The Poets Corner is offering two craft talks to introduce Jane Hirshfield, the keynote speaker for the 3rd Annual Camden Festival of Poetry, May 16 - 17, 2025.

The Asking, the title of Hirshfeld’s new and collected poems, points to where so many poems originate. Hirshfield suggests that “asking turns the heart-gate from closed to open.” She goes further. “Poems are responses to questions that have no answers.”

Led by Ellen Goldsmith, professor emeritus from CUNY, these Craft Talks will explore Hirshfield’s poems from the standpoint of recurrent concerns.

In the first session, we’ll explore poems that provide openings.