Within This Tree

Within this tree

another tree

inhabits the same body:

within this stone

another stone rests,

its many shades of grey

the same,

its identical

surface and weight.

And within my body,

another body,

whose history, waiting,

sings: there is no other body,

it sings,

there is no other world.

This poem was originally published in Jane Hirshfield’s collection THE OCTOBER PALACE (Harper Perennial, 1994). It is presented here for educational purposes.