April 15: Tree

[Martha]

Tree
Jane Hirshfield

It is foolish
to let a young redwood  
grow next to a house.

Even in this  
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books—

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.  
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

--

Also by Jane Hirshfield: 
+ My Life Was the Size of My Life
+ Day Beginning with Seeing the International Space Station And a Full Moon Over the Gulf of Mexico and All its Invisible Fishes

+ A Small-Sized Mystery

Today in: 

2024: Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation, Natalie Diaz 
2023: Dutch Elm Disease, Valencia Robin 
2022: More Bang for Your Buck Running Scared, Brennan Bestwick
2021: Rain, Peter Everwine
2020: Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale, Dan Albergotti
2019: Prayer, Galway Kinnell
2018: Egg, C.G. Hanzlicek
2017: Well Water, Randall Jarrell
2016: For Desire, Kim Addonizio
2015: The Coming of Light, Mark Strand
2014: Flying Low, Stephen Dunn
2013: The Envoy, Jane Hirshfield
2012: Red Wand, Sandra Simonds
2011: Trying to Raise the Dead, Dorianne Laux
2010: Asking for Directions, Linda Gregg
2009: A Blessing, James Wright
2008: New York, New York, David Berman
2007: Waste Land Limericks, Wendy Cope
2006: There Are Two Worlds, Larry Levis
2005: America, Allen Ginsberg

+ Today's poem: Tree, Jane Hirshfield