Poet Jane Hirshfield said "... the feeling I have about poem-writing (is) that it is always an exploration, of discovering something I didn't already know. Who I am shifts from moment to moment, year to year. What I can perceive does as well. A new poem peers into mystery, into whatever lies just beyond the edge of knowable ground."

I bring a different poem to the writing classes each week, not only to inspire but to introduce new poets to the group members.

Green Giving by John Steffler

This green shower caught in the arms 
of the wind, green memory of rain 
after the rain has passed: young  

elm leaves fountaining down slight 
boughs, green fingerprints, like 
notes sprayed out of the grand

piano by Debussy’s hands, gracing
my window, armfuls cast from above,
green giving, sparrows plunge

in, deft brown strokes of the feathered
brush, finding the shadows that wait
for them like cool suits of clothes.

~ from That Night We Were Ravenous (McClelland and Stewart, 2007)