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.
The Poet’s Occasional Alternative by Grace Paley
I was going to write a poem I made a pie instead it took about the same amount of time of course the pie was a final draft a poem would have had some distance to go days and weeks and much crumpled paper the pie already had a talking tumbling audience among small trucks and a fire engine on the kitchen floor everybody will like this pie it will have apples and cranberries dried apricots in it many friends will say why in the world did you make only one this does not happen with poems because of unreportable sadness I decided to settle this morning for a re- sponsive eatership I do not want to wait a week a year a generation for the right consumer to come along ~ from Good Poems for Hard Times, selected by
Garrison Keillor, (Penguin Group, 2005)