Kingfishers catching fire : looking with poetry's eyes -- Language wakes up in the morning : on poetry's speaking -- Seeing through words : an introduction to Bashō, haiku, and the suppleness of image -- Thoreau's hound : poetry and the hidden -- Uncarryable remainders : poetry and uncertainty -- Close reading : windows -- Poetry and the constellation of surprise -- What is American in modern American poetry : a brief primer with poems -- Poetry, transformation, and the column of tears -- Strange reaches, impossibility, and big hidden drawers : poetry and paradox

"A collection of ten essays by the poet Jane Hirshfield, about reading and understanding poetry, and about the power of poetry"--