BJZ Poems and Musings
Original poems and essays from Brian J. Zink
Category: Uncategorized
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Photo: Stokely Creek, Gulais River, Ontario. February 2026. As I entered my post-“real work” phase of life two years ago one promise that I have made into a daily habit is to do morning yoga. I learned yoga from my brother Craig years ago, and reinforced by my wife, I came to appreciate the benefits…
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One of the things I learned in my 36 years practicing as an emergency physician was that caring has to occur in a judgement free zone. If it doesn’t there is the risk of becoming callous and less able to connect with people in their time of need. One of the benefits of aging and…
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You are never quite sure as you slip the ring on your partner’s finger how it is all going to turn out. Forty-one plus years into our adventure, Dana and I can reflect on all the phases of a special journey. As grandparents we see the joy that our kids and their spouses have when…
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I love winter, and unlike some northerners who choose to spend more time in southern climes in the colder months, we like to head north and chase the snow. One of the things that snow reveals is the activity of the animal world, much of it that happens when we are asleep. The tracks of…
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I was born and lived until age 18 in Western New York, along the Pennsylvania border, where the ridges and foothills of the Allegheny Mountains run together like shoulders in a crowd. Our little hamlet was called Vandalia. The Nine Mile Creek wound down our valley to the Allegheny River, and the fields, hills, forests,…
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I initially wrote this poem in 2019 . This is not an autobiographical poem, and is not based on any observation or other sources. It might have come after I saw some turkeys in the wild in the winter. If you haven’t seen wild turkeys up close, you may think they are just big brown-colored…
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In my medical career I had the opportunity, if it can be called that, to care for and interact with people who experienced major life traumas. One of the most difficult for the patient and the medical teams to contend with is spinal cord injury that results in paraplegia or quadriplegia. My first time seeing…
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Our home, which I call “River Ridge”, sits on a glacial knoll. From our deck and our bedroom (where I have my little office) there are wonderful views of the Huron River. The river makes a sharp bend just downstream from where Honey Creek enters, and then heads east, widening as it approaches the Barton…
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Nest Revealed unloading the clothes dryerFebruaryabsent minded window starewhile folding underwear in the now leafless apricot treepreviously unknown to mea bird nest affixed in a branch’s Vempty of birds nowhome to a cone of snow did it once housea brood I never met?did they grow to be members of the gangthat frequents our feeders? no…
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In the first two years of medical school I worked in the autopsy area of the Pathology department to earn a little spending money. I was called a “diener” – a German word for a person who prepares bodies, assists with autopsies, and removes organs for pathological examination. I worked off-hours – evenings or weekends,…
BJZ Poems and Musings 