As this life is not a gate - Jane Hirshfield

6/17/2022 From: The Tongue Says Loneliness

First time I’ve been this moved by a poem in a while — Thanks to Larry Robinson and his diligent posting of poems on his daily poetry list

The Tongue Says Loneliness | Jane Hirshfield

“The Tongue Says Loneliness”
Jane Hirshfield

The tongue says loneliness, anger, grief,
but does not feel them.
As Monday cannot feel Tuesday,
nor Thursday
reach back to Wednesday
as a mother reaches out for her found child.
As this life is not a gate, but the horse plunging through it.
Not a bell,
but the sound of the bell in the bell-shape,
lashing full strength with the first blow from inside the iron.

She understood something fundamental — it is not enough to answer the Koan — How do you stop the sound of a distant temple bell? — we need to answer the forge which gives our bell its shape — and the lash of the striker — not just the struck

This is the best summary I’ve seen of what the gate(less) project is about — “As this life is not a gate, but the horse plunging through it”

Of course, dear reader, you may disagree, feel free to LMK what you think g(s) is

Or not — that is an inviolate right of our community — you are free to create meaning or meaninglessness as you see fit.

Much love,

Con/Jur/d, 6/17/2022