A Gate Enables passage between what is inside and
what is outside, and the connection poetry forges
between inner and outer lives is the fundamental theme
of these nine essays. ''Nine Gates'' begins with a close
examination of the roots of poetic craft in ''the mind
of concentration'' and concludes by exploring the
writer's role in creating a sense of community that is
open, inclusive and able to bind the individual and the
whole in a way that allows each full self-expression. in
between, ''Nine Gates'' illumines the nature of
originality, translation, the various strategies by
which meaning unfolds itself in language, poetry's roots
in oral memory and the importance of the shadow to good
art. A person who enters completely into the experience
of a poem is initiated into a deeper intimacy with life.
Delving into the nature of poetry, Jane Hirshfield also
writes on the nature of the human mind, perception and
experience. ''Nine Gates'' is about the underpinnings of
poetic craft, but it is also about a way of being alive
in the world--alertly, musically, intelligently,
passionately, permeably. In part a primer for the
general reader, ''Nine Gates'' is also a manual for the
working writer, with each ''gate'' exploring particular
strategies of language and thought that allow a poem to
convey meaning and emotion with clarity and force. Above
all, ''Nine Gates'' is an insightful guide to the way
the mind of poetry awakens our fundamental consciousness
of what can be known when a person is most fully
alive. |
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