HOW WE ARE SPARED
At midsummer before the dawn an orange light returns to the mountains
Like a great weight and the small birds cry out
And bear it up
–W. S. Merwin, from his book The Lice (originally published in 1967, reprinted by Copper Canyon Press in 2017 for the 50th Anniversary). Used with permission of the publishers.
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David Duffy says
There aren’t words to describe those words. Thank you
Debra Tayloe says
I have read “Migration, New and Selected Poems” over and over. I have so many book marks in the book it is ridiculous, pieces of torn paper, bits of string, actual book markers, but no post-its. Somehow the little snip-its with which I mark seem to be as much a part of the book as the pages themselves. It always surprises me when I read a poem that seems new, never read before even though I have mined those pages for years. The poem above is one of those surprises. Thank you for sharing it.