Poet Jason Shinder Dies
Jason Shinder died at home in New York, this Friday, after a long illness. Shinder wrote two poetry collections, Every Room We Ever Slept In and Among Women, and edited several anthologies, including Best American Movie Writing and The Poem That Changed America: Howl. Shinder taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars, where I was fortunate enough to say “hello” to him there, and was director of the Sundance Insitute’s Writing Program. Here is his poem, “Eternity.”
about a man who walks among horses
grazing on a hill under the small stars
comes to life on a page in a book
and the woman reading the poem
in her kitchen filled with a gold, metallic light
finds the experience of living in that moment
so vividly described as to make her feel known
to another; until the woman and the poet share
not only their souls but the exact silence
between each word. And every time the poem is read,
no matter her situation or her age,
this is more or less what happens.”