Called “American poetry’s central spokesperson for the biosphere,“ award-winning poet Jane Hirshfield wrote Let Them Not Say in 2014, but did not publish it until January 20, 2017. According to Hirshfield, “This poem was written well before today’s Presidential Inauguration and without this event in mind. But it seems a day worth remembering the fate of our shared planet and all its beings, human and beyond.”

Jane Hirschfield has published nine collections of poetry including The Beauty (2015); Come, Thief (2011); and Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001). She has won numerous awards and has been a visiting poet at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. A graduate of Princeton University, she is also a trained zen practitioner.