Human Wishes by Robert Hass

Another book I've been re-reading after many years.  Hass is one of the greatest contemporary poets I know.  His work feels like the thoughts that go through the mind when on a long walk on a cloudy day.  Meditative and rich.  

 

From "Cuttings":

Often we are sad animals. / Bored dogs, monkeys getting rained on.

 

From "Spring Drawing 2":

Suppose, before they said silver or moonlight or wet grass, each poet had to agree to be responsible for the innocence of all the suffering on earth, // because they learned in arithmetic, during the long school days, that if there was anything left over, // you had to carry it.

Danielle Hanson