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SUSAN WISMER

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Photo by: Susan Wismer

Perfection, March 2022

I begin today with the perfection of small radishes

 

each earthbound globe 

an unseen adventurer 

in the welcoming underland 

of this spring’s raised bed:

moist soil, friable, worms, tender reach 

of delicate root threads

growing, filling, rising

 

We can’t be too careful with courage, with joy

 

To keep each small living creature

intact, naked, fearless, two heart-shaped leaves

a hint of red bulb, white net of rootlets

clustered in the cup of my hand, small plants 

a slow exploration of separation, tangle of seedlings, 

thinned, moistened, returned 

to waiting soil

The promise of rain 

 

in the misted brush of morning

cool on my sleep-warmed cheeks

ferns know to quicken, push their tight curls

out of earth, becoming

the welcoming breath 

of this only day

 

We can’t be too careful with hope, with what falters

 

My weary hands plunge 

into dirt, fingertips cautiously probe, 

touch tendrils, what comes regardless 

in Spring in the morning, soil

small plants

perfection

 

Everything returns.

in Spike: Poems in the time of Pestilence, (eds. Antony Christie, Caroline Menzies, Harry Posner, Richard-Yves Sitoski, Hazel Smith, Claudia Strelocke, Cannon’s Creek Press, December, 2021). p.13

Selected Poetry

Dresden Cup

From Hand Shadows, a program of poetry and dance, March 13, 2022 and November 14, 2021, Guelph

Redstart

Pink Flamingos, ed.  Lorna Crozier, Wintergreen Studios Press, Yarker, ON. chapbook series, February 2022, p. 9

Spontaneous Combustion

Understorey Magazine 21, 2021

Print and online editions https://understoreymagazine.ca/

Phonics of Trees

Orbis International Literary Journal #196, Summer 2021

Double Whorl

Room Magazine, 43.1 March 2020

All the Words for Blue

Understorey Magazine Issue 17, 2019  RE: Nature

Still the Moon

Spike: Poems in the time of Pestilence, (eds.  Antony Christie, Caroline Menzies, Harry Posner, Richard-Yves Sitoski, Hazel Smith, Claudia Strelocke), Cannon’s Creek Press, December, 2021, p.26

Sanctuary

The Northern Appeal Issue 6 2019, p.23 

Algonquin Park

Arc Poetry Journal  85 Winter 2018, pp. 103-106

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