August 17, 2015 – 3:59 pm
Spell for the End of Grief No incantations, no rosemary and statice, no keening women in grim dresses. No cauldrons, no candles, no hickory wands. No honey and chocolate, no sticky buns. No peonies and carnations, no […]
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from Fifteen Pebbles Opening the Hand Between Here and Here On the dark road, only the weight of the rope. Yet the horse is there. Jane Hirschfield (1953 – ) from Come, Thief, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011 from Twelve Pebbles […]
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December 6, 2014 – 9:59 am
Everything is Waiting for You Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely, even you, at times, have felt the […]
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December 4, 2014 – 7:43 pm
from The Ninth Duino Elegy Nor does the wanderer bring down a handful of earth from his high mountain slope to the valley (for earth, too, is mute), but a word he has plucked from the climbing: the yellow and blue gentian. Are we, perhaps, here just to utter: house, bridge, fountain, gate, jug, fruit […]
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What a journey I had this morning! It started with finding a Hirschfield quote in the 2012 book A God in the House: …poetry exists in part to enlarge us, to deliver us into the not yet known. Writing is an act that generates and expands attention. And if I’m lucky, I may write something […]
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Dedication You whom I could not save Listen to me. Try to understand this simple speech as I would be ashamed of another. I swear, there is in me no wizardry of words. I speak to you with silence like a cloud or a tree. What strengthened me, for you was lethal. You mixed up […]
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September 9, 2013 – 11:45 am
from Lightenings viii The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory A ship appeared above them in the air. The anchor dragged along behind so deep It hooked itself into the altar rails And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill, a crewman shinned and grappled […]
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A few days ago I was high up – about 900 feet – on a mountain top overlooking hills and vineyards, stretched along the valley floor, in California’s wine country. I have a glass of Chardonnay in one hand – it would seem heretical not to – in this area that celebrates the ubiquity of […]
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At the 2013 Palm Beach Poetry Festival, the American poet Jane Hirschfield (1953 -) was asked to pick a poem that had inspired her. She demurred by saying she owed most to all the poets who have been sharing their words for the past 40,000 years. And Greg Orr (1947 – ), another fine American poet (see […]
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The Lake Isle of Innisfree I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, and a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping […]
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