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.

At the Un-National Monument... by William Stafford

At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border

This is the field where the battle didn’t happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound, 
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed—or were killed—on this ground 
hallowed by neglect and an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

~from Good Poems, American Places, selected by 
 Garrison Keillor (Penguin Books, 2011)