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.

Don’t Tell A Soul by Osip Mandelstam

Don’t tell a soul.
Forget all you’ve seen—
A bird, an old woman, a jail,
Everything...

Or else when you open your mouth
At break of day
You’ll tremble 
Like the needles on a pine tree.

You’ll remember the wasp at the cottage,
Your first pencil case,
Or the berries in the woods,
The ones you never picked.  

~ from Truth and Lies, An Anthology, edited by
Patrice Vecchione (Henry Holt and Company, 2001)