When I give local readings I am often introduced as the garden poet, because I tend to see life through the lens of a natural setting and my poems often reflect my propensity for gardening.  Not surprisingly, the first of my poems to see print was in Fine Gardening magazine in 2001.  Since then I’ve been publishing routinely in the small press (Ibbetson Street, Atlanta Review, and Poetry East, to name a few).  I’ve authored 2 chapbooks which are listed on my website: lindamfischer.com    

When Winter Storms   
                

When winter strips
me of every leaf 
and storms shear
my useless limbs,
when else I hold
falls away
and I—rooted here— 
cease to sing,
so may I dwell
among songbirds 
alighting in my hair, 
their clear vowels 
consoling— 
constancy in air.




​
Late December


Winter blows in—rain 
instead of snow, by morning 
sleet.  I waken to an improbable 
forest of crystal, ice-clad 
trees sparkling in the sun 
as if they’d been draped in tinsel.  
The last of my ornaments go up— 
a helix of lights, baubles 
of antique glass.  As quickly, 
the arctic chill lifts:
droplets cascade from the tips 
of every branch—a sudden 
shower of falling stars.
How simply Nature adorns herself— 
how casually she sheds her beauty!