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.
In June and Gentle Oven by Anne Wilkinson
In June and gentle oven Summer kingdoms simmer As they come And through flower and leaf and love Release Their sweetest juice. No wind at all On the wide green world Where fields go stroll- ing by And in and out An adder of a stream Parts the daisies On a small Ontario farm. And where, in the curve of meadow, Lovers, touching, lie, A church of grass stands up And walls them, holy, in. Fabulous the insects Stud the air Or walk on running water, Klee-drawn saints And bright as angels are. Honeysuckle here Is more than bees can bear And time turns pale And stops to catch the breath And lovers slip their flesh And light as pollen Play on treble water Till bodies reappear And a shower of sun To dry their langour. Then two in one the lovers lie And peel the skin of summer With their teeth And suck its marrow from a kiss So charged with grace The tongue, all knowing Holds the sap of June Aloof from seasons, flowing. ~ from Poetry by Canadian Women, edited by Rosemary Sullivan (Oxford University Press, 1989)