Poem of the Month: June 2002

If the Rise of the Fish

If for a moment
the leaves fell upward,
if it seemed a small flock
of brown-orange birds
circled over the trees,
if they circled then scattered each in
its own direction for the lost seed
they had spotted in tall, gold-checkered grass.
If the bloom of flies on the window
in morning sun, if their singing insistence
on grief and desire. If the fish.
If the rise of the fish.
If the blue morning held in the glass of the window,
if my fingers, my palms. If my thighs.
If your hands, if my thighs.
If the seeds, among all the lost gold of the grass.
If your hands on my thighs, if your tongue.
If the leaves. If the singing fell upward. If grief.
For a moment if singing and grief.
If the blue of the body fell upward, out of our hands.
If the morning held it like leaves.

- Jane Hirshfield
  in The Lives of the Heart, NY: HarperPerennial, 1997.

Journal prompts:

• What are the possibilities for your day?
• Write a poem, or a series of lines that begin with "If..."
• Write about a time you surrendered your body to something. Describe the sensation. What did you learn?