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.
Driving with Music by Lawrence Raab
Idling in traffic, bass jacked all the way up, the car shuddering, the driver pretending not to notice, his friends nodding to the beat—how easy it is to hate them when you’re standing out in the sun on the sidewalk, or some country road in early spring. And then you’re the one in the car. A song takes you back, let’s you touch what you couldn’t reach in silence. Which means the song should be played again and louder, as if that were the way to live with disappointment. Perhaps the soul is divided like this, half desiring to hear itself listening, half needing to be seized and overwhelmed. And each remains fearful of the other, the one who might at any moment do something foolish— the way a man suddenly drives his car off the road, while someone else just stands there, and watches it happen. ~ from The History of Forgetting (Penguin Books, 2009)