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.

Ordinary Days by Stephen Dunn

The storm is over; too bad, I say.
 At least storms are clear
about their dangerous intent.

Ordinary days are what I fear,
 the sneaky speed
with which noon arrives, the sun

shining while a government darkens
 a decade, or a man
falls out of love.  I fear the solace

of repetition, a withheld slap in the face.
 Someone is singing
in Portugal.  Here the mockingbird

is a crow and a grackle, then a cat.
 So many things
happening at once.  If I decide

to turn over my desk, go privately wild,
 trash the house,
no one across town will know.

I must insist how disturbing this is-- 
 the necessity 
of going public, of being a fool.

~ from New and Selected Poems 1974-1994
(W.W. Norton and Company, 1995)