Editor’s Statement: For anyone interested in more of Jane Hirshfield’s thoughts about the processes and deep generative energies of poetry, she’s published two now-classic books looking at a broad variety of poems, NINE GATES: ENTERING THE MIND OF POETRY (NY: HarperCollins, 1997) and TEN WINDOWS: HOW GREAT POEMS TRANSFORM THE WORLD (NY: Knopf, 2015). Among the subjects covered are the elements that make a poem strong; originality; why poems speak indirectly; how poems help navigate a life’s uncertainties and darkness;, how poems help create change; and why a writer needs to become a voice for all beings’ lives, not only their own.
Jane’s brief, six-minute introduction to the art of metaphor, viewed now over a million times, appears on the TED-ED website: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/jane-hirshfield-the-art-of-the-metaphor
She also recommends “The Art of” series of books about the craft of words and lives being published by Graywolf Press, including poet Mark Doty’s THE ART OF DESCRIPTION, novelist Charlie Baxter’s THE ART OF SUBTEXT, writer Maud Casey’s THE ART OF MYSTERY, and poet Carl Phillips’ THE ART OF DARING. Whether by poets or fiction writers, these books are filled with perceptive insights about what goes into writing, art, and a more largely embraced human life.