The Cloudy Vase
Past time, I threw the flowers out,
washed out the cloudy vase.
How easily the old clearness
leapt, like a practiced tiger, back inside it.
Jane Hirshfield
This poem first appeared in McSweeney’s and was reprinted in Best American Poetry 2011. It appears in Jane Hirshfield’s collection Come, Thief, published by Knopf. Poem copyright 2011 Jane Hirshfield, all rights reserved, used by permission of the author.
Read about Jane Hirshfield.
See more work from video artist Jeff Saunders.
This motionpoem is presented in collaboration with Best American Poetry 2011 (Scribner), with thanks to David Lehman, series editor.
6 Responses to “HIRSHFIELD | OLSON & SAUNDERS | “The Cloudy Vase””
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Beautiful! She is a talented poet and this is a wonderful rendition!
Quite gorgeous. I particularly like the beat you place in the poem between the two sentences, and the duration of the shot into vase–all very strong choices about time in a piece with such short duration that every choice must be brilliant. Only criticism: we need a little bit better diction for the word “leapt.” I did not hear the poem’s thrilling metaphor until I’d watched twice.
Every element is beautiful and it all comes together to make something even more beautiful.
I LOVED this, but is doesn’t sound like Jane’s voice.
A beautiful “moment.” Love her dearly BarbaraB
fantastic!
I wanted the flowers to be “past time.” I believe it would have added even more power to this incredibly powerful piece if they were visibly dead flowers with the withering and the muck that make the vase cloudy. There is shadowy beauty in death we shy away from and could learn, with practice, not to. And there is a moving on, as the poem suggests, and a hungry clearness that follows. I have loved every motion poem I’ve seen. They move me in a way that is new, unexpected, and welcome. This was not an exception. The timing and music choices, as was said by others, were gorgeous. How intentional was the flower choice? Am I missing the intent? I wish to use these in my classroom and would very much like to know. Thanks Motion Poems to you and all your contributing artists!