Each Happiness Ringed by Lions

 

Sometimes when
I take you into my body
I can almost see them – patient, circling.
Almost glimpse the moving shadow of the tail,
almost hear the hushed pad of retracted claws.
It is the moment – of this I am certain –
when they themselves are least sure.
It is the moment they could almost let us go free.

from Each Happiness Ringed by Lions (Bloodaxe, 2005) © Jane Hirshfield 2005, used by permission of the author and Bloodaxe Books.

Jane Hirshfield (b. 1953, USA) is the author of six books of poetry, several translations and two collections of essays. Her most ...
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