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Jane Hirshfield
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Jane Hirshfield's sixth, most recent book of poetry, After (HarperCollins, 2006) was named a "best book of 2006" by The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and England's Financial Times. She is also the author of a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (HarperCollins, 1997) and editor/translator of three now-classic collections of poetry by women from earlier times. Her poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Orion, The Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere.
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The Egg Had Frozen, an Accident. I Thought of My Life
The egg had frozen, an accident.
I thought of my life.
I heated the butter anyhow.
The shell peeled easily,
inside it looked
both translucent and boiled.
I moved it around in the pan.
It melted, the whites
first clearing to liquid,
then turning solid
and white like good laundry.
The yolk kept its yolk shape.
Not fried, not scrambled,
in the end it was cooked.
With pepper and salt, I ate it.
My life that resembled it ate it.
It tasted like any other wrecked thing,
eggish and tender, a banquet.
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© 2008 The Cortland Review |
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