“Morris Graves’ Blind Bird,” by W.S. Merwin

MORRIS GRAVES’ BLIND BIRD

This is the only way we can understand each other now
this is the only way I can listen to you
with our feet tangled in the white yard bushes
known as the world

this is the way the holders of the blinding pins
came to be unable ever to hear
Hardy told me that he had seen an ancestor of yours
long ago when I was in the dark before I was born here

and I learned later that those with the pins
became unable to hear you when you kept singing
to yourself and your clear voice kept rising
out of the chords and great chorus of your ancestors

now as I listen to you I hear in your voice
the forgotten freedom leaping over the rocks
and flying flying again and the rocks are singing
under you out of the unending silence
where the world goes on beginning

— W.S. Merwin, from his book Garden Time (Copper Canyon Press, 2016).  Copyright © 2016 by W. S. Merwin.  Used by permission of the publishers, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

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 home and palm forest for future generations, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to The Merwin Conservancy.  

Featured photo taken in the Merwin Palm Forest by Maui photographer Morgan Jones.