Poem
Jane Hirshfield
The Decision
The Decision
The Decision
There is a moment before a shapehardens, a color sets.
Before the fixative or heat of kiln.
The letter might still be taken
from the mailbox.
The hand held back by the elbow,
the word kept between the larynx pulse
and the amplifying drum-skin of the room’s air.
The thorax of an ant is not as narrow.
The green coat on old copper weighs more.
Yet something slips through it—
looks around,
sets out in the new direction, for other lands.
Not into exile, not into hope. Simply changed.
As a sandy track-rut changes when called a Silk Road:
it cannot be after turned back from.
© 2008, Jane Hirshfield
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 2, May
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 2, May
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
Poems
Poems of Jane Hirshfield
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The Decision
There is a moment before a shapehardens, a color sets.
Before the fixative or heat of kiln.
The letter might still be taken
from the mailbox.
The hand held back by the elbow,
the word kept between the larynx pulse
and the amplifying drum-skin of the room’s air.
The thorax of an ant is not as narrow.
The green coat on old copper weighs more.
Yet something slips through it—
looks around,
sets out in the new direction, for other lands.
Not into exile, not into hope. Simply changed.
As a sandy track-rut changes when called a Silk Road:
it cannot be after turned back from.
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 2, May
The Decision
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