EARLY JANUARY
A year has come to us as though out of hiding
It has arrived from an unknown distance
From beyond the visions of the old
Everyone waited for it by the wrong roads
And it is hard for us now to be sure it is here
A stranger to nothing
In our hiding places
–W. S. Merwin from his book The Lice (1967), recently published in a 50th Anniversary Edition by Copper Canyon Press. Copyright © 2017 by W. S. Merwin. Used by permission of the publishers, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
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