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.

Questions Before Dark by Jeanne Lohmann

Day ends, and before sleep
when the sky dies down, consider
your altered state: has this day
changed you?  Are the corners
sharper or rounded off?  Did you
live with death?  Make decisions
that quieted?  Find one clear word
that fit?  At the sun's midpoint
did you notice a pitch of absence,
bewilderment that invites
the possible?  What did you learn
from things you dropped and picked up
and dropped again?  Did you set a straw
parallel to the river, let the flow
carry you downstream?
 
~ from The Light of Invisible Bodies (Daniel and Daniel 
Publishers, 2015)