Change of Location

On Thursday March 29 I was graced with the opportunity to go to a poetry reading of Jane Hirshfield.  Intermixed with some of her reading from her new book of poetry she mentioned that her neighbor’s son had started a band.  Because of this new found love for music her neighbor’s son would practice in the mid afternoon, and to go along with this he played the drums.  Hirshfield told the audience that because of the noise coming from the house she could no longer write in her office/converted garage in the afternoon.  So, she started writing in the morning in her bed; the rest of this commentary will be my interpretation of how this change of location affected her writing in ways she may not have even notice.  One poem she read to the crowd was “Da Capo.”  The word “da capo” is a term used in music that tells the musician to repeat the line.  The fact that she was thinking about a term from the music world could have been subconscious because her writing venue was changed because of the noise from the drums, a musical instrament.  Another poem that she discussed was about a French horn, and she was surprised by the response to the poem because she was not aware so many people had a connection to the French horn, yet again another musical reference.  Because of her having to change writing locations she now has a different view outside than the view her office had before.  This new view may have triggered another poem idea about the redwood trees by her house.  This idea may be a result of seeing the trees out her bedroom window.  Jane Hirshfield also has a tendency to write about food.  This may be caused, at least in her new book, by the fact that she is writing in her bed and may be hungry for breakfast but is too busy writing to eat, and this hunger comes out in her work.  My final point comes from her saying that she practices a Japanese tradition of thoroughly cleaning her house on New Year’s Eve.  She talked about how she washes her door knobs, and even wrote a poem about it.  My theory is that she thinks of new places to clean when she is laying in her bed, and this is based on my own experience of coming up with good ideas while laying in my bed.  So, to exaggerate and try a far-fetched conclusion, I think that Jane Hirshfield should thank and possibly even dedicate her new book of poetry to her neighbor’s son for ideas on what to write about.  I feel this way because it was that boy who caused Jane to change where and when she writes, giving her new ideas and a new perspective of what to write.  Of course, this motivation from her neighbor’s son is most likely nonexistent except in my mind, but I’m entitled to my ideas.