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Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

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Jane Hirshfield is either a genius or a fool. To even attempt such an undertaking, to explore the "mind of poetry" is quite an insurmountable task, the Mount Everest of literature. I opt for the former description, based on my reading of "Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry".

Rich, eloquent, heady, beautiful, Hirshfield attempts to explore what I assumed to be an unexplorable realm, the heart and essence of this muse. Each essay is not only brilliant, but manages to autopsy several regions that poetry encompasses in a respectful and honest way. Her first essay, "Poetry and the Mind of Concentration", is a tour de force in and of itself, the rest of the book follows suit. She uses some of the finest poetry at her disposal to bring credence to her commentary.

For a poetry writer, for a poetry lover, if you read Jane Hirshfield's book, "Nine Gates", you'll leave it forever changed in the way you approach the gift of poetry.

Jane Hirshfield's "Nine Gates" is probably the most interesting and insightful book I have read on the art and uses of poetry. While Hirshfield's approach to poetry is very much informed by (and often illustrated through) her knowledge of Asian arts and Buddhist philosophy, one need not be a Buddhist or a scholar to understand and appreciate her vision. Hirshfield is most interested in approaching poets and poetry through the essential work that they perform by helping us to understand the natures of, and the relationships between, the self and the world (that is, community in its largest sense). The book's argument is hardly as abstract or fanciful as this might sound, however. Instead, Hirshfield uses this approach to show how the most basic elements of poetry (rhythm, rhyme, image, and so on) function to help the poem build its meaning and fulfill its purpose. "Nine Gates" is an excellent book to strengthen your ability to read poetry, and to deepen your understanding and appreciation of this vital art.

Jane Hirshfield's "Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry" is one of those books that would serve a very broad audience if only intrinsic worth were the driver for PR. For all the "self help" books that that drop on and off the Best Seller List like theatre popcorn, this sharing of what many would deem an obsolete facet of mental exercise is simultaneously a gift to writers AND a guide to experiencing communication in more ways than poetry. Hirshfield is a gifted poet and her comforting and immensely helpful insights will aid even the most "blocked" poet. She addresses "originality", finding the way toward ethereal concentration, adroitly answers begging questions regarding translation of poems in other languages......all with the most sensitive excerpts of poetry imaginable to illustrate her points. This little tome is not only for the writing poets, it is for those who wish to understand the mystery of the meaning of poetry.

...sometimes we need a personal classic to draw comfort from.

This past year when both grandmothers passed away, the soft voice of poetic comparison helped ease the heart.

In my small opinion, this is an inspired and gentle voice to turn to and read. And also reread.

I hope you also enjoy this reading experience.

I generally shy away from books about poetry - one of the side effects of too much graduate school. I perused "Nine Gates"
whilst wandering around a bookstore and bought it without my usual "is it worth it? which book has it knocked off my list..."

The book is a poem - the essays weave together, speaking to me as both reader and writer. Hirshfield turns the poetic essay into a magnificent breathtaking tapestry.

A rich and elegant work. I highly recommend it.

As a professor once said to me, "Puzzles are fun to put together, equations exist to be solved, mysteries are simply our guides to awe."

I unabashadly admit that Jane Hirschfield's book attracted my attention because 1)I've grown increasingly interested in essays about poetry and 2) because I've lately been somewhat obsessed with the number 9 - finding it's way into my own poems more than once. So, what a wonderful surprise - to find this slow, satisfying read of a book unlocking so many gates for me - to things like increased appreciation for the connections between poetry and spirituality, new admiration for ancient Asian poets I'd never known anything about before, and consequently more about the joys of translation.

The dramatic denouement came surprisingly at the end for this reviewer - as she explored again the area of living on the liminal edge. There is so much - so much the other reviewers have all ready praised and recognized. I'm eager - now - to read some of Jane's poetry.

It was especially enjoyable to read "NG" in tandem with "Soulmates" by Thomas Moore, "Poetic Medicine" by John Fox, and David Whyte's "The Heart Aroused."

To the reviewer who queried about the mystery of the "Nine Gates" - it is a curious thing that the title phrase does not receive one reference in the entire book. It seems there might have only been one outside reference - perhaps on the cover or in the preface - alluding to the nine essays themselves to be the nine gates. Someone had to come up with a concrete answer I suppose. For me, this is associated with another fellow reviewer's comment, that roughly read, "The book itself is a poem." Ah, that could be a lead. And of course, there is the hint regarding Memnosyne, mother of muses . . . A lovely mystery that might introduce us to awe.

Essays by poets vary widely in scope. Some seek to portray the "revolutionary" nature of the poet's ideas. Others get lost in craft or in the needless pedantry concerning schools of poetics. Jane Hirshfield instead presents the coherent well-written prose of a synthesist. The result provides an effective rumination upon the "mind" (or "spirit") of poetry.

Ms. Hirshfield uses literary and religious allusion freely, but this is no glib new age-ish miracle cure about the artist's "mystic journey". Instead, she uses the symbols of faith and skepticism as a rich metaphoric base to try to explore the goal and inner working of the effort to write a poem.

This work does not pretend to be some Quran of poetics, complete unto itself or changeless. Instead, the author surveys her task like a visitor to the crater of diamonds park, hunting for something shining among the crystal.

What I like about this book is that for all its rich allusion and reflections on symbolism, it's an accesible, affirming and non-saccharine take on why we are poets, and what it means to us.

My only quibble with her work is that the influence of eastern thought on the western American poets comes through much more clearly than the effect of the American experience on these same poets.In the poetry I read, Sandburg, Millay, and Forche spring from very different places with radically different voices, and yet each has an "American" tone that is unmistakable. It's not a matter of "nationalism" per se, but a matter of history and the lasting impression of the American experience. It's not a fault of the book at all, but a perspective I missed.

I think this is a great book to own for anyone who has pondered the "big questions" of poetry--what does it mean? why do I write?
In the abstract, an essay on poetic philosophy sounds filled with dull pretension. This book is anything but dull.

I found Ms. Hirschfield's discussions of the mind of poetry to be heartening, entertaining, informative, and beautiful. The essays helped get me in better touch with my own process as a poet. I would recommend this to anyone who writes poetry, as well as to those lovers of the art who would like a good look into the mindset that creates it.

At first I rebelled against the author's devoting pages to a discussion of poetry translation. However, once I dug hard into
her elegant but fairly dense prose, the more I found it fascinating, (including (of all things) certain esoteric aspects of Japanese language and poetry as well as translation.

I have begun reading NINE GATES for a second time, and I suspect not for the last. Although scholarly, the book is also moving, touching and definitely inspiring for any artist, poet or not.

I wrote another review for this book & said great things about it there, but even that didn't do it justice. It really is an incredible amazing very special book. I cried a little at the end, not because Hirschfield was saying anything poignant or lachrymose, but just because the writing was so unbelievably beautiful. Jane Hirschfield is brilliant. Luminous. This book anyway is great for learning about poetry & life via the historical facts she proffers & also her own wonderful thoughts. It's essential for writers & readers, & for anyone. I feel like if I hadn't read this book I would be missing out on so much from life -- the meaning the world aquires from & gives to my part in it.