‘Tatters’

Ruth Zwald When an astrologer told her she had no “earth” in her birth sign, Ruth set about finding ways to ground. On her farm in West Michigan, Ruth starts every day with good coffee, tends large gardens, and lives close to the earth through her lifestyle and spiritual practices. Upon retirement, she also started to unearth words. In 2024, Ruth was named winner of the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press Chapbook Contest for her collection entitled, “Bones And Breath.” She has also been published in several periodicals, most recently in Farmer-ish Journal, Poetry For Mental Health, The Guilded Weathervane, The Bluebird Word, and Tangled Locks.