Trade
I am pleased to announce Zumwalt has again had one of his topical pieces published at New Verse News: his poem, Trade.
Please visit and read.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Monday Musings
As many of you know, I am a big fan of New Verse News. Few journals match them in variety, vitality, and relevance. Many MFA-correct journals and online sites sites filter out poems that break spoken and unspoken academic rules, filtering out poems that may even have rough edges but say something important or say something in an interesting way, but even for those journals that don’t, few offer the enjoyment I get from reading the poems shared on WordPress blogs or New Verse News.
I read this poem this morning and found it particularly resonant: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2026/08/when-next-deluge-comes.html
New Verse News also provides important historical value. It captures the thoughts from a wide range of poets, some never before published online and some that have been published in top-tier journals or are poetry contest winners. It’s a great site for historians to visit, twenty years from now, or twenty-two hundred years from now.
Please visit!
The Sassoon Collection: x. Particle Show
Here is the tenth of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of ten poems in his Sassoon Collection.
x. Particle Show
And still they come and go: and this is all I know—
That in my mind I watch an endless particle-show,
Where wild and listless forces flicker on their way,
With charged and uncharged parts from tangled strands
Because all spin so fast, and they’ve no place to stay
Beyond the frozen image of imagined lands.
And still, between the shadow and the image made,
The first desire of all of us flings onward, now betrayed
As in those stubborn years that weight them, and have passed:
All minds must grasp such particles dancing much too fast.
— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)
Admin’s Note: This is the tenth and final piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. Particle Show is based on Sassoon’s Picture Show. This last entry of the set parallels the title poem of Sassoon’s 1919 collection, shrinking Sassoon’s haunting cinematic metaphor (“And still they come and go: and this is all I know— / That from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show”) to a microscopic, scientific scale, wrapping up the set by firmly establishing that we are in the modern era, but with none of the problems of Sassoon’s times seemingly resolved, and with all the “endless” challenges of the age of information overload heavily added on top.
The Sassoon Collection: vii. The Manager
Here is the seventh of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of ten poems in his Sassoon Collection.
vii. The Manager
‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the well-rested Manager said
When we worked through the night
To finish on time the urgent task he failed
To review and release until late afternoon.
And we mock his insincerity as a matter of routine:
‘I work for you’, ‘What can I do
To help you finish sooner?’
As our stomachs growl from coffee machine brew,
But nonetheless, still polite to his face
Since his judgment alone rates our performance.
— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)
Admin’s Note: This is the seventh piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. The Manager is based on Sassoon’s The General. It replaces the incompetent World War I commander (“‘Good-morning; good-morning!’ the General said / When we met him last week on our way to the line”) with a modern office superior, shifting the soldiers cursing “incompetent swine” to workers mocking the manager’s insincerity.
Macpherson and Platner in the Recycle Bin
Macpherson and Platner in the Recycle Bin
Does intent really matter
when one publicly claims
to translate a narrative
that never existed?
— zumwalt (July 2026)
Century Sunday: May 1926
For your pleasure on this Sunday, several works released in May 1926:
Blues: Lovie Austin is not a well-known name today, but she was a brilliant and pioneering pianist, composer, and bandleader. In this blues recording, Austin leads the Blue Serenaders from the piano, which for this recording included Johnny Dodds on clarinet with Viola Bartlette on vocals.
Jazz: Lil’s Hot Shots, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, Lil Armstrong, Kid Ory and Johnny Dodds on clarinet, Kid Ory on Trombone and Johnny St. Cyr on banjo.
King Oliver’s Dixie Syncopators recorded several tracks in late May of 1926, including “Sugar Foot Stomp” with King Oliver on cornet, Bob Shoffner, cornet, Kid Ory on trombone, Albert Nicholas and Billy Paige on sax and clarinet, Barney Bigard on tenor sax and clarinet, Luis Russello on piano, Bud Scott, banjo, Bert Cobb on tuba (or similar brass bass instrument) and Paul Barbarin on drums.
Symphonic Concert Hall Music: On May 12, 1926, the 19-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich rose to international fame when his first symphony was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Nikolai Malko. Below is Kondrashin’s 1972 recording with the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
Travel Advisory: Sector 4, May 15, 2058
Well, as this site’s administrator, it looks like I didn’t do my job very well. A Zumwalt poem was published back in January of this year and I missed it entirely. Below is the URL embedded in the title. Please visit the site.
Travel Advisory: Sector 4, May 15, 2058
by Zumwalt (Nov. 24, 2025)
Thank you, zumpoems participants!
Well, Zumwalt didn’t get the pick of the month at the prestigious Ink Sweat & Tears, but I wish to thank the zumpoems followers who voted:
The loss of a poet in Minneapolis
Reading about this tragic incident in Minneapolis to find out some more about Renée Good, the woman who lost her life in yesterday’s ICE incident. Putting all politics aside, it is very sad to lose any innocent life, whether that of a parent, poet, writer, or musician. Renée Good was all four.
Here is the URL to her award winning poem on poets.org: https://poets.org/2020-on-learning-to-dissect-fetal-pigs
With apologies to Emily and the DOJ
With apologies to Emily and the DOJ
Release the files but just in part —
Deception’s Pathway lies
Too raw for Headline’s hungry Spark
The whole would scandalize
As Cards dealt from some hidden Deck
With watching eyes confined
The Truth must flame out gradually
To hide the Guilt entwined —
–zumwalt (2025)
