THE COLD BEFORE THE MOONRISE
It is too simple to turn to the sound
Of frost stirring among its
Stars like an animal asleep
In the winter night
And say I was born far from home
If there is a place where this is the language may
It be my country
— W.S. Merwin, from his book The Lice and The Second Four Books of Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1992). Copyright © 1992 by W. S. Merwin. Also found in Migration: New & Selected Poems (2005). Used by permission of the publishers, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
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Featured photo by Stephanie Nelson used with permission. All rights reserved.