The poems in Unbroken Circle, Unending Thread hew to Mary Oliver’s admonition: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” The focus is on the changing seasons and the passage of time—beginning in winter and returning there in an epilogue—with a subtext of attunement to both the subtle joys of experiencing the evolving and revolving of the year and to the sense of loss inherent in the inevitability of impermanence. Embedded in the subconscious of these poems is the centrality of climate change and its disorienting and deleterious effects on all inhabitants—human and otherwise—of planet earth.
Filled with well-crafted radiance and gratitude, James K. Zimmerman’s Unbroken Circle, Unending Thread is a poetry collection that not only sings but understands how to listen as well. With humor, precision, and the lightest of touches, Zimmerman finds inspiration in the cycle of seasons, birds, blossoms, even murderous black cats and trespassing deer. Here are poems that invite readers to slow down, breathe deeply, and take notice of the delicate splendor that surrounds us—the circle and thread that binds us all.
Jared Harél, author of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject
“I was on a first-name basis / with every stem of kale,” James K. Zimmerman tells us. Intimacy, identification, care-full attention—these qualities saturate this enlivening collection. Newly hatched spiders are “scurrying punctuation points”; a mockingbird is a “jazz riffer in the key of wings.” As he builds this book around the four seasons, the effects of global warming can’t be avoided. But it’s as critical to observe and report the breath and pulse of each individual day. Anthropomorphic imagery is here, too—“snowbound hollies bow / downward-dog to sunset” as one delightful example. It’s not to explain other beings as just like us, though, but to propose ways for us to understand them. We need all the help with that we can get. And how could my jaw not drop at “lawn chairs strewn around / the yard like dead chickens or kids / sleeping it off after karaoke night”? Read Unbroken Circle, Unending Thread to rediscover what you didn’t know you knew.
David P. Miller, author of Bend in the Stair and Sprawled Asleep
In Unbroken Circle, Unending Thread, James K. Zimmerman takes us on a journey around the sun, through the seasons, into the personas of a black widow spider, an oak tree, ladybug, praying mantis, a mockingbird. Birds are a frequent presence, as are many deer and one fox who arrives as an unexpected guest at an outdoor wedding. These poems transport us—in time and place. Reading in summer, I felt the welcome cold of a snowy winter, could hear the crunch of boots on ice, imagine maples without leaves. Through his poems, I enjoyed a beach in Mexico, tiny turtles released to the surf. Zimmerman’s well-crafted lines create a universe we can recognize, in which we feel at home. He teaches us to see, newly; a modern world, yet peering into wildness.
Laura Foley, author of Sledding the Valley of the Shadow
James K. Zimmerman’s poems express the textures and sounds of the natural world—“rowdy raspberry canes / that scratch their names”—and describe diverse creatures, including the human narrator who is “on a first name basis / with every stem of kale … in the little garden.” Reading these lyrical, precise, and highly attuned depictions, we come to understand what the red-tail hawk knows: that “lawns are not to be / overflown, but examined / with a poet’s eye.”
Hilary Sallick, author of Love Is a Shore
In this collection of stunning poems imbued with tenderness, wit, and wisdom, James K. Zimmerman takes us with him on a journey through the life cycle of a year. Each poem expresses the depth of his connection to the rhythms of the seasons. By no means are these poems maudlin or naïve, however; throughout, there is the background hum of concern for our planet, the voice of climate change. I sit in wonder as I read these poems, witnessing how the poet bows to our nonhuman companions, even in our fraught Anthropocene epoch. His deep respect for the oak, the hawk, the mantis, and the rose, for all of the natural world, calls us to honor our place in that world, to resist the belief that we are separate from it.
Judith Sarah Schmidt, author of Blessing from Broken
James K. Zimmerman
is the award-winning author of three poetry collections, most recently The Further Adventures of Zen Patriarch Dōgen. His work appears in Pleiades, Rattle, Chautauqua, Salt, and dozens of other journals and anthologies. He resides with his wife, his orchids, and his myriad musings, valuing his neurodivergence as an essential wellspring of his creative inspiration.