One great poem to read today: Sarah Jean Grimm’s “Zero Conditional”

This April marks the 30th iteration of National Poetry Month, which was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending one great poem to read every (work) day of the month. We make no claim (except when we do) that these poems are the “best” poems in any category; they are simply poems we love. The only other thing they all have in common is that they are available to read for free online, so you can enjoy them along with us. The internet is still good for some things, after all. Today we recommend:

Sarah Jean Grimm’s “Zero Conditional”

Each line of this new Sarah Jean Grimm poem—which has only been out in the world since February of this year—opens onto its own avenue of introspection, ordinal prompts to the reader to see more, to see better. This poem is a gentle litany of small things noticed and seen to contain more meaning than we might otherwise sense: the toxic menace of a lawn too neatly tended; the bewilderment of birds during fireworks; the mute wildness of a bald eagle that symbolizes nothing.

As is the case with all great poems, “Zero Conditional” is lit from within by an energy in search of expression—here it is the impulse toward care. “I don’t know how far my care goes, and I suffer for it.” reads the poem’s penultimate line, setting up a perfect and devastating landing (the kind of concluding line, simple in its eight words, that contains a startling and subtle truth, snuck into an image as starkly memorable as an iconic song lyric).

And as is also the case with great poems, “Zero Conditional” (re)activates the reader’s own internal engine of noticing, inviting—insisting—that we see what’s really there, right in front of us, and in our own hearts.

Read the full poem here.