Stop a minute, and wait for poetry

Northern California poet Jane Hirshfield’s work grows from a close observation of the world and from the silence of her Zen practice. Recently, she talked about the intersection of the two with Irene Borger, a fellow writer, as part of the Central Library’s Words in the World series. Below, a sampling of her thoughts on what poetry is and does.

On poetry as a means of slowing down the onrushing world: “When I was quite young, in my early 20s, poems would just rap at my door in the middle of the night and get written. But in later years, I have to stop and wait for them, and listen. The subject matter of listening, rather than dominating one’s own consciousness -- as well as the world -- is to me a great source of richness. We don’t make things up -- they come to us if we create a space of refuge for more complex and more subtle thought to enter us ... and perhaps come out as a poem....

“I think that one of the reasons that those of us who love poetry do love poetry is because it requires of us a slowing down and the creation of a state of contemplation and concentration in our lives, and reminds us of what kind of relationship with the world is possible.”

On poetry as biography: “As a poet, I feel that I’m revealing my bone marrow to you, and my heart and my muscle, but my outer story you’re not going to get from my books. You can’t say, ‘This happened to her, that happened to her.’ That’s pretty unavailable.”

On poetry and the ear: “For me a poem is something heard, it’s not something spoken.... And what I try to do in the transcription, or the writing, even the rewriting, consists of hearing it again.... There is always an auditory aspect. It is the intimate speech within the heart.”