J U L Y 1 9 9 9 ![]() APPLEby Jane Hirshfield | |||||||||||||
![]() (For help, see a note about the audio.) Also by Jane Hirshfield: The Song (1986) Within This Tree (1991) The Love of Aged Horses (1994) Lying (1994) Three Foxes by the Edge of the Field at Twilight (1996) The Poet (1997) Go to: An Audible Anthology Poetry Pages |
I woke and remembered nothing of what I was dreaming. The day grew light, then dark again -- In all its rich hours, what happened? A few weeds pulled, a few cold flowers carried inside for the vase. A little reading. A little tidying and sweeping. I had vowed to do nothing I did not wish to do that day, and kept my promise. Once, a certain hope came close and then departed. Passed by me in its familiar shawl, scented with iodine woodsmoke. I did not speak to it, nor it to me. Yet still the habit of warmth traveled between us, like an apple shared by old friends. One takes a bite, then the other. They do this until it is gone. Jane Hirshfield teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. writing seminars. Her most recent books are Lives of the Heart (1997), a collection of poetry, and Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997), a book of essays. Copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; July 1999; Apple; Volume 284, No. 1; page 49. |
||||||||||||
|