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.
Naming The Waves by Alison Prine
Above the harbor these clouds refuse to be described except in the language with which they describe themselves. I stand here in the morning stillness. Which is of course not a stillness, the sky spreading open in the East with amber light while drifting away to the West. Here I an sense how the world spins us precisely in its undetectable turn somehow both towards and away. The blue of the harbor holds the sky in its calm gaze. This is a love poem, be patient. Between you and me nothing leaves everything gathers. I will name for you each wave rolling up on the harbor sand: this is the first breath of sleep this the cloth of your mother’s dress this the cadence of our long conversation I want to show you how everything on this harbor has been broken; shells, glass, rust, bones and rock— Crushed into this expanse of glittering sand, immune to ruin, now rocking in the slow exhale of the tide. ~ from Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection (Green Writers Press 2019)