I'd Rather Be a Hyacinth features ekphrastic poems inspired by an episodic performance of the Moscow Festival Ballet interwoven with poems of refuge from grief, the comfort and healing found in nature, memory, and family. The poems are an exploration of mimesis in Aristotle's sense, a re-representing of life-a witnessing and re-animation of the lives of all creatures in nature-the biosphere, the artistic life as performed on stage in the ballet, the spiritual life beyond, and a hope that illuminating the interconnectedness of all can bring about a renewed consciousness. I'd Rather Be a Hyacinth is a venture into the haiku sonnet, a hybrid form combining eastern and western poetic styles.