The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Thomas Zimmerman
plays Shostakovich 8. I drink the dark
and crank the sound.
Conductor’s brilliant, yanked
from the quotidian as if his bark
were battered by a storm,
the ocean banked
and seething, every hand on deck one
mind.
If only I could stay so wired in
my Shakespeare rants at work,
my passion blind
but honed as Hamlet’s, splicing prayer and
sin.
I swim and breathe in essences this rare
if you are here.
You’re gone. I’m terrified
to doubt that the sublime is everywhere,
a heaven right beneath our feet,
a wide
and sparkling sky to guide you back,
lone crow
that roves, that bears a song I darkly know.
Thomas Zimmerman teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits two literary magazines at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His chapbook In Stereo: Thirteen Sonnets and Some Fire Music appeared from The Camel Saloon Books on Blog in 2012. Tom’s website: http://thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com/.