My DebtLike all ( Read more... )

The Problem

You are trying to solve a problem.
You’re almost certainly halfway done,
maybe more.

You take some salt, some alum,
and put it into the problem.
Its color goes from yellow to royal blue.

You tie a knot of royal blue into the problem,
as into a Peruvian quipu of colored string.
You enter the problem’s bodegas,
its flea markets, souks.
Amid ( Read more... )

Optimism

Jane HirshfieldMore and more I have come to admire resilience ( Read more... )

This evening I had the privilege of meeting Jane Hirshfield and hearing her read. She was light and generous and kind, and this is just one of the many wonderful poems she shared.

The PoetShe is working now, in a room ( Read more... )

Please post your favorite feel-good poems? I'm just in need of something to hold on to/something to get me through this rough week ( Read more... )

A Day Is Vast
Jane Hirshfield

A day is vast.
Until noon.
Then it’s over.

Yesterday’s pondwater
braided still wet in my hair.

I don’t know what time is.

You can’t ever find it.
But you can lose it.

One acquaintance says of another ( Read more... )

A hand is not four fingers and a thumb ( Read more... )

It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books -

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

The Lives of the HeartJane Hirshfield ( Read more... )