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You are here: Home / Poems / “Cover Note,” by W.S. Merwin

“Cover Note,” by W.S. Merwin

November 13, 2020 By Merwin Conservancy

Photo by Gwen Arkin

COVER NOTE

Hypocrite reader my
variant my almost
family we are so
few now it seems as though
we knew each other as
the words between us keep
assuming that we do
I hope I make sense to
you in the shimmer of
our days while the world we
cling to in common is

burning for I have not
the ancients’ confidence
in the survival of
one track of syllables
nor in some ultimate
moment of insight that
supposedly will dawn
once and for all upon
a bright posterity
making clear only to
them what passes between

us now in a silence
on this side of the flames
so that from a distance
beyond appeal only
they of the future will
behold our true meaning
which eludes us as we
breathe reader beside your
timepiece do you believe
any such thing do the
children read what you do

when they read or can you
think the words will rise from
the page saying the same
things when they speak for us
no longer and then who
in the total city
will go on listening
to these syllables that
are ours and be able
still to hear moving through
them the last rustling of

paws in high grass the one
owl hunting along this
spared valley the tongues of
the free trees our uncaught
voices reader I do
not know that anyone
else is waiting for these
words that I hoped might seem
as though they had occurred
to you and you would take
them with you as your own

— W.S. Merwin, from his book Travels (1994, Albert A. Knopf), used by permission of the publishers. Copyright © 1994 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.

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  1. Brett Barton says

    November 16, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    I <3 this, though it is rather longish ! I'm presently
    attempting to write things which those *beyond
    the divide* will be able to discern impactfully. And
    leave a blueprint for the *remnant* to build upon
    ( emoji )
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