This is the second in the series introducing the poetry of 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 of CUNY, these Craft Talks will explore Hirshfield’s poems from the standpoint of recurrent concerns. In the second session, the theme is transformation. Our approach will be two-fold, to see what’s on the page, from content and form perspectives, and to see where it takes us. You will need to register separately for each session.

In the second session, we’ll explore poems that provide transformation.