Jane Hirshfield

I open the windows.
March 24, 2022 Hirshfield Jane

I open the windows.

 

What I wanted
wasn’t to let in the wetness.
That can be mopped.
 
Nor the cold.
There are blankets.
 
What I wanted was
the siren, the thunder, the neighbor,
the fireworks, the dog bark.
 
Which of them didn’t matter?
 
Yes, this world is perfect,
all things as they are.
 
But I wanted
not to be
the one sleeping soundly, on a soft pillow,
clean sheets untroubled,
dreaming there still might be time,
 
while this everywhere crying

Jane Hirshfield‘s most recent book, Ledger (Knopf, 2020) centers on the crises of biosphere, climate, and justice. Her work, which has been translated into fifteen languages, appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and ten editions of The Best American Poetry.  A former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and founder of Poets For Science, she was elected in 2019 to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Photo: © Curt Richter