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.
You, Reader by Billy Collins
I wonder how you are going to feel when you find out that I wrote this instead of you, that it was I who got up early to sit in the kitchen and mention with a pen the rain-soaked windows, the ivy wall paper, and the goldfish circling in its bowl. Go ahead and turn aside, bite your lip and tear out the page, but, listen--it was just a matter of time before one of us happened to notice the unlit candles and the clock humming on the wall. Plus, nothing happened that morning-- a song on the radio, a car whistling along the road outside-- and I was only thinking about the shakers of salt and pepper that were standing side by side on a place mat. I wondered if they had become friends after all these years or if they were still strangers to one another like you and I who manage to be known and unknown to each other at the same time-- me at this table with a bowl of pears, you leaning in a doorway somewhere near some blue hydrangeas, reading this. ~ From The Trouble with Poetry, (Random House, 2005)