Poetry

Poetry

Original poetry by H.R. Zimmerer. Open a piece to read the poem alongside its full artwork.

A name is only a handful of sounds until it is carried by someone who knows you.

From “Your Name”

The Human Things

On the small acts that keep us human.

Your Name

On names, familiar voices, and being known.

The Day Itself

An ordinary day, allowed to be enough.

More from the Poetry Desk

Explore recent original poems and their accompanying reflections. New work appears here as it is published.

• What I Let Stay
  Honesty about ourselves should include more than our mistakes. Care, repaired errors and ordinary happiness belong in the account too.
• A Little Less Certain
  Knowing more about the natural world need not diminish wonder. It can make our attention more precise and our questions more interesting.
• Room for the Sea
  The sea does not finish our unfinished business. It can give us enough space around it to return with a different sense of scale.
• Without a Witness
  On photographs, private experience and allowing an afternoon to belong to a life without needing an audience.
• The First Listening
  An essay on the attention we give distant voices, and what happens when the people beside us are left waiting to be heard.
• Under the Leaves
  A fallen tree is still occupied. Looking closely at the forest floor changes what we mean by a living landscape.
• A Place in the World
  Belonging to the natural world can begin beside a back step, with a wren in the hedge and the morning continuing around us.

Browse the complete poetry archive