--- title: "Best Poetry Quotes by Jane Hirshfield" description: "59 Poetry quotes by Jane Hirshfield. Plus more from Jane Hirshfield and more Poetry sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png" --- > [At another level, though, poems can craft an eraser - we can't revise the past, but poems allow us some malleability, an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft-an-eraser-we-can-t-revise-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png) > [I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence-let-alone-a-new-poem-is-to/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/134/jane-hirshfield-2649_crosses_i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence_2122148.png) > [The ability to name poetry's gestures and rhetorics isn't required to write or read them, any more than a painter needs to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-and-rhetorics-isn-t-required-to/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/63c/jane-hirshfield-2649_ability_the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-an_1799403.png) > [Sam Hamill is a writer unabashedly taking his place within the community of literature and the community of all sentient beings-his fidelity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-taking-his-place-within-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b8f/jane-hirshfield-2649_books_sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-takin_3130655.png) > [Every other year or so I go to one of those great generous places, the artist retreats. Some of the poems in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-those-great-generous-places-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/214/jane-hirshfield-2649_artist_every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-th_3144477.png) > [In my poems though, as you say, the comic arrived fairly late. This doubtless has something to do with growing older. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic-arrived-fairly-late-this/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/jane-hirshfield-2649_bits_in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic_3117339.png) > [“One useful way to approach a haiku is to understand each of its parts as pointing toward both world and self. Read…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to-understand-each-of-its-parts/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d37/jane-hirshfield-2649_haiku_one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to_2226401.jpg) > [I want to understand the piers of language and music and comprehension that can hold up a building even when what the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-language-and-music-and/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/jane-hirshfield-2649_building_i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-langua_3163857.jpg) > [Each poet probably has his or her own cupboard of magnets. For some, it is cars; for others, works of art, or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cupboard-of-magnets-for-some-it/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c68/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cu_2411449.png) > [Good poems ask us to have complex minds and hearts. Even simple-of-surface poems want that. Perhaps those are the ones that want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds-and-hearts-even-simple-of/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bf/jane-hirshfield-2649_asks_good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds_765397.jpg) > [Here are poems from a new generation of writers who honor the magnetic fields of the real; who feel and think with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of-writers-who-honor-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_feels_here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of_2499497.png) > [A poem makes clear without making simple. Poetry's language carries what lives outside language. It's as if you were given a 5-gallon…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple-poetry-s-language-carries/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d3/jane-hirshfield-2649_buckets_a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple_1900869.jpg) > [I see poetry as a path toward new understanding and transformation, and so I've looked at specific poems I love, and at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-understanding-and-transformation/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab5/jane-hirshfield-2649_change_i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-unders_2198699.jpg) > [I think, though, that perspective-awareness may follow from a kind of speaking that also came into my work more recently - the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-think-though-that-perspective-awareness-may-follow-from-a-kind-of/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c1/jane-hirshfield-2649_abstraction_i-think-though-that-perspective-awarenes_1834874.png) > [“To plunge one thing into the shape or nature of another is a fundamental gesture of creative insight, part of how we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-nature-of-another-is-a/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-na_764604.jpg) > [Hyesims poems: transformative as walking high granite mountains by moonlight, with fragrant herbs underfoot and a thermos of clear tea in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking-high-granite-mountains-by/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b6f/jane-hirshfield-2649_bedrock_hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking_2524498.png) > [I want to preserve a certain unknowing about my own poems - perhaps because unknowing is in itself a useful poetic thirst.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-about-my-own-poems-perhaps/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_boundaries_i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-a_281891.jpg) > [A poem's essential discovery can happen at a single sitting. The cascade of discoveries in an essay, or even finding a question…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen-at-a-single-sitting-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2f/jane-hirshfield-2649_beans_a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen_1234890.jpg) > [The first poem in The Beauty holds a woman in Portugal in a wheelchair singing, with great power, a fado. I have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-woman-in-portugal-in-a/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/jane-hirshfield-2649_beauty_the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-wom_2151056.png) ## Other authors on Poetry - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-melody-lee-1672.jpg) Melody Lee 207 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/melody-lee/) - [Ralph Waldo Emerson 146 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/ralph-waldo-emerson/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-edward-hirsch-31825.jpg) Edward Hirsch 138 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/edward-hirsch/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-dejan-stojanovic-28518.jpg) Dejan Stojanovic 133 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/dejan-stojanovic/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-henry-david-thoreau-41473.jpg) Henry David Thoreau 111 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/henry-david-thoreau/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b002/author-alfa-h-4410.jpg) Alfa H 105 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/alfa-h/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b017/author-mary-oliver-65135.jpg) Mary Oliver 99 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/mary-oliver/) - [Atticus Poetry 92 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/atticus-poetry/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b006/author-charles-bukowski-22166.jpg) Charles Bukowski 89 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/charles-bukowski/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-walt-whitman-94308.jpg) Walt Whitman 82 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/walt-whitman/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-oscar-wilde-72846.jpg) Oscar Wilde 78 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/oscar-wilde/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b005/author-billy-collins-18123.jpg) Billy Collins 77 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/billy-collins/) ## More by Jane Hirshfield > [I don't have a cell phone (though for years I've kept saying, "soon").](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-don-t-have-a-cell-phone-though-for-years-i-ve-kept-saying-soon/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [I once was asked to contribute to a mushroom poem anthology. I didn't have anything, and so instead ended up writing the introduction. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-once-was-asked-to-contribute-to-a-mushroom-poem-anthology-i-didn-t/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Everything has two endings- a horse, a piece of string, a phone call. Before a life, air. And after. As silence is not silence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/everything-has-two-endings-a-horse-a-piece-of-string-a-phone-call/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [A certain amount of housekeeping also goes on in my poems. I wash doorknobs, do dishes, mop floors, patch carpets, cook.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/a-certain-amount-of-housekeeping-also-goes-on-in-my-poems-i-wash/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Self carries grief as a pack mule carries the side bags, being careful between the trees to leave extra room.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/self-carries-grief-as-a-pack-mule-carries-the-side-bags-being-careful/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [My job as a human being as well as a writer is to feel as thoroughly as possible the experience that I am part…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/my-job-as-a-human-being-as-well-as-a-writer-is-to-feel-as-thoroughly/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [I want to preserve a certain unknowing about my own poems - perhaps because unknowing is in itself a useful poetic thirst. To move…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-about-my-own-poems-perhaps/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Habit, laziness, and fear conspire to keep us comfortably within the familiar.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/habit-laziness-and-fear-conspire-to-keep-us-comfortably-within-the/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [In order to gain anything, you must first lose everything](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/in-order-to-gain-anything-you-must-first-lose-everything/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [The same words come from each mouth differently.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-same-words-come-from-each-mouth-differently/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Metaphors think with the imagination and the senses. The hot chili peppers in them explode in the mouth and the mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/metaphors-think-with-the-imagination-and-the-senses-the-hot-chili/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Your fate is to be yourself, both punishment and crime.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/your-fate-is-to-be-yourself-both-punishment-and-crime/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Near even a candle, the visible heat. So it is with a person in love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/near-even-a-candle-the-visible-heat-so-it-is-with-a-person-in-love/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [At some point I realized that you don't get a full human life if you try to cut off one end of it, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/at-some-point-i-realized-that-you-don-t-get-a-full-human-life-if-you/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) > [Immensity is always there, but we so often become numb to it, or deceive ourselves into thinking our own lives and selves are what's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/immensity-is-always-there-but-we-so-often-become-numb-to-it-or/) [Jane Hirshfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-hirshfield/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/#itemlist", "name": "Best Poetry Quotes by Jane Hirshfield", "numberOfItems": 19, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "At another level, though, poems can craft an eraser - we can't revise the past, but poems allow us some malleability, an increased freedom of response, comprehension, feeling. Choice, what choices are possible for any given person, is another theme that's run through my work from the start.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft-an-eraser-we-can-t-revise-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“At another level, though, poems can craft an eraser - we can't revise the past, but poems allow us some…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery. A thought was not there, then it is. An image, a story, an idea about what it is to be human, did not exist, then it does. With every new poem, an emotion new to the heart, to the world, speaks itself into being.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence-let-alone-a-new-poem-is-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/134/jane-hirshfield-2649_crosses_i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence_2122148.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/134/jane-hirshfield-2649_crosses_i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence_2122148.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/134/jane-hirshfield-2649_crosses_i-write-because-to-write-a-new-sentence_2122148.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The ability to name poetry's gestures and rhetorics isn't required to write or read them, any more than a painter needs to know the physics of color to bring forward a landscape. The eye and hand and ear know what they need to know. Some of us want to know more, because knowing pleases.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-and-rhetorics-isn-t-required-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/63c/jane-hirshfield-2649_ability_the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-an_1799403.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/63c/jane-hirshfield-2649_ability_the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-an_1799403.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/63c/jane-hirshfield-2649_ability_the-ability-to-name-poetry-s-gestures-an_1799403.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The ability to name poetry's gestures and rhetorics isn't required to write or read them, any more than a…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Sam Hamill is a writer unabashedly taking his place within the community of literature and the community of all sentient beings-his fidelity is to the magnificent truth of existence, and to its commensurate singing.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-taking-his-place-within-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b8f/jane-hirshfield-2649_books_sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-takin_3130655.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b8f/jane-hirshfield-2649_books_sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-takin_3130655.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b8f/jane-hirshfield-2649_books_sam-hamill-is-a-writer-unabashedly-takin_3130655.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sam Hamill is a writer unabashedly taking his place within the community of literature and the community of…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Every other year or so I go to one of those great generous places, the artist retreats. Some of the poems in The Beauty were written at the MacDowell Colony, in New Hampshire, and others at Civitella Ranieri, in Umbria.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-those-great-generous-places-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/214/jane-hirshfield-2649_artist_every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-th_3144477.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/214/jane-hirshfield-2649_artist_every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-th_3144477.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/214/jane-hirshfield-2649_artist_every-other-year-or-so-i-go-to-one-of-th_3144477.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Every other year or so I go to one of those great generous places, the artist retreats. Some of the poems in…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In my poems though, as you say, the comic arrived fairly late. This doubtless has something to do with growing older. A person who's seen a bit of the world can't help but notice how foolish is the self-centeredness we bring to our tiny slice of existence.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic-arrived-fairly-late-this/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/jane-hirshfield-2649_bits_in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic_3117339.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/jane-hirshfield-2649_bits_in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic_3117339.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/732/jane-hirshfield-2649_bits_in-my-poems-though-as-you-say-the-comic_3117339.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In my poems though, as you say, the comic arrived fairly late. This doubtless has something to do with…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“One useful way to approach a haiku is to understand each of its parts as pointing toward both world and self. Read this way, haiku remind that a person should not become too fixed in a singular sense of what the self might consist of or know, or where it might reside.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to-understand-each-of-its-parts/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d37/jane-hirshfield-2649_haiku_one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to_2226401.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d37/jane-hirshfield-2649_haiku_one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to_2226401.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d37/jane-hirshfield-2649_haiku_one-useful-way-to-approach-a-haiku-is-to_2226401.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“One useful way to approach a haiku is to understand each of its parts as pointing toward both world and…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I want to understand the piers of language and music and comprehension that can hold up a building even when what the building houses is an earthquake. This thinking must surely come into the poems I write, but more by osmosis than will.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-language-and-music-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/jane-hirshfield-2649_building_i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-langua_3163857.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/jane-hirshfield-2649_building_i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-langua_3163857.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a7/jane-hirshfield-2649_building_i-want-to-understand-the-piers-of-langua_3163857.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I want to understand the piers of language and music and comprehension that can hold up a building even when…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Each poet probably has his or her own cupboard of magnets. For some, it is cars; for others, works of art, or certain patterns of form or sound; for others, certain stories or places, Philip Levine's Detroit, Gwendolyn Brooks's Chicago, Seamus Heaney's time-tunneled, familied Ireland.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cupboard-of-magnets-for-some-it/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c68/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cu_2411449.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c68/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cu_2411449.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c68/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_each-poet-probably-has-his-or-her-own-cu_2411449.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Each poet probably has his or her own cupboard of magnets. For some, it is cars; for others, works of art…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Good poems ask us to have complex minds and hearts. Even simple-of-surface poems want that. Perhaps those are the ones that want it most of all, since that's where they do their work: in the unspoken complexities, understood off the page.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds-and-hearts-even-simple-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bf/jane-hirshfield-2649_asks_good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds_765397.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bf/jane-hirshfield-2649_asks_good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds_765397.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0bf/jane-hirshfield-2649_asks_good-poems-ask-us-to-have-complex-minds_765397.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Good poems ask us to have complex minds and hearts. Even simple-of-surface poems want that. Perhaps those…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Here are poems from a new generation of writers who honor the magnetic fields of the real; who feel and think with full and open-eyed passion; who focus heat as the magnifying glass focuses sun: until the paper catches. Read them.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of-writers-who-honor-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_feels_here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of_2499497.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_feels_here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of_2499497.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_feels_here-are-poems-from-a-new-generation-of_2499497.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Here are poems from a new generation of writers who honor the magnetic fields of the real; who feel and…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A poem makes clear without making simple. Poetry's language carries what lives outside language. It's as if you were given a 5-gallon bucket with 10 gallons of water in it. Mysterious thirsts are answered. That alchemical bucket carries secrets also, even the ones we keep from ourselves.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple-poetry-s-language-carries/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d3/jane-hirshfield-2649_buckets_a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple_1900869.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d3/jane-hirshfield-2649_buckets_a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple_1900869.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0d3/jane-hirshfield-2649_buckets_a-poem-makes-clear-without-making-simple_1900869.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A poem makes clear without making simple. Poetry's language carries what lives outside language. It's as if…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I see poetry as a path toward new understanding and transformation, and so I've looked at specific poems I love, and at poetry's gestures in the broadest sense, in an effort to feel and learn what they offer from the inside.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-understanding-and-transformation/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab5/jane-hirshfield-2649_change_i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-unders_2198699.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab5/jane-hirshfield-2649_change_i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-unders_2198699.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab5/jane-hirshfield-2649_change_i-see-poetry-as-a-path-toward-new-unders_2198699.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I see poetry as a path toward new understanding and transformation, and so I've looked at specific poems I…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 14, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I think, though, that perspective-awareness may follow from a kind of speaking that also came into my work more recently - the \"assay\" poems (some labeled that, some not) that engage an abstraction or object from multiple angles.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-think-though-that-perspective-awareness-may-follow-from-a-kind-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c1/jane-hirshfield-2649_abstraction_i-think-though-that-perspective-awarenes_1834874.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c1/jane-hirshfield-2649_abstraction_i-think-though-that-perspective-awarenes_1834874.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8c1/jane-hirshfield-2649_abstraction_i-think-though-that-perspective-awarenes_1834874.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I think, though, that perspective-awareness may follow from a kind of speaking that also came into my work…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 15, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“To plunge one thing into the shape or nature of another is a fundamental gesture of creative insight, part of how we make for ourselves a world more expansive, deft, fertile, and startling in richness.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-nature-of-another-is-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-na_764604.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-na_764604.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5d0/jane-hirshfield-2649_art_to-plunge-one-thing-into-the-shape-or-na_764604.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To plunge one thing into the shape or nature of another is a fundamental gesture of creative insight, part…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 16, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Hyesims poems: transformative as walking high granite mountains by moonlight, with fragrant herbs underfoot and a thermos of clear tea in the backpack. Their bedrock is thusness, their images beauty is pellucid and new, their view without limit. The shelf of essential Zen poets for American readers grows larger with this immediately indispensable collection.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking-high-granite-mountains-by/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b6f/jane-hirshfield-2649_bedrock_hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking_2524498.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b6f/jane-hirshfield-2649_bedrock_hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking_2524498.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b6f/jane-hirshfield-2649_bedrock_hyesims-poems-transformative-as-walking_2524498.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Hyesims poems: transformative as walking high granite mountains by moonlight, with fragrant herbs underfoot…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 17, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I want to preserve a certain unknowing about my own poems - perhaps because unknowing is in itself a useful poetic thirst. To move the perimeter of saying outside my own boundaries is one reason I write.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-about-my-own-poems-perhaps/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_boundaries_i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-a_281891.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_boundaries_i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-a_281891.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ff/jane-hirshfield-2649_boundaries_i-want-to-preserve-a-certain-unknowing-a_281891.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I want to preserve a certain unknowing about my own poems - perhaps because unknowing is in itself a useful…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 18, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A poem's essential discovery can happen at a single sitting. The cascade of discoveries in an essay, or even finding a question worth exploring in one, seems to need roughly the time it takes to plant and harvest a crop of bush beans.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen-at-a-single-sitting-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2f/jane-hirshfield-2649_beans_a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen_1234890.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2f/jane-hirshfield-2649_beans_a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen_1234890.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a2f/jane-hirshfield-2649_beans_a-poem-s-essential-discovery-can-happen_1234890.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A poem's essential discovery can happen at a single sitting. The cascade of discoveries in an essay, or even…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 19, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The first poem in The Beauty holds a woman in Portugal in a wheelchair singing, with great power, a fado. I have never seen this or heard of it, the image simply arrived. But surely such a thing has happened. And it matters to me that it has, or could.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Hirshfield" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-hirshfield/the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-woman-in-portugal-in-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/jane-hirshfield-2649_beauty_the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-wom_2151056.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/jane-hirshfield-2649_beauty_the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-wom_2151056.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/jane-hirshfield-2649_beauty_the-first-poem-in-the-beauty-holds-a-wom_2151056.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The first poem in The Beauty holds a woman in Portugal in a wheelchair singing, with great power, a fado. I…” — Jane Hirshfield", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/page/2/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/page/2/", "name": "Poetry Quotes by Jane Hirshfield · Page 2", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a43/jane-hirshfield-2649_choice_at-another-level-though-poems-can-craft_2725596.png" }, "description": "59 Poetry quotes by Jane Hirshfield. Plus more from Jane Hirshfield and more Poetry sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/page/2/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/page/2/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Poetry", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Jane Hirshfield", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/jane-hirshfield/page/2/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```