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The Sassoon Collection: vi. The Imperfect Cook

Here is the sixth of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of ten poems in his Sassoon Collection.

vi. The imperfect cook

I never ordered something to be perfect,
Though often I’ve asked for
Fiery spicy or without sugar
As a small invasion of mastering cooking.

I never asked that your dishes
Might stand, unburnt, moist and savory
Pointing the way toward
Gastronomical peaks like a sign-post.

Oh yes, I know the way to the heart is easy.
We found the little menu of our passion
That all can share who walk the road of gourmands.
In wild and succulent feasting we stumbled:
Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, spicy senses.

But I’ve grown sated now. And you have lost
Your early-morning freshness of surprise
At creating new dishes. You’ve learned to fear
The gloomy, stricken places in my stomach
And the sometime indigestion that haunts me later.

You made me fat; and I can still return
For seconds, the haven of my lonely pride:
But I am sworn to partake of variety
That blossoms from invention and exploration:
And there shall be no follow-up in a failure;
Since, if we ate like beasts, the plates are clean
And I’ll not share with pets under the table.

You dream endless assemblies of culinary masterpieces
Yet, in my heart, I dread average results
But, should you grow to hate my critiques, I would ask
No mercy from your glare. I’d have you turn from the stove
And look me in the eyes, and laugh, and suggest take-out.

Then I should know, at least, that taste prevailed
Though flavor had died of wounds. And you could leave me
Unfamished in an atmosphere of ongoing appetite.

— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)

Admin’s Note: This is the sixth piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. The Imperfect Cook is based on Sassoon’s The Imperfect Lover. Sassoon’s meditation on romantic compromise (“I never asked you to be perfect…”) is brutally transposed into a culinary critique (“I never ordered something to be perfect…”), concluding with a request for take-out rather than the original’s plea for the lover to laugh and leave.

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Siegfried Sassoon, Zumwalt

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The Sassoon Collection: iv. Butter and eggs

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Here is the fourth of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of 10 poems in his Sassoon Collection.

iv. Butter and eggs

Robust diners, deftly forking in the fat.
O greasy fauna against the heedless tongue
Of buffet and banquet days, what sends them gliding through
This set of dancing teeth?

Theirs are the hungry cadences between
The enraptured chewing of hefty humans that make
Heaven in the booth while second helpings simmer;
And theirs the faintest whispers that hush the desire.

And they are the airship that floats away
Out of the starlit dimness above the moon
And they are the most inflexible beings—born
To know but this, the phantom glare of fullness.

— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)

Admin’s Note: This is the fourth piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. “Butter and eggs” is loosely based on Sassoon’s “Butterflies.” Zumwalt mirrors the original structure, but alters the tone and content considerably.

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2026, Free Verse, Poems, Poetry, Siegfried Sassoon, Zumwalt

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The Sassoon Collection: iii. Blonde

Here is the third of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of 10 poems in his Sassoon Collection.

iii. Blonde

Her head-weak thoughts that once eagerly gave way
To looks that leapt from eye to brain and into heart,
Weaving unconscious promises of love,
Are now thrust outward, dangerously heard from lips to air.
And he who has watched one world and loved it all,
Star-struck with blindness, an ensnared fiber of pity,
With feeble hopes of attracting a returning glance,
Now listens with his ear to the rambling noise.

— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)

Admin’s Note: This is the third piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. “Blonde” is loosely based on Sassoon’s “Blind.” It directly tracks Sassoon’s opening (“His headstrong thoughts that once in eager strife / Leapt sure from eye to brain and back to eye”) and his shift in perspective (“And he who has watched his world and loved it all”).

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, short poems, Siegfried Sassoon, Zumwalt

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The Sassoon Collection: ii. A pickle and a black hole

Here is the second of Zumwalt’s revisions to his set of 10 poems in his Sassoon Collection.

ii. A pickle and a black hole

Mass and form had the pickle, sweet, sour, tall and straight;
The round black hole collapsing still further than it knew
Made its longest shadow with gravity
A ghostly bridge ’twixt the pickle and space.
But stars, with their continuous day, must pass;
And blustering winds will stretch all gherkins
for which I’ve no measurements to express
the moment of conjunction,
a singularity with no exit
for stars and pickled cucumbers alike.

— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)

Admin’s Note: This is the second piece in Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised. “A pickle and a black hole” is loosely based on Sassoon’s A Poplar and the Moon.”

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Siegfried Sassoon, Zumwalt

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The Sassoon Collection: i. Everyone sang while I fell asleep

Zumwalt has provided revisions to his set of 10 poems in the Sassoon Collection. Here is the first:

i. Everyone sang while I fell asleep

voices wailing around the house
thud of feet and slam of doors
everyone yowling
only the clocks wind down

around this small room
no sense of the hour
crowded with lemonade breath
high-pitched voices like hounds in pain
as clouds hover over my eyes

fighting sleep with the fork from my dessert plate
not yet ready to go where the dreams are built
where you take reality with you so as not to be alone
dragging it by its rough cotton shirt collar

the blurry faces become blurry voices
despite discordance from straying notes
the lights descend and siphon colors
whirling into a vortex that spins off dimensions
like a playlist streaming fragments from the past

drifting towards sleep
the hounds now whining like imprisoned puppies
the darkness becoming home
without furnishings
everything fading into peace
except for one small lingering concern
for everything unfinished

— zumwalt (2011, revised 2026)

Admin’s Note: This is the first piece of Zumwalt’s ten-poem tribute to poet Siegfried Sassoon, The Sassoon Collection, originally written in 2011, recently revised by the author. This poem opens the set by providing a misleading head fake to Sassoon’s Everyone Sang, when in reality the poem is primarily based on Sassoon’s Falling Asleep.  Where in the original, Sassoon sustains a hushed, introspective mood using domestic quiet and natural sounds to mirror the speaker’s mental transition from wakefulness to sleep, Zumwalt leans into domestic turmoil and modern-day stress, even throwing in an Emily Dickensen reference for good measure.

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Siegfried Sassoon, Zumwalt

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Optional

I am pleased to announce that Zumwalt’s poem, “Optional,” was published today in the latest issue of Zoetic Press’s 4LPH4NUM3R1C2.0, included with entries from only four other authors for this bi-monthly journal. Please visit here: https://www.zoeticpress.com/an-24-dominion-of-domination

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Zumwalt

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The Threat of Virtue

The PRC apprehending innocent Falun Gong adherents.

I am pleased to announce that Zumwalt’s poem, “The Threat of Virtue,” was just published today in the highly respected Society of Classical Poets. This poem is a necessary indictment of the People’s Republic of China’s (not a government by, for, or of the people) systemic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Zumwalt effectively contrasts Falun Gong’s spiritual virtues of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance with the ongoing state censorship, forced conformity, and organ harvesting perpetrated by the criminal PRC.

Please read the poem at The Society of Classical Poets here: https://www.classicalpoets.org/the-threat-of-virtue-a-poem-by-zumwalt/

Appreciate any comments you leave on their website, particularly those expressing your opposition to these atrocious actions by the current mainland Chinese government.

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2026, Poetry, Zumwalt

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Sermon from the Central Datacenter

I am pleased to announce that Zumwalt’s “Sermon from the Central Datacenter” and “Algos for the Souls” are featured content at The Good Men Project: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/sermon-from-the-central-datacenter/

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Zumwalt

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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)

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Politics, Uncategorized, Zumwalt

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OUR FREE UNION

Pleased to announce Zumwalt’s Our Free Union was published today, on America’s 250th anniversary, at New Verse News: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2026/07/our-free-union.html

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

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2026, Free Verse, Poetry, Zumwalt

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