Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

Photo credit: Nick Rozsa

Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City on February 24, 1953. A poet, translator, essayist, and editor, she received her BA from Princeton University in its first graduating class to include women. In recent decades, Hirshfield has become increasingly known as a poet working at the intersection of poetry, the sciences, and the crisis of the biosphere.

This poem presents a call to action, a desire to ensure that we will not accept the status quo. Write about something that you hope to see change in your lifetime.