Tucker's poem nominated for 'Best on the Net'

CHADRON – Dr. Thomas Deane Tucker’s poem, “Storm,” published in the online literary journal “805 Lit + Art” in April has been nominated to be included in 2017's “Best on the Net,” anthology. Another of Tucker’s poems, “We Burn Wood,” was also published in “805 Lit + Art.”
Tucker, a professor in the English and Humanities department at Chadron State College, said neither poem is biographical.
“Poetry, for me, doesn’t have to be about truth with a capital T, rather it is evocative of smaller truths,” Tucker said. “It’s an attempt to create a small clearing in the world.”
Tucker said he doesn’t consider himself a poet; just a dabbler who enjoys poetry as a creative outlet. In 1995, he won a poetry prize as a graduate student.
“I submit all the time and have received many rejections. They don’t bother me because I realize thousands of others are also writing and submitting,” he said.
Tucker, who has been published in the “Cider Press Review,” “Ice” magazine and “Tenth Street Miscellany” among others, said it is an honor to be nominated by a juried journal.
Fellow English and Humanities faculty member Dr. Steve Coughlin, who specializes in creative writing, said the internet has become a wonderful resource for writers over the last 15 years.
“We are proud of Deane’s accomplishments and glad he is being recognized as part of the great work that’s happening online,” Coughlin said.
Storm
by Thomas Tucker
By the time I reached the cellar
the storm had passed
sirens drifting east.
The corrugated door, red paint
crackled like gold leaf
on a Bronze age urn,
was still there, half-hinged.
Anyway, it was still locked
since last winter.
Our house looked dazed.
Pea sized drops of hail
drained through the gutter
spouts like frozen tears, rattling
as they rolled out.
The sun quit its reticence
and sputtered, shattering
a poplar into shards
of purple shadow flung
against the house.
The window panes
abruptly lit and you too
lit up in one.
By then the sky seemed
marooned
in a sea of yellow
and the house no
longer quivered.
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