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.

A Reward by Denise Levertov

Tired and hungry, late in the day, impelled 
to leave the house and search for what
might lift me back to what I had fallen away from, 
I stood by the shore waiting.
I had walked in the silent woods: 
the trees withdrew into their secrets.
over the lake, watery amethyst fading to gray.
Ducks were clustered in sleeping companies 
afloat on their element as I was not
on mine.  I turned homeward, unsatisfied.
But after a few steps, I paused, impelled again 
to linger, to look North before nightfall—the expanse
of calm, of calming water, last wafts
of rose in the few high clouds.
And was rewarded: 
the heron, unseen for weeks, came flying
widewinged toward me, settled 
just offshore on his post,
took up his vigil.
		If you ask 
why this cleared a fog from my spirit,
I have no answer.

~ from Evening Train (New Directions Publishing, 1992)