Ray Zimmerman’s new chapbook chronicles the First Days during and after heart surgery. His short, tight poems capture the strange sense of anesthesia’s mystic time travel as he stares death in the face, that dark lady in his dreams. This darkness is offset by Zimmerman’s sense of humor about pain, financial and physical stress, as he returns to the sensory world of chickadees, roses, and even his neighbor’s cigarette smoke, a blessing. His strong connection to nature helps his injured heart heal with the certain knowledge that, though death will one day come, his “atoms will forever pulse through the earth” he loves. - Bill Brown, The News Inside
After a fleeting dance with “the lady in black” who says she’ll be
back for him at a later date (“Anesthesia”), Zimmerman approaches life
after heart surgery with wit and determination. Aware that each moment
alone could leave him defenseless and in need of help, he “slept with
[his] door unlocked” (“First Days”). Tackling fear and depression, and
the uncertainty of a body that failed, Zimmerman allows nature to heal
and inspire him through his recovery. Despite emotional and spiritual
turmoil, these poems are a testament to our ability as humans to
endure. - KB Ballentine, Fragments of Light
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