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"Late Self-Portrait by Rembrandt"

By Jane HirshfieldPosted Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004, at 9:03 AM ET

Listen to Jane Hirshfield reading this poem.


The dog, dead for years, keeps coming back in the dream.
We look at each other there with the old joy.
It was always her gift to bring me into the present—

Which sleeps, changes, awakens, dresses, leaves.

Happiness and unhappiness
differ as a bucket hammered from gold differs from one of pressed tin,
this painting proposes.

Each carries the same water, it says.





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Jane Hirshfield's most recent book of poetry is Given Sugar, Given Salt. A new collection, After, will appear in early 2006. She currently holds the Academy of American Poets' Annual Fellowship as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.


To submit poetry to Slate, send up to five poems and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine, Boston University, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA, 02215.
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