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The Reemergence of a Modern Master

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of the forgotten battle

gray spider I spin

bitter meditations

on memory too large

and a heart too small

(from "A Small Heart")

Herbert's most compelling poems are poised midway between his dedication to courage and justice and his profound sense of humility and imperfection. They repeatedly affirm the paradox that the mind frees itself, if at all, only by submitting to its own fragility. "There are those who grow/ gardens in their heads," he writes in "A Knocker":

my imagination

is a piece of board

my sole instrument

is a wooden stick

I strike the board

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