But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, A blind intelligence, true. “Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”, “How fragile we are, between the few good moments.”, “You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Phenomenal Woman, Still I Rise, The Road Not Taken, If You Forget Me, Dreams

The troll bot got bounced, but not before, in a few seconds, generating 563 comments rife with all the predictable slurs—racist, xenophobic, and homophobic. Readers, I had dedicated this slot to a review of Jane Hirshfield’s luminous new book of poetry, Ledger, but my concentration has been too fragmented for that, and I am hoping to bring the review to you next month instead. Reversal commands: unlearn the alphabet of bludgeon and blindness. The poem is free verse organized into 12 irregular stanzas for a total of 33 lines, and like most of Hirshfield’s work, is unmetered and unrhymed. In the meantime, here is something wonderful: a new poem Hirshfield wrote just a few days ago, one that speaks directly to—and from within—the great, echoing dilemma we now inhabit.

Jane Hirshfield:” born in New York City (1953).

beyond staying distant from my own kind, How smart that is, to put the ant in a situation that reminds us of the one we ourselves are in—a way to cultivate empathy and another reminder that every living creature is precious. even while walking my hand, The work of writing brings replenishment even to the writer dealing with painful subjects or working out formal problems, and there are times when suffering’s only open path is through an immersion in what is. Biographie.

This is one of this poem’s many gifts: the reminder that in the tiniest spaces, such as between the particles in an atom, infinite space resides. The eighteenth-century Urdu poet Ghalib described the principle this way: ‘For the raindrop, joy is in entering the river — / Unbearable pain becomes its own cure.’, “Do not follow the ancient masters, seek what they sought.”, “Zen is less the study of doctrine than a set of tools for discovering what can be known when the world is looked at with open eyes.”, “Let reason flow like water around a stone, the stone remains.”, “if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you.”, We’d love your help. Reversal commands: undo this directional grammar of subject and object. This first day when I could do nothing,

When she was in first grade, she wrote, “I want to be a writer when I grow up.” She went to Princeton, worked on a farm for a year, and then spent the next few years studying Buddhism at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in northern California. Set outside in the sun,

taking the shape of an ant.

© Harper Collins, 2002. And, no life is incapable of rendering some service, however modest. time,

then onto the back of a cushion.

“I thought I would love you forever—and, a little, I may, “Difficulty itself may be a path toward concentration — expended effort weaves us into a task, and successful engagement, however laborious, becomes also a labor of love. In any event, we sense in these lines great appreciation and respect for all forms of life. It did not move as if it was frightened, 1953, USA) is the author of six books of poetry, several translations and two collections of essays. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.