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.
It’s This Way by Nazim Hikmet
I stand in the advancing light, my hands hungry, the world beautiful. My eyes can't get enough of the trees-- they're so hopeful, so green. A sunny road runs through the mulberries, I'm at the window of the prison infirmary. I can't smell the medicines-- carnations must be blooming nearby. It's this way: being captured is beside the point, the point is not to surrender. ~ translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk (1993) from ten poems for difficult times, by Roger Housden
(New World Library, 2018)