Vox Populi
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Donna Hilbert: Three Poems
Enormous Blue Umbrella
Enormous, sad, and blue, this umbrella
we walk beneath. It’s winter still,
but who could tell with sky so poignant
blue it stings the eye, and merely a tinge
of cold informs the air. Passersby don’t
seem to notice the mountain’s sharp
outline beyond the bayside homes.
And across the boulevard, across the sand,
beyond the stranded ships, Catalina shines
like tin foil. It’s the walkers I wonder about:
sad faces, our caps pulled down, moving fast,
no place special to go, so fierce to get there.
~~
Ribollita
I praise the way you save
stale bread left on the shelf too long,
rinds of Parmesan tough to grate,
old greens not crisp enough
for salad, but fine for soup
re-boiled from what’s on hand.
I love the way you salvage
bruised tomato, sprouting onion,
imperfect squash, laying no morsel
to mold, nothing to waste,
filling each space with aroma
of soup, saying supper, mangia!
come eat, come safely, come home.
~~~
Shade
I’m looking for lipstick
the shade, exact match
for my mimi’s lips,
whose color never faded
from illness, from age.
At the end, still peach,
still full, still sweet
as summer fruit.
~
~~~~
Copyright 2023 Donna Hilbert. These poems were first published in ONE ART and are included in Vox Populi by permission of the author.
Donna Hilbert’s many books include Enormous Blue Umbrella (Moon Tide Press, 2025). She lives in Long Beach, California.
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✨♥️
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How delightful, those last lines in each of the three poems are memorable, words to carry with me. Thank you Donna, Michael and for all the appreciative comments.
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Thanks, Jan. I love these three poems as well.
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These are beautiful. I especially love “Enormous Blue Umbrella.” It is simultaneously intimate and expansive. And it’s music is a delight. It reminds me of the pensive experience in my youth walking around the lake near my parents’ house contemplating something from an Alan Watts’ book.
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Thanks, Mike. I love how efficient these poems are. They do a lot of work in a small space.
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Agreed.
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Thank you all for the kind comments!!
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What wonderful poems–I especially admire the music & sneaky hidden rhymes in Blue Umbrella!
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oh that shade poem–the ways we remember and honor our loved ones, how a hue can somehow invoke a whole relationship–and those last lines, my gosh, a whole world of sweetness
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A whole world of sweetness in a few lines…
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Thanks for these three poems that help fill the voids we all face, with their memories, aromas, and homecomings. Like beautiful weavings made from from the warp of everyday things and the weft of healing transcendence.
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Well-said, Jim. Thank you.
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Each one a pleasure. And ‘Ribollita‘ is the song of my winter soups! 🙂 Oh, and so much said with those last two lines of ‘Enormous Blue Umbrella‘.
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Thanks, Rose Mary. I love Donna’s poems as well. She strips her language down to the most efficient affect.
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Things that sustain us in these time. The comfort, memories.
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Yes, the sustenance of poetry.
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Thank you so much, Michael, for including my work in Vox Populi.
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Donna, I just love your poems!
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That means so much to me!
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