W. S. Merwin: "Grace Note"

It is at last any morning

not answering to a name

I wake before there is light

hearing once more that same 

music without repetition

or beginning playing

away into myself

in silence like a wave

a unison in its own

key that I seem 

to have heard before I

was listening but by the time

I hear it now it is gone

as when on a morning

alive with sunlight

almost at the year's end

a feathered breath a bird

flies in at the open window

then vanishes leaving me

believing what I do not see

W. S. Merwin: "Travelling Together"

 

If we are separated, I will

try to wait for you

on your side of things

your side of the wall and the water

and of the light moving at its own speed

even on leaves that we have seen

I will wait on one side

while a side is there

From "The Rain in The Trees" published 1987 by Alfred A. Knopf

The Merwin Conservancy

Al Santisimo Sacramento

 

W.S. Merwin : "The Heart"

 

In the first chamber of the heart

all the gloves are hanging but two

the hands are bare as they come through the door

the bell rope is moving without them

they move forward cupped as though 

holding water

there is a bird bathing in their palms

in this chamber there is no color

In the second chamber of the heart

all the blindfolds are hanging but one

the eyes are open as they come in

they see the bell rope moving 

without hands

they see the bathing bird

being carried forward

through the colored chamber

In the third chamber of the heart

all sounds are hanging but one

the ears hear nothing as they come through the door

the bell rope is moving like a breath

without hands

a bird is being carried forward

bathing

in total silence.

In the last chamber of the heart

all the words are hanging

but one

the blood is naked as it steps through the door 

with its eyes open

and a bathing bird in its hands

and with its bare feet on the sill

moving as through on water

to the one stroke of the bell

someone is ringing without hands

The Essential  W.S. Merwin

Edited by Michael Wiegers

Copper Canyon Press, 2017

.

all the flowers are forms of water

the sun reminds them through a white cloud 

see how they wake without a question

even though the whole world is burning

W. S. Merwin (1927 - 2019)

From The Shadow of Sirius

"Rain Light" (excerpt)

Copper Canyon Press 2009

The Shadow of Sirius

W. S. Merwin (1927- ) : "By the Avenue"

Through the trees and across the river

with its surface the color of steel

on a rainy morning late in spring

the splintered skyline of the city

glitters in a silence we all know

but cannot touch or reach for with words

and I am the only one who can

remember now over there among

the young leaves brighter than the daylight

another light through the tall windows 

a sunbeam sloping like a staircase 

and from beyond it my father's voice

telling about a mote in an eye

that was like a mote in a sunbeam




From "The Shadow Of Sirius"
Copper Canyon Press 2009
The Shadow of Sirius

W. S. Merwin (1927- ) : "Rain Light"

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



From "The Shadow of Sirius"
Copper Canyon Press 2009
The Shadow of Sirius

W. S. Merwin (1927- ) : "Note"

Remember how the naked soul
comes to language and at once knows
loss and distance and believing

then for a time it will not run
with its old freedom
like a light innocent of measure
but will hearken to how
one story becomes another
and will try to tell where
they have emerged from
and where they are heading
as though they were its own legend
running before the words and beyond them
naked and never looking back

through the noise of questions



From "The Shadow of Sirius"
Copper Canyon Press 2009
The Shadow of Sirius