A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.
Jane HirshfieldRead
I thought I would love you forever—and, a little, I may, in the way I still move toward a crate, knees bent, or reach for a man: as one might stretch for the three or four fruit that lie in the sun at the top of the tree; too ripe for any moment but this, they open their skin at first touch, yielding sweetness, sweetness and heat, and in me, each time since, the answering yes.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a deep, enduring affection that has the sweetness of a memorable connection.
In this quote, Jane Hirshfield reflects on the nature of love, suggesting that while the initial passion may fade, the deep emotional connection and the memories associated with it persist. She uses the metaphor of reaching for ripe fruit to illustrate moments of desire and fulfillment, capturing the essence of how love evolves yet remains impactful over time.
In practice
A wedding speech where the speaker reflects on lasting love.
A studio, like a poem, is an intimacy and a freedom you can look out from, into each part of your life and a little beyond.
What we want from art is whatever is missing from the lives we are already living and making. Something is always missing, and so art-making is endless.
as some strings, untouched, sound when no one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.
Tree It is foolish to let a young redwood grow next to a house. Even in this one lifetime, you will have to choose. That great calm being, this clutter of soup pots and books-- Already the first branch-tips brush at the window. Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
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.
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
I opened the window and my heart. The sun flooded my house and Love flooded my soul.
The language of my love does not belong to human language, my human body does not touch the flesh of my love.
When I die Dublin will be written on my heart.
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.
Where did love begin?What human being looked at another and saw in their face the forests and the sea? Was there a day, exhausted and weary,dragging home food, arms cut and scarred, that you saw yellow flowers and, not knowing what you did, picked them because I love you? In the fossil record of our existence, there is no trace of love. You cannot find it held in the earth's crust, waiting to be discovered. The long bones of our ancestors show nothing of their hearts.
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