Poet Jane Hirshfield said "... the feeling I have about poem-writing (is) that it is always an exploration, of discovering something I didn't already know. Who I am shifts from moment to moment, year to year. What I can perceive does as well. A new poem peers into mystery, into whatever lies just beyond the edge of knowable ground."

I bring a different poem to the writing classes each week, not only to inspire but to introduce new poets to the group members.

My Dead Friends by Marie Howe

I have begun,
when I'm weary and can't decide an answer to a bewildering question

to ask my dead friends for their opinion
and the answer is often immediate and clear.

Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to 
   conceive a child
in my middle age?

They stand in unison shaking their heads and smiling--
   whatever leads
to joy, they always answer,

to more life and less worry. I look into the vase where Billy's 
   ashes were--
it's green in there, a green vase,

and I ask Billy if I should return the difficult phone call, and 
   he says, yes.
Billy's already gone through the frightening door,

whatever he says I'll do.
	
~ from What the Living Do  (W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 1997)