TO THE BOOK
Go on then
in your own time
this is as far
as I will take you
I am leaving your words with you
as though they had been yours
all the time
of course you are not finished
how can you be finished
when the morning begins again
or the moon rises
even the words are not finished
though they may claim to be
never mind
I will not be
listening when they say
how you should be
different in some way
you will be able to tell them
that the fault was all mine
whoever I was
when I made you up
— W.S. Merwin, from Present Company (2005, Copper Canyon Press) and later included in The Essential W.S. Merwin (2017, Copper Canyon Press). Used by permission of the publishers, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Copyright © 2005 by W. S. Merwin.
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Featured photo by Titouan Russo, used under Creative Commons license.
