Ken Zamkoff is a professor of medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine/Baptist Medical Care Center, where he works as a hematologist/bone marrow transplant physician. He lives in Weaverville NC, which is near Asheville. Ken enjoys hiking in the mountains, cooking, reading, and labrador retrievers.

Words Put to Paper
By Ken Zamkoff

Words put to paper
Flow from somewhere
Though I know
Not where;

If I allow myself,
The images of you, my son
Cause
My mind
To flood
With the joy,
The pain,
And
Sometimes the sorrow
Of the experience and
The wisdom
You have garnered

Might they flow
From these recesses?

Or do

Words put to paper
Arise from
A fundamental alchemy
Akin to nurturing soil
Predating
The tallest tree
Ultimately to anchor it
And thus weather
The fiercest storm

And in doing
Thrive to scatter seeds
Onto
Fertile soil

Compose your lines then
Son
With thoughtful care
On the palimpsest
Of this worn aging skin