Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

This is a great book for stepping inside of poetry. It is not a textbook, but an evocative essay of ways that bring us into the poetic mind/spirit. Hirshfield herself is a very good poet, and also is able to teach poetry and writing -- a kind of transcendent gift, which many writers do not have. She is able to bring psychological and spiritual views as well as as standard literary process into this book and does an admirable job. She uses example most frequenly from English language poetry, but frequently illustrates with Japanese examples, allwoing the reader to get an unexpected facet of of the subject. She handles ideas about meter, imagery, the relation to experience and nature with considerable deftness. She even looks at the lion show more that may sit inside a poet's heart. show less

Nine Gates as a collection was a bit fragmented and it was hard for me to keep pace with the full range of Hirshfield's essays, particularly those specifically related to Japanese poetry. At their best, I felt provoked and inspired with the way she insightfully illustrates themes using excellent poems. At the worst, I was quite bored and felt frustrated at the overly ephermeal quality of her prose.

Jane Hirshfield is not just one of the finest poets writing today, she is also one of the best writers about the craft and art of poetry and its place in our contemporary world. This collection of essays is not just for the student of poetry but for anyone who cares about language and the need for art to make us wholly human.

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I'm not hugely into poetry, but I certainly don't dislike it either, and this is a good approachable set of essays looking at what poetry is and what poets do, informed (often convincingly) by the author's Buddhist philosophy. The chapters on translation are particularly good - it's an issue I grapple with daily in my working life, though of course not usually for poetry.

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