The Poet: Jane Hirshfield, "The Task "

"The Task"

"It is a simple garment, this slipped-on world.

We wake into it daily - open eyes, braid hair -

a robe unfurled

in rose-silk flowering, then laid bare.

And yes, it is a simple enough task

we've taken on,

though also vast:

from dusk to dawn,

from dawn to dusk, to praise, and not

be blinded by the praising.

To lie like a cat in hot

sun, fur fully blazing,

and dream the mouse;

and to keep too the mouse's patient, waking watch

within the deep rooms of the house,

where the leaf-flocked

sunlight never reaches, but the earth still blooms."

- Jane Hirshfield