Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Jane Hirshfield

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

Moment. Moment. Moment.

—equal inside you, moment,
the velocitous mountains and cities rising and falling,
songs of children, iridescence even of beetles.

It is not you the locust can strip of all leaf.

Untouchable green at the center,
the wolf too lopes past you and through you as he eats.

Insult to mourn you, you who mourn no one, unable.

Without transformation,
yours the role of the chorus, to whom nothing happens.
The living step forward: choosing to enter, to lose.

I who am made of you only
speak these words against your unmasterable instruction—

A knife cannot cut itself open,
yet you ask me both to be you and know you.
Close

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

Moment. Moment. Moment.

—equal inside you, moment,
the velocitous mountains and cities rising and falling,
songs of children, iridescence even of beetles.

It is not you the locust can strip of all leaf.

Untouchable green at the center,
the wolf too lopes past you and through you as he eats.

Insult to mourn you, you who mourn no one, unable.

Without transformation,
yours the role of the chorus, to whom nothing happens.
The living step forward: choosing to enter, to lose.

I who am made of you only
speak these words against your unmasterable instruction—

A knife cannot cut itself open,
yet you ask me both to be you and know you.

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

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Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
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Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
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