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.

Spider by Barry Dempster

Your resolve to leave
had grasshopper’s legs
and catapulted you
several body lengths
in one jump. In a matter
of days, you were snapping 
past disgrace and heartache
as if they were truck stops
on the Trans Canada. 
Too busy leaping 
to feel anything but high.

I’m more the spider type,
elaborate mandala,
so hungry I could
eat my weight in wings. 
Watch me turn a monk’s cell
into bitter arithmetic. 
Loving me was cramped,
everything cornered. 
How I miss the endless
twisting of you.

~ From Disturbing the Buddha (Brick Books, 2016)