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Column 784

Meeting the Light Completely

Intro by Ted Kooser
03.29.2020

Jane Hir­sh­field, who lives in Cal­i­for­nia, is one of our coun­try’s finest poets. I found this beau­ti­ful med­i­ta­tion in Poet­ry of Pres­ence: An Anthol­o­gy of Mind­ful­ness Poems, pub­lished by Grayson Books of West Hart­ford, CT. Ms. Hir­sh­field­’s most recent book of poet­ry is the new­ly-pub­lished Ledger: Poems from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 

Meeting the Light Completely

Even the long-beloved
was once
an unrecognized stranger.

Just so,
the chipped lip
of a blue-glazed cup,
blown field
of a yellow curtain,
might also,
flooding and falling,
ruin your heart.

A table painted with roses.
An empty clothesline.

Each time,
the found world surprises—
that is its nature.

And then
what is said by all lovers:
"What fools we were, not to have seen."
 

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1994 by Jane Hirshfield, "Meeting the Light Completely," from Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, (Grayson Books, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Jane Hirshfield and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.

Column 785

Joy

Column 783