~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of January 2026 ~
Tag: Donna Hilbert
Stick to Poetry and Art! by Donna Hilbert
Stick to Poetry and Art!
A lady in my neighborhood
screams at me, when I rain fury
on the New Regime. He’s your President!
Get Used to it! Stick to Poetry and Art!
It would please me to stick to poetry and art.
Perhaps the screaming lady has a point.
Perhaps she’s read John Keats:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,— that is all ye need to know
Sadly, it’s just not true.
We are not mere figures etched upon an urn,
but living creatures watching beauty burn.
*
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.
ONE ART’s Most-Read Poets of 2025
ONE ART’s Most-Read Poets of 2025
- Kai Coggin
- Alison Luterman
- Donna Hilbert
- Betsy Mars
- John Amen
- Susan Vespoli
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
- Tina Em
- Kim Addonizio
- Molly Fisk
- Joseph Fasano
- Terri Kirby Erickson
- Robbi Nester
- James Crews
- Abby E. Murray
- Allison Blevins
- Erin Murphy
- john compton
- Dana Henry Martin
- Alison Hurwitz
- Moudi Sbeity
- Dick Westheimer
- James Feichthaler
- Karen Paul Holmes
- Naomi Shihab Nye
Note: For poets who published multiple times in ONE ART, in 2025, we are linking to the most-read curated work.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2025 ~
Chalice by Donna Hilbert
Chalice
I want to empty my chalice of grief,
and be like the neighbor’s two dogs
early this morning unleashed
on the warm and sun-strewn beach,
so alive in their streamlined bodies,
running, sniffing, circling,
as if they’d never seen sand before,
as if the earth were new, and meant for frolic,
as if the only purpose in life were to stir
uncontainable, everlasting, mirth.
*
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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of October 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of October 2025 ~
Singing in Dark Times: Trying to Praise the Mutilated World – A Workshop with Donna Hilbert
Singing in Dark Times: Trying to Praise the Mutilated World – A Workshop with Donna Hilbert
Workshop Leader: Donna Hilbert
Date: Tuesday, November 18
Time: 4pm Pacific (7pm Eastern) – Please check your local time.
Duration: 2-hours
Cost: $25 (sliding scale)
>>> Register Here <<<
~ About The Workshop ~
In this workshop, we will look at poems through the lens of Adam Zagajewski’s seminal poem, Try to Praise the Mutilated World, as well as poems in a similar vein. We’ll consider poets such as WS Merwin, Wendell Berry, and Danusha Lameris. Poets will be invited to reflect on words that aim to help us carry the weight of life in tumultuous times and then write our own words in conversation with these voices.
~ About The Workshop Leader ~
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.
Morning on my Deck in the New Regime by Donna Hilbert
Morning on my Deck in the New Regime
I see a chap I know, walking with two friends
on the boardwalk dividing my tall house
from beach below, and hear invoked with flourish,
the Bard of Avon’s holy name. Another fellow
proffers forth a fragment of a speech:
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men
I look then down, wave, and bellow so:
cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
after which three walkers in unison unleash
this citation of the fateful foul decree:
Julius Caesar, Scene One, Act Three.
I treasure then this moment of delight
in bardic fellowship with passersby,
before my shroud of dread turns day to night.
*
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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of September 2025
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of September 2025
On my Morning Walk, I think of Mr. Emerson by Donna Hilbert
On my Morning Walk, I think of Mr. Emerson
I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within!
Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!
— E.M. Forster
I wish it were so with me,
but I do need A Room with a View
and also a walk on the beach,
where terns and all manner
of gulls swarm and squawk,
where pelicans fly in
to dive for breakfast,
and herons patiently wait.
If grace walks with me,
I might spot a dolphin or two,
or a shark surfacing for a moment,
and the purse of my heart
will widen with wonder enough
to hold fast another day.
*
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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of July 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of July 2025 ~
Peony by Donna Hilbert
Peony
In decline
you are a glory
I have watched
the changing story
of your beauty’s
slow emergence
over time
pink rose rust
never losing leaf
or petal
your stem
still green still fine
*
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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of May 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of May 2025 ~
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
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.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of April 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of April 2025 ~
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of March 2025
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of March 2025 ~
Interrobang by Donna Hilbert
Interrobang
I love the word.
Not in the way I love blossom,
which contains both bosom and bloom
signifying beauty, nourishment,
and pleasure within.
Interrobang, with just two marks,
shouts What The F without ever
spelling anything out.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella from Moon Tide Press, following Threnody, Moon Tide, 2022. A second edition of Gravity: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from Moon Tide in early 2025. Work has appeared in numerous journals and broadcasts including Cultural Daily, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, Lyric Life, and anthologies including The Poetry of Presence volumes I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. www.donnahilbert.com
Gift by Donna Hilbert
Gift
O magnolia bloom
floating in a shallow bowl
adorning my window sill
glowing golden now
luminous in waning
a beauty
still
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella from Moon Tide Press, following Threnody, Moon Tide, 2022. A second edition of Gravity: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from Moon Tide in early 2025.Work has appeared in numerous journals and broadcasts including Cultural Daily, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, Lyric Life, and anthologies including The Poetry of Presence volumes I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. www.donnahilbert.com
WRITING THE CATASTROPHE: SINGING IN DARK TIMES — A Workshop with Donna Hilbert
WRITING THE CATASTROPHE: SINGING IN DARK TIMES
“Redemption depends on the tiny fissure in continuous catastrophe.” – Walter Benjamin
“I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.” – William Stafford
“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times.” – Bertolt Brecht
About his own work, Stanley Kunitz has said: “The poem comes in the form of a blessing— ‘like rapture breaking on the mind,’ as I tried to phrase it in my youth. Through the years, I have found this gift of poetry to be life-sustaining, life-enhancing, and absolutely unpredictable. Does one live, therefore, for the sake of poetry? No, the reverse is true: poetry is for the sake of the life.”
“As more and more of contemporary life is forced into the present moment, there seem to be fewer mechanisms which allow the past to be fully absorbed and lived once it has
happened. It has become harder to experience grief since it is a retroactive emotion which requires subsequent returns to the loss over a period of time. Only through such returns
may one hope for the very real gain of transforming losses of various kinds into meaningful contributions to our own becoming . . . . Here I am speaking not only of the loss one experiences in the death of a loved one, but also of those diminishments of being which become known gradually, as when child or parent or lover discovers piecemeal the signs of neglect and lost trust.
Poems have long been a place where one count on being able to feel, in a bodily sense, our connection to loss. I say bodily to emphasize the way poems act not only upon the mind and spirit, but also upon the emotions which release the bodily signs of feeling—so that we weep, laugh, are brought to anger, feel loneliness, or the comfort of companionship . . . .”
– Tess Gallagher from “The Poem as a Reservoir for Grief” The American Poetry Review
*
About The Workshop Instructor
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella from Moon Tide Press, following Threnody, Moon Tide, 2022. A second edition of Gravity: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from Moon Tide in early 2025.Work has appeared in numerous journals and broadcasts including Cultural Daily, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, Lyric Life, and anthologies including The Poetry of Presence volumes I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. www.donnahilbert.com
*
Tickets & Registration
WRITING THE CATASTROPHE: SINGING IN DARK TIMES
Instructor: Donna Hilbert
Date: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Time: 6:00-8:00pm Eastern (3:00-5:00pm Pacific) via Zoom
Price: $25 (payment options – Stripe / PayPal / Venmo / CashApp)
To register for this workshop, please email Mark Danowsky (ONE ART’s Editor-in-Chief) — oneartpoetry@gmail.com
ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024
ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2024
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
- Betsy Mars
- Donna Hilbert
- Abby E. Murray
- Robbi Nester
- Julie Weiss
- john compton
- Tina Barry
- Timothy Green
- Kim Addonizio
- Andrea Potos
- Kari Gunter-Seymour
- Callie Little
- Alison Luterman
- Robin Wright
- Sally Nacker
- Trish Hopkinson
- Christina Kallery
- Vicki Boyd
- Terri Kirby Erickson
- Susan Vespoli
- Bonnie Proudfoot
- Scott Ferry & Leilani Ferry
- Martha Silano
- Joan Mazza
Note: Some poets were published multiple times in ONE ART in 2024. Links are to each poet’s most-read poem(s) of the year.
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2024
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of December 2024
Dog Story by Donna Hilbert
Dog Story
Perhaps because I’d finished a book
the night before, about a dog
who’d pulled a woman
from the sea of grief,
on my morning walk when I see a dog,
that looks like the first dog
I ever wanted, I put out my hand
for a lick.
The dog of memory walks
up the street to sit beside me
while I pull weeds
from shaggy grass.
The boys are small. When they see the dog,
they want to keep him too.
“It’s only right to take him to the shelter,”
my husband says, while hustling the dog into the car,
“in case the owner comes to claim him.”
Husband returns from the shelter, reports
“The dog can be adopted Saturday
if the owner hasn’t come by then.”
On Saturday morning, “Go get our dog,” I say.
“After tennis,” he says.
“Go now,” I say, “If I had a car,” I say.
“There’s time,” he says, “after tennis.”
“Please go now,” I say.
On Saturday afternoon, after tennis, after the shelter,
“Where’s our dog?” I ask.
“Too late,” Husband says.
“If I had a car,” I say.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Too late,” I say.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella from Moon Tide Press, following Threnody, Moon Tide, 2022. A second edition of Gravity: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from Moon Tide in early 2025. Work has appeared in numerous journals and broadcasts including Cultural Daily, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, Lyric Life, and anthologies including The Poetry of Presence volumes I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. www.donnahilbert.com
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of June 2024
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of June 2024 ~
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
This Boat
for TE
Were you two or three?
Strapped to my lap in the kayak
I paddled into the wetlands
past the sign that read “Go Back.”
Herons, pelicans, cormorants
flew close enough to touch,
and sun dazzled the murk below.
“In this boat, we can go anywhere,”
you said, then pressed your cheek
to my breast, and slept.
You were almost grown,
when you chose the unknown water.
If there were signs ahead,
I failed to heed, or even see, them.
*
New
That time in the park
at the end of the street
our dogs off leash
and we are off leash too
our love so new
we kiss and kiss
not caring for once
who sees us
what might be said
or be construed.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, ONE ART, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at donnahilbert.com
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of March 2024
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of March 2024 ~
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Chocolate Milk
That day I feared
I’d never stop crying,
my tears a torrent
taking me out to sea,
Dr. Helene asked what soothed me
as a sad, and scared, small kid.
Chocolate milk, I said.
Drink that, she said.
Drink until you stop the crying.
I drove to the drive-in dairy,
bought a can of chocolate syrup
and a gallon of milk,
and drank, and drank, and drank,
until my life was sweet
enough to greet my children
skipping through the door from school.
*
Good Start
A good start to a regular day,
is pulling into Gelson’s parking lot,
when the store opens at seven.
“It’s my favorite time, too,”
the young clerk says,
“because this early, nobody’s mad.”
Muffins are fresh and warm
from the oven, shelves neat, laden
with promise, produce glistens
like straight from the garden,
and for once—Hallelujah—
there’s a bin of organic potatoes,
and nary a spud sprouts an eye!
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, ONE ART, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at donnahilbert.com
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of January 2024
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of January 2024 ~
ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2023
~ ONE ART’s Top 25 Most-Read Poets of 2023 ~
1. Abby E. Murray
2. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
3. Betsy Mars
4. Donna Hilbert
5. Linda Laderman
6. Alison Luterman
7. Julie Weiss
8. Robbi Nester
9. Roseanne Freed
10. Karen Paul Holmes
11. Heather Swan
12. Timothy Green
13. James Diaz
14. Jane Edna Mohler
15. John Amen
16. Barbara Crooker
17. Jim Daniels
18. Susan Vespoli
19. Sean Kelbley
20. Susan Zimmerman
21. Kip Knott
22. Jennifer Garfield
23. Margaret Dornaus
24. Paula J. Lambert
25. Gail Thomas
Mourning Doves by Donna Hilbert
Mourning Doves
Because the potted plant
on the back porch needs water,
I come nose to beak
with a brooding dove,
too late to stop the water
pouring from my pitcher.
I flood the nest.
Her mate watches from powerlines.
She moves to a nearby ledge,
leaving the egg alone in the sodden pot.
Throughout the day, I go outside
and see the doves maintaining vigil.
By nightfall, the pair is gone.
I peer into the pot.
Nothing remains of nest or feather.
Not a trace of shell.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, ONE ART, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at donnahilbert.com
Tongues by Donna Hilbert
Tongues
I gouged my tongue
on the cruel edge of a carrot.
Yes, it bled.
I did not swallow the fly
that drowned in my coffee,
though it rested on my tongue
until I realized it was not a crumb,
but a creature, dead.
My nose did not break
when I dropped my phone
onto its bridge while reading
news from the war zone
in my safe, but troubled, bed.
Who could find sleep
while naming the dead?
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, ONE ART, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at donnahilbert.com
Thursday, Bill, the Bay by Donna Hilbert
Thursday, Bill, the Bay
I hear “76 Trombones” coming up
behind me and know it’s Bill
with his little dog and a bag of scones
from a nearby bakery.
Bill turns his tinny transistor off,
and says, “I’m sorry,” showing me
his empty bag. “Late for my walk,” I say.
“Next Thursday,” Bill says, marching on.
I go back to watching two green herons
perched on neighboring boats,
facing one another, still as stone.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Encounter at Gelson’s
On the first day we feel safe
touching another human being
outside of our tiny family pod,
I see a woman from my neighborhood
embrace a favorite box-boy. The kid
is on the spectrum, and super good
at his job. The hug is long. They pull back,
look at one another, hug again.
I kill time by the shopping cart carrel
to take in the scene, blow my nose
into an old mask, dab at my eyes
with my sleeve. I don’t want to be seen
bawling my head off at Gelson’s
fancy, prepared food counter.
*
Opening
They capture light, my neighbor says
of his many angled windows
fronting water on the bay side’s shore.
Who wouldn’t want to capture light
the way a child traps fireflies
on a summer night?
In the waning dark, I catch what I can
with my cell phone’s eager eye,
and greet again the great window opening,
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of July 2023
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of July 2023 ~
- Alison Luterman – My Vibrato
- Betsy Mars – Residual
- Susan Zimmerman – Two Poems
- Donna Hilbert – Two Poems
- John Amen – The 80s
- Jennifer L Freed – Five Poems
- Margie Duncan – If Found, Return to Store
- Robert Darken – Everyone Has Better Parents
- Lisa Zimmerman – Two Poems
- William Palmer – Four Poems
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Low Tide
I love the way the water pulls
the shoreline back
showing what lies beneath:
old stairway
next to the dock, a few steps
laced with barnacles and moss,
another pathway into the mystery.
*
Shade
I’m looking for lipstick
the shade, exact match
for my mimi’s lips,
whose color never faded
from illness, from age.
At the end, still peach,
still full, still sweet
as summer fruit.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of June 2023
ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of June 2023
Summer by Donna Hilbert
Summer
for T.E.
Solstice again. One year, we waded into the sea
to wash crystals. (It was all about feng shui.)
The water was cold, the sky, cloud gray.
Back in the house, you fingered your name
onto the foggy windows, with hearts for O’s,
frames, and punctuation.
I took a photo of this.
Now, it’s proof you were here,
and for a time, happy.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
The Phone
“There are two types of reactors,”
my grad-school-psych professor said,
“when hearing the phone, one says
yay who’s calling me! The other says
shit who’s bothering me.” But I say
there are three. The third is me.
I say, Who’s dead?
*
The Wait
I waken to your hand
holding mine,
you, on the floor by the bed,
the morning after I said
we are through.
Your tender vigil coaxed
the buds of love to sprout again
after the dormant season
when I had ceased belief
in anything but grief.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of April 2023 ~
- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer – Ambition
- Donna Hilbert – Bad Weather
- Jim Daniels – Five Poems
- Linda Laderman – Burnt Toast
- Robbi Nester – The Inheritance
- Betsy Mars – Leveling
- Bella Barbera – Five More Minutes For One More Lifetime
- Paula J. Lambert – Spring
- Carol Parris Krauss – Pretty Bottles All in a Row
- John Amen – The 80s
Bad Weather by Donna Hilbert
Bad Weather
I have been the fallen bird
waiting for the ride
that never came, walking
home in beating rain.
I have been the forlorn traveler,
familiar in the corridors
of waiting.
I have been the fallen bird
pulled out of grief’s bad weather,
caressed and held together,
spoon fed until I wished
to die, then live, again.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
More by Donna Hilbert
More
I want more pages in my day planner
with its tidy squares and room on the side
for “to dos” to be checked off, and I want
that list to never end. I want one page
after another and another to appear
in unending supply, the way peanut
butter jars appear in the cupboard and I’m
aghast at their number, and know you’ve
been to that big box store once again,
so, it takes me forever to find the tiny
jar of saffron stuck in the back.
I want more dreams of falling
for the joyful relief at awakening
from the chasm of sleep to consult
my day planner and tick off tasks
that annoy me. I want more days
to gripe in my mind about tiny hillocks
of crumbs, you’ve left on the counter
while slicing bread from Gusto’s
on Fourth Street, bought in such quantity
and stuffed in the freezer, that I can’t find
my tiny pint of mint chip ice cream.
Then the drip drop of red wine, the drip drop
of tomato from the salad you made
for me last night—I want more of that
on the counter. I want more mornings
when your heavy breathing wakens
me from sleep, when your five-pillow chateau
threatens to topple and smother me,
and I get up with the sun and head
out for my walk when the glorious
unfolding of the day is waiting.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Passage at Nineteen by Donna Hilbert
Passage at Nineteen
Newborn, firstborn,
I hold you to my breast
for the slow ride home
through falling snow.
Flesh of my flesh,
I am reborn, dancing
in terror and joy
balanced on the eyelash
of a blinking god.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
I Do 100 Flying Cloud Hands While the Coffee Drips
In a copper-bottomed pot, my mother perked coffee,
adding a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor.
I was a kid and I thought it was good
with lots of milk and a little sugar.
Later, she adopted Coffee Mate: You can’t tell the difference!
Then Cool Whip: Just as good as Whipped Cream!
Some new margarine: As yummy as butter, maybe better!
When I eschewed meat, she declared I couldn’t possibly taste
the chicken broth base in the casserole, or the bacon fat
seasoning green beans. Oh, how she wished me to swallow
what gagged me, then open my mouth and drip praise.
*
Anthurium in August
Anthuriums abloom
in a bayside yard,
take me back to Christmas
in the old house,
that year we abandoned
tree and tinsel
to cheer ourselves instead
with bouquets
of crimson bracts:
golden-tongued
open mouths of joy.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
One Poem by Donna Hilbert
Walk Before Coffee, After a Glance at the Times
I say good morning to a passerby
but hear, instead, good mourning
in my head, and I am dazed
by the ambiguity of homophones.
And, on the turntable of my brain
spins a melody I hum, but can’t abide:
Morning has broken. No. Morning
is broken. In present tense, it sings.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is the just released Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
The Kreutzer Sonata by Donna Hilbert
The Kreutzer Sonata
The Kreutzer Sonata
is perfect for cooking:
about forty minutes
adagio through presto.
The insistent opening ideal
for mincing garlic and onion.
Forty minutes for risotto
from impulse to finish.
Forty minutes at 425 to oven-roast
potatoes and fish in a caste-iron skillet
(after 20 minutes, slip fish into the pan
with potatoes, and make a green salad).
Forty minutes to start
a good soup on the stove.
Put the soup on to simmer,
and begin the sonata again.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Iron Skillet by Donna Hilbert
Iron Skillet
I’m cleaning you now
with coarse salt and a paper towel.
Skillet of my mother, grandmother,
and her mother before her.
You’ve fried chickens
raised, killed, plucked, dressed
on farms, in backyards
by generations of women whose children
watched in fascination and fear.
You’ve fried bacon, eggs over easy,
baked cornbread, baked biscuits, grilled
sandwiches, fried fold-over pies for
farmers, mechanics, civil servants, teachers.
Last night, I blackened a sea bass
on your flat belly where tonight,
potatoes and carrots will nestle and roast
while an omelet browns on top of the stove.
Skillet, trusty instrument of nurture,
I praise your amazing utility, plurality
of purpose, example of endurance.
How easily you fashion meal after meal,
serve us, feed us, re-season, restore.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is the just released Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Spiritus
I waken to the sound of breathing
so loud I think it’s you beside me.
But no, love, it’s me. My breath, alone.
*
Ribollita
I praise the way you save
stale bread left on the shelf too long,
rinds of Parmesan tough to grate,
old greens not crisp enough
for salad, but fine for soup
re-boiled from what’s on hand.
I love the way you salvage
bruised tomato, sprouting onion,
imperfect squash, laying no morsel
to mold, nothing to waste,
filling each space with aroma
of soup, saying supper, manga!
come eat, come safely, come home.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is the just released Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Enormous Blue Umbrella by Donna Hilbert
Enormous Blue Umbrella
Enormous, blue, and sad, this umbrella
we walk beneath. It’s winter still,
but who could tell with sky so poignant
blue it stings the eye, and merely a tinge
of cold informs the air. Passersby don’t
seem to notice the mountain’s sharp
outline beyond bayside homes.
And across the boulevard, across the sand,
beyond the stranded ships, Catalina shines
like tin foil. It’s the walkers I wonder about:
sad faces, our caps pulled down, moving fast,
no place special to go, so fierce to get there.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is the just released Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. Poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac and on Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home, and during residencies at Write On Door County. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Top 25 Most Read ONE ART Publications of 2021
#1
On The Day After You Left This World
by Heather Swan
#2
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
#3
by Erin Murphy
#4
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
#5
by Gary Metras
#6
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
#7
by Donna Hilbert
#8
There should always be pie in a poem,
by Lailah Shima
#9
by J.C. Todd
#10
by James Crews
#11
by Donna Hilbert
#12
by Heidi Seaborn
#13
5 untitled poems [from] The Survivor
by Jenn Koiter
#14
by Nathaniel Gutman
#15
by Melody Wilson
#16
by Donna Hilbert
#17
by William Logan
#18
by Aaron Smith
#19
by Betsy Mars
#20
by Ona Gritz
#21
by Betsy Mars
#22
by Carolyn Martin
#23
by Patricia Davis-Muffett
#24
by Erin Murphy
#25
by Joseph Chelius
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
On my Sunday Morning Walk, I Think of Wallace Stevens
Palm tree frond and heron wing are one,
or so it seems to me from where I stand.
Palm tree temple, heron priest,
and I, a congregant, alone.
*
Mallards Fly In
Soon they will nest.
Later, hatchlings will be stranded
trying to cross the street.
Not everything is solved by walking.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. Her new collection, Threnody, is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Perspicere
I’ve come to love the power lines
crisscrossing the alley behind my house.
Birds pause here, between their quests
for food and water, to rest
until returning to nest in palm trees
across the alley, down the block,
across the street, and to places
that, no matter how I fix my gaze,
I can’t quite know, I can’t quite find.
*
Dear Laurie,
To identify the bird singing from the powerlines,
I pull Birds of America from its spot atop the bookshelf.
Remember, friend, when you gave this book to me? Before
your move to Texas? Or, was it after the returning
to California? Your grandmother’s book
you said, who also loved to name the birds.
How I grieved when you moved half-way across
the country with your family, for your husband’s
better job. I boarded the plane with the baby,
barely three-months old, while you wrangled
the other children up the ramp.
It was December. Remember how we cried?
The new year began and with it, grief began in earnest.
Jobs soured. Friends divorced. In May, my father died.
When school was out, to staunch my tears,
Larry loaded our boys into the car (which car? I don’t remember)
and we crossed the desert states.
Craters, canyons, caverns, kitsch motels, the kids counting
dead critters on the highway all the way to Texas.
Hellish hot, the Texas summer, but Laurie,
you and I were glad to sit in misery together.
We passed the baby back and forth, refilled our icy drinks.
The children, keeping cool, wielded water guns and hoses.
The husbands talked sports, flipped burgers on the grill. It was June.
Did we celebrate our birthdays, one day apart, together?
I don’t remember the birds in Texas, but mosquitos and chiggers
ruled the grass. Cicadas swarmed the backyard trees,
a visitation we’d not expected with its symphony of sizzle
and buzz as if a world were ending or beginning.
We could not have guessed which guests
would call upon us next. Some callers it’s best not to expect.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. Her new collection, Threnody, is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
For Mother, Whose Maiden Name Was German by Donna Hilbert
For Mother, Whose Maiden Name Was German
From this porch swing,
I look into the woods
beyond the highway,
and dream of you, Mother,
who didn’t like the woods,
but loved a porch swing,
who liked horizons clean:
ocean beyond a bank
of sand, a backroad arrow
through billowing
seas of wheat.
You didn’t like the woods,
but loved a porch swing.
O cradle of memory.
Your name, Zumwalt:
into the woods.
You didn’t like the woods,
uneasy when the way
could not be seen.
How did you enter then
the pitchblack woods
unafraid, serene?
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. Her new collection, Threnody, is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Braided Way, Chiron Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, One Art, and numerous anthologies. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home. Learn more at www.donnahilbert.com
Two Poems by Donna Hilbert
Rosemary
You are the rosemary I add to the soup:
how you pressed pungent bristles
between thumb and finger,
how you lay sprigs atop red potatoes
glistening in olive oil, salt,
house alive with the fragrance
of vegetables roasting
on any given day of the week.
1,095 days past your death, young one,
I sometimes escape the earthquake
of absence upon awakening,
but daily remembrance, I never escape:
today, it was rosemary, yesterday,
blue sea glass washed up at my feet.
*
dent de lion
Don’t call me weed,
but love instead my golden
head dressing swards of green.
The sunshine of my flowering gone,
then love me in my second crown
of silver tuft and drifting thread.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach 2018. Other books include Transforming Matter, and Traveler in Paradise, both from PEARL Editions. Her new collection, Threnody, is forthcoming from Moon Tide Press in late 2021.
February, 2021 — by Donna Hilbert
February, 2021
In a fit of hope, I wash and press white shirts
hidden in the hamper since last March.
I order lipstick, and a see-through make-up bag
with hooks to hang on any random perch.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal, Verse-Virtual. She is eager to resume leading in-person workshops and hugging her friends. Learn more at http://www.donnahilbert.com
Grief by Donna Hilbert
Grief
In the dishwasher,
nothing but spoons.
*
Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to the on-line journal, Verse-Virtual. She is eager to resume leading in-person workshops and hugging her friends. Learn more at http://www.donnahilbert.com