I'm going to be perfectly honest and say that I wasn't quite sure what was going on in this chapter of Nine Gates. First Hirshfield was talking about heaven and hell and then about lions and facing the lion in your poetry and a bunch of other stuff. I understood some of it and i appreciate what she was trying to say but I was annoyed by this section. I did find a poem I thought went well with this section. There's a snake in the poem, which is not really like a lion but I think in this case it works. The speaker is trying to see the snake but he/she never really gets to. I think the main point of the poem is in the snake's leaving. The speaker wants to know the snake and face it but is unable to grasp it. I don't think the speaker is trying hard enough, he/she could face the lion if he/she just tried a bit harder. To face the lion you have to accept that you're willing to lose something in doing so and I don't think the speaker is willing to do that.