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You are here: Home / Poems / “The Other House,” by W.S. Merwin

“The Other House,” by W.S. Merwin

June 30, 2022 By Merwin Conservancy

THE OTHER HOUSE

I come back again to the old house
that I thought I knew for most of a lifetime
the house I reclaimed from abandon and ruin
and that I called my home at times when I was here
and at times when I was somewhere far from here
this time I have not come to reclaim anything
but to move nothing and to touch nothing
as though I were a ghost or here in a dream
and I know it is a dream that has no age
in this dream the same river is still here
the house is the old house and I am here in the morning
in the sunlight and the same bird is singing

–W.S. Merwin, from his book Garden Time (2016, Copper Canyon Press)

To browse through our archive of W.S. Merwin’s poetry, click here.

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Haiku, HI 96708 
808-579-8876
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