What was come here to do
having finished,
shelves of the water lie flat.
Copper the leaves of the doorsill,
yellow and failing.
Scarlet the bird that is singing.
Vanished the labor, here walls are.
Completed the asking.
Loosing the birds there is water.
Having eaten the pears.
Having eaten
the black figs, the white figs. Eaten the apples.
Table be strewn.
Table be strewn with stems,
table with peelings of grapefruit and pleasure.
Table be strewn with pleasure,
what was here to be done having finished.

Jane Hirshfield’s ten poetry collections, including The Asking: New & Selected Poems (2023) and Ledger (2020), and her influential essay collections like Nine Gates (1997) and Ten Windows (2015) have earned her numerous accolades. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, Hirshfield was also awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship by The Academy of American Poets in 2004.
