Donna Hilbert

Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Threnody, from Moon Tide Press. Earlier books include Gravity: New & Selected Poems, Tebot Bach, 2018. She is a monthly contributing writer to Verse-Virtual. Work has appeared in Braided Way, Cultural Daily, Chiron Review, Gyroscope, Sheila-Na-Gig, Rattle, Zocalo Public Square, ONE ART, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous anthologies including The Poetry of Presence, The Path to Kindness, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, and featured on Writers on Writing, The Writer’s Almanac, and Lyric Life. She writes and leads private workshops in Southern California, where she makes her home. Learn more at http://www.donnahilbert.com

After the Birds Begin to Sing from the Trees

Before the sun makes its way over the bay
before the sky softens to gray
before the blaze of the day begins
I rise, pull on my jeans, lace up my shoes
and enter the day, before the neighbors
are out, before the traffic begins,
before the phone rings,
while the day is blank as a page,
before I pick up my pen,
thank you, I say, let this day begin.