Twenty-One Love Poems

I am choosing to write about "Twenty-One Love Poems," but particularly VI (page 947). The poem discusses hands, but goes on to describe what could be done with these hands. When I read this poem, I realized that I too often overlook my hands and the tasks I am able to accomplish with them. In this light, I feel that hands are "ready to hand" according to Heidegger. I am able to act through my hands while my hands themselves fade into the background, even though my hands are doing the work. I can accomplish tasks using my hands directly; I do not have to ask permission of my hands to do something on my behalf. This tendency to overlook my hands in fact illuminates my hands as extraordinary objects when they are brought to my attention like the way they are in this poem. It's true that hands protect those they love, handle power-tools, drive with steering wheels, turn unborn children the right way in the birth canal for a safe delivery, steer great ships safely, and piece together broken artifacts of a krater-cup, and so on. Humans' hands are only extensions of humans themselves, but deserve the attention that humans are too often credited with instead.