Tag Archives: Jane Hirschfield

To Celebrate the Wonder-Filled Life of Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) – A Poem of Jane Hirschfield and One of Mine

A Golden Shovel to Celebrate the Life of Thich Nhat Hanh The most beautiful place of Heaven is on Earth. —Thich Nhat Hanh from This Moment is Full of Wonders, Chronicle Books, 2015 Breathing in, I calm my body Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment. […]

Mourning Must Not Overwhelm Gratitude – The Hard-Won Wisdom of Jane Hirschfield – Two Poems from Her Latest Book: Ledger and a Poem She So Likes by Gerard Manley Hopkins

My Debt Like all who believe in the senses, I was an accountant, copyist, statistician. Not registrar, witness. Permitted to touch the leaf of a thistle, the trembling work of a spider. To ponder the Hubble’s recordings. It did not matter if I believed in the party of particle or of wave, as I carried […]

Provenance of a Small Poem of Mine – With Thanks to Jane Hirschfield and Hanif Abdurraqib

Two Poems – How Can We Prepare for Our Losses? – One Poem Each By Keetje Kuipers and Jane Hirschfield

Anemoia Not yet old enough to read, and already my daughter’s learned nostalgia by example, what to feel at a loon’s call or when passing a blue door, how the sky just before nightfall turns like a vulnerable animal showing its belly. She misses the dog who died before she was born, the town we […]

The Bigness of Small Poems – #38 in a Series – Jane Hirschfield’s Poem, Late Prayer

Late Prayer Tenderness does not choose its own uses. It goes out to everything equally Including rabbit and hawk. Look: in the iron bucket, A single nail, a single ruby – All the heavens and hells. They rattle in the heart and make one sound. Jane Hirschfield from Lives of the Heart, Harper Collins, 1997 […]

Living in a Terrifying World – Three Responses from Three H’s – Hughes, Hirschfield and Hayden

Luck Sometimes a crumb falls From the tables of joy, Sometimes a bone Is flung. To some people Love is given, To others Only heaven. Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994 What a way it was to begin a poetry reading! But that’s how Sharon […]

Difficult Gifts – Jane Hirschfield’s Shining White Bull

Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the World If the gods bring to you a strange and frightening creature, accept the gift as if it were one you had chosen. Say the accustomed prayers, oil the hooves well, caress the small ears with praise. Have the new halter of woven silver embedded with […]

Two Poets Out of Ten – Hirschfield and Hayes Make the National Book Award Long List – Part One

A man I once asked a question of has died; his son sends a letter A thirsty mouse turns a river. a stone turns a river. Bodiless Words turn us. Jane Hirschfield from The Beauty, Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 Two Recovering Words favorites made the poetry long-list for the 2015 National Book Awards yesterday: Jane […]

Enough or Not – Part Three of Three – A Poem by Ellen Bass

                      from Autumn Quince The world is a blurred version of itself — marred, lovely, and flawed. It is enough Jane Hirschfield from Each Happiness Ringed by Lions, Bloodaxe Books, 2005 from Enough Enough seen….Enough had….Enough… —Arthur Rimbaud No. It will never be enough. Never enough […]

Enough or Not – Part Two of Three – Autumn Quince by Jane Hirschfield

                    Autumn Quince How sad they are, the promises we never return to. They stay in our mouths, roughen the tongue, lead lives of their own. Houses built and unwittingly lived in; a succession of milk bottles brought to the door every morning and taken inside. […]