'From the deep thickets of self'

 

“One reason to write a poem is to flush from the deep thickets of the self some thought, feeling, comprehension, question, music, you didn't know was in you, or in the world.” – Jane Hirshfield

 

Born in New York on Feb. 24, 1953, Hirshfield has authored 10 award-winning books of poetry.  Her most recent is 2023’s The Asking: New & Selected Poems.  She also has done a number of major translations and wrote or edited several collections of essays.  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Hirshfield’s,

 

                             A Person Protests to Fate

 

                                 A person protests to fate:

                                    "The things you have caused
                                    me most to want
                                    are those that furthest elude me."

                                    Fate nods.
                              Fate is sympathetic.

                                To tie the shoes, button a shirt,
                                are triumphs
                                for only the very young,
                                the very old.

                             During the long middle:

                                conjugating a rivet
                                mastering tango
                                training the cat to stay off the table
                                preserving a single moment longer than this one
                                continuing to wake whatever has happened the day before

                             and the penmanships love practices inside the body.