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.

Maybe Leave-Taking by Linda Gregg

The birds eat the pansies as soon as they open, 
and I almost smile.  Perhaps I never cared enough 
about these earthly things, about desire.  
The sliding of seasons, coming and going, 
youth and age.  Sailing away sounds good to me.  
Going away, always leaving.  If I cried, 
perhaps it was in relief and joy.
The lights on ships, light in the sky,
the lights of Patmos receding.  All the people
Strangers, people I do not know.  A truer sense 
of being than lovers and friends.  
It is good to let go.  like all of me 
pouring into a poem or dance.  Leave takings, 
strangers, transfigurations.  Not perishing, 
but sailing away as I did that year 
from Lesbos toward the coast of Turkey 
and seeing a small boat near the shore
with a lateen sail, as if all the centuries could 
arise and fall back.  Only the flight of the single 
spirit saved.  Only the spirit having a heart 
after all, and not what eats and is eaten away.

`from All of It Singing, New and Selected poems,
(Greywolf Press, 2008)