The Weighing
POETRY FORMAT, 11 Nov 2019
Jane Hirshfield – TRANSCEND Media Service
The heart’s reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.
As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.
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Jane Hirshfield is an American poet, essayist and translator born 24 Feb 1953 in New York City. She received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in the school’s first graduating class to include women.
Tags: Poetry
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 11 Nov 2019.
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