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.
© 2005, Jane Hirshfield
From: Poetry, Vol. 186, No. 2, May
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
From: Poetry, Vol. 186, No. 2, May
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
Poems
Poems of Jane Hirshfield
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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.
From: Poetry, Vol. 186, No. 2, May
Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant
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