​Messages
 
In the days of instant messages, there are no editors.
The reader takes the place of writer and editor.
Other readers add their comments immediately.
Advice columns are unnecessary.
Readers pose questions in open forums.
Does anyone know a good auto mechanic?
Where should I shop for hand-made jewelry?
Friends and strangers offer advice.  All sources are 100 percent reliable. 

This historic cabin is generally recognized as the birthplace of Robert Sparks Walker, poet, literary naturalist, and founder of the Chattanooga Audubon society. He and his wife and first born son are buried next to it. 

(c) 2019, Ray Zimmerman
There is a videotape on Facebook of me reading this piece. Here is the text. 

Late August Collage
 
Begin with the yellow flowers of a Jerusalem artichoke. Make strands of its essence, warp and woof, a framework it is.

​Weave in the golden-brown of coreopsis, the pink of coneflower. Add the red of fireweed and you have made a start. Weave in the rich brown feather of a wren, dropped near her empty nest. Eggshells make a nice touch if you can find them.

Hang your tapestry from the branch of a hickory. Let it ripen with the nuts.

When the time is right, add lichen: the gray of old man’s beard, the ephemeral green vessels called pixie cups, the red topped British soldiers.

Let it bake in the August sun and steep in the lightning of sudden storms. It will hide its eyes from the muddy rivulets flowing from the impact of pounding male rain and soften with the nurturing mists of female rain.

Now your tapestry is ready to receive the gentle songs of chickadees and nuthatches. Let the pileated woodpecker drop chips from his drill as he feeds on carpenter ants. A few will stick.

Seek the help of a spider. Her silk will bind the work together. Hang your tapestry on your wall if you must.
When spiderlings hatch from its threads you will understand that it belongs in the woods. This will happen at the time of day when the buzzing of cicadas gives way to the trills of katydids.

Hang it on your porch. Let light from Altair and Deneb illuminate its recesses. It will waffle in the breeze of early morning as bats retire to take their daytime rest.

Ask yourself, have I woven this tapestry, or has it woven me.  

The Chattanooga Writers Guild organized the event, hosted by the Downtown branch of the Chattanooga Public Library. As part of the event, Rhyme N Chat put on an open mic from 12 noon to 2:15 PM. September 7, 2019. 

As published in Healing ad Conflict 
​(c) Ray Zimmerman, 2018

Full Speed Ahead
 
I wonder how there came to be
a plastic island in the sea.
 
No challenge to avoid a crash.
Cleave right through, our course is brash.
 
Beware if barnacles adorn your boat.
They’ll snag each plastic piece afloat.
 
Cigarette lighters float in the wrack
thick as lice on a heron’s back.
 
Old bleach bottle and plastic bag; 
sent to landfills by both dame and hag.
 
The plastics escape with torrential rain;
Go down the river like soap down the drain.
 
Birds and turtles feed on this mess.
Dead in a week would be my guess.

So, keep your plastic safe at home.
Don’t send it out to sea to roam. 

​For Immediate Release
Contact Star Line Books: (423) 577-5629
Poetry of Humor
Tuesday, July 30, 6 PM to 7 PM
Star Line Books is pleased to announce a celebration of humorous verse, light verse, and satire, to take place Tuesday, June 30 at 6 PM. Bring your own poems or those of others and be prepared to read them out loud.
 
“Wet dog is the friendliest.” – Ogden Nash
 
Poetry of Humor is a Fifth Tuesday event. Ray Zimmerman is producer and host for Fifth Tuesday events, now in their fourth year at Star Line Books.
 
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, its too dark to read.” – Groucho Marxs
 
Speaking in a book review:
“This novel should not be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” – Dorothy Parker