FINDING A TEACHER
In the woods I came on an old friend fishing
and I asked him a question
and he said Wait
fish were rising in the deep stream
but his line was not stirring
but I waited
it was a question about the sun
about my two eyes
my ears my mouth
my heart the earth with its four seasons
my feet where I was standing
where I was going
it slipped through my hands
as though it were water
into the river
it flowed under the trees
it sank under hulls far away
and was gone without me
then where I stood night fell
I no longer knew what to ask
I could tell that his line had no hook
I understood that I was to stay and eat with him
— W.S. Merwin, from his book Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment. Copyright © 1973 by W. S. Merwin. Included in The Essential W.S. Merwin, available now on pre-order. Used by permission of the publishers, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
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