W. S. Merwin
reading from his latest book,
The Carrier of Ladders,
to Tulane students
New Orleans, 1971
photo by Jack
The year my parents died
one that summer one that fall
three months and three days apart
I moved into the house
where they had lived their last years
it had never been theirs
and was still theirs in that way
for a while
echoes in every room
without a sound
all the things that we
had never been able to say
I could not remember
doll collection
in a china cabinet
plates stacked on shelves
lace on drop-leaf tables
a dried branch of bittersweet
before a hall mirror
were all planning to wait
the glass doors of the house
remained closed
the days had turned cold
and out in the tall hickories
the blaze of autumn had begun
on its own
I could do anything
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/03/03/080303po_poem_merwin1
Poetry
Near Field
by W. S. Merwin March 3, 2008
This is not something new or kept secret
the tilled ground unsown in late spring
the dead are not separate from the living
each has one foot in the unknown
and cannot speak for the other
the field tells none of its turned story
it lies under its low cloud like a waiting river
the dead made this out of their hunger
out of what they had been told
out of the pains and shadows
and bowels of animals
out of turning and
coming back singing
about another time
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/03/03/080303po_poem_merwin3
Rain Light
by W. S. Merwin March 3, 2008
All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you are alone you will be all right
whether or not you know you will know
look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/03/03/080303po_poem_merwin2
The Atlantic on Merwin (click)
W. S. Merwin from Wikipedia (click)
Allen Ginsberg, W.S. Merwin, and myself
one of many N'awlins meals together
Tulane U. 1971
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