Once, I

By Jane Hirshfield

Once, I

was seven Spanish bullocks in a high meadow,

sleepy and nameless.

As-ifness strange to myself, but complete.

Light on the neck-nape

of time

as two wings of one starling,

or lovers so happy

neither needs think of the other.

Source: Poetry (April 2013)

Previous in Issue Next in Issue

This Poem Appears In

Read Issue

Previous in Issue Next in Issue

More Poems by Jane Hirshfield

A Sweetening All around Me as It Falls

By Jane Hirshfield
To Judgment: An Assay

By Jane Hirshfield
Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

By Jane Hirshfield
To Spareness: An Assay

By Jane Hirshfield
The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

By Jane Hirshfield

See All Poems by this Author

Once, I

By Jane Hirshfield

About this Poet

Award-winning poet, essayist, and translator Jane Hirshfield is the author of several collections of verse, including The Beauty (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award; Come, Thief (2011); After (2006); shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize; and Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), a finalist...

Read Full Biography

Quick Tags

Once, I

A Sweetening All around Me as It Falls

To Judgment: An Assay

Assay Only Glimpsable for an Instant

To Spareness: An Assay

The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

Once, I