Tuesday, March 1, 2016

"February 29"

29 February 2016: Leap Day's good thing is this post by Katy Waldman about "February 29," a poem by Jane Hirschfield. Great poem; lovely analysis. I really like this part:

"The poem’s spare, unassuming images (someone stumbling after he’s had too much to drink, a cracked door) gracefully bear the weight of abstract ideas. Hirshfield compares the leap day to a small consolation, a little more time with someone you’ve lost: 'a letter re-readable after its writer has died.' (Notice how gently her two rooms, illuminated and dark, stand in for life and death.) Throughout, the poet underscores the sweetness of this small cosmic excess, unnecessary, unremarkable, but inspirited in the same way a space feels inspirited by light, or by a person passing through it."

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