TO THE WORDS
When it happens you are not there
O you beyond numbers
beyond recollection
passed on from breath to breath
given again
from day to day from age
to age
charged with knowledge
knowing nothing
indifferent elders
indispensable and sleepless
keepers of our names
before ever we came
to be called by them
you that were
formed to begin with
you that were cried out
you that were spoken
to begin with
to say what could not be said
ancient precious
and helpless ones
say it
— September 17th, 2001
—W.S. Merwin, written on September 17, 2001 and published in The New Yorker, October 8, 2001. Found in the newly released collection The Essential W.S. Merwin (2017, Copper Canyon Press), used by permission of the publishers.
Copyright © 2017 by W. S. Merwin.
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