Still
Be still for a long while
to catch what heron sees
in water’s flux and ruffle:
the tiny fish below.
To see the tiny fish below
that heron catches
in water’s flux and ruffle,
for a long while, be still.
*
Explanation
You wouldn’t have become a poet,
if you’d had a happy childhood
the mother said
to her grown-up child,
as if conferring a blessing,
offering consolation,
instead of the excuse,
the curse, the life-long sentence,
of becoming a poet.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella, Moon Tide Press, 2025. Work has appeared in journals and broadcasts including Eclectica, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Cholla Needles, TSPoetry, VerseDaily, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, anthologies including Boomer Girls, The Widows’ Handbook, The Poetry of Presence I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, Love Is For All Of Us, What the House Knows, Poetry Goes The Movies. She writes and leads workshops from her home base in Long Beach, California.
From The Archives: Published on This Day
- Picnic by Les Brookes (2024)
- First Kiss by Dick Westheimer (2024)
- Autumn’s Signal by Terrie Joplin (2023)
- Three Poems by Rachel Custer (2022)
- Lunacy by Hayden Saunier (2021)
Donna Hilbert’s poems are like Enoch’s vision of the House of Heaven: small on the outside and large on the inside. She packs so much into such a small space. Brava!
Both poems speak to me. I love the repetitive lines in the first one. Donna was that a pattern you created? Or a form?
It is sort of a chiasmus–I am too jet-lagged to even attempt an explanation!
One of my favorite poets of all time… Everything she writes moves me. Thank you ONE ART and Donna Hilbert! <3
These poems say so much in a few short lines.
The wisdom and concise imagistic lines of still resonate with me. The second is certainly true for me, though what started as an emotion “dump” has evolved into so much more, and is a blessing. It’s like that thin line between love/ hate, tipped over to love. Beautiful share!