Tag: Lisa Zimmerman

Two Poems by Lisa Zimmerman

~ ONE ART ~ 1 Comment

Mars Retrograde in Leo

Look at him, sad bully trudging
through the sludge of the vast galaxy
he likes to call his own, though it’s not.
How he wants to burn a house or a city
or a continent, chisel his anger to a searing point.
Even just to lounge in cool shade like a lion
who chased down and devoured not one
but three small deer, or children, or stupid men.

He can hear the faint lilt of his queenly mother’s voice
reminding him he might learn something from his past,
to slow down is not the same as losing a battle,
which he’s never done. He’s still mad, just wants
to inspire some countries to go nuclear, sink a battleship
filled with soldiers, help a volcano belch lava over
crowded villages and pretty middle class houses,
or at least burn a famous museum to ash. Poor bully.
Look at him dragging his sword, how it leaves
a sad trail in the ordinary dirt behind him.

*

Uncle Roger Who Died in 1940 Before the Age of Two

I woke up hot, my hands sticky, my throat sore.
I cried out for Mama but Papa came and lifted me
from my small bed. I felt the lurch of his heart
under his half-buttoned work shirt. He called loud
for Mama. She heard her name laced with fear,
came running, gathered the heat of my body
from Papa’s arms and shouted for him to get the car.

Oh, how they loved me, those two,
and my thin big sister who might have been
at school or with Aunt Lena or Grandma.
I wasn’t two years old yet but I saw
doom on the doctor’s face. He had seen
so much death from flu, from sepsis, from war
wounds that wouldn’t heal. This was other,
and fierce—I could not swallow or speak.
My soul, so much older than two years,
knew I would die in my mother’s arms.
How this simple truth would cast a dark wing
over her long, long life.

*

Lisa Zimmerman’s poetry collections include How the Garden Looks from Here (Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award) The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and Sainted (Main Street Rag). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in SWWIM Every Day, Apple Valley Review, Cave Wall, Poet Lore, Vox Populi, Ghost Parachute, and many other journals.

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

~ ONE ART ~ Leave a comment

~ 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

Hunger Is the Opposite of the First Dandelions in the Grass by Lisa Zimmerman

~ ONE ART ~ 2 Comments

Hunger Is the Opposite of the First Dandelions in the Grass

The rumple of discarded baggage is my exhaustion upon waking.
How can a suitcase carry more darkness when closed?
It is a sad cave left on an empty train platform.

The darkness stands between snowy tree branches,
watching the sparrow who watches the birdfeeder.
Somewhere there is a sparkle. The light
presenting itself just before nightfall is useless,
even with its golden seam, its momentary fanfare.

Darkness is helpful, and not, depending on where
you don’t look, or how you imagine birds and seeds.
Darkness against anyone’s body is so complete,
so quiet, until they’re touched by someone.
Then—where does that bright white singing come from?

*

Lisa Zimmerman’s poetry collections include How the Garden Looks from Here (Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award winner) The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and Sainted (Main Street Rag). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Redbook, The Sun, SWWIM Every Day, Cave Wall, Poet Lore, Vox Populi, Book of Matches, and many other journals. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net, five times for the Pushcart Prize, and included in the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Northern Colorado and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.