Patricia Hemminger

Patricia Hemminger’s experience of growing up in rural UK, along with her science background and love of nature, informs and inspires her poetry. She is a science and environmental writer who holds a PhD in chemistry and is a graduate of NYU’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and of Drew University’s MFA Poetry Program. Her poems have been published in Spillway, The Blue Nib, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, River Heron Review, Twyckenham Notes and Streetlight Magazine, among others. Her chapbook What do We Know of Time is forthcoming by Finishing Line Press in 2022.

“Autumn Day,” “Connected,” and ” Wedding Anniversary”

Blue skies, seventy degrees
but it’s almost November,
the chrysanthemums hanging on.
Prickly burs fall
from the Chinese chestnut tree,
some stems loosen, others still cling.
  • Poetry

“Do Animals Grieve Too?,” “Competition,” and “Rainy Day in New York”

The black swan fluffs
her dark wings, red beak
as surprising as the peacock’s
white plumes, gauzy half moon
wedding veil and the fact
that they both bore offspring
for the first time
  • Issue 71, March 2023
  • Poetry
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“Loss,” “Walking the dog” and “How It Began”

I’ve read that visual memories
are easier to recall than words,
so when I can’t remember the name
of the tree by the garden hedge
white blossoms in springtime,
I think of our dog, Finn, basking
beneath it, long ears stroking the earth,
know it is a dogwood tree.
  • Issue 61, May 2022
  • Poetry
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