Jane Hirshfield's latest collection, The Beauty, highlights these moments, moments in between moments. Hirshfield is known for her sparse, simple lines and they are highlighted beautifully in this collection.
Each poem takes on a small object or moment in time. From Perspective: An Assay, the line "Likes everything just as it is, then just as it is, then just as it is." counts off seconds like a ticking clock. There was another second past and another and another.
There are such simple stanzas, but the lines force the reader to linger and digest more than what lies on the page. Some other lines included:
"Generation./Strange word: both making and passing"
"How rarely I have stopped to thank/the steady effort of the world to stay the world."
"What caused the fire, we ask, meaning, lightning, wiring, matches./How precisely and unbidden/oxygen slips itself into, between those thick words.
This delightful poet offers us the chance, in this crazed world where the phrases simplify your life and doing it all coexist, to take a literal step back, curl up in a warm chair and see the every day moments that are missed.
A wonderful new collection from an accomplished poet which deserves a home on any bookshelf.
(Photo Credit-Amazon)
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