the consuming plague of lost opportunity!

How selfish was I to never see
That for too long I remained silent,
Bound to this oath of purity
As my heart raged,
But a sentimental tyrant,
Just wishing to be free

From the debilitating confines of everyday life
And this constant negativity,
For even though I am intoxicated in the bitter wine of strife,

Someday, a better man I shall be.

The Flesh Is a Prison (2011)
by Andrew Buckner

This chapbook takes lofty lyricism to the highest peaks of poetry! Passionate, eloquent, and magical in its delivery, it is a real treat for intellectuals and lovers of words that sing with meaning.

(A browse upon Pages 7 and 23):

“Thy Heart as the Withered Rose”

Thy heart as the withered rose
Blossoms so solemnly in misery
Yet, in agonized secrecy it grows
Yearning to be free
Amongst the lurid earth’s unkempt repose
Amongst the fitful heavens,
The erratic sea,
The unsettled shore,
The amalgamated current that so listlessly flows
Abounding every tormented limb of thee!

Oh, life! Most piteous and cruel breath of being
Oh, restful death! Whose irrefutable vision
My weary eyes shall delight in seeing

Oh, the binding torment of an iris widely dreaming
Of uncovering communal delight
In rising above this society lost in the madness
In the wretched confusion of everyday life

Silently screaming.

“War”

Nor doubt, nor pain,
Nor melancholy bliss
Nor fervent ardor,
Nor resolution amidst
The raging cannon’s sanguinary covetous!

How ruthlessly squandered the expectant reveries
Of the hopeless!

How forsaken the auspicious foregoing’s dissipated digress!

Callous resonance more tumultuous and abiding
Than the vigorous essence’s monumental subsiding

Elucidating despair of the fairest divinity…

To what end the fanciful omnipotence of our combat-bridled infinity?


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