Until a year or two ago I had never heard of Jane Hirshfield before. But a number of bloggers like, and perhaps even adore, her poetry so I had to give her a try. I love poetry but I am choosey about the kind of poetry I read. If pressed I could probably come up with descriptions of what I like and what I don’t like, but it is much easier to say I know what I like when I read it. While I might be adventurous and try a novel I know nothing about by an author I know nothing about, I seldom do that with poetry. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because poetry has such an intimate feeling to it, so much more emotionally compact than a novel, that I can engage with it only after I have established a certain level of trust that the poet will not screw me over. Whatever the reason, I am a cautious poetry reader. Therefore when a number of people whose reading selections I trust, praise a poet and provide a few excerpts to sample and said excerpts make me go “ah,” then I can confidently embark on a whole book of poems by the author. Such is the case with Hirshfield.
I enjoyed Given Sugar, Given Salt immensely. It is a book filled with “ah” moments; lines, stanzas and entire poems that made me feel them in my stomach. The poems in this book are usually one page, sometimes two. They take for their subject the natural world, life, writing. There is a meditative quality to them that asks the reader to be still and listen deeply and roll the words around in the mouth as the ideas and thoughts roll around in the brain.
One of the poems I especially liked is called “Rock” and here are a few stanzas from its middle:
Rocks fill their own shadows without hesitation,
and do not question silence,
however long.
Nor are they discomforted by cold, by rain, by heat.The work of a rock is to ponder whatever is:
an act that looks singly like prayer,
but it is not prayer.
Here are the opening lines of “Bobcats, Beetles, Owls”
We stood in the dark outside a door
and talked in the scent of jasmine.
I am not sure why I like these lines so much. Maybe because there is a mysteriousness to them and the jasmine adds a sort of exotic quality.
This is from “Poem With Two Endings”
Death is voracious, it swallows all the living.
Life is voracious, it swallows all the dead.
Neither is ever satisfied, neither is ever filled,
each swallows and swallows the world.The grip of life is as strong as the grip of death.
I liked this poem a lot. It has a sort of yin-yang that is pleasing.
I could go on but there is copyright to think of and you probably have other things to do. One of those things should be to add this book to your TBR list for the next time you are in the mood for poetry.
It has been a long time since I have felt able to really appreciate poetry. I don’t know why, whatever I pick up doesn’t speak to me. But these sound good- I think I would like to read Hirshfield. Thanks for introducing me to her.
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I loved this book too. She has a great book of essays on poetry, Nine Gates, which I highly recommend if you ever want to read some of her prose. She’s definitely one to read more of, right?
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I also love her translations –
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The meditative quality of Hirshfield’s poetry is what drew me about her poetry. It’s a powerful feeling – like being awed by the immensity of the ocean, or the grandeur of a mountain. You stop, and you pay attention. The only other poet who has moved me like this is Mary Oliver.
This is one of my favourite from Hirshfield:
“Optimism”
More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another.
A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, mitochondria, figs–all this resinous, unretractable earth.
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I am not sure what comes first with Jane Hirshfield, her practice as an Zen Buddhist or her poetry, maybe there is no difference anymore and that’s what makes it so beautiful.
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I’m not a big poetry reader, but I will add her to my list. I recently attended a reading/lecture by Richard Wilbur, the former U.S. Poet Laureate, and at 88 he is still going strong. Some of his poems about life on a Massachusetts farm remind me of those you mentioned. They show the same quiet appreciation and awe of nature.
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Jeane, I completely understand about poems not speaking to you. These take a little effort at first but after that they are easy to sink into. I hope you enjoy them!
Dorothy, oh yes, she is definitely one to read more of. I didn’t know she had essays on poetry. I’m going to have to look for that one!
melanie, she does translations too? Something else for me to look for 🙂
Dark Orpheus, the meditative quality is a wonderful feeling. Oh, and I like “Optimism” too. I like “the sinuous tenacity of a tree” and the final line is beautifully perfect.
Catharina, you know, I’ll bet you are right about her Buddhist practice and her poetry are completely enmeshed.
Dave, I have not read any of Wilbur’s poetry and will have to fix that. I hope I am still going strong at 88!
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These are lovely, and I’ve never read anything by Hirschfield…judging from your post and some of the comments, she’s a writer, poet and translator…definitely someone I will have to check out.
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I’ll remember the name. I think I have heard her reviewed elsewhere in the blogworld – possibly Dorothy?. I agree completely with you about being picky which poets to read. I like a poem to DO something, but not in an epic 19th century way. Yes, hmm, it’s very difficult to describe the kind of poetry one likes, isn’t it? But your excerpts here are lovely.
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Thank you for this recommendation. I have never heard of Jane Hirshfield and will now watch for her — from the pieces you have shown us it is evident that her poetry is not of the deliberately obscurantist nature that so irks me at times.
I dislike poetry that is too weird to unravel.
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Verbivore, I think Hirshfield is someone you would like and I look forward to your thoughts on her work.
Litlove, good memory, yes Dorothy has posted about Hirshfield. I think I know what you mean about wanting a poem to do something but not in an epic way. I am also glad I am not the only one who finds it difficult to describe poetry. 🙂
Cipriano, I don’t like the deliberately obscure either. Hirshfield is pretty straightforward. And she has a nice spiritual bent that I think you would enjoy.
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