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.

For My Sister, Emigrating by Wendy Cope

You’ve left with me
the things you couldn’t take
or bear to give away –
books, records and a biscuit-tin
that Nanna gave you.
 
It’s old and dirty
and the lid won’t fit.
Standing in the corner of my room,
quite useless, it’s as touching
as a once loved toy
 
Yes, sentimental now –
but if you’d stayed,
we would have quarreled
just the same as ever,
found excuses not to phone.
 
We never learn.  We’ve grown up
struggling, frightened
that the family would drown us,
only giving in to love
when someone’s dead or gone.

~ from Good Poems for Hard Times. Selected by Garrison Keillor.
(Viking Penguin, 2005)