Thyme (by Beverly Zeimer)

Beverly Zeimer 

Thyme

Today in my flower garden

there are no butterflies.

The daylilies have withered.

The cosmos shuts her eyes.

 

But thyme stands still in purple

in a plot beside the shed.

Flutters of white—and yellow—

a crown on the monarch’s head.

* * * * *

“Thyme” originally appeared in the Short North Gazette and in Columbus State’s Spring Street.

Beverly Zeimer, whose poems celebrate the rural lifestyle, was born the child of tenant farmers. Her chapbook Pick a Way, that details the lives of farm families, won 1st Prize in the Salon Chapbook competition published by Pudding House. Beverly won the OPA’s Ides of March Competition judged by Terry Hermsen 2009 and was selected as Poet of the Month by the OPA in 2010. She won in the Ohio Poetry Day Contests in 2008-2009. She won the ECO Poetry Contest at the Solar Stage at Comfest, a community festival in Columbus, Ohio. Her poems have been anthologized in Cap City Poets, Eckphrastic Elastic, Friends, The Pudding House Gang, Love Poems and Other Stories for Bruce Springsteen, Everything Stops and Listens, Open Earth: ECO poems, and many others. Her poetry and fiction have been published by Spring Street, Pudding Magazine, A Community of Voices published by the College of Wooster, Green’s Magazine in Canada, and is forthcoming in Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio by Ohio University Press. She shares her work at coffee houses, festivals, and book stores in regional Ohio. Retired from civil service, she still lives in rural Ohio and is currently working on her second book of poems and short stories.

When I Went Out to Draw the Spring (by Beverly Zeimer)

Beverly Zeimer 

When I Went Out to Draw the Spring

When I went out to draw the spring—
My heart as light as air—
I stopped to hear a thrush’s song—
To touch a daffodil.
 
A time I spent in meadow grass—
A time in glowing sun—
For only my bare feet—my knees—
Only my bare hands.
 
I heard the corn a tasseling
As it turned from silk to tares—
Or rather, was it—I—sighing
As I neared the fountain’s edge?
 
The brick-lined walls whimpered
Through the earth—the palisades—
For battered shingles—bartered steps—
As on I clambered.
 
And then—the handle—cranked—
I lowered the plaited pail—
And tugged upon the heavy twine
To find an empty well.

* * * * *

Beverly Zeimer, whose poems celebrate the rural lifestyle, was born the child of tenant farmers. Her chapbook Pick a Way, that details the lives of farm families, won 1st Prize in the Salon Chapbook competition published by Pudding House. Beverly won the OPA’s Ides of March Competition judged by Terry Hermsen 2009 and was selected as Poet of the Month by the OPA in 2010. She won in the Ohio Poetry Day Contests in 2008-2009. She won the ECO Poetry Contest at the Solar Stage at Comfest, a community festival in Columbus, Ohio. Her poems have been anthologized in Cap City Poets, Eckphrastic Elastic, Friends, The Pudding House Gang, Love Poems and Other Stories for Bruce Springsteen, Everything Stops and Listens, Open Earth: ECO poems, and many others. Her poetry and fiction have been published by Spring Street, Pudding Magazine, A Community of Voices published by the College of Wooster, Green’s Magazine in Canada, and is forthcoming in Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio by Ohio University Press. She shares her work at coffee houses, festivals, and book stores in regional Ohio. Retired from civil service, she still lives in rural Ohio and is currently working on her second book of poems and short stories.

Praise Song (by Beverly Zeimer) – video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue5JQI05YLQ

“Praise Song” © 2009 by Beverly Zeimer, used with permission

Read by the author at Pumpkin Hollow Antiques and Cafe in Bellville, Ohio on 3 April 2009
Event hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association — filmed by John Burroughs, a.k.a. Jesus Crisis

We recommend Beverly Zeimer’s Pick a Way — now available from Pudding House Publications

Beverly is of Appalachian descent and her chapbook Pick a Way, which details the lives of sharecroppers, won first place in a competition of the renowned Pudding House Salon, of which she has been a member for many years.  Her poem “Praise Song” appears in the anthology Love Poems and Other Messages for Bruce Springsteen, also available in 2009 from Pudding House Publications (www.puddinghouse.com).  

She will be reading from & signing Pick a Way on 18 August 2009 (6:35-9:35 pm) at J R Hooks, 114 Watt Street in Circleville, Ohio.

Mother Earth (by Beverly Zeimer) – video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wcky9AYPig

“Mother Earth” © 2009 by Beverly Zeimer, used with permission

Read by the author at Pumpkin Hollow Antiques and Cafe in Bellville, Ohio on 3 April 2009
Event hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association — filmed by John Burroughs, a.k.a. Jesus Crisis

We recommend Beverly Zeimer’s Pick a Way — now available from Pudding House Publications

Beverly is of Appalachian descent and her chapbook Pick a Way, which details the lives of sharecroppers, won first place in a competition of the renowned Pudding House Salon, of which she has been a member for many years.  Her poem “Mother Earth” originally appeared in the Pudding House anthology Whatever House We Came From and in the Short North Gazette.

She will be reading from & signing Pick a Way on 18 August 2009 (6:35-9:35 pm) at J R Hooks, 114 Watt Street in Circleville, Ohio.