Dear Friends,
Today is the one year anniversary of our friend and founder W.S. Merwin’s death.
We are in the garden this morning, finding and keeping stillness as turmoil swirls around the globe. I am coming to understand our current moment of uncertainty and isolation as an invitation. We are lifted out of our daily routines, maybe our ruts, and invited into a place where imaginations awaken. It brings me to a deeper understanding of the way William lived his life—always fully awake to the world around him, honoring its possibilities through daily actions and practices.
Today we will read, walk, and remember William and Paula among the palms, and will imagine that many of you are doing the same, in places that are dear to you. If you’d like, share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Wishing you well,
Sonnet Coggins (executive director) and The Merwin Conservancy ʻohana
FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF MY DEATH
Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveler
Like the beam of a lightless star
Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at the earth
And the love of one woman
And the shamelessness of men
As today writing after three days of rain
Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease
And bowing not knowing to what
– W.S. Merwin,“For the Anniversary of My Death” from The Second Four Books of Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1993).
Copyright © 1993 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted with the permission of the Merwin Estate.
REMEMBRANCES
A year ago today, when the world learned of W.S. Merwin’s death, many remembrances and expressions of appreciation came our way. We collected them on our website, and you can scroll through them by clicking the button below.
When they moved to Maui, Wiliama and Paula were my students in a first-year Hawaiian language course. Non-pretentious and gracious are the words that come to mind to describe both. Wiliama embraced the language as I think he embraced the ʻāina; allowing it to embrace him and reciprocating. He worked his words as he worked his land, with aloha.
All those blessed to have met William and Paula in their lifetime and conversed, know their wisdom, compassion and personal generosity to be deeply profound and infinite, extending beyond all boundaries of time. The palms and poetry remain now as do their enduring spirit, offering us these gifts, guiding us towards daily acts of care. We are all stewards of the Earth and our support of the Merwin Conservancy is as vital as ever, today and always.
for William
Transcendence (गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा)
Silence and poetry
Together
This is now your bright gift
You have stopped speaking
And I hear you still
m
Dear William…a robin arrived in my garden in Ontario this morning…first of the season and chirping with pride and pleasure at its safe return yet again… its wondrous appearance in the midst of winter’s slow end and world in turmoil I accepted as gift and a reminder of the constant presence of joy… similarly your words continue to arrive as gifts at unlikely times and places in my life…to re mind my spirit…and now a robin and a poet become one…thank you…
In some way we feel closer to William and Paula now than when we were able to spend brief periods in their physical presence. We have most of his published work close at hand and we turn to it randomly, a book here, a spontaneous opening to a page there. He is alive with us in the room, his voice in our head, PAULA turning to smile, her image leaping off the page at us, dressed in her jeans and blue work shirt, a half smile aimed in our direction. This is soothing comfort of the best kind, ready and accessible at any hour day and night. We are grateful for these timeless gifts from two people deeply loved and missed.
In October 2018 I was given 7 palm seeds from the garden. For months they were in the dark in an old wooden box on top of my mothers piano. They listened to her music and grew roots. We planted them in little pots and waited for them to grow. The first one pushed through the soil, straight and strong on March 15, 2019. It was a gift to tend these palms and have their company. They all grew at different times, in different ways, each one an individual. I had been wanting to find the time to put them in bigger pots and today I did. This weekend was a time of staying home and gardening with my mother. The sun, the rain and then discovering what day it is today by email this evening… I wish I had the words. Thank you
ahhh, a sigh of relief and light
found within this act of remembering.
although i know these blessed spirits
only through the words and images
discovered on the most wondrous breeze
i am lifted again in the knowing field
where we dance on this late winter’s day
together again