For What Binds Us by Jane Hirshfield - Poem for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Englewood Review of Books curates a weekly series of classic and contemporary poems that resonate with the themes of the lectionary readings. Here is one of the poems for this coming Sunday (More poems for Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A can be found here)
This poem was selected to accompany one of the
lectionary readings for the coming week, Romans 8:12-25
For What Binds Us
Jane Hirshfield
SNIPPET:
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
…
Jane Hirshfield (b. 1953) is an American poet, essayist, and translator, known as 'one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere' and recognized as 'among the modern masters,' 'writing some of the most important poetry in the world today.' Her books include numerous award-winning collections of her own poems, collections of essays, and edited and co-translated volumes of world writers from the deep past. She’s been widely published in global newspapers and literary journals, and her work has been translated into over fifteen languages. (via Wikipedia)