Tag: Donna Hilbert

Two Poems by Donna Hilbert

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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                               

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~ ONE ART’s Top 10 Most-Read Poets of July 2023 ~                               

  1. Alison Luterman – My Vibrato
  2. Betsy Mars – Residual
  3. Susan Zimmerman – Two Poems
  4. Donna Hilbert – Two Poems
  5. John Amen – The 80s
  6. Jennifer L Freed – Five Poems
  7. Margie Duncan – If Found, Return to Store
  8. Robert Darken – Everyone Has Better Parents
  9. Lisa Zimmerman – Two Poems
  10. William Palmer – Four Poems

Two Poems by Donna Hilbert

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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

Summer by Donna Hilbert

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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

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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

Bad Weather by Donna Hilbert

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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

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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

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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