Jane Hirshfield – The Fullness of Things

<p>The esteemed writer Jane Hirshfield has been a Zen monk and a visiting artist among neuroscientists. She has said this: “It’s my nature to question, to look at the opposite side. I believe that the best writing also does this … It tells us that where there is sorrow, there will be joy; where there is joy, there will be sorrow … The acknowledgement of the fully complex scope of being is why good art thrills … Acknowledging the fullness of things,” she insists, “is our human task.” And that’s the ground Krista meanders with Jane Hirshfield in this conversation: the fullness of things — through the interplay of Zen and science, poetry and ecology — in her life and writing.</p><p>Jane Hirshfield is the author of books of poetry, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/the-beauty-poems/9780345806857"><i>The Beauty</i></a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/come-thief/9780375712074"><i>Come, Thief</i></a>, and most recently, <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/ledger-poems/9780525657804"><i>Ledger</i></a>, with selections read this hour. She’s also written two books of essays: <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/nine-gates-entering-the-mind-of-poetry/9780060929480"><i>Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry</i></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Windows-Great-Poems-Transform/dp/0345806840"><i>Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World</i></a>.</p><p>Find <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/jane-hirshfield-the-fullness-of-things/#transcript">the transcript </a>for this show at onbeing.org.</p>