I have such mixed feelings about this book. The chapters alternated from incredibly illuminating, engaging deep dives into carefully chosen poems revealing specific qualities of poetry to lengthy thought pieces too far removed from a particular illustrative text to hold my attention. ( )

I'm gradually getting better at grasping and feeling poetry. Hirshfield helps. ( )

Astonishing collection of essays! ( )

Jane Hirshfield doesn't just write some of the finest poetry being published at this moment, she is also a great explicator and celebrator of poems. In Ten Windows, she argues that since language has power and poetry is uniquely powerful language, poems can indeed change the world. I gave up on trying to write the world whole decades ago, but she still makes good points as she gives excellent readings of powerful poetry:

"And by changing selves, one by one, art changes also the outer world that selves create and share." ( )

This isn't a book about craft, but about the value of reading poetry and of writing it, it's power to both capture and effect human experience, Hirshfield uses a myriad of example texts to show us how the poems open windows into meaning and demonstrate the timelessness of great poetry. This book would be best appreciated by devout readers of poetry and students of both reading and writing poems. Being both a writer and a reader, Hirshfield's fresh perspective and unique frames for approaching the experience of reading (and writing) spoke to me. Her deep reverence for poetry comes across strikingly in these pages, she honors it and humbles herself before it. ( )