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You are here: Home / Poem of the Week / “Chorus” by W.S. Merwin

“Chorus” by W.S. Merwin

February 13, 2018 By Sara Tekula

Photo by Philippe Clairo


CHORUS
 
The wet bamboo clacking in the night rain
crying in the darkness whimpering softly
as the hollow columns touch and slide
along each other swaying with the empty
air these are sounds from before there were voices
gestures older than grief from before there was
pain as we know it the impossibly tall
stems are reaching out groping and waving
before longing as we think of it or loss
as we are acquainted with it or feelings
able to recognize the syllables
that might be their own calling out to them
like names in the dark telling them nothing
about loss or about longing nothing
ever about all that has yet to answer

—W.S. Merwin, from The River Sound, (A.A. Knopf, 1999)

Copyright © 1999 by W. S. Merwin.


To browse through our archive of previously posted Poems of the Week, click here.

To support the preservation of W.S. Merwin’s legacy and our efforts to preserve his living legacy for future generations, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Merwin Conservancy.

Featured photo by Philippe Clairo used under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. The original image can be found here.

 

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Filed Under: Poem of the Week Tagged With: bamboo, chorus, poems, poetry, the river sound, w.s. merwin

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