Jane Hirshfield
Jane Hirshfield
Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist, and translator...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 February 1953
CountryUnited States of America
apples awkward alertness
The nourishment of Cezanne's awkward apples is in the tenderness and alertness they awaken inside us.
cutting trying needs
At some point I realized that you don't get a full human life if you try to cut off one end of it, that you need to agree to the entire experience, to the full spectrum of what happens.
bird world filled
Any woodthrush shows it - he sings, not to fill the world, but because he is filled.
truth fishes humans
If truth is the lure, humans are fishes.
space gestation ripening
Gestation requires protected space; ripening requires both permeability to the outer — and non-disturbance.
bottles perfume release
Poems . . . are perfume bottles momentarily unstopped—what they release is volatile and will vanish, and yet it can be released again,
dream self understanding
The secret of understanding poetry is to hear poetry's words as what they are: the full self's most intimate speech, half waking, half dream. You listen to a poem as you might listen to someone you love who tells you their truest day. Their words might weep, joke, whirl, leap. What's unspoken in the words will still be heard. It's also the way we listen to music: You don't look for extractable meaning, but to be moved.
passion justice failing
Justice lacking passion fails, betrays.
ideas feet decision
Poems offer us counter-knowledges. They let us see what is invisible to ordinary looking, and to find in overlooked corners the opulence of our actual lives. Similarly, we usually spend our waking hours trying to be sure of things - of our decisions, our ideas, our choices. We so want to be right. But we walk by right foot and left foot.
being-yourself fate punishment
Your fate is to be yourself, both punishment and crime.
grief self tree
Self carries grief as a pack mule carries the side bags, being careful between the trees to leave extra room.
creativity two creative
The creative is always an act of recombination, with something added by new juxtaposition—as making a spark requires two things struck together.
cat doors long
Leave a door open long enough, a cat will enter. Leave food, it will stay.
fearless sorrow
In sorrow, pretend to be fearless. In happiness, tremble.