Tag Archives: Thomas Zimmerman

Naïve and Sentimental Sonnet by Thomas Zimmerman

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This world so hard and dark but ours and shot
clean through with light—and so I write to you,
storm coming. I am drunk on life and clouds
and God—or likely, love. That’s all we know
on earth. So bring the dogs, a hat, a coat,
your suffering—and come with me to . . . I
don’t know, a place we make, a space, a world,
an opening in matter, stuff. I’m not
a physicist. A lover of the possible:
that’s me. So loving that I break myself
for openings. Odd God, but maybe He/
She/It is in us all. Relax. Some things
stay green. And if not this, Next world, I say,
next world. Our changes haven’t finished yet.

Thomas Zimmerman teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits two literary magazines at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His chapbook In Stereo: Thirteen Sonnets and Some Fire Music appeared from The Camel Saloon Books on Blog in 2012. Tom’s website:http://thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com/

Also by this poet: “A Better Poem“

“A Better Poem” by Thomas Zimmerman

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Your life’s a better poem than any that
you’ll ever write. I feel that I should end
with this, but think that it’s been said before.
And now the snow (perhaps the season’s last)
is swirling, and the coffee’s working fast,
with Mahler’s Second, playing now, to rend
then mend my pent emotions; soothe, combat
the ambiguities that pack the core
of my identity. It’s sour-sweet:
catharsis, death-and-resurrection. We
all know this well, but I am every time
enthralled by it. The music stops. My street
is buried quietly. My reverie
will linger longer than this cobbled rhyme.

—

Thomas Zimmerman teaches English and directs the Writing Center at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, MI. His chapbook In Stereo was published by The Camel Saloon Books on Blog in 2012.