Zen, Meaning, and Craft in Jane Hirshfield's Poetry : Heartshoots

This first full-length scholarly treatment of award-winning poet Jane Hirshfield’s work covers format and structure; three approaches to the poetry; Zen and the problem of desire; Hirshfield’s response to the more-than-human world and her warnings to humanity not to ignore the ecological crisis; belonging, loss, and the comfort of poetry.

Zen, Meaning, and Craft in Jane Hirshfield’s Poetry: Heartshoots is the first scholarly volume to be dedicated to the large body of work produced by North American Zen poet, Jane Hirshfield. The volume is co-authored by a Zen Buddhist scholar and a poetry scholar, who are both practising poets. Its five chapters cover format and structure; three fruitful approaches to the poetry; Zen and the problem of desire; Hirshfield’s response to the more-than-human world and her warnings to humanity not to ignore the ecological crisis; belonging, loss, and the solace of poetry. The book portrays poetry as a “heartshoot” that can bridge the artificial divide between external and internal worlds and can draw forth compassion as well as delight. In Hirshfield’s hands, it mobilises the considerable power of cognitive, verbal, and semantic surprise to lead the reader gently to new insights about the connectedness of all that is.