Into the Cloud
What do you have with you
now my small traveller
suddenly on the way
and all at once so far
on legs that never were
up to the life that you
led them and breathing with
the shortness breath comes to
my endless company
when you could come to me
you would stay close to me
until the day was done
o closest to my breath
if you are able to
please wait a while longer
on that side of the cloud
— W.S. Merwin, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poems, The Shadow of Sirius (2009)
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Photo by freelance journalist Jon Letman, taken on assignment in the Merwin Palm Forest in 2015.