The phrase “words’ leaves,” koto no ha, was sometimes used to say “poetry” in classical-era Japan. Over a thousand years later, images drawn from the natural world (and beyond) continue to be at the heart of how poems work, expressing interior feelings and thoughts by speaking of what we see and hear, touch and taste. This talk, drawing from poems written centuries ago in Japan and Jane Hirshfield’s own practice of poetry today, will explore the way images of plants and animals, places, objects, and seasons, are universal in both understanding and expressing our current lives.