After

"Jane Hirshfield is one of our finest, most memorable contemporary poets." —David Baker, The American Poet

"Hirshfield's poems . . . send ripples across the reflecting pool of our collective consciousness." — Booklist (starred review)

A profound, generous, and masterful sixth lyrical collection by one of the preeminent American poets of her generation, After explores incarnation, transience, and our intimate connection with others and with all existence. Jane Hirshfield’s alert, incisive, and compassionate philosophical poetry examines the human condition through subjects ranging from sparseness, possibility, judgment, and hidden grief to global warming, insomnia, the meanings to be found in generally overlooked parts of speech, and the metaphysics of sneezing. In respective series of “assays” (meditative imaginative accountings) and “pebbles” (each a “brief, easily pocketable perception that remains incomplete until the reader’s own response awakens inside it”), Hirshfield explores a poetry-making that looks simultaneously outward and inward, finding resonant and precise containers for the deepest currents of our inner life.

This award-winning collection holds space for life's profound questions:
Meditative Poetry: Unique "assays" and "pebbles" that find resonant meaning in subjects from global warming to the metaphysics of sneezing.Nature Poetry: An incisive look at the natural world that reflects our own transience, from a badger's breath beneath the snow to the heat of autumn.Poems on Life and Death: A compassionate exploration of incarnation, grief, and our intimate connection to an existence that is always passing.The Human Condition: Alert and compassionate verses that examine our inner lives, from overlooked parts of speech to the quiet moments that define us.