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