Corals, Coho, Coelenterates - Jane Hirshfield

[Larry Robinson]

Corals, Coho, Coelenterates


I keep a white page before me. 
Each time one 
is marred with effort, striving, effect, I turn to another. 

Corals, coho, coelenterates 
inside the waving arms of your branches 
that give off a scent intoxicant only to certain fish— 

lichens, burdocks, mycelial mats between trees— 
forgive this hubris. 
                                   Some hope is in it. 
Your companions are new here. 

A child who crayons does not know 
her drawing leaves behind absence on forest, on ocean. 

She falls into the colors.

	- Jane Hirshfield