March 2016
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
Even Now
If I could put my life on hold
the way the seasons pause
before committing to the next
and wallow in the shoals
of, say, an Indian summer,
the flux between coruscating
heat and congealing cold—
nature’s disequilibrium—I
might slip out of my skin
like the snake that makes
its home under the junipers
or open to the sun like desert
wildflowers roused from sleep
by sudden rain. I remember
the release from school a liberty
of days that to a child seemed
endless, the only imperative
to run as fast as the wind.
Even now, the smell
of burning leaves pulls
me toward the warning bell
and the doors swing open
to take me back again.
from Raccoon Afternoons, Finishing Line Press (2007)
©2016 Linda M. Fischer
©2016 Linda M. Fischer